Cherry blossoms season in Jeju

Wasn't intending to write about the Korea trip I took with the fambam in April because, lazy. But on second thought it would be such a waste not to because the photos all turned out pretty well. I mean, it was the cherry blossoms season. Even if it was towards the end and most of the blooms were withering.

Without Wilson, I was the one left lugging the tripod, DSLR and all important documents around. Good thing my sister was there to take care of all money related issues and the key to our apartment which we lost on our last night in Seoul. Our only mishap. Not too bad, all things considered.





Wanting to save some money, we travelled via Vietnam air and had to transit through HCM. Upon reaching Incheon, we took the AREX to Gimpo Airport to catch our 3rd flight of the day to Jeju.













I do want to provide a proper itinerary for our trip but truth is, I have very little idea where we were half the time. On more than one occasion, we boarded a cab in Jeju wanting to head to a specific destination but ended up somewhere else instead due to the language barrier. On hindsight, we should've been more afraid but at the point in time, we found it mildly amusing.

We walked down these streets near our accommodation all the nights we were there but I'm not sure it even has a proper name. For those who are interested, we stayed at A-One Hotel. The location is great - lots of eateries and shopping streets within walking distance. We even went to Cafebene on one night and they had a huge selection of bagels, obviously trampling Singapore's menu.















It was fortunate that our first full day in Jeju coincided with the Cherry Blossom Festival held near the entrance of Jeju National University but fate would have it that our cab driver dropped us off nowhere near the school. From what I gathered from our conversation with the driver, the festival is held at several locations and the place he dropped us off at was one of them. Even though it wasn't where we intended to go, the streets did turn out to be wildly beautiful.













I've never seen cherry blossoms in my entire life and needless to say I had my camera on the ready the whole time and snapped about a zillion pictures. We were told that there had been a thunderstorm two days before we arrived in Jeju and most of the cherry blossoms had already withered, I honestly couldn't imagine seeing it in its full glory. It must have been stunning. Nevertheless, I thought the fallen blooms gave the walkways a very dreamy and magical touch.













We dropped by a cafe to use the restroom and ended up having a cuppa. The cafe interior was undeniably nordic and their limited menu ensured a superb blend of coffee. If you're in town during the Cherry Blossoms Festival and intend to go here, get your driver to bring you to this cafe and pray hard he brings you to the right place. It's sitting right along the stretch of streets with the blooms!

Habilis Coffee
Address: 제주도 제주시 전농로 37, Jeju City
Opening hours: Mon-Sun, 11:00-21:00

Rawai

I'm not sure what exactly made me stopped/ take way too long doing these posts. Might be the immense amount of effort needed; sorting and deleting photos, editing them, coming up with a bunch of words to describe the sights and sounds of the trips and falling short due to my very limited vocabulary. Might be that adulting got in the way. Adulting does get in the way of many things you know.

Thought I will finish writing about Rawai since I'm already half way through it before starting on my more recent trips but seeing that it's been awhile - almost 9 months! *gasp* where have all the time gone? - I am a little hazy on where we went and the sequence of things so this post will have pictures from all over.













Everyone looked so adorable in their helmets I just had to post these! The remaining of the trip was spent mostly biking down the same routes everyday trying to get to the different beaches lining the southern end of Phuket armed with Wilson's trusty old frisbee. I rarely travel without an itinerary so it was quite a new experience, googling for nearby places we can visit and setting off 10 minutes later in search of these places.







I barely edited these photos at all, they're all golden because of the rays from the setting sun! I would love to relieve those days again, playing frisbee by the sea under such a dreamy setting.





Not having an itinerary also meant settling down at any restaurants along the street that caught our eyes and I exceptionally loved the place we chose to have our dinner at one night. It was situated right beside the sea and we had to sit on cushions! Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely adore dinner places with cushions. The tables were adorned with cute little pineapple tissue holders and candles. Dinner consisted of the usual must orders for any Thai meal - Tom yum goong, fried squid and the likes, shared over endless chatters and laughters. It was a great night!













We found the most amazing beach on the last hours of our trip. Nai Harn beach was tucked well beneath the trees. After parking the bikes on the narrow road leading to the beach, we made our way past a canal and some greenery before being greeted by the whitest sand and clearest sea we'd seen for the entire trip. The sails dotting the sea made for such picturesque view, we spent a good few minutes just standing there taking in the view.

It would seem that this beach was mostly frequented by the Caucasians as we were the only Asians there. Naturally, Nai Harn was a lot less rowdier than other parts of Phuket which seem to have been taken over by the PRC, its almost as if we were out of Asia! The guys played a couple rounds of frisbee while Jess and I soaked our feet in the water and it was only too soon before we had to leave to head back to our airbnb to wash up and prepare to leave for the airport.

I would definitely recommend anyone who've already been to the busier parts of Phuket to give Rawai a try. You'll find a completely different side to the otherwise overcrowded and overhyped Patong with lots to see if you're only a little bit more adventurous. ;)