Tuesday, September 30, 2025
on the sands of time you are only a pebbleremember trouble must be treated just like a rebel
send him to the devil
Clap Yo' Hands - Ella Fitzgerald
Was in Jeju for a short trip last week. Chose that because it's visa free though going in I was a bit concerned if I would be able to pass immigration okay - my usual gripe, it's the pain of having an Indonesian passport, you're less confident. I didn't have a playlist for this trip, but I did have Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book and was planning to hear it the day where I would be taking buses all over - that didn't really go as plan but I'll tell you more when I reach that day. Anyways, so the song lyrics chosen to start these Jeju post are all from that album.
To make use of this visa-free arrangement, I needed to fly directly there and Scoot had the better timing in terms of my plan so I chose that. Flight left after midnight. I actually went to the airport early because I wasn't sure if I could get a taxi easily in this new place I was living. True enough it wasn't easy and I was thinking, dang taxi will be my downfall. I really need to learn how to book a ride through one of those apps. Freaking Singapore taxis actually charge you when you book them, even more if you book in advanced - a concept I don't get. Anyways I did get a taxi and arrived with time to spare. The thing with arriving early at the airport is that you end up waiting there which is like the most boring thing ever though my mom and cousin would say that's the way. That gave ways to thoughts, like as I saw these different travellers disembarking and queuing to board and thinking of all the airports I've been to, I was thinking that there would be a time where I don't get to do this anymore. By this meaning figuring what the next step would be and that may sound deep but literally it's figuring what's next when I arrive to that new destination. In a bigger scheme of thing, I guess that also means there would be a time due to financial reason or what have you, I don't get to travel anymore and I wonder what life would be like then. Also another thought was that how I loathe shabby travellers who somehow got out of their house, got on a plane, arrived in a whole different country with their home clothes, wrinkly shirt, shorts, and flip-flop. For the love of God, do you not have any self-respect? I'm not saying one needs to look rich, but can't there be a little bit of propriety, urgh!
Anyways, flight was delayed which meant longer time to wait and I started to be concerned about arrival time :( but what can you do. As I waited there, maybe it was the God Lord who put it in my head, but I ended up checking again what the entry requirement would be like and I found out I needed to fill in the arrival card online. I was panicking a bit because I just freak out easily and last minute thing like this, arrgh. I needed to take a photo of my passport and the lighting wasn't conducive and the processing was slow, it really didn't help tame the rising panic. It worked though and after a few wrong entry about the address I'd be in, I got a success message, phew. Arriving in Jeju, I quickly went to immigration because I wasn't sure how long it would take and also me and my Indonesian passport, would I get a longer check? I read a blog where an Indonesian couple did have to go through that. It was smooth sailing for me though, I remember the usual stuff being asked if I was alone and then the immigration staff pasted a sticker and stamped on the last visa page of my passport, another phew. Then I could go to the toilet and wait for my luggage. There's still a panic here though because as I recall we landed at 8 AM something and I had a tour picking me up at around 08:50 AM - yes, new level of craziness that I chose to immediately start a tour after I arrived. It's because though I have been lucky so far, I may not get early check-in in the hotel so I thought why not and also I wasn't expecting a delay of close than one hour, I thought I would have time to breathe a little bit. By the grace of God, I actually made it to the meeting point on time, just a few minutes before the pick-up arrived. So off we went to start the day.
First stop was Hallasan 1100 Altitude Wetland. Honestly, I don't know what to expect here, in fact I wasn't sure what to expect in any of the places I visited. It's a balance I'm trying to have between being prepared and I don't want to over-google things that cause these new places I visit to not give me a feeling of something new or unexpected. When we arrived, we were pointed out to a boardwalk and told to explore on our own. It's a one direction boardwalk. It's not very long and you see vegetations, rocks - it was mildly interesting, I would say. Embarrassingly I'm not sure where Mount Halla is, it might be the mountain ridge I saw in front of me. Look I just arrived and straightaway I went on this day tour, my head was not totally there.
After that we went to see Jusangjeolli Cliff. The rocks formations were kinda interesting. It was a good-weather day - I was praying for blue sky and sunshine for the trip and God gave me that that day. Apparently, you could book some water sport activity that brought people pretty close to the cliff in boats.
Then it was off to see waterfalls. I'm not sure what's the name of this compound we're in, but it's pretty nice. There's a pavillion which Google told me is Cheonjeru Pavilion and before we got to the waterfall we crossed the Seonimgyo Bridge (last picture here) and the greeneries down below the bridge and the river look nice.
The waterfall we're visiting is Cheonjeyeon Falls. There are 3 waterfalls and the third one was some distance away, so we're going to the second and first ones only. It wasn't a long walk to the second waterfall (first picture here) and it was lovely. The walk to the first waterfall kinda reminded me of the walk in Hualien with greeneries all around and the river stream below, though I thought it was more beautiful in Hualien. There was an area with taps where you can fill your water bottle with fresh water from the stream and I was like, don't mind if I do. The first waterfall was very beautiful even though as you can see in the last picture here that there's no water falling down. Well you could only see the waterfall if it rains. I still like it a lot because of the stillness of it and when I arrived, I may have been alone because the rest haven't caught up with me, so I like its quiet.
After all this was lunch. I was worried about not being able to eat in Korea because I'm hella picky about food and lunch to me wasn't good, but I ate some rice (two different types with different colours), some mushrooms, some peanut thing, and two different types of fish dish. The objective was sustenance and I accomplished that. I also tried Makgeolli / rice wine which was okay. I'm not a drinker so any review from me doesn't carry weight. Then it was off to O'sulloc which has tea plantations around and a big store. It's really crowded with tourists :( and to avoid waiting in line, I quickly chose some snacks and queued up to pay. My regret was not getting more :( and also not trying their cafe, but there's really too many people and I didn't know how long I would have to wait if I had ordered anything. There's like a small tea museum but I only found it later and I didn't have time to explore how they do the teas there. There's also the Innisfree store nearby, but I didn't go in because again crowd. I did go to its cafe and got another snack which I thought I would eat as breakfast the next day. Again, regret was not getting more. The fans by the tea plants below are to help air circulate I was told.
After that was Songaksan Mountain. In the picture below you could see some holes in its rocks, these were made by the Japanese for their defence when they occupied the island. By the way, in Jeju there's a lot of this old man statue which the guide told me it's a grandfather, no grandmother. Google told me it's called Dol Hareubang / stone grandfather. The guide told me the belief is if you rub its nose, it'll help you get a baby boy. The one below has an uncommon pose; the traditional ones just have their hands in front of their bodies.
The guide said we could hike up to see the crater. All the guides I had on this trip kept on reminding us over and over not to push ourselves and take it easy, but somehow I was like let's try and do this. There was a girl in the group who tried to talk to me as we walked up and in my head I was like, girl stop, I need to focus and save my breaths. It wasn't easy but I made it, surprising myself. The view from up there of the Sangbangsan Mountain (the smaller neared one) and Hallasan Mountain (slightly covered with cloud) was pretty.
The crater itself was deep, but you can't walk its perimeter. My picture of it is not very good. It reminded of the craters I saw in Iceland, they were not as deep there but it was kinda nice to be able to walk around it. Over there it was filled with ancient moss, but here due to the climate in Jeju, there's trees filling it.
The steps getting up and down this crater were actually steps made from rocks and the immediate path going down did cause me to remind myself, be careful and don't fall. On the way down, I saw horses and some of those Japanese caves. They look interesting but we couldn't enter it or at least I didn't try. I'm not sure if it's sealed in.
Last place to visit was Bomunsa Temple where there's a big golden Buddha statue. I went to the main hall a little bit and said a little prayer. Nearby there's actually stairs leading up to another temple, but I didn't follow it. It's quite a walk up and I just didn't have the energy and I wasn't sure I could make it up and back in time.
Then we're done for the day and I finally got to my hotel. I was glad that I could get cleaned up and finally rest. Was really really tired that for dinner I just decided to go to the nearby Paris Baguette where I got a pizza bread and a bread filled with custard; I went there everyday of my time there. I had the breads while watching the sunset from my window. I was pretty much dead after that long long day. I thank God that I made it. For more pictures from the day, go here.
:) eKa @ 5:56:00 PM • 0 comments
Thursday, September 11, 2025
I cannot deny, as annoyed as I may get, that freaking AI is just too good sometime. Below is an image that Google's Nano Banana made. I won't tell you what my prompt was, though perhaps you could guess from reading the way my head has been for the past I don't know how long. My prompt was just a short one sentence; I was only specific in that it has to be watercolour. It's interesting that it chose to represent what I asked this way and it does make me think of the components it put in the image. There was only one edit I asked it to do, which was to remove the text that was initially there because that would be too straightforward on what I asked it to do.
I did then ask it to explain the different components it put in the image and the explanation was interesting too, which again I'm not gonna share here. The whale though, turns out it thought of it in a positive way and that's very interesting. Not that it could read my mind, but once I did do a drawing of a lone tiny boat being tossed around in stormy waves. My drawing wasn't as good as this one, but seeing that boat, I was just ... what a coincidence ... right? It couldn't have scoured this blog (being that Blogger is part of Google) and read that one time I described myself as a boat, right? I'm thinking way too much about this.
Thinking way too much about stuff is what my brain does. I was thinking is it one step forward, two steps back or two steps forward, one step back. For me it feels more like one step forward, two steps back - this is to describe some small moments where I feel like I could do this, it's possible, there's a bit of light - only to be met pretty soon after with me thinking all the wrong things that could happen and how I couldn't really do this afterall. I did the math, it cannot be two steps forward, one step back because that would mean you're moving backwards where it feels like I'm being hurled forward against my wishes or actually whichever way I'm being hurled to. Instead of a gentle whale, I need my inner wolf (on account that my Chinese sign is the dog) to show up and be strong, especially now when I have so much fear. That wolf should exist, right? I don't know maybe it's too beaten down, way too tired to show up. God ... I could only pray that God would help me and cloak me with His protection.
:) eKa @ 9:09:00 PM • 0 comments
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