Journey from Suwon to Jeju

It was April 30, 2014 night, and we started preparation for our trip which was all the way from our home in Suwon  to Wando port in Jeolla province by car and then from there by ferry to Jeju.

We woke up next morning early at 4:15 am, and at 5:40 am after light breakfast, we left to pick up our friends living in apartments near Newcore outlet.

By 6 am, we were out of Suwon on road leading to Osan(ओसान), Pyeongtaek(फ्यंगथेक), Cheonan (छनान), Gongju (गोंगजू), Gunsaan (गुनसान), Mokpo (मोकफो) and finally to Wando (वानदो).

At 8 am, we stopped at rest area made next to highway. We had our home made tea and noodle (तकबोगी रामयन) ordered from restaurant for breakfast. I tried to get coffee, but it was too early for coffee-shop people, and they had only pure black coffee which I don't drink.

By 11:30 am, we were some 60 km from Wando, and we started seeing road signs leading to Jindo. Jindo has become famous these days because , a month ago, a ferry sank near to it killing around 300 passengers on it.

We had more than 2 hours time to reach Wando, hence I decided that we can better go to see some nearby attractions. I saw road-signs for Daeheungsa temple being 9 km away, and turned the car into that road.

At parking lot in the base of mountain where  Daeheungsa temple is.

It was a very beautiful road with lots of scenery and traffic.

Just some 2km from temple, I found ticket gate at base of mountain . I was not sure if everybody in car would agree to pay entry fee to see the temple whose reason of fame we didn't know at that time.

Therefore, I parked car in parking lot next to ticket gate to allow us to take rest.

everything was beautiful there

I talked with old-lady at ticket gate, and came to know that she had come from Seoul and was in the ticket gate as part of doing temple service.

Later, on wikipedia, I found that Daeheungsa temple might have been founded around 514 AD (1500 years ago) that is the time when , in India, Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana were being edited by writers under patronage of Gupta emperors. If I had known this, I would have forced myself to take walk to the temple :)

There are many such bridges at the base of mountain of Daeheungsa temple

After spending 40 minutes, we started for Wando.

A bridge on the road to Wando

Beautiful roads of Jeolla province

At 1 PM, we were in Wando. We first reached Bus-terminal there, guessing it to be Wando port, but man there smilingly gave us directions for Wando port which was 1 km from there.

After doing lunch, I took my car to cargo loading area, and parked my car in parking lot inside the ship which you see below. Parking lot was amazing with hundreds of cars and trucks parked.

Wando port: cargo loading area

Then, we walked back to passenger terminal.

Below I am with statue of the god (called 'Stone Grandfather') of Jeju people who believed that this god protected from spirits/demons travelling to real world.

Our group and Stone Grandfather protecting us from demons :)

Climbing to the ship

Ship was like a building with four floors: first two floors for cargoes, and top 2 floors for passengers. We roamed around here and there, took coffees, talked and spent our 3 hours like this on the ship.

Wando port and city

It was amazing and pleasant experience to be inside ship.

In the middle of sea, you can see only see a circle of water.

At 7 pm, we were in Jeju.

Finally, in Jeju port