KOREA DAY 4

Glass Art museum -> Teddy Bear Museum -> Chocolate Factory -> Jetboat experience -> Jusangjeolli Cliff -> Cheonjeyeon Waterfall -> Seonimgyo Bridge (Heavenly Angel's Bridge) -> Nanta Cooking Show

Today our morning call is slightly later, at 6.30am. We had some bread before we gather and meet the rest at 7.30am for breakfast outside. 

So exactly what kind of bread is so enticing for us to have it the first thing in the morning despite knowing we will have breakfast later on?

Presenting to you Paris Baguette!

Paris Baguette sandwich - blueberry and strawberry

We bought it the night before when we saw it selling along the street of Jeju. The prices of Paris Baguette bread/salad is so much cheaper in Korea than in Singapore! Standard same!

We bought this 3 packs of bread bundled up together as it was on offer at slightly more than KRW 3000 ( SGD $3.50). In each pack, theres 2 sandwiches filled with generous topping of strawberry or blueberry. The bread is good!

So our breakfast for the day is somewhere near the place where we will take the jetboat later on.

harbour

Breakfast place

Colin told us that there's not a lot of breakfast place in Korea unlike Singapore, since most korean will have their breakfast at home.

Abalone Porridge

Pickles and kimchi again!

We were the only patrons of the restaurant. Nothing fantastic but its good enough for a simple Korean breakfast!

Surrounding around our breakfast place

Our Jeju tour bus!

After breakfast, we are good to start off our day itinerary with Glass Art Museum! The bus ride lasted around 35 minutes and we reached there at around 8.50am. The weather was good!

Glass Art Museum entrance

Ticketing information - Glass Art Museum

All made from glass!

They have a fish pond inside ( near the place of glass wall fish ) and you can buy fish ingredients to feed it. It cost KRW 500 (SGD$0.60).

There's also a giant glass beanstalk at the indoor entrance of the Glass Art Museum.

Giant glass beanstalk

We were given Free and Easy time and we went to the indoor exhibition first before advancing to the outdoor ones.

Information board - all in Korean!

Glass figurines!

Glass treasures, anyone?

Though the museum is quite big however it is not exactly confusing, you can just follow the exhibitions and it will eventually lead you from the indoor to the outdoor.

Big garden in the Museum vincity!

All made from glass

Glass slippers!

A pity it rained halfway while we were viewing the outdoor gallery. It poured and all of us seek shelter back at the indoor gallery which consisted of 2 floors. 

Rainy day! :(

Being a glass museum, it has a small area dedicated to glass making. It illustrates the process of glass making and theres the display of the machinery used to make glass products. 

Guide to glasswork experience

They have classes that teach you how to make simple glass products at a fee. However we didnt see any personnel there.

Workplace

For friends who are interested in the glass making process, this is how glass is being made as illustrated by the glass art museum!

Step by step process to making a glass mug

We gathered back at 10am (stipulated time) to board the bus to teddy bear museum! It is around a 15 minutes bus ride. It was still raining heavily at that time :(

Teddy bear museum!

Ticketing counter

Most of the attractions we went require admission fee though. And their admission fee normally hover around KRW8000 ( SGD$9.20) while natural attractions are around KRW 2000 (SGD $2.30).

life size wedding bear!

They have around 3 levels of bear exhibitions, with level 1 mostly occupied by the teddy bear shop.

Teddy bear gallery!

They have teddy bear soft toy figurines created after famous musician/artist like mona lisa (bottom right).

teddy bear soft toy figurines created after famous people

Did you know that Teddy bear was named after the U.S president Theodore Roosevelt?

Teddy bear history over the years

They have a gallery showcasing miniature teddy bears too!

miniature teddy bears

And... different teddy bear characters too! including winnie the pooh and Paddington bear!

Moreover, since its in Korea, how can we miss the teddy bears that appeared in this hit MBC drama show in 2006 - Goong!

Goong teddy bears!

They have a miniature teddy bear fashion parade gallery too.

Teddy bear fashion parade!

125 karat bear

One must not miss the main attraction at Teddy bear museum - the Louis Vuitton Bear.

The Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear fetched a world record price of over $190,000 at a fund raising charity auction in Monaco. You can see the Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear only at the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju!

Pretty I must say!

Teddy bear factory

Teddy bear shop!

Yupp if you can't get enough of teddy bears you can buy one home! However I must warn you first, they dont come cheap. Even a small bear can cost more than KRW 10,000 ( SGD$11.70). 

Near the counter of the teddy bear museum, they placed a disclaimer notice stating that they have authorised a supplier in China to manufacture the teddy bears. So yup, a bit disappointing I must say, but most of the bears carry the 'Made in China' tag. However, the quality is not too bad I must say!

We bought 2 bears - a couple bear wearing traditional korean hanbok!

Korean Bears wearing traditional hanbok

You can buy them separately, and nope, they do not have discount even if you buy them in pair.

Cost of 1 bear

The bear cost KRW 31,000 ( SGD $35.40 ). So we spent a total of SGD$71 for 2 bears. We consider it to be a little expensive but oh well, it's a souvenir and the clothing material on the bear is good!

Do note that they charge KRW 100 for plastic bag.

Our korean bear family!

You might be wondering why do we have the four small bears! It's not freebie from the store. Colin gave one to each of us however we are not too sure whether it is inclusive in our tour or Colin actually paid for it. But whatever it is, we appreciate it! It's sold in the teddy bear shop too and if I am not wrong, it cost slightly over KRW 10,000 ( SGD 11.70 )!

Our Jeju bus driver seem to be a fan of teddy bears too! We saw a line of teddy bears hanging at the ceiling of our bus.

Teddy bears galore in our bus

We left the teddy bear museum at 11.30am. As it was raining, Colin arranged for us to take a 2 minutes bus ride to Chocolate Land. It is actually just beside Teddy Bear Museum.

Chocolate land - Chocolate factory

inside Choclate gallery

At first we thought it will show us the process of making chocolate, however its mostly showcasing their chocolate products as well as chocolate products around the world.

Chocolate products

We bought a box of Jeju Chocolate as gift. It cost KRW 10,000 ( SGD 11.40 ).

Jeju chocolate gift set

The chocolates are all sold at around the pricing of KRW 10,000 - 20,000.

Chocolate school

They have a chocolate school that teaches how to make chocolate and you can bring home the chocolate that you have made. However, you need to pay an additional fee and they have class schedules. So as we are following a tour, it is unlikely that we will be able to sign up for their classes since its in around 30 minutes interval.

We were given a voucher will KRW 4000 (SGD$ 4.60 )  value. We can use it too buy americano or cafe latte. However if we were to buy those thats priced at KRW4500, you will have to top up KRW 500.

Cafe near the entrance of the Chocolate land

We ordered 3 orange juice and 1 americano. I must say Korea's coffee is quite mild as compared to southeast Asia countries. We have tried out many coffee in Korea: on the airplane, Hello Kitty store and on the airplane, and all tasted quite mild. Our hotel provided us with coffee sachet and its pretty mild too.

Overall, we feel that the chocolate Land is not very worth visiting. There's nothing much worth seeing unless you are interested to buy chocolates.

We had our first bibimbap lunch after that!

bibimbap

Bibimbap and steamboat to cook pork! Bibimbap is rice, vegetables, egg in a hot stone pot and you will mix them together with Korea's hot spicy sauce and soy sauce, while the pot is still hot!

The weather was sweltering hot and eating bibimbap in this hot weather can be so frustrating since you keep sweating profusely, despite the restaurants having air-con.

Right after our lunch, it's our time for our jet boat experience!

Jet Boat ride

Colin initially planned for it to be in the morning, however as it was raining heavily, he was afraid the operator may put halt to jetboat activities, as such we went in the afternoon. We do not have to wait for long to get on to the jetboat. We were given lifejacket to put on. Each jet boat can sit up to 12 people (excluding the driver). Thus we were separated into 2 jetboats.

The whole ride lasted around 20 minutes. The driver will drive the speedboat out and make a u-turn back. In between he will make 360 degrees spin twice, when he is about to do so, he will point in the sky and make a circle gesture. According to a few members in my tour group, they have tried out jetboat in new Zealand and they find Jeju one more exciting. Prior to this, Colin asked us to bring extra clothes in case we get wet. Apparently the 12 of us who took the first ride didnt get wet, while those in the second jet boat were drenched.

Before you depart, there will be a speedboat personnel there taking photo for you ( as seen in the photo above ). You can purchase the A3 photograph at KRW 10,000 if interested after your jet boat ride.

After that we went off to the Daepo coast to see the Jusangjeolli cliff also known as "God's sculpture".
We reached at around 2pm.

Entrance to view the cliff

Once again, admission ticket is required!

Daepo Coast

Daepo Coast is where we had our jetboat ride earlier! As such from the cliff viewing area, we were able to see the jetboats speeding away in the sea.
It was very windy and the view of the sea is quite breathtaking!

Vendors selling scenic postcards

We were given 15 minutes as there's nothing much we can do that either other than viewing the cliff!



On our way out we saw a couple of vendors selling Jeju tangerines. Since we missed our chance to try them when we visit the Tangerine farm, we bought one bag from one of the vendor!

They are all priced the same and sold in bags of around 15 tangerines. They provide sampling too. We bought it at one bag for KRW 10,000. It tasted quite sweet but somehow we still prefer mandarin oranges!

Next up, we visit the Cheonjeyeon waterfall otherwise known as the heavenly Emperor's falls. It is a beautiful 3 tier waterfall and gorge and resembles the white celestial robes of 7 nymphs.

Admission fee chart for Cheonjeyeon Waterfall

Cheonjeyeon - the 1st waterfall

on the way to the 2nd waterfall

There's a series of staircases downwards leading to the second waterfall. Its quite a long stretch , climbing back up to the mainland can be tiring.

Second waterfall

The water is crystal clear! The second waterfall has a breathtaking scenery, good place to take photographs! The third part of the waterfall was closed for viewing though.

Along the way, one would spot the Seonimgyo Bridge (Heavenly's angel's bridge).

Along the way ~

Seonimgyo Bridge

The nymphs symbolize the Korean legend of the descent of seven beautiful nymphs from heaven at night. Do cross the bridge on your way back to the entrance of this waterfall attraction!

On the bridge!

The view from the bridge is spectacular!  It crosses from east to west over the stream between the second and third tiers of Cheonjeyeon waterfall.

View from the bridge

There's also photographer to help you take photo for a small fee.

The seven nymphs

We spent around an hour at Cheonjeyeon waterfall and Seonimgyo bridge.

As we head back to the carpark, we saw the fountain of five blessings which is like a wishing well.

Fountain of five blessing

On our way out, we bought the ever popular South Korean melon ice pop from an ice cream vendor for around KRW 1000 (SGD $1.15).

Melon flavoured ice cream pop

Tasty! The taste of melon is super rich! It is so popular that you can find it selling at tourists Attraction at other Asia countries like Vietnam. You can find it in Singapore's Korean Supermarket too.

We then hop on our tour bus and travelled for the next 45 minutes to enjoy this Korean Broadway hit, "Nanta"! It's shown at Jeju University - Jeju media center.

We reached around 45 minutes before our show time of 5pm. Colin went to bought the tickets and we were allocated a seating. Since we went with a tour package, this show fee is inclusive in our package fee. A search on the official website of Nanta shows that the ticket fee for a non-vip seat cost KRW 50,000 ( SGD$57.20)! The whole show lasted for around 100 minutes.

If this is your first time hearing about Nanta show, "Nanta" is also known as 乱打. It is a non-verbal stage performance which dramatises culinary art and customary Korean percussion. It has been Korea's best No. 1 performance since 1997. They did not change the script since then except some minor editing for better visual appearance.

Nanta stage

The theatre

We were allowed into the theatre around half hour before the start of the show. Colin told us that we are allowed to take photo when the show has yet to start, ie, we can take with the stage prior to the beginning of the show. However once the show started, no photography is allowed.

The show lasted for close to 2 hours. It's about how a team of 4 chefs (3 guys 1 female) guided by their manager, put together dishes for a wedding banquet ad they have to get ready everything by 6 o'clock but they only have 1 hour to prepare. Throughout the show when there's cooking scenes, we can really smell that'something is cooking'!

We agree that it is a great comedy and the arrangement of this show is good. There are 5 main actors/actress and you can see all of them put in a great deal of effort in making this show possible. Throughout, they engaged the 'help' of 5 audience. There's great interaction with the audience and the sound system was great! We enjoyed our time watching Nanta however to pay for the price of KRW 50,000 to watch this, we might just give it a skip.  

After watching Nanta, we had our dinner at 7pm.

Dinner place

Dinner!

There's no pork for this meal (Thank goodness!), but fish. We have fried saba fish and kimchi flavoured fish (see right image above). That was not our first meal having fried saba fish and we concluded that saba fish in Korea (at leat those that we have tried), are not very fresh and they do not have as much flesh as what we had in Singapore. However for dinner that day, that pot of kimchi fish saved the day as it tasted much to our liking!

We returned back to our hotel at 8pm to pack our luggage for the next day as we are heading back towards Seoul on a morning flight!

Side-note:

Some of the Korean restaurants we went to separated their restaurant in 2 section: 1 with chairs, the other with traditional cross-leg seating. Colin told us that for convenience for us tourists, they have provided chairs. However previously korean restaurants are all served with diners seated on the floor - they have to remove their socks before heading in.