Pink and Undecided: mt. seopjikoji

South Korea Winter Trip Day 2 Part 1 : Seongsan Ilchulbong, Mt. Seopjikoji, Seongeup Folk Village

Hellow!

How's everybody doing? I'm writing this on a Monday night, although i typically don't suffer from Monday blues (coz i don't have an 8 to 5 job so Monday doesn't really affect me much) i do feel exceptionally tired today. Probably had too much fun during the weekend and i'm totally spent now haha. Anyway, to perk myself up imma continue writing about our South Korea winter trip. Onto Day 2 now ^^!

The whole gang at Mt. Seopjikoji, taken by Tom

Like every tour groups, we had to start early (most of the time it'd be 6-7-8, meaning morning call at 6 AM, breakfast at 7 and we're off by 8!)-thankfully Baby Boy's surprisingly easy to rouse so morning routine's never too hectic (i find it harder to rouse hunny than Baby Boy zzzz). We bathe him every night once we arrived at the hotel so every morning (it's just too early, and it's FREEZING) we just wake him up, tell him to brush his teeth and get him dresses. As Indonesian, we still feel the need to shower twice a day almost everyday though hahaha. It just feels weird not to (i skipped once or twice though :p. We didn't sweat a drop during the trip, obvi).

Baby Boy enjoying the view of the violent sea from Jeju Palace's breakfast station

Tour Day 2 officially started

Snow was falling, big time! It was magical to see. Although i've seen snow before, this is the first time we experienced the full blown snow fall. We were told that this was not a common sight for December in Jeju-do. The driver even said that he had not seen snow falling on December for 70 years or something! Aren't we lucky bunch ^^!

Our first stop was this Orange Grove (Jeju-do is very famous with their Hallabong oranges!) next to a chocolate store

Baby Boy was almost giddy with happiness

That he insisted to take off his gloves to play with the snow zzzz. I'm a paranoid mother so i wasn't that happy, but i guess he was really fine and it's more important to let him enjoy himself...

Obligatory family pic with the orange grove and dolhaurubangs

Snow really does make every picture looks magical!

How cute is my boy?

And my other boy too?

Did i ever mention that i am the fun aunt?

Once we had enough of the snow, we ran inside the chocolate store to warm ourselves up

And gorge ourselves with the generous free samples LOLOLOL

No worries, we bought a lot of chocolates! I especially love the omija ones! We also bought some Vitamin C coz they tastes nice hahaha

Then we're on our way to the next destination!

We're at Seongsan Ilchulbong (or Seongsan Sunrise Peak)

Apparently it's a new 7 Wonders of Nature!

How cute is this boy? LOL

Everything's covered in thick, white snow, so breath-taking

The wind was super strong, it was super cold and the rocky path was covered in slippery ice. You'd have to climb a lot of stairs before you reach the peak and i am usually the kind that is quite determined to reach the peak, but i am also extremely clumsy and will slip in any surface so the super slippery rocks are like a death trap to me -___-. We pretty much gave up before we even reached the steps WTF FOL

So i decided to just snap as many pictures of the surrounding

And camwhore with it as well

LOL at KC's face!

It was really hard to get a decent shot because of the glaring sunlight as well as the crazy strong wind coz long hair and super strong wind? They clearly don't mix!

After taking that last shot, we went back down and decided to do what we love to do best : finding local snacks to munch on! LOL.

Of course, while in Korea, must try their trumpet-shaped ice cream stick!

Honestly? It was just fine. Prolly because i'm also not the biggest fan of cones *LOL*. We just bought one ice cream and we all had a taste, it's already more than enough!

Hot snacks were much more preferable, obviously

Then we stumbled into the cutest, friendliest Jindo!

With a less cute mongrel, but one shouldn't be stuck on appearance, right?

They seriously were very friendly and guai one ^^! And they kept on following us later...

MT warming himself up on the bao heater hahaha. Coming from a tropical country, i was in awe when i saw a reverse refrigerator (it's a heater la) to keep coffees warm so you can have hot canned coffees!

So yeah, we spent majority of our time in Seongsan Ilchulbong checking out stores, supermarkets and nomming *LOLOLOL*. So typically us. Moving on to the next destination!

Spotted these rows upon rows of hanging squids immediately

Errr. Various crustacean

Hana (our TL, who seems to be a fellow food lover-and in fact she turned out to have a culinary/travel blog herself) told CL that the roasted squids here are very yums, so of course CL lined up for some immediately *LOL*

Can't ask Au to pose pretty to save her life, ask her to pose silly and she'd do it in a heartbeat

Squids are roasted immediately upon requests

Then we spotted hunny :

Who looked so much like a village girl LOLOLOL

So we told him to carry the basket as well :p

Lots of munchies = happy us!

Baby Boy is also a big fan of squids and kept on demanding for roasted squids afterwards. Even though he seems to be rejecting most Korean food, he loves their street foods!

But really, that wasn't the reason why we're here

We're at Mt. Seopjikoji. I love the name. Reminded me of a Chinese movie with a talking ladybug who kept on saying "kochi kochi!"

Again, a confusing view for tropical creatures like us. It's the sea... And there's a mountain as well. And the sea was cold as ice. In our country beaches and seas always mean hot and humid hahaha

Yep, we were too busy munching on our squids to pay attention to the surrounding LOL

Then i realized that we should go up and see the view

Do you see the building there? It was once a church but now turned into a Candy store! I am not a big fan of candies, but i actually regret getting carried away with the squid that we didn't get to visit the candy store!

I was sooo fascinated by the snow and ice on the sea rocks *LOL*

A huge crisp ball snack coated with nuts and caramel

So romantic eh, Sutinah and Paijo? Ehehehehe...

Next up was lunch -____-. We (especially CL) bought and ate too much snacks nonstop that i was not even slightly hungry. Actually i even felt a bit sick when i saw the heap of meat waiting for us in the restaurant *LOLOLOL*.

But first, we had a snow fight! LOL. The bus drivers uncles started it and it was madness! I mean, look at how perfect the coat of snow in front of the restaurant look at first, they all gone awry by the time we're done -___-

Look at the state KC was in LOLOLOL FHL

A total mayhem!

Miserable looking KC LOLOLOLOL

Lots of smoke waiting for us hahaha

Baby Boy immediately used the stove (???) as a heater

Jeju-do's famous with their seafood and... It's squid (plus pork) again *BURP*

Did i tell you that Tom's also our chef? And waiter. And translator. Basically a Mr. do-it-all!

After lunch we immediately went to play with snow some more. I recorded the scene with the beautiful snow falling, unfortunately the wifi stopped working and i lost the video because i used Instagram's camera -___-

Some people are determined to make a snow angel. THE SNOW IS NOT THICK ENOUGH LAAA HELLO!

After a second part of the hilarious snow war (i think Bebe was the ultimate victim), we headed to Seongeup Folk Village.

It's a heritage village highly valued for its cultural significance, and there are still people living there!

This local lady was our guide for the village

Of course Sonny had to translate for us... There sure are a lot of dol-hearubang in Jeju-do!

Let's go in one of the houses!

Very rustic and like we're suddenly thrown into hundreds of years back in time

CL the red nose hahaha

Black pig! I heard that black pig's meat's very highly sought after in Jeju..

This is actually an old time styled toilet! LOLOLOL. Really! The pig is placed there to chase away snakes, but sometimes it would mistake men's dingle dangle as a snake and try to bit it *LOLOLOL* so they also provide a stick to shoo the pig away WTF

What's better to illustrate than a model, right?

We were shown real honey storage and a could even dip our *must be clean, ah!* pinky into the storage to have a taste!

That basket is for their baby! And because women are so busy (women works in Jeju, while the guys... gamble *LOL*. Whatta life!), they have to rock their babies using their feet while continue working with their hands

That's to carry water!

At the final hut, everybody immediately flocked to the heater hahaha

Okay this part is where they try to sell stuffs to us. Beginning with their honey

Real honey would continue dripping without breaking, if your honey breaks while dripping that means it is not pure honey but mixed with sugar already

They also have fresh Omija tea and horse's bones. I felt so bad for horses in Jeju-do *LOL*, but they claimed that they have such strong bones (that you hardly see any elders stooping with crooked spines in Korea, they all work straight and tall!). It'd also help people with injuries and broken bones to heal faster. Horse's legs' soup is also a delicacy in Jeju, which made me gasped in horror *LOL*

I did have a taste of the horse's bones though, which is-ironically-tasteless. You're supposed to munch on it like it's a snack. Very expensive too, i think CL was the only one who purchased a bottle to give to my mum. One's supposed to consume 15 of those tiny balls per day and my mum claimed that it eases her back pain very fast! Initially i thought it was more of a power of the suggestion, but since we're also in love with Red Pine (another Korean supplement, this one's for detox) then i guess Korean really knows their medications!