South Korea: Jeju - Black Pig BBQ dinner

I decided to go very detail of my Korea post, because i got hell lots of photos and don't wanna squeeze it all in a single post.

Plus i understand how hard is it to do research, because there are not much English blog about Korea, but luckily that i know Chinese, i got almost all the info from Chinese language forum, and Chinese words do big help when i was in Korea, because Korean might not know English, but they know Han Zhi, which is very similar with Chinese words.

Again, here i remember someone tell me that my English is suck. Yea my English is suck until today, but I still proud that i know Chinese very well, and my English is more than enough to communicate with the other, yet yours Chinese is suck that cant even do simple conversation.

Before critic the other, think if you're qualify to. =)

Ok, back to the blog.

To recap, i make 3d2n in Jeju and the rest of the days in Seoul. Once i reach Incheon airport, we transit to Gimpo airport aka domestic flight airport with the train, and fly with Eastar Jet to Jeju island.

I got the air tix from Seoul to Jeju with RM380 per person, 2 ways, 15kgcheck in luggage weight and refreshment. That is 1 hours + flight.

I'm not sure what's the other airline offer (lots of local airline in Korea), the reason why i choose Eastar Jet is because that is the only Korea budget airline in English in their website, the rest are all in Korean.

Here is the website: http://www.eastarjet.com/book/index.htm

Booking procedure is about the same, very frequent flight from Seoul to Jeju, almost an hour a flight.

If you choose Eastar Jet, the flight only take off from Gimpo airport, yet if you take airasia from Malaysia to Korea, you will stop in Incheon.

We reached Incheon bout 8am, check out and go to take MRT (They call it AREX, stand of Airport dunno what, haha) to Gimpo airport station.

The AREX in Incheon is located in B2 floor, get your one way ticket from counter or machine (3500 won if not mistaken), Gimpo airport is just 5 or 6 station away from Incheon, take you about 30 minute to 40 minute.


There are 2 types of train ticket, one is express, which mean non-stop from Incheon to Gimpo, but more expensive, and just like 5 to 10 minutes time saving, not worth it.

So get the normal train ticket.


Just pay your attention to hear the announcement, get off in Gimpo station, follow the sign of the airport (Gimpo station also the center station of all MRT lines, you can transfer to the city from Gimpo Station), and here you're in Gimpo airport.

To make it simple:

1. Incheon Airport B2 floor AREX counter -> Get normal ticket
2. Get on the right train (will stated if that is express train) -> pass 5 or 6 station.
3. Off from Gimpo station -> follow the sign of "Airport" but not "other transfer line".

We decided to get the flight by 12am, incase of flight delay or we lost our way to Gimpo airport, but everything goes pretty smooth, we reached Gimpo bout 10am, had simple breakfast and wait to depart.

We reached Jeju about 1pm, take a MPV taxi outside of the airport to Jeju Greenday Guesthouse & Backpacker. About 15 minutes ride cost us around 8000 won.

Check in and take some rest, we then out to explore the place.

Before photo, below is my 3d2n plan of Jeju trip:

Day 1(24/3, Sat)
Incheon -> Gimpo -> Jeju -> Jeju Si-> Jeju Love Land 
620am : Reach Incheon Airport by 
730am : Incheon Arex to Gimpo Airport. 
9am : Gimpo Airport Breakfast
12nn : Flight to Jeju
1pm : Reach Jeju airport, taxi to guest house (5 min taxi, rm10 per car), check in and lunch.
3pm : City shopping & relax.
6pm : Dinner （Black piglet BBQ）
8pm : Jeju Love Land （10 minute from airport, open till midnight）
10pm : Back to guest house.
***Stay : Greenyday Guest House & Backpacker. (rm60/night)
***Transport : Airport bus & taxi (rm30/person)

Day 2(25/3, Sun)
Jeju Si -> Seogwipo -> Teddy Bear Museum (rm20/entry) -> Cheonjiyeon Falls (rm6/entry) -> Sopjikoji -> Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak for lunch -> Seawomen Catching Show -> Manjang Cave -> Jeju Si.
8am : Seogwipo and teddy bear museum
12pm : Cheonjiyeon Falls or Jeongbang Falls (rm6/entry)
130pm : Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak & snack time (seafood catching show at 130pm)
330pm : San-gum Buri
630pm : Mystery road
7pm : Jeju Si for dinner.
8pm : Walk in the town.
***Stay : Greenyday Guest House & Backpacker. (rm60/night)

And my following entries will according to the plan.

So below story is about the 1st half day in Jeju, town exploring and Black pig BBQ dinner!

Jeju-Si divide to 2 parts, one is old Jeju-Si and another one is new Jeju-Si. The new one with all the tall building and shopping area, we just pass by but not really go into the town. 

While old Jeju-si is where we stay, residential area, with school and traditional market. 

Old Jeju-si is not small, just imagine you could get taxi on the street easily, mean that area is wide too.

But we just explore the city center, from Greenday to Dongmun market (i consider that is the hub) is within walking distance. (more info about location, please refer here) .

Don't worry about the location, get a map in airport or ask a simple hand draw map from Greenday (or your own guesthouse), let them help you with the direction and write down your destination in Korean, if you lost your way, you could always show the note to ask the direction.

This is my personal experience, Korean don't speak English, especially when you're traveling in Jeju-Si, the local residential area. 9 out of 10 people don't understand English.

We you couldn't communication in English, show them the note in Korea that you prepare or show them the Chinese words, they understand this better.

Cute recycle craft on the street

See the market entry from the bridge

Bermain-main on the street :D

Budak :D

Dongmun market

The entrance and the dunno what die is Kuan, wore a short pant during winter

Abalone and octupus~

Main street of the market, full of seafood.

And kimchi

And fresh orange! Orange is famous in Jeju too.

Subway street.

Cute!

Sweet potatoes!

We try to buy but communication failed! :(

We decided to have our dinner earlier, was trying to find the black pig street which nearby Dongmun market but we lost our way, tried to ask vendors but no one speak English.

Luckily we met a Korean lady who can speak fairly good English, but i believe she is not local because she doesn't know the street too, but she helps to ask for us from the vendor, and there we find the street!

I tried to find the street's location from google map, but all in Korean and i cant recall the location. I suggest you to ask your guesthouse host, or just download below photo and ask around in Dongmun market. This street is well-known.

The entrance of the street. Black pig!

Plenty of Black Pig BBQ restaurant, we choose this one. (Copyright under Elaine)

The BBQ pan 

Black pig don't look black tho.

This is 3 pax portion.

Something like cawanmuchi, come with the set.

Steam black pork. In the set too. (Copyright under Kuan)

We added 2 rices, fried after BBQ. (Copyright under Kuan)

Honestly i don't find special of black pig although lots of people saying that is much more nicer than normal pork.

Well, it is tender and juicy. But i guess fresh normal pork taste the same. If you're not fancy of pork, you can skip this. If you really try it, don't make black pig BBQ as your lunch or dinner, because this is so damn EXPENSIVE!

We are 5 and we decided to order only 3 pax portion because of the price. If not mistake, the dinner cost us 80000won, which mean RM200+

Go with brunch of friend and just order for 2 or 3 pax portion. If you wanna feed yourself full with black pig BBQ, you must have much more budget.

But i believe this is still cheaper than the restaurant of Seogwipo area. The restaurant seems very much like local restaurant, because no English menu, no people speak simple English, the whole restaurant is full of Korean.  A Korean customer who speak simple English safe us from ordering food, or i guess we will just eat whatever they bring to us, haha.

Photo of the day. Kuan found his name in Jeju. LOL (Copyright under kuan)

We done our dinner before 6pm, back to guesthouse for rest and ready the night outing!

I promise the next post will be VERY SEXY! that i never do it before.

Stay tuned.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20120606, 0917am
Rach in ready to work mood.

South Korea: Jeju - Jeju Greenday Guesthouse and Backpacker review

Nah this is not the backpacker review that i mentioned in the last entry. Because i'm lazy, hahaha.

So, with this i shall start my post about the Korea trip in March.

John, Elaine, Kuan, Sui and I went to Korea for a week, and i was the planner + organizer + budget controller for the whole trip. 

I consider i done it quiet well, and i was thinking of to post the plan and budget out here, but i just have too many detail to find out, so maybe in the end of the travel post :D 

Short say about the plan, we reached Incheon Airport (This is in Seoul, if you take asiasia, here is the destination) and immediately go to Gimpo Airport (40 minutes by tram from Incheon airport, smaller airport for domestic flight) to catch up the local flight, Easter Jet to Jeju-do. 

We spend 3d2n in Jeju, and spend another 3d3n (midnight flight) in Seoul, after consider we don't wanna carry all the stuffs that we shop in Seoul to fly to Jeju, so we go to Jeju once we step into Korea. 

Alright, to kick start the korea post, I decided start with a backpacker review in Jeju, Greenday Guesthouse and Backpacker.

Because Greenday is one of the best backpacker hostels among all that i have been. 

Greenday is located in Jeju-si, 15 minutes away from the airport, and an hour plus to the Seogwipo district, which is the main attraction area of the city. 

Red is Jeju-si, green is seogwipo

The map above is the whole island, which red circle is Jeju-si and Airport, and the green circle is Seogwipo, almost all the attractions, resorts, museum are there.

To decided to stay in Jeju-si, because of the better offer of Guesthouse (Seogwipo District is hell expensive), and unlike Seogwipo, Jeju-si is the town of local.

And no matter which area we're staying, the best transport to visit all the places is rent a taxi or rent a car, there have no tram and very limited buses on the island.

Since we decided to rent a mini van for whole day tour, the price are about the same no matter pick up in Seogwipo or Jeju-si, that make me decided to stay in Jeju-si.

And I'm feel so blessed that i choose Greenday in Jeju-si.

Ok, now we start about Greenday.

Greenday is like 15 minutes to 30 minutes from the airport, Greenday doesn't provide pick up service (as all the other guesthouses) so get a taxi and show him the address and tel number, the driver will find out by their GPS, just by inset the tel no!

One way taxi fare is about 8000 kw (about RM 24).

Distance between airport and Greenday. 

I have to admit that, Greenday is not easy to find, it hide in the end of an alley, just like local people house, you hardly find it out if you're not local.

Even you are local like our taxi driver, you need a GPS too, haha.

Ok, greenday is not located right in the center of the town, yet not too far, as you can see from the below map.

Green is Greenday, Red is DongMun market.

But that is within walking distance, like 20 minute to reached the famous Dongmun Market and Black Pig BBQ Street, which i will tell more in the coming post. 

The address and map near by.

Greenday is not located in the main market, but i consider a very handy place, there are convenience store within walking distance, and some of the good local restaurant in nearby (ask Andy to bring you to the Spicy Fried Pork Restaurant! Yummy!)                                     

As i told earlier, Greenday is located inside an alley of the main road, and the host, Andy and Simmy know that the place is difficult to find, they put a bunting on the main road side. 

Big pink bunting, pay you attention when you're nearby.

2 minutes walk from the alley

In the end of the alley

Tata! Fairy tale-look-alike guesthouse! (Copyright of John)

Damn this is so korea drama isn't?

They put a piano in the garden 

Winter turn Spring moment

I love this place!

Elaine pretending. 

The fact is the temperature is so damn low! (Copyright of John)

Ah sui pretending, but good shot (Copyright of John)

Every single place of the guesthouse is color and cute!

The guesthouse is not big, but bigger than family-run guesthouse. I'm not sure about the rooms in the upstair, but there is only 1 guestroom in downstair, which also the biggest 6 beds dorm room.

I will post the price and website of the guesthouse in the end of the post, so stay on.

But i would say the price that paying is worth, because unlike the rest of the guesthouse, Greenday provide super nice breakfast.

Of course you have to cook la, but this is good enough!

Andy or Simmy will cook a big pot of soup and rice in the night, and keep it warm for the breakfast in net morning. Because traditionally, Korean has rice and soup as their breakfast.

And different soup everyday, one day i had slightly spicy kimchi soup and the next day i had soy bean paste soup.

Image in the hell cold morning you got warm soup and rice in your stomach!!!!

If you're ang mo, they provide free flow egg (of course you have to cook la!), bread, butter and jam, coffee and tea and salad.

Just like breakfast at home.

Kitchen with everything you need. (Copyright of John)

Rice, soup and toast for your choice

Seasoning and everything!

The other side is living room, pretty small of very cozy, very much like home too!

Greenday has their green time every night, but no longer provide beer as stated in the website, but anyway, friend of Andy who live nearby are always here, bring sorju (rice wine) as well! We had great time with them and other backpacker. 

Small yet cozy living room (Copyright of John)

Big window with sunlight, my favorite (Copyright of John)

Love everywhere! (Copyright of John)

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired :)  (Copyright of John)

Night time with warm lighting. 

I like this very much! Elaine looks like Korean here. 

I have some green time photos with another camera, i'm lazy to take it out, but you can see all the guests photo in their facebook, which i will post the link later in this post.

I mentioned that the rooms in this guesthouse is not much, the biggest is 6 beds dorm, we decided to take up all 6 beds to make the room us.

Regret that didn't take much photo of the room, but you know what, the room provide almost everything. Imagine guesthouse with cotton pad and cotton butt, hair dryer.

Don't forget Korea is a very high living standard country. If you stay in hotel, they charge you everything, including shampoo.

The room wasn't big but comfortable enough, although no heater in the room but we got very warm electronic blanket!

My bed and John bed. Their bed is in other side. 

Staying in Greenday is one of the best thing of Jeju trip. Simmy speaks very fluently English so no worries about communication.

If you need to rent a taxi for day trip, you can ask their helps, just let them know where and what do you want to see, they will help to arrange you plan and let you know where and when is the best time to go to the places that you require, also they contact the driver and let him to pick you up in the guesthouse too.

Greenday don't have a website, i found them from a backpackers website, but they're active in facebook nowsaday, with all the contact detail and prices of the room.

Here is the website link http://www.facebook.com/jejugreenday

Contact them by email in advance, jejugreenday@gmail.com because their room is very limited. Simmy and Andy check mail everyday, they reply quick.

Oh yea! did i told you? You enjoy free wifi in the guesthouse, if you don't have a device with you, they let you use the laptop for FREE.

If you're really staying in Greenday, please let them know that i miss them very very much! and find our photos and message leave in the testimonial book!

Hope you enjoy the stay in Greenday :)






Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
120531, 0933am
Rach in credit card duedate is next week mood.

Thailand: Krabi - Ao Nang town

To recap, my Krabi trip's plan is Krabi Town -> Koh Lanta -> AoNang. 

To choose to make AoNang the last stop because the airport is near from AoNang than Krabi Town, and i heard that AoNang is pretty much a tourist place, i guess i won't like it, 2d1n should be enough. 

The fact it is so, AoNang is really  tourist place, full of foreigner and you can hear very familiar Malaysia accent speaking in the place, the beach wasn't the best, food and drink wasn't the cheapest, but Thai people still as friendly as other part of Thailand. 

If i'd return to Krabi someday (which i guess i won't), Krabi Town still the 1st stop of choice, but i'd stay for 2 nights instead of 1, there are some temples nearby are worth to visit. Then i will plan to go to other island other than Koh Lanta, i won't say that island is bad, but that is just not my favorite. If i have more days i like to see Riley Bay, i missed this place, and back to AoNang one night before my flight. 

Alright, AoNang is not big at all, but always crowded because of beach side and lots of tourist actually transfer to other island from here. 

Below are the city map that i search from the net. 

AoNang wasn't that big, i choose to stay in the Ascot Hotel which located out of the main street (The red circle), the main street is by the seaside. Walking from my hotel to the other end just take me bout an hour plus (trust me, walking is my biggest hobby during travel), but lotsa shops, international restaurants, massage center, art gallery, travel agency along the street and alley. 

Before goes to the photos, allow me to write a little review of the hotel where i stayed, Ascot Krabi Hotel. If i have more photos, i'd write it in another post, but i was too tired escape from Koh Lanta (Read the previous post for why) and i didn't bother to take the photos. 

But Ascot Krabi Hotel is good 3 star hotel for me, very small but comfortable hotel, i pay for RM100 per night for big, bright, clean roomin 4th floor with the far sea and street view (Warn, no lift), good water pressure and hot water, air-conditional working well. 

7-11 and convenience stores, restaurant and pub just across the street, i consider that are for local from the price judgement. The location is just handy enough for me. 

From my room. 

                                             

Far sea view and main street view. 

                                            

This is the only photo that i took in the room. Well at least show the room is bright. 

                                                  

There is another story of AoNang, believes me, whenever i go travel, especially alone, there is something bad happen. I thought Koh Lanta incident is bad enough, but I met another shitty thing in AoNang. But everything turn alright in the end. 

The story is i booked the shutter bus ticket from the hotel (I learned this time) for the next day, the shuttle bus will pick me up from the doorstep of Ascot Krabi Hotel to airport the next day (Less than RM20 one way, taxi will cost you like RM50. The bus run very frequent, don't worry bout the schedule). 

But till next day, the bus wasn't come. Or its does, but forget there is a passenger waiting in the hotel. 

I was like shitttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!! Why every fucking transport in Thailand doesn't like me?!           

The receptionist, Ling (I hope i remember right) helps me to called and check, the bus is gone to next stop and she decided to take me to chase the bus, so i get on her car, and she drove me to chase the bus (damn i feel so ridiculous when typing this. haha), but the bus has gone too far, and then she decided just drop me to the airport, haha. 

I thought i will be charge, even not so i will pay her too, but Ling insisted to not take my money and she keep apologize because of the incident, although this not her fault at all, all she ask was the receipt to claim back the money from bus company. 

I still love Thailand, although the transport doesn't like me as i do, but Thai is so cute and friendly, they treat you like friend and always think for you (well, mostly). 

Story ends. Here we start the photo section. 

                          

1st lunch in AoNang. Pad Thai always my favorite 

Mini van to Krabi Town. 

Thanks for the good weather

One of the photo of the day :D

main street just 5 minute leisure walk from Ascot

Mountain and sea :D

Street to 5 star luxury hotels, located in seaside, flood by foreigner  

Beach, people walking to the pier. 

Food selling on the beach

Seaside

Frankly, the seaside is just something like Morid, not the best in Thai. 

The main street on the seaside, lots of international restaurant and foreigner, 

I'm walking to the another end of the town (refer map above)

Art gallery 

Lazy to walk another hour back, i pay rm4 to let tuk tuk take me back to hotel from the another end of the town. 

Night market on the main street by evening. 

The next day breakfast, same breakfast but price different in different location. I saw the same thing selling in seaside restaurant with RM50, while i have this in the restaurant nearby hotel its just cost me RM15. What the hell.  

Travel means so much for me. =) 

I might write a weird hostel review in the next post (if i'm not lazy), why is it weird? because i never stay there before, i just pay my visit to the place. But the place is really worth to introduce.

If i really lazy to write so, next post is about trip to Seoul and Jeju Island, Korea. There will be at least 6 posts, excluding backpacker hostel reviews.

After Korea, the next destination is Cambodia, the amaze of Angkor Wat in June =).

Don't ask me where my time and money comes from, i'm not rich at all, but when you're addict to something, you will do everything for it.

Like i say in the last photo caption, travel means so much for me.

Stay tuned la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p/s: go click my ads! I haven't got enough money to Angkor Wat yet la!










Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20120501, 1133am
Rach in wanna go poo mood.