SO, I’m still on DAY 1 of my Jeju post. and I had the best experience of nature. ever.

never had I wonder something non-man-made to be so spectacular and breath taking. this place deserves its title as one of the 7 wonders of nature of the world.

maybe I was lucky because the weather was great, but to compare the weather in Jeju and Seoul which was only 1 hour flight away, I would say that Jeju was like total paradise. not only was it much warmer, its clear blue skies and clean air was the best of it all. unlike dusty Seoul. pfft.

Seongsan Ilchulbong was beautiful even from afar and if I were to make a guess on how many “wows” I said when I was there.. I would say 1000. and 1000 is too little of wows compared to its beauty.

here’s a touristy picture of me.

and another one. those stones inside’s the traditional clock! reading time with the help of.. sunlight! I wonder how would they ever know when to meet someone in the past if it was raining cats and dogs hmm.

okay, so much for the beauty, the hike was quite a challenge. to a weak girl like myself whom had never exercised. I am ashamed of that pfft. but I literally have no stamina.

one of the many stones popping out of the mountain. some of it was said to be haunted so we should not go near it or something errrrrrr. a stone being haunted. scary much?

but halfway through, I was happy enough. I kept asking myself if I should just stop climbing up till this point because the view’s good enough. but my mom told me that I MUST go up till the top because it’s not everyday I get to see a world famous mountain pfft.

I always wonder who uses these binoculars at the peak. if I wasn’t trying to find my own house or something, I don’t think I’ll ever use it =X.

it may be pretty, but the crowd’s crazy. it rhymes!

so after that crazy flight after flight of stairs, I made it! I, JAMIE LIEW, MADE IT TO THE PEAK! well as the name of the place suggests, we are supposed to come here to see the sunrise but.. whatever, it’s still beautiful and my breath’s taken away by it hahhahaha.

at the peak, it somewhat declined downwards. I thought there was going to be a pond or something but no, nothing. there were trees and it seemed like there were trails for people to hike down there but.. I don’t think it’s allowed.

coming up and going down’s two different routes so if you see something and thought “nah I’ll just take a picture of it on my way down”? DON’T. capture whatever you wanna capture because you won’t have a second chance. unless you want to go through climbing the mountain all over again. it’s a good 25minute climb you see.

and the view going down wasn’t bad too!

finally! back on land. coming down’s a little scary because you keep going down =S. like there’s no end.

the spot I found which was absolutely beautiful. nobody took pictures here so I conquered the whole spot and I love it so much. people who kept walking down didn’t bother to look back and see how beautiful it is it seems.

see? perfect selfie spot.

and those yellow little flowers.. I bet this place’s amazing during spring.

spam.

okay, so… that’s the Sea Woman(?)’s village. if you did a little research on Jeju, you should know that one of the most famous things to see here’s the woman divers, or Hae-nyeo, which directly translates to.. Sea Woman. hahahha.

so one of the spots to see them’s here. at the exit of Seongsan Ilchulbong. more stairs downwards.

in Malaysia, people travel to see that “black beach” at Langkawi which wasn’t even too wide spread. but the rocks and beaches are like black everywhere in Jeju! hehehehhe.

it was around 430 when we arrived and I only managed to see a bunch of Haenyeo’s arriving from the sea from above.

when I arrived at the bottom, only one Haenyeo was present and she was.. selling the catches of the day.

I didn’t manage to snap a picture of them with their headgear on T_T. it’s pretty funny actually because the headgear’s like one piece of round flat glass =X.

well click here to be directed to google’s wide array of pictures of them.

they are actually very courageous and respectable. while many Asians have this mindset of how men should be the bread winner of the family, in Korea however, we have these brave Haenyeo whom fends for their family, diving for a living.

look at all the fresh and HUGE abalones and soras. I am not sure what you call that spiky shell.. we call it Sora in Korean. and Abalones are called Jeonbuk. and those pink gloves made the picture look awesome.

everything was so fresh they were moving pretty vigorously. D=.

each piece costs 10,000won. you get 1 free if you buy 3 or something. I know, for an abalone 30ringgit seems like a steal. but in Korea, you can get it for half the price. but it’s a tourist attraction AND THEY WERE ACTIVELY MOVING, YOU GOTTA EAT IT!

the view of the.. restaurant beside.

they might look soft and all when they were alive but they’re pretty hard and crunchy after they’re chopped up. and this is what 10,000won worth of abalone look like on a plate. very few but huge pieces. I actually had raw abalone at some chinese restaurant back in Malaysia and it totally made my stomach upset =X. and ever since I doubted about eating abalone raw. in Malaysia, they tasted weird and it wasn’t good I swear.

but these were SOOOOOOOOO good. you have to eat it with the sauce and seaweed! I had raw Sora somewhere else too and Jeju’s Sora’s AMAZING. I kind of actually liked Sora better but the abalone was good too! just not cheap to eat pfft.

while eating this there was this Chinese couple from Hunan beside with their kid. and guess what……… they were giving that barely 5 year old beer. BEER. and the little girl kept asking for more. oh goodness D=.

the whole area was spectacular overall. look at the layered floor. that stone look like a skull I don’t know why hmm. creepy. anyway, the layered floor was multi-coloured too!

there’s some boat ride but it was nearing winter and a boat ride in the cold? are you crazy?!

spam.

this picture is the.. “I have someone to take pictures for me but you don’t” picture. hehehehehe. I’m such a sadist =X.

and more of the weird but spectacular stone formations!

the flowers were just so pretty. no wonder people say that we must come to Jeju during spring..

but Autumns not bad too! look at those beautiful reed!

ohai =D.

my favourite picture of this post. or one of my favourite.

and one last picture with Seongsan!!! I thought. but…

I couldn’t get enough!

and more…….

ah~ I’m so in love with this place. despite it being swarmed with tourists.

here’s a zombie pose.

after a long walk, what’s better to do than to rest on the field?

and more pictures with Seongsan because I love it like that.

don’t worry about me upskirting, I always wear protective pants underneath because I know wind in Korea’s madness.

=D.

Jeju, certified the seven wonders of nature of the world!

and the… Japanese way of seven. weird huh.

and it’s finally time to go back.. T_T.

guess what this is!

it’s a stone yes.

but.. why do they sell it?

because it’s porous and because it’s naturally from Jeju?

well.. you use it as a scrub. =X.

so which type of Harubang’s your favourite? the one with more pores or… take the one with less pores. although a little heavier but they don’t look so flimsy. these are really cheap souvenirs! but I am living in such a small room, buying one will only take up more space T_T.

me and the grandpa’s of Jeju.

oh! this is the car we rented! not bad ey? I think ALL the rentacars are the same. this model and this colour. at least from our renting place. we saw many of the same car around with the rentacar sticker so…

that’s all for Seongsan Ilchulbong! DON’T MISS THIS PLACE OUT IF YOU’RE IN JEJU!