Korea - 22nd May 2011

Our hotel is situated in Insadong, which is famous for its galleries and artistic stuff.

 

A shopping centre in Insadong, selling mostly stuff made by the sellers themselves.

YL and I shopping at one of the many pushcarts in the shopping centre.

The name and shop directory of the shopping centre.

This is the main street of Insadong. Along the streets are many shops selling art stuff and souvenirs.

 

On the way to our next stop, we saw a group of people in front. So, being nosy tourists, we immediately brisk-walked to catch up with them. Can you see SH and I in the photo?

This was an re-enactment of the officers to and from the royal palace. I think they put it up for tourists benefit since the royal palace is actually quite near the area.

A guard station for the royal palace, from olden times.

 

Our hotel is within walking distance from the royal palace, around 10-15min walk.

We entered by one of the side entrances to the royal palace, Gyeongbokgung (景福宫).

Adult ticket costed 3,000won (~SGD3.50) each.

We also rented an electronic tour guide. See the map and red thing in my hand? You just have to point the red thing at a numbered spot on the map and you can hear all about the history and stuff about that spot through the earphones connected. So cool!

The main entrance

A lot of tourists! Especially Chinese tourist...

These stone markers showed the ranks of the officers. I believe the officers were supposed to stand according to the ranks shown on the markers. The higher ranking officers in front, followed by the lower ranking officers behind.

The throne

This particular palace (宫殿) was restored to show what it looked like in the olden days.

I can just imagine the Korean King and Queen having their meals here.

There were quite a lot of tour guides in the palace. This lady tour guide was dressed in the Hanbok (Korean traditional dress).

While exploring the palace, we bumped into this group of Caucasian tourists. Their tour guide is the Korean boy right in the middle. This boy is seriously cute! We eavesdropped a bit and could tell that it was his first time giving a tour. His English was not too bad but he stammered a few times, most likely due to nerves. There was an older teenage boy somewhere near him, to give him guidance and to help out when he got stuck. Kudos to the boy for thinking of using this way to practise his English though. Admire his courage!

There's a lake in the middle of the palace. This area reminded me a bit of the Singapore Chinese Garden. Haha...

 

There were fewer buildings in the palace than I imagined. After listening to the electronic guide, I learnt that a big fire sometime in the past had burned down quite a few of the buildings. Seemed like fires do break out quite often in Korea...

Saw an re-enactment of the changing of guards ceremony near the main entrance when we were about to leave.

闵大人! Ok, 闵大人 was not a guard but you know what I mean. Haha... Saw lots of people taking photos with the guards and we took one too. We approached a Chinese lady who thought we were Taiwanese. I think it was because we used '不好意思' when approaching her.

And then, we went to look for this very famous Ginseng Chicken Soup restaurant, which was within walking distance from the palace.

We had to queue for quite a while to go in.

 

See the auntie in front of us? She was there with her husband and daughter. She's Singaporean too. We knew because she was carrying an Iora shopping bag. Haha... I didn't mean to eavesdrop but we happened to sit beside them later and realise that the daughter was there to study in a Korean University. I think it was an exchange program. Anyway, they spoke in Singlish throughout the conversation and thought we wouldn't understand as they thought we were Chinese! Although the 3 of us were conversing in Chinese throughout, I still think we don't sound like Chinese at all. 

 

A Singaporean should be able to recognise a fellow Singaporean!

Everyone in the restaurant sat on the floor. And the restaurant was very crowded! I think that's because this restaurant was listed in the tour books.

We ordered a normal Ginseng Chicken soup...

And a Ginseng Black Chicken soup.

 

Korean alcohol was served with the chicken soup. We poured it into the chicken soup for flavouring.

After the meal, we proceeded to Dongdaemun for some shopping.

And we had a very late dinner in the foodcourt at the top level of one of the shopping malls in Dongdaemun. Kimchi is really served with every meal in Korea.

SH and mine. Can't remember which is whose. Haha...

YL's dinner. A type of cold noodles that YL only ate a bit of because it tasted weird!

Korea - 21st May 2011

This was quite an adventurous day for us as we decided to travel out of Seoul to a suburb - Yeoju! We had to take a long distance bus from a bus terminal.

 

Our bus tickets with our seat numbers on it. Each bus ticket costed 5,200won (~SGD6).

 

Along the way, we saw a lot of such buildings. We figured those might be the Korean equivalent of our HDB flats. Haha... Not sure if they really are though...

Rice fields!

This map was displayed at the Yeoju bus terminal.

Tickets to our first stop - King Sejong's Tomb

Satellite view of the area. There are two kings buried at this site.

Picture of King Sejong

A Sundial - used to tell the time in the early days. It was invented during King Sejong's rule.

A Sundial Pedestal, some of it was installed on a bridge and shire as a public 'clock' under the orders of King Sejong to help the people to know the time.

Rubbish bin!

After looking through the various inventions during King Sejong's time, we finally made our way to the great King's resting place. There were some of those posts along the way which acts as some sort of spiritual gate.

King Sejong's tomb was on top of this small hill.

At the bottom was this small building where people leave food offerings on the altar tables inside during memorial services.

King Sejong's tomb... There were quite a few statues placed around the tomb which I think acts as some sort of spiritual protection.

We decided to take a shortcut to the other King's tomb by walking this forest trail.

After around 10mins, we finally reached the other side.

Tomb of King Hyojong and his Queen.

Our second stop - Silleuksa Temple, a Korean Buddhist temple founded in the 500s and the only riverside temple in Korea.

Stairs... Again...

 

We climbed up the stairs to see this bell-shaped stone thingy.

 

A seven-tiered brick pagoda that overlooks the river.

The Namhan River

The temple consists of a lot of such small buildings.

 

Then, we took a cab back to the Yeoju bus terminal to take a bus to our next stop, Yeoju Premium Outlet. Shopping time!

 

We had our late lunch at the foodcourt in the Premium Outlet.

Can't remember if this was YL or SH's lunch. Costed 8,000won (~SGD9.50).

Again, either YL or SH's lunch. Costed 9,000won (~SGD10.50).

My lunch. Costed 8,000won (~SGD9.50).

No photos after that as we were too busy shopping. Haha... Then, we had to take a bus back to the Yeoju bus terminal for our long distance bus back to Seoul.

 

Somehow, we missed our stop and had to get off at the last stop, which was the middle of nowhere! The bus driver, instructed us to wait for another bus at the opposite bus stop, using hand gestures and very simple English. However, after a while, he apparently felt uneasy at letting 3 'young' foreigners wait in the middle of nowhere and returned to pick us up!

The kind-hearted bus driver. Kam-sa-ha-mi-da!

Arrived in time for our bus back to Seoul!

 

Lucky there's a 24-hour McDonald's near our hotel so at least we still had something filling to eat for our late dinner / supper when we returned to Seoul.