May 17, 2010

Honeymoon Trip to Korea: Day 4

Posted in Travel tagged free & easy, guesthouse, honeymoon, seoul at 7:39 pm by reffine

Woke up around 9.30am, prepared for check-out from the guesthouse and took a flight back to Seoul. We had our breakfast as the previous day, toasted bread and egg. I toasted the breads while hubby fried the eggs hehe after cleaned up the kitchen utensils that we used, we asked the receptionist, this time was a guy to help us called the cab. 

Proceed to check-in our luggage and waited for boarding. Our flight to Seoul was at 12.00pm, we would reach Seoul at 1.00pm. 

Yeah, free and easy in Seoul.. ^^ The first 2-nights I booked at Seoul guesthouse around Anguk area so we took the subway from Seoul Gimpo airport to Anguk station line 3. We had a traditional hanok experience in this guesthouse as it is one of the traditional Korean houses located in Bukchon Hanok Village area which is in between Gyeongbok palace and Changdeok palace. 

When reached Anguk station, we took the exit 6 following the direction given from the owner and stopped by to have our lunch in the restaurant in front of the exit 6. First culture shock, no one greeted us and our drink was not being served not like the experience we had in Jeju. We asked for the menu and luckily they provided the English menu and the pictures and apparently the drink we need to get by ourselves, it’s a self-service hehe :p 

Actually got another culture shock in subway station as not much escalator provided and the lift service also not as conveniently located as in Singapore, we need to carry our big luggage and went up or down the stairs to change train line within the subway >,< 

But I had already estimated that portion as I heard before from one of my ex-colleague who had traveled there and also read it during my web research hehe  

After finished our lunch, we walked a bit to find the guesthouse which is located in a 10-mins walking distance. When we found the place, it’s a bit messy and because at that time in Seoul, spring season not yet come so no cherry blossoms for us during our trip there  

Reached Seoul guesthouse around 3pm; it’s a bit difficult to find the entrance as quite few doors located there. We decided to enter one of the door which looks like the main gate. After we entered the guesthouse, we’d been greeted by the nice owner and her friendly daughter.. 

We waited for a while as the room was not ready and drank Korean tea which the daughter served us. It tasted like a cereal or corn tea while chit chatting with the daughter.. 

When the room’s ready, we proceed to check-in and put our luggage. Took some pics inside the room first before went out to browse around the area  

Jogyesa Temple, Insa-dong

First place we visited in Seoul was Insa-dong as it is only a nearby walking distance from our guesthouse. We went to Jogyesa Temple first as it also located just opposite of the entrance to Insa-dong market. 

When we reached there it was almost 6pm where the daily ritual offering was begun in the temple. We went in to pray for a while though didn’t follow the ceremony. After that we continued to walk to Insa-dong market. 

Insa-dong was such a very interesting place to visit for tourist as they can find a lot of souvenirs which couldn’t be found elsewhere. And not to forget, the most interesting part is it come with good prices as a lot of stores selling same unique souvenirs so it’s possible to negotiate the price hehe  

From Insa-dong we continued to take subway to Myeongdong area which has a night market along the street and shopping centres.. this place also recommended for shoppers as we found many various things, from clothings, cosmetics/beauty shops, till the “branded” bags and wallets haha

But this time, we didn’t browse and shop around at Myeongdong area, we just took our dinner there. This time we chose a Japanese restaurant hehe.. I got soup-craving while hubby still craving for fish since last time at Jeju :P

Chonggye-cheon stream

After dinner, we continued again to take subway to Chonggye-cheon stream.. it’s quite a long stream which spread across Centre Seoul and Southern Seoul.. actually a lot of bridge along the stream where each has an interesting design.. but we just went to the most popular one which is near Chonggye plaza.

It’s quite a romantic view along stream.. many young couples sitting around chit-chating while the rest just enjoy each others company ^^  After enjoying the view for a while then we returned to our guesthouse by the nearest train station there..

It was quite a long afternoon-to-night walk, as we reached our guesthouse around 11pm and took a rest.

~.~

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