Sightseeing around Jeju

The day tours around Jeju island are normally packaged into two options. Tourists could choose either to spend the day at the east area or the west area of the island. Our group opted for the east area tour, as it covered most of the major attractions we've been planning to see. It's okay to pick and choose your itinerary items as long as those are in the chosen routes and within the 8-hour time limit. Surcharges apply on extended tour duration. 

We didn't manage to secure an English-speaking driver to guide us through the  tour. Amazingly, we got through the communication barrier with little English mixed with bits of Korean...I laughed at myself thinking about the sentences that I tried to construct while talking to the ahjussi. No, it wasn't that awkward..I think. It's remarkable how all of us and the driver got through the day. 

Jeju, South Korea

Background: The island of Jeju is a famous tourist spot for both locals and foreigners. Located at the southernmost part of the country, Jeju enjoys the warmest climate and experiences the most rainfall. As a volcanic island, Jeju hosts many amazing geographical features that hail it as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Nice to know: 'Jeju' can be one of these three places - 'Jeju-do' (the province), 'Jejudo' (the island) and 'Jeju-si' (the city i.e. the island's capital).

All Around Seoul: Insadong, Namdaemun, Dongdaemun, Gwangjang, Myeongdong

Please forgive this writer for the long leave of absence. I was enjoying my spring vacation, of which the experience shall be shared in due time :) Now, back to my ramblings! 

This post is really about shopping. More often than not this refers to the open markets that we visited in Seoul. We skipped the shopping malls most of the time, except for Lotte Shopping Centre and Shinsegae Mall.

Insadong was more of the high-end type of the open markets. Nice the displayed stuffs may be, but you could bargain for better price somewhere else. My advice is to take note what you might wanna buy and get them at Namdaemun :P However this should not stop you from purchasing anything, in case you'd think that you won't get those cute little things again later. Better to be safe than sorry.