The taxi driver this time could speak better English and was quite humourous. He offered to wait for us and bring us to our next destination. He said Manjanggul is hard to flag a taxi which charges by meter. And most taxis would ask for a service charge for waiting but he was offering just the fare by meter. No waiting charges. So it's basically the same just that we won't need to flag a taxi from one place to another, just hop on to his and pay by meter. It was a pretty good deal.
Manjanggul is a famous lava tube cave in Jeju. The temperature gets colder as you go deeper into the cave. The lava marks on the walls of the cave was amazing. Just imagine this cave was once filled by flowing lava. Different types of flows leave different kinds of marks. And there were stalactites and stalagmites too. Water was dropping from the ceiling and the ground was wet due to condensation. It was dark so we couldn't really take good photos in there. But it was an awesome experience. At the end of the route opened to tourists, there's a dead end. So we turned back and walked the cave again from the inside. The taxi driver told us that people usually spent 45 minutes but we took 1.5 hours.
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| Entrance to Manjanggul |
Next we went to Seopjikoji. The view was breathtaking and so windy. The walked along the path until the "light house" (not sure what it is but looks like a light house or tower) which was the highest part of Seopjikoji hillside. Below Seopjikoji you can see waves splashing on the rocks. It was amazing. There were many tourists there including a tour group from Malaysia. There was a girl within the group with an orange Adidas jacket. More on that girl later.
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| Beautiful scenery at Seopjikoji |
Then we moved on to Seongsan Ilchulbong, our last stop. It was about 15 minutes drive from Seopjikoji. The taxi driver was kind enough to show us the bus stop that will get us back to the terminal. He dropped us off at the junction and we thanked him. We found a Korean fast food restaurant there called Lotteria. We decided to give it a try since we have not tried Korean fast food before. I ordered Bulgogi burger. Not very special but I enjoyed it. Then we walk toward Seongsan Ilchulbong. There was an Amway roadshow there and also Haenyo show at the bottom of the mountain. But we didn't go there. We took some photos at the foothill because the backdrop with the mountain was magnificent. And guess who we saw? The Adidas jacket girl! It was really a coincidence since we left Seopjikoji first and went for lunch (and it doesn't end here!).
We hiked the mountain (actually they have stairs so basically we climbed the stairs), not very high, just around 180m. And within 20 minutes we were at the peak. We took photos along our way to the top but I would advise not to waste time taking photos on your way up because the higher you go the better the view. At the peak we saw the Ilchulbong (sunrise peak). Obviously we were not here for the sunrise but we were hoping to see sunset but we were not fortunate that day due to the cloudy weather. The peak was all green and flat. It was very unique. It was really windy too and lots of people up there. We spent about 40 minutes up there and decided to call it a day.
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| The famous Seongsan Ilculbong |
We went down to the bus stop and looking to board the 4.45pm bus. In Jeju you will need to get yourself familiarized with the bus schedule because some buses do not come along very often. We left at this time because it takes about two hours to travel back to the terminal and we had to transfer to bus 100 back to the hostel. On the bus we managed to find a seat and had a short nap. Shi Keat and I sat next to each other that time and we were awaken by chatters. There were lots of students who got on at one stop, I guess it was a secondary school bus stop. And we were lucky to be awaken because the girls were so cute. I am sure they didn't do plastic surgery because they were just teens. probably around 14 years old. They did apply make up though, unlike in Malaysia where school students aren't allowed to apply make up. I think they've practiced their make up skills since young.
When we reached forest hostel it was already around 6.45pm. After dinner we went to the fun fair near Forest Hostel. This time there were people playing the Tagada. Quan Yen and Shi Keat went up there and I took video of them. The Tagada was manually controlled and the operator can spin, jerk and do anything he likes with the Tagada to give the riders an "enjoyable" ride. The operator would joke with them in Korean too and there was constant interacting. It would have been more fun if we could understand him. The operator usually pick on girls and on the second ride he picked on a girl who dropped her coins while the Tagada was jerking. The operator asked her to pick up the coin but when she went to the middle he jerked and spinned the Tagada again to make her off balanced. It was pretty enjoyable to watch people struggling to get on their feet and seat. I am sure they enjoyed it too.
We returned to the hostel after a tiring day and we shared the photos that we took over the past week. There were so many good memories in Seoul and Jeju. Life in Jeju feels like..carefree and simple. It seems like a nice place to stay if you are someone who like simple life. The next day we will be heading to Busan, the second largest city of Korea. It is going to be exciting. Beach! Bikinis! Seafood!
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