1 October 2011
I had booked at private taxi tour to bring us to selected attractions on the Eastern part of Jeju-do (similar private taxi tour can be booked at Trazy.com).
Mr Won, our taxi driver for the day, picked us up from the lobby of Lotte Jeju Hotel at 9.00 AM. After a short discussion with Mr Won to confirm our itinerary, we headed towards Seogwipo city along the coastal highway 1132. Many tangerine farms could be seen from the road but the fruits were mostly green at this time of year.
Our first stop was the Soesokkak estuary. This place was not well known to tourists but seems to be a popular with the locals for swimming and kayaking along the river and sea. The sand on the banks of the estuary is black, probably worn off from lava rocks.
Beautiful pine trees shaded the viewing platforms and water of the river was deep blue in colour. Mr Won offered to take some pictures of us together. Since we seldom have a photographer to help us take couple photos on our vacations, we welcomed his offer. That was to be a norm throughout the rest of the day.
It would be nice to go for a dip or relaxing stroll along the banks here. We did not planned for that. So we just took some photos before proceeding with our planned itinerary.
Our plan was to visit the following places within the day: Jeju Folk Village at Seongup, Seopjikoji, Seongsan Ilchubong, Manjangjul Cave and travel by the coastal scenic route as much as possible.
Our next stop was the Seongeup Folk Village.
The Seongeup Folk Village is the place where we could see how the local Jeju folks lived in the past. In fact, some are still living in some of mushroom shaped traditional houses and running small businesses selling food and craft to tourists.
I had read about the Jeju black pig, which fed on human faeces in the old days. Nowadays, with modern sanitary systems, these pigs don’t get to enjoy such kind of feast .
Mr Won introduced us to a restaurant within the village for our must-try Black Pig BBQ lunch. It was only about 11 AM and we were the shop’s first customer of the day.
We ordered the 55,000 KRW set meal. It came with 3 thick slices of pork that looked like normal pork but tasted quite good when grilled. The grill had a small hole at a corner to drain fat from the grill into a small bowl below. The shop owner told us this grill had been used for ten over years and is still going strong.
The meal also came with side dishes, pheasant buckwheat noodle soup and fried tilefish.
The fried tile fish was particularly fresh and delicious. I enjoyed this more than the BBQ pork. The BBQ pork was quite tender and best eaten with bean paste dip and wrapped in sesame leaves and/or lettuce. Mr Won ate with us and we had a relaxing time talking about our families and sharing language tips. Mr Won was trying to learn Chinese, and he was quite good at it. Ha also told us he speaks fluent Japanese having worked in Japan before becoming a taxi driver. He was quite an amazing chap.
Having finished our early lunch or brunch, we headed to Seopjikoji next.
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