Seoul day 4 & 5

The next couple of days in Seoul was mainly a R&R session with shopping and trying out some different restaurants. One of the restaurants that we went back for seconds was the 24hour restaurant just outside our restaurant. There's just something about an boiling kimchi jiggae hotpot at 2am in winter.. oh yummsss!

First stop of the day - Palsaek Samgyeopsal. Came as a recommendation from A's friend and man, was it good! Not the easiest place to find due to our lack of navigation and it was an underground restaurant. But nevertheless, definitely worth the effort!

The 8 different flavours of marinade

 

 All that food!

And after that, it was time to walk off all the meat! We took the train back to the main part of the city and was planning to do some major shopping, but as we walked around more.. something was suspiciously wrong... none of the shops were open... ON A MONDAY! WHY?!?!

And we went round and round... and finally someone said that there's the ONE day that shopping centres are closed for 1 day of the year.. and that day is TODAY. OH MAN!!!!

Went back to MyeongDong defeated but at least some shops were still opened that time... did some shopping there till it was time to watch ....

 

Funniest show ever!!!! Couldn't stop laughing our guts out! They were so so so entertaining and that hour went by so quickly! *Tip : if you book online, sometimes there may be a special discount*

For us, it was summer colours, so all you need to do was wear something green/yellow/pink and you can get that 10% off :)

The show didn't finish too late so if I remembered correctly, we went and stocked up more on facial mask and hand creams before heading back to the hotel. But the night was far from over - we took our hotel's bus service to Doota to do some late night shopping. Picked up a few clothing and actually quite liked shopping there.. things are more "quaint' and not the usual you see at the major departmental stores. And of course - you may bargain at some places. They may not drop the price, but you can get extra stuffs like headbands, belts, gloves etc. 

Tip : In general, you are not able to try the clothes there before buying esp if they are quite cheap. But I realized that whenever I asked if I could try, they come really close up and check if I have loads of make up on - and because I don't, I usually get to try them on :). So, definitely worth a try!

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We probably only got back to the hotel at about 3am after Doota, so we all slept in and had a lazy morning. 

First up, breakfast - recommended by a friend. Myeongdong Gyoja

There wasn't much of a queue but we did go at about 11, which was neither breakfast or lunch time. But boy, it was still packed!

Dumplings & noodles

The famous noodles

I really liked the soup noodles. There was probably a little too much garlic or so, but it was so tasty and yummmmm... for me anyway. Not sure about mom and A.. LOL

Next stop - Trick Eye Museum! Had the most fun here!! All of us!

 

 

 A : Quick quick! Save me!! She's gonna cook me!

 Me : I'm coming A!

 And then it was time for A to save me from being eaten

 

 Angels of Earth 

 

 *Clap Clap Clap*

Olympian in the making!

 

 Finally A has mastered the art!

 

Oh my dancing skills has improved so much!

 

 Come on! Let's go dude!

We had so much fun at the museum that I recommend it to anyone who wants to have some fun. Yes, it's no historical site, it's not informative of the city/country, it's not cultural. But it's loads of fun! Especially if you go with the people who won't mind taking pictures and acting silly! :) Best tourist spot ever!

Not far from the Trick Eye Museum is one of the Hello Kitty's Cafe which we just had to go! I haven't been to one before (A has been to one in Taipei), so I was quite intrigued as to what goes on in one of these cafes.

No lack of Hello Kitty that's for sure!!

 Hard to miss the shop!

I really liked the shiny cake on the top - but it was too pretty to be eaten!

Even the toilet!!

Our tea time snack :)

We did more shopping back at Myeongdong.. honestly, we should just stay at Myeongdong next time!

And then, it was time to say goodbye. A and mom were flying out several hours before I was, but I went with them to the airport anyway since we were catching a cab. 

We didn't bother queuing up at the tax returns this time as the queue was superbly long and we didn't really buy that many things that we needed to do it so we just checked in and cleared customs reasonably quickly that we managed to do some more shopping at the airport and had lunch together!

Mum's bibimbap

*for that many days in Seoul - this was only our second!*

And just in case you didn't have time to go to the city's Hello Kitty,

there's one at the airport!

*There's also a Charlie Brown Cafe directly opposite it*

The most amazing (and I thank my lucky stars) was that I left my new ipad when I was going through security and I didn't realize that till >2 hours later. But the security and immigration guys were so so helpful and I got my ipad back without any troubles in less than 2 minutes! How amazing!

Go Korean hospitality!!! :)

 

 Bye bye Seoul

Of our 6 months away with pictures!

So quickly, and it's been almost 4 months since I last posted something (apart from yesterday).. sometimes I forget that I still have this space even.

We've finally come back to the city, almost 2.5 months now, and work's just been absolutely crazy! Working up to 150 hours a fortnight occasionally, all I do is eat and sleep when I'm home. For once, I've had 2 weekends off in a row to finally rest after working 5 weekends in a row!

My rural rotation was really a good one for the both of us. I had plenty of time after work, and having great weather over there really allowed us to spend time outdoors together which was great.

Enough photos for now - will put up some food ones next! Lots and lots of gorgeous breakfast locations here!

Seoul Day 3

Started our day with a visit to the palaces. Given that we've had a long day the day before, we slept in and had a quick breakfast before heading out to the world famous Gyeong Bok Gung Palace.

At Gyeong Bok Gung Palace Station

head towards exit 5

Built in 1935, the palace means Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven. It served as the main palace for more than 500 years and is surrounded by 5 metre high walls and has 4 very large gates, which are to the 4 directions (East, South, West and North). The main door is the Gwanghwamun which has 3 entrances.

The palace is open every day except Tuesdays and there are free English guided tours at 11, 1330 and 1530 on those days. 

There is a change of guards every hour (think it's from 10 am to 3 pm) and that lasts for about 10 minutes and starts off in the square between Gwanghwamun and Heungnyemun. Quite interesting, accompanied by music. Somehow, the guards all appear very tall.... hhmm.. interesting..

Change of guards procession

We attended the 10am change of guards and spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the palace before joining the guided tour at 11. The group meets just outside the information centre after the 2nd gate. The lady we had was pretty good and we had a really large group but there was just so many different vicinities to the palace that I got a little distracted by the end.

With one of the animal deities

In one of the areas, there is a 2 tier terrace that surrounded by figures of 4 guardians - Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Blue Dragon and Vermilion Phoenix, which is then further surrounded by the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion

This pavilion had served many formal banquets for the king and his guests and was expanded in 1412 by King Taejong. The first level of the pavilion has no walls but instead has 48 stone coloumns. The pavilion is surrounded by almost like a moat thing, but it was more for the view rather than a army/war strategy (in my opinion anyway). Very pretty indeed.

Gangnyeongjeon?

Gangnyeongjon served as the king's living quarters and is named after the third of five blessings (longevity, wealth, health, love of virtu, peaceful death). The building has 2 sides and each room are divided into 9 areas. The king stays in the centre room, and the court ladies stays at night in the rooms surrounding the centre room.

The guided tour took up to about an hour and by now, as we only had coffee in the morning, we were famished from the walking and the freezing weather so we headed on to the famous Tosokchon!

Check out the queue!

Although an intimidating line to get in, we didn't take that long - possibly less than 30 minutes. And it is so so so worth the wait!

Prices were reasonable as well

Oh so good samgyetang

We had 2 bowls of the samgyetang and a seafood pancake. Tasted oh-so-good. Definitely a must try for anyone heading to Seoul. The soup was so flavoursome, so rich and the rice was just nice. It was just so so so good!!

Changdeokgung Palace

Headed to the Changdeokgung Palace after lunch and off to join another guided tour. There are English guided tours here at 1030 and 1430.

Changdeokgung is a named UNESCO Heritage Site in 1997. There was quite an extensive information from our tour guide but as usual, I got distracted by the architecture, the colours and taking way too many photographs, I didn't really get too much information.

Anyway, after the palace visit, we went on to explore Bukchon Village on our own. Went into a couple of little shops and oh, there's one a store that sells small wall decorations that are so cute and pretty! Perfect for someone looking for things to decorate a child's rooms with. Or a themed wedding/party/event.

Hello there!

Loving the little steps

In these alleys, there are several hanoks, whick can serve as guest houses. A little like ryokans in Japan I suppose. Maybe we should stay in one next time :)

We did go into a cultural centre in the area which did do some fabric paintings and runs little sessions for tourist or locals. There was a Korean family with 2 young children in the place who were doing a session while we were there. While we didn't do any of that, we spent some time taking pictures and sitting on the 'decks' of this house just to breath in the experience

Off to the famous Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant next!

Okay, let's get this straight. It was quite an adventure getting to the restaurant. There were too many alleys in the area plus wrong directions from the Korea Tourist Organization online - we so did not enjoy the process. Anyway, met a young fabulously kind couple - thank you so much! - who used their phones as GPS, asked around and then personally walking us all the way to the restaurant. Talk about good hospitality! Go Koreans!!

Pretty lights

I've read so much about Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant that I had such high expectations. However, we didn't enjoy the food as much as we were expecting to. Not sure if it was just too much greens or the spices. Overall, I think maybe it just wasn't our type of food.

But anyway , picture galore as usual :

Dining area

Sanchon serves a traditional temple food that uses all kind of vegetables from the yards, mountains and seas of Korea. There isn't a menu of choices of food available, but rather just a set menu. A lunch menu goes up to 33,000 won and dinner for 45,000 won. 

There's about 19 dishes that were served and a bottle of wine. I quite enjoyed the drink, but I doubt mum and A did - they kept making fun of me!! Hahaha

This would be the bit that we enjoyed most

There is also a traditional performance organized by the restaurant which starts at about 8 pm. I was expecting the restaurant to be quite packed and was therefore quite worried when the restaurant didn't confirm my reservations initially and reading how popular the place was. However, when we were there.. it was quite empty for a weekend.

But I quite liked this display at the shop. Made of folded papers. Quite cool isn't it?

After dinner, it was still too early to head home for the night, so off we went to .. yes! Myeong Dong again!!! Hahaha

Available at every train station

I suppose maybe I should be worried if I see this at every train station.. it's a box for emergency situations like bombs/war etc. But then again, if you live that close to North Korea and know that they have missiles or things aimed at Seoul, your government is only being safe by placing this. Well.. that's the good part. And I suppose the negative side of this is - well, we could be bombed at any time! Food for thought.

More street food at Myeong Dong