Jeju Island Road Trip Day 4: RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

We didn't really plan to visit Ripley's Believe it or not Museum at Jeju Island since we already had Alive Museum in our itinerary. But since it was within the vicinity and we had some time to spare (we didn't spend much time at the Duty Free Shop because the area was not too big), we decided to give it a go. At 8,000 won ($9.47) for adults and 6,000 won ($7.10 ) for children, it was an amount we could spare for the exhibits we hoped to see - a lot of believe it or not moments.

There were 12 galleries to feast our eyes on and an outdoor exhibit to cool down to for when we exit the museum. At the lobby was the world's smallest car which caught Ira's attention right away. It measured just 137cm by 201cm and could actually run! Of course, Ira would say he had to try it before he could believe it. The other 2 exhibits at the lobby were that of Ripley's Trio Band and the pumpkin carriage boat, which was said to have sailed along Venice canal in 1994. Hmmmm, I was trying to picture that in my mind.

our family trio with Ripley's trio

Gallery 1 was Ripley's clever library which features a variety of items from recycled car parts that turned into a motorcycle or a mechanical metal fish to a display of mysterious giant chairs.

Gallery 2 was the crazy treasure house, and as the name suggests, there were a lot of crazily bizarre stuff in this gallery. Take for example this replica of the tallest man who ever lived who at 8 years old was already 6 feet tall! By 22, he was already 8 feet 11 inches. Now that's towering everyone. Then there's also the 24k car covered with 24k plated English coins. That's quite a heavy weight.

Galleries 4 and 5 displayed items from puzzling tribe villages. Talk about human bones as head gear, a skull as an amulet, tribal tools and more. The one that was quite familiar to us were the shrunken heads because we watched a feature of it in one of the tv shows we were following. It looked eerie on tv. Imagine how it looked like up close and personal. Some of the exhibits were really scary. One would wonder if some of them were actually cursed. We asked Kelvin to try some of the sacrificial tools exhibits.

this was supposed to be a sacrificial table

Gallery 7 was the Giant's secret garden which we weren't able to explore. We were supposed to get back to it after one gallery and somehow got lost and couldn't find it anymore.

Gallery 8 was of scary medieval Europe where torture chambers and chairs and cells and chains were aplenty. The boys were like, "they did these things before?" 

the boys trying their hands at this medieval torture instrument.
Poor skeleton had to endure the torture over and over again.

Galleries 9 was much tamer - a nonsense gallery which was no nonsense at all because it displays creations of talented people from all over the world. Toilet papers made into gowns, hand painted quail eggs, sculptures in needle holes, and a whole lot more. We were amazed and amused at how talented these people were.

portrait from a cassette tape

Galleries 10 to 12 were more technological and modern in nature with Transformer's Optimus Prime stealing the spotlight. Then there were also sculptures of Yoda and other Star Wars characters. This igloo-looking exhibit was where Kelvin sat for sometime trying to capture the reflection of the changing lights inside. We came over, curious about what's keeping him busy and we found ourselves having fun with the colored lights, too.

this one brought out the sweet and romantic side of hubby as Kelvin took snapshots of us in different poses

This unplanned visit to Ripley's was well-received by the whole family. The exhibits were mind boggling, brain cracking, and very much interesting. It seemed like we also traveled with Ripley to all those countries he explored in his lifetime. Visitors can spend hours and hours walking from gallery to gallery at this place and they won't get bored. There were so many things to see we couldn't stop snapping photos (posting everything here would take the fun away from visiting the place for yourselves). It's one enlightening experience that kept us wondering whether we should believe what we were seeing or not!

The one which really brought out the crazy in us was this shadow wall where we popped in and out of, leaving our shadow impressions on the wall as the dark room was suddenly filled with bright light in a flash. Spot it here, among the other photos of intriguing exhibits at Ripley's. 

...