Jeju Island (South Korea): 3rd Day of Visit

Today is the last day we have the car. But I have too much headache and stay in bed. I still have the presence of mind to ask JB several times if he cancelled our car reservation. And then, around noon, when I regain all my human capacities, I ask the question again and JB answers me that he didn’t manage to cancel the reservation

This is a sign! I have to do everything I can to visit the places we couldn’t visit the last two days

We booked the car at 9am, but when we arrived at 1:30pm, nobody yelled at us, on the contrary, our car is still there waiting for us (although we didn’t pay anything when we booked on the internet – more info about car rental in Jeju here)

Too happy, we go directly to the Osulloc Tea Museum

Osulloc Tea Museum

It rains ropes, and then comes the fog, so much, but so thick that you can’t see anything at 5m. All the cars put hazard lights on (to be seen). After 30 minutes driving in the fog like that (and being a bit afraid), we finally arrive at the tea museum. There remains a little fog, but it isn’thing compared to the course which we have just crossed

Jeju green tea is very well known (at least in South Korea)

And this museum has only 5m2 where they explain the making of tea

The rest, as you may have guessed, is used to sell tea. There’s a nice tea shop that sells an Italian ice-cream with green tea to fall down (according to Tripadvisor reviews)

I hurry to go to the Innisfree boutique (the whole complex belongs to the Amore Pacific group which owns, among other things, cosmetic brands, and Innisfree is a greenwashing brand, supposedly natural, but as natural as The Body Shop what)

… because here, the Innisfree Tea Room has a beautiful view of the tea plantations

Of course, there is a small space where they sell innisfree products, but also DIY places where you can create your greeting card using the stamps

Or make your own soap using a kit sold in the store at 15,000won

Or his own cream with a 15,000won kit

Here, they sell certain products that are difficult to find elsewhere, compared to the jewelry masks (my favorite mask at innisfree, which soothes redness and imperfections in one night)

I liked their orange tea

Who would dare to eat such a beautiful cake?

Hello Kitty Island

We passed by chance a few days ago and JB bitterly regrets this discovery:D

Who insisted on going back? Me me me!

Being surrounded by stuffed animals, objects and cookies in the shape of Hello Kitty is a big kiff! There is a small part that summarizes the origin and evolution of Hello Kitty. All this on 3 floors. I think we are the only couple without children here 😀

The cake in the shape of Hello Kitty is waiting for you at the Hello Kitty Café

So, the 3rd day was very short because I was out half the day. But I would have regretted too much to leave Jeju without having seen the tea plantations

In the evening, we eat in a duck barbecue. The price misled us, 30,000won. We thought it was just the price of a big duck barbecue, but in fact it’s ONE huge whole duck. The duck breasts are served on a barbecue and the rest in soup etc.. We don’t even manage to finish the barbecue part so much because of the industrial quantity

Departure from the airport

I already told you about Shinsegae in Seoul. The principle is to buy duty free products in these stores (in any city and also at Lotte and Shilla) and have them delivered for free at the departure airport (because there is less choice at the airport than in a store in the center of Seoul). I made a purchase in Seoul and gave them my flight number from Jeju

This is where I discovered an unsuspected place. I saw the same scene of chaos in Thailand but I didn’t know what it was

Well in Jeju, it’s 10 times worse. There is a place called “duty free pick up”, it’s just after immigration and before boarding. We show the receipt that we have and people will go to get the product that we have to pick up here

Except that, people have bought HUGE amounts of things in fact. It’s super clever because their 10kg overpurchase will not be counted in their hand luggage, nor in their hold luggage, it’s DUTY FREE

I don’t know if it’s for personal use, or gifts for the whole world, but you can see the number of plastics lying around at the airport to get an idea of how much shopping in Korea can empty your pockets 😀

In front of this show, my buying frenzy in Japan and South Korea, according to JB, isn’thing compared to that. I fell in love with a duty free box set. Shopping-addicted to the end!