We’d initially planned to hike Mt. Hallasan on Day 03, and to manage costs, we opted not to have Mr. Lee drive us around. The plan in the pre-departure itinerary was for us to walk the easier of two trails and then spend the afternoon at the nearby Donnaeko Valley. The hike up the mountain would have taken 5 hours both ways, so it would have been a fairly physically demanding activity. As luck would have it, I lost my footing at Camellia Hill Botanical Garden yesterday and sprained my right ankle. So, to err on the safe side, and probably to the great relief of the kids too, we decided to drop this planned hike and opt for something more sedate and relaxed for Day 03.
There is generally no lack of things to do on Jeju, but we’re still currently at Seogwipo, which meant that logically, the additional places we were going to visit on Day 03 should be within a reasonable distance of Seogwipo. After a night of research yesterday, we settled on three places: Choinamdan Tangerine Park, World Automobile & Piano Museum, and finally Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market. The path of traversal wouldn’t be ideal though: we would be travelling eastwards to the Tangerine Park, then doubling back west, going past Seogwipo and to the Museum, before heading eastwards back to Seogwipo. So, semi-long cab rides each way.
We were also a little worried initially about whether there would be readily available cabs for us to call using Kakao T. As it turned out, the app was able to find us drivers very easily, with each driver typically at most 10 minutes away from where we were each time, so it was all good.
Our first stop: Choinamdan Tangerine Park is a working citrus orchard set amidst the island’s rural countryside, and about 30 minutes away by taxi from Seogwipo. There are actually several tangerine-picking opportunities on the island, but Choinamdan offered something more than just fruit-picking: there is also a miniature zoo with assorted animals, a monorail that runs around the compound, and a black pig feeding experience. One challenge though: June isn’t the best season for tangerines, and the fruit-picking experience proved that. The missus remarked that a number of the tangerines in the orchard looked old, and there were cobwebs in a few places too – perhaps indicating that the orchard really had not seen many recent visitors.
We spent about two hours in the park, and it was an alright experience, though perhaps ultimately feeling a little underwhelming. The stable of animals — the usual children’s favourites, including ostriches, donkeys, rabbits, and a lot of ducks — were docile enough, but their enclosures could really use improvement. The monorail is probably enjoyable for very young kids, but teens and older visitors would probably find it quite meh. The black pigs are located in an inner section of the farm and are only accessible via the monorail, and were at least very fun to feed!
Continued in the next post!