Day 2: 12 May 2024, Sunday

We were tired yesterday because of our red-eye flight, but after a good night’s sleep, we woke up today feeling much more refreshed. At 9:10am, IH, ZY and I left Whistle Lark Hotel and walked towards our breakfast venue, Café Antoinette, located about 2.4km away. PL elected to sleep in before embarking on his routine of morning exercise, so he did not join us for breakfast.

The cloudy weather from yesterday persisted into the morning. The temperature was a cool 14 degrees C, chilly but not unbearable. We walked along the coast and breakwater, taking in the sights while chatting away. We soon spotted two Haenyeo at work in the frigid waters just off the coast.

Haenyeo are the incredible women divers of Jeju, who harvest a variety of molluscs, seaweed and other seafood from the ocean. Traditionally, girls start training from the age of 11 and become full-fledged haenyeo about seven years later. Wearing a wetsuit and equipped with a diving mask, fins, gloves, chest weights, a weeding hoe and a net attached to an orange-coloured floatation device, haenyeo can dive up to 20 metres and hold their breaths for up to three minutes. And they can stay in the water for five to six hours at a time. Simply amazing.

Female divers outnumbered their male counterparts by the 18^th century and today, it is an exclusively female profession. Haenyeo are considered the head of the household because many families rely on them for the majority of their income. In the 1960s, 40% of haenyeo husbands remain unemployed!

However, the number of haenyeo is declining as Jeju’s economy pivoted to farming mandarin oranges and focusing on tourism from the 1960s onwards. Today, there are only around 3,200 haenyeo remaining, down from around 24,000 in the past. More than 65% of the haenyeo are in their 70s or older. Haenyeo were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. A very well deserved accolade. Much respect for these remarkably strong and hardworking women!

We soon reached a suspension bridge across a valley known as Yongyeon Pond. This is where water from Hallasan (Mount Halla) flowing through Hancheon Stream meets the sea. The mouth of Hancheon Stream became a deep valley after the hardened thick lava flow experienced erosion for a long time, resulting in beautiful columnar joints on both sides of the bank as the lava cooled down. The rock cliffs, together with the green forests and clear, deep green water, made for a very picturesque scene. We bought some roasted chestnuts from the pushcart vendor at the head of the bridge and enjoyed the view from the pavilion.

After a short break, we continued our walk and reached Café Antoinette at 9:55am. This was one of the two cafes that ZY had shortlisted for our breakfast today, and I’m so glad we picked this place! Perched on the edge of a short cliff, the café had an astounding view of the coast and ocean. The café counter was on the ground floor and there were three types of seating available – long bar tables set against the window and facing the ocean, rectangular tables and chairs at the inner area, and low tables with cushions on a tatami-style seating area by the window. There was also another seating area on the lower floor with ocean views as well. The tatami looked the cosiest so we picked that.

As they had just opened for business an hour ago, the pastry shelf was fully stocked. We had a very hard time deciding what to pick because they all looked so good! We eventually ordered three croissant pastries, a beef tomato stew, a scrambled egg platter, a latte and a caramel macchiato. The bill amounted to 63,500 won (S$63.50).

We spent the next two hours enjoying our breakfast, chatting, chilling and airplane-watching. We were so comfortable there we didn’t want to leave. This was one of my favourite things we did in Jeju, and I’m so happy we discovered this place. We then went to the outdoor area to take some photos before leaving Antoinette at 12:20pm.

As we walked towards the direction of our hotel, we soon reached Yongduam Rock, a 10-metre-tall rock that resembles the head of a dragon springing out of the ocean. “Yong” means “dragon” in Korean, and Yongduam means Dragon Head Rock. Yongyeon Pond, which we passed by earlier and is about 200 metres away, is known as the pool where the dragon frolicked.

There are a few legends surrounding the origin of the rock, but in essence, a dragon was trying to steal an elixir of youth when it was struck down by the Guardian of Hallasan, and the dragon fell into the water, with only its head left sticking out. The boring version of the story, also known as the scientific explanation, is that the rock was formed by the solidification of flowing lava during a volcanic eruption. I guess legends make everything more interesting.

We took a different route for the return journey so that we could see more of Jeju city. As we walked along the main road Seomun-ro, we came across the Jeju Hyanggyo Confucian School and popped in for a look. It was very quaint inside. This is the oldest school in Jeju, established in 1392. It went through various stages of reformation and relocation before settling in its current location in 1827. The school’s purpose was to teach Confucianism to the local people. The compound also houses the main shrine Daeseongjeon and Myeongnyundang lecture hall.

Further along was the Jejumok-Gwana Government Office. This was the historical centre of Jeju island’s political, administrative and cultural activities. Gwandeokjeong Hall and its neighbouring area used to be a complex of major administrative buildings since the Tamna kingdom era (Tamna was a kingdom based on Jeju island from ancient times until it was absorbed by the Korean Joseon dynasty in 1404). Gwandeokjeong Hall is the oldest building on Jeju City, built in 1448 and it functioned as a training ground for soldiers during the Joseon Dynasty.

The historical site originally consisted of 206 rooms in 58 buildings, but the office facilities were destroyed in a fire in 1434 and rebuilt. However, all the reconstructed buildings were completely destroyed during the Japanese colonial rule, except for Gwandeokjeong Hall. Between 1991 and 1998, the Jeju City Government conducted four excavations and embarked on a massive restoration project to rebuild the lost office buildings. The project was completed in December 2002 and eight buildings were restored.

There was an entrance fee of 1,500 won (S$1.50) so we didn’t pay to enter. We saw a banner that said “Free Night Opening” from 6:00pm to 9:30pm between 1 May and 31 October, so we considered coming back later this evening instead. There were, however, a few people who had paid to enter and they were dressed in Hanbok, the traditional clothing of the Korean people. They had rented the Hanbok from a shop nearby at Chilsung-ro Shopping Town, and gone in for a photo shoot with the old-style historical buildings. Not a bad idea. We later saw the shop that provided Hanbok rental services, and it only costs 20,000 won (S$20) to rent the clothes. That’s pretty reasonable.

As we walked through Chilsung-ro Shopping Town, we discovered a very cool secret café called Maeume On. Its entrance was nondescript and barely noticeable, a narrow opening between two regular boutique shops. You would probably walk straight past it if you didn’t pay much attention.

After passing through the wooden doors, we walked on a path made of stone slabs through a garden overgrown with red roses and other plants before we reached the café building. Inside, the décor was very earthy and woody, with warm yellow/white lighting and tastefully furnished. It was a very cosy place and I fell in love with it immediately. We would come back again later for our afternoon tea.

We arranged to meet PL for lunch at BHC and we arrived there at 1:50pm. BHC stands for Better & Happier Choice, and they are Korea’s #1 fried chicken chain. They have 2,177 stores in Korea and have also expanded to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and even the United States and Canada. In K-Dramas, the characters are always eating fried chicken with beer, so that’s what we did.

We ordered BHC’s signature Bburinkle (23,000 won/S$23), which is crispy fried chicken coated in cheese and vegetable flavoured sprinkle. We also ordered the Half Sauce & Half Chicken (23,000 won), which is a half serving of original sunflower fried chicken and half serving of sweet & sour flavoured chicken. For sides, we ordered the Cheese Ball (5,500 won/S$5.50) and Bburing Fries (5,000 won/S$5). Of course, the meal would not be complete without beer, so we each had a mug of draft beer (5,000 won). The total bill amounted to 84,500 won (S$84.50). The chicken was all very good but the Bburinkle was my favourite because I love cheese.

After lunch, we brought PL to Maeume On, the secret café we discovered earlier. However, it was full house when we went at 3:25pm. Evidently, it wasn’t a secret and many other people knew about it. We waited for 10 minutes before we got a table. For dessert, we bought a few items to share. We ordered Yakgwa, which is traditional Korean honey cookies (2,000 won/S$2), a walnut Dacqudise (similar to a macaron, 3,000 won/S$3) and a slice of chocolate cake (4,000 won/S$4). IH and I wanted to try the traditional Korean drinks so we ordered the Sikhye with yakgwa (sweet rice drink with yakgwa, 6,500 won/S$6.50) and Sujeonggwa (cinnamon punch with dried persimmon, 7,000 won/S$7). My Sujeonggwa drink was interesting but I think I would have liked the coffee better. Nevertheless, it was a very cool café to hang out at, and I’m happy we discovered the place.

We left Maeume On at 4:20pm and walked back to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped at the City of Dreams building and went up to the K-Pop skating rink for a look. It was super happening, with lots of kids and young people rollerskating while K-Pop music blasted on the speakers. One level down was a bowling alley. The bowlers all looked very pro with their gear, and their scores on the screens showed that they were very good indeed. It was nice to see the locals having fun and going about their normal routines.

We reached our hotel 20 minutes later and went to our rooms for a short break. Travel Wander had delivered our mountain bikes to the hotel ahead of our ride tomorrow, so at 5:20pm, we brought our bicycles out for a test ride. The bikes looked very new and they were in great condition. From our hotel, we cycled to Halla Media Music Album Game, the second CD shop I had bookmarked in my list of places to go. It was just a short ride away. Sadly, the shop did not carry any MJ/JJ titles so I left empty handed.

We then cycled to the red lighthouse at the end of the pier near our hotel. It was a nice spot to watch the sunset and see the planes approaching the airport for landing. We chilled there for a short while before returning our bikes to the hotel. PL decided not to join us for the rest of the evening so IH, ZY and I went out again.

We walked to Jejumok-Gwana Government Office, arriving at 6:40pm. Entry was free, as promised, and there was only a handful of other visitors besides us. We took a quick stroll through the Jejumok History Museum because all the text accompanying the exhibits was written in Korean, with no English translations. We used Google Translate to translate some of the text but it was rather tedious so we gave up after a while. We had more fun roaming the grounds and taking photos of the buildings. The clouds were very pretty that evening so they provided a nice backdrop for the photos.

We left at 7:25pm, just as the sun was about to set. The clouds turned from orange to pink while the sky turned from baby blue to deep blue and finally black. We then walked to Black Pork Street to find a restaurant for dinner. There were many restaurants specialising in black pork and they all looked about the same, so we chose Donhyanggi because it was pretty crowded with locals.

After we were seated inside, we discovered that there was a requirement for every person to order one serving of meat each, so we ordered the black pork belly (22,000 won), black pork neck (22,000 won) and Korean beef marbled meat (24,000 won), 200 grams of each meat. Jeju is not known for its beef but we wanted a bit of variety, rather than all-pork. We also ordered a bowl of seafood ramen (8,000 won). The bill amounted to 76,000 won (S$76).

As usual, a variety of small side dishes accompanied the main course. IH enjoyed his kimchi and steamed egg (the only time he had steamed egg during the trip!). The seafood ramen came with mussels, scallop, crayfish, small octopus and crab. It was pretty good value for only 8,000 won, and that’s because seafood is so abundant in Jeju.

Over the course of yesterday and today, we realised that many of the service staff in Jeju can speak Mandarin. Some of them are Korean and they learned how to speak Mandarin, but many of them are from China and they came to Jeju to work, evidently to cater to the huge number of Chinese tourists.

A young Chinese girl was assigned to grill the meat for us. Through our chats, we found out that she was from Inner Mongolia. She had come to Jeju about a week ago and just started working at this restaurant. She said that she left Inner Mongolia to escape the hard life there, but after she arrived in Jeju, she discovered that it is the same situation here. She said that she felt very homesick in the first few days, but it’s getting better now. It takes a lot of courage to uproot yourself and work overseas, so I admire her bravery. Hope she finds happiness in her job and enjoys her life in Jeju.

IH and ZY both felt that the pork had a very strong “pork taste”, more so than the regular pork that we’re accustomed to. I thought that the black pork was so-so and I felt that the beef was better. Overall, it was an okay dinner, not the best meal we had.

After that, we swung by our favourite MARTRO supermarket to pick up some supplies. We wanted to buy bananas for our ride tomorrow, but the bananas were all gone (they were so plentiful yesterday!), so we ended up buying mini protein snack bars. We then went back to our hotel at 10:20pm and did our final packing for tomorrow’s ride. And that’s the end of Day 2. One more sleep before our real adventure begins!

Here’s a short video clip capturing the highlights from Day 1 and 2, enjoy!