This post is part of an ongoing travelogue, to start at the beginning, click here.   After our long walk in Taejongdae, we took a bus back to the city, getting off at Nampodong. Nampodong is the main shopping district in Busan. There are some upmarket fashion and healthcare shops on the main road. On the parallel and side streets are packed with restaurants. Here I found a tiny shopping mall with an underground bookstore. The bookstore was quite big, I bought a Korean translation of Totto-chan for a friend. We didn’t find any restaurants that piqued our interests, so we walked back towards our hotel. All the shopping streets…

This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here. So on Day 3, it was an early morning, took a short taxi ride to Jeju airport. From there, we took Jeju Air back to Busan. Coffee and hallabong juice from Angel-in-Us at the airport. Bye bye, rainy Jeju. Time for Busan. It’s an hour flight to Busan, and from Gimhae we took an airport subway to the city. Immediately, out of the train station, we saw a stall selling eomuk (fish cake), a local delicacy. Never to early to start eating. Navigating the bus routes in Busan, we reached our hotel. GnB is a very…

This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here.   So after Sangumburi, we had a few more hours to spare (since we couldn’t go to Udo island). The cold windy weather meant we didn’t want to do anything outdoors. So our driver recommended one of the best museums on the island (according to him), the Jeju Folklore and Natural History Museum. And you know? My driver was right. This place is pretty impressive! The details the history and folklore of Jeju.   At the entrance there’s a 3-D video presentation running on loop showing the mythical history of how this volcanic island came to…

This post is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here.   The initial plan today was to visit the island of Udo, a little cow-shaped island off the bigger island of Jeju. But due to the extremely strong winds and choppy waves, all ferry services to Udo were suspended that day. Alas, maybe our next trip.   Our driver took us to the seaside, and we went outside to experience the wind. It was VERY strong, it took a little effort just to stand up straight. Seagulls can be seen flying in a stationary position. From the beach, we could see Seongsan Ilchulbong, shrouded in…

This post is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here. After the workout of Manjanggul Caves, we went just down the road to Mazeland. This park is large, er… maze. Just like those in medieval castles in Europe. It sounds really boring but its quite fun especially with friends and family. So many family of 4 big kids went for it.   There is another called Gimnyeong Maze Park somewhere nearby, but we chose this one as it was featured in my daughter’s favourite show, Running Man. We also found out it featured in a TV show called ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ starring Lee…

This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here. Today, we’ve hired a driver for an entire day trip around the island. I used the same contact from my previous trip, and we got the same driver friend, Mr Kim who could speak English. Well, his English isn’t all that great, but at least we can understand each other. The first order of the day, was to eat breakfast. We wanted to try jeonbok-juk (abalone porridge), a famous dish here in Jeju. The most popular restaurant, Myeongjin, is just outside the city, but today being Tuesday, it isn’t open. So our driver brought us to…

This is part of an ongoing series. To start at the beginning, click here.   So we’re off to Korea again! We are spending 6 days here this time. Upon arrival in Busan we’re taking another flight to Jeju. We’ll be there for two days. Thereafter, we’re returning to Busan for the remainder of the trip. A few months after we booked our tickets, AirAsia introduced direct flights to Jeju from KL, so that would have been a better option had it been available earlier. We landed in Gimhae on a rainy Monday morning. From the International airport, we took the free airport shuttle transfer to the domestic departure hall.…

This is part of an ongoing series. To start at the beginning, click here. As with most of my recent travelogues, I’ll do a short guide on internet and transport in Busan and Jeju.   Internet just as I did with Hokkaido, I went with portable Wi-Fi from Travel Recommends. I really like the convenience and their good products. For this trip, the Wi-Fi device had awesome battery strength, able to last a day and a half of full usage. This contrasted with the Japan device we booked previously, the device would be drained after about 4 hours. The connection speed was decent, enough for our usage (it was much…

So here we are again. Just less than a month after our trip to Hokkaido, we are back on the road to Korea again. After our first visit to Seoul and Jeju some time back, we are back again, this time visiting Busan. And because we loved Jeju so much, we included two full days in the island.   The original idea was to see the cherry blossom, but we could only go during the school holidays in March, just before the start of the blooms. But no matter, we did manage to catch some cherry blossoms. This itinerary will cover our 6 days in Korea. Enjoy!   Posts in…

(This post is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the very beginning, click here.) On our final day, it’s a very early alarm, followed-up by coffee and breakfast in our room. Our hotel provided free shuttle bus to the airport (full marks for our hotel!). After that, it was the usual for any flight. Check in luggage, get through immigration (not as bad as I thought), wait, wait, wait, board the plane, then home sweet home. (one final family photo while waiting for the airport shuttle bus) So, our week long vacation in beautiful Hokkaido has finally come to an end, after a year of waiting, and months…