Seoul Day 2 - 景福宫 and Insadong Cultural Street

We went to gyeongbokgung which is 景福宫 after we woke. Luckily we arrive 1 hr earlier @ 11am cos the change duty ceremony started earlier! Nothing spectacular about it, just special, i find the guards slack leh, unlike the one i saw at Buckingham palace. Maybe they noe is onli for show now ba, cos noone to protect inside the palace!

不老门 found at the gyeongbokgung subway station, 穿过了就会不老

reen and xy with the guard

trying to steal his sword!

After watching the ceremony we went to a cafe for brunch. Food there is not cheap, if anyone go there dun eat at this cafe. I dunno the name of the cafe but is just at the exit of gyeongbokgung station towards the palace. hahah.

Then we went to a new musuem which showcase the history of Korean empire and their royal families life but most of the explanation are in Korean so we nvr stay long.

brunch! 荷叶饭

mushroom pasta

their 医书 also in chinese

娘娘 clothes

socks and shoes

like royal families everywhere, sibei exgerrating! nd so many combs meh?

Then we went into the palace, need 3k won each. This is much smaller than 故宫 in Beijing but still quite impressive. Inside the palace you can feel that you are in china cos of all the similarities. They are promoting the traditional costumes so we get to wear it for free and take pictures! but need to queue up lah. There were some irritating ATs wanna to cut queue but the ic nvr let them! swee! they wanna try go back homeland try dao 饱 lah.

behind is the main gate of 景福宫

man-made river inside the palace

main parade sq for the 文武百官, different ranking also

my rank very small, 八品

outside 勤政殿 where the throne is.

me as guard

xy as 文官

reen as general

xy and reen

me, xy say the costume like 闵大人

me and reen

3 of us, will look more real w/o sunglasses

this guy is standbying for performance but drag by us to take photo

After all the walking and photo taking we are hungry liao! so we went to the recommended ginseng chicken soup shop! It is quite famous and is near the palace! We were in the right direction but we walked so quite long haven reach so we decide to ask 2 policemen. haha and they very kind escort us there! hahahh escorted by police to eat ginseng chicken!

the ginseng chicken shop! 土俗村

the soup with 1 chicken inside, see the 2 small cups? they are ginseng wine!

this is our tag, use this to pay at the counter

after we ate!

we walked out then i realised that there is 烧鸡! shag! heng
we will be back again on the last day

Then we went to walk walk at insadong, here sells a lot of korea souvenir and hand made stuffs. a lot of roadside stalls also. Then we went to Ssamziegil, also in insadong, it is a mall with a lot of small shops selling trending stuffs. After long walking at insadong, our light dinner is at 宫饺子 which we onli order 6 and share. i find the 饺子 ok onli.

insadong

the onli Starbucks signboard in the world written in Korean

fried potato coil with cheese powder

Ssamziegil, most trendy and new mall in insadong

宫饺子

cup noodles and "fishcake" we bot the night b4

cooking the fishcake! service apartment is good, can cook

the table is like a drawer with roller! save space...

Our day ended back in hotel cooking 泡面 cos the dinner is too light liao! hahaha. The fishcake is korean's fav i think, cos most of the 路边摊 got sell also.

Cheers, 全部的神仙保佑我吧！

Seoul Day 1 - Arrival and Dongdaemun!

We set off on 21st May from SG to HK. Cos we took cathay and is not a direct flight! For me i dun mind stopping over at HK cos i love her and i was so excited about HK that i asked for the arrival card!!! hahaa... We reached HK at about 10plus nite time. Our next flight is 0020 thus we have ard 1 hr to slack and we went to relax in a cafe.

our plane at Changi!

on the plane!

After another 4 hours flight from HK we finally reach seoul! I was lucky cos the 3 seats beside me were empty so i can slp on the plane! Seoul is 1 hr ahead of us. So we reached around 5am in the morning. 5 am is pretty bright there already. 1st thing we do is to buy T-money, which is their ezlink.

on AREX to change to subway line

early morning AREX no ppl one

the panel tat shows where u are

Then we took AREX which is their airport express to change subway to our hotel. Our service apartment is located at Dongdaemun Stadium which i mistook to be Dongdaemun Station, my bad and we had to change train again. Our luggages are quite heavy loh, but luckily is onli one station difference.

The description on the apartment's website says 60m from exit 12 of the station but is not true! We walked like maybe 600m? haha. It took us like almost 2 hours to travel from airport to the apartment. 1st timer, it can be faster de. But this is the cheapest method cos it cost less than 5k won ($6) per pax.

We can't check in yet cos the staff says check in time is 2pm so we left our luggage and went for breakfast! The very 1st Korean restaurant we went in we have language barrier liao. In the end we resort to pointing at the pictures. haha...

the setting of a typical korean rest

the owner, we think he looks like 小新's dad

xy and reen

side dishes, kimchi and xyz

reen's order - korean 泡面

this is smth like 鱼片汤 but is nicer! the soup is tasty!

luckily got pics

After breakfast is onli ard 11 am so we went to walk ard. We went to this shopping mall call hello APM. There is a few apm in korea, they are sister shopping mall i think. Every level has their own categories just like normal shopping mall but the onli difference is tat they do not have a shop and is more like a stall. We were all very tired cos we nv slp well on plane and i was dozing off while shopping with them at the accessories lvl! hahaha...

hello apm

looking at dresses

We then went back to the hotel lobby to rest, and 3 of us fell asleep on the sofa. Woke up like 45 mins later and asked for check in and they let us check in! like half an hr earlier. Maybe they pity us... The room is quite big, everything is for 2 so we asked for extra pillow and towel. Then we decide to slp till dinner time then go out again!

our room, on the left of my luggage is 2 working desks

our beds, which we combined to one

facing the bed is TV! but is not LCD like wat i saw from website!

After nap, we went out again! First was dinner at a porridge stall which turn out to be a pleasant surprise! The Kimchi tuna porridge is very nice! As we were staying in dongdaemun area, shopping is really convenient for us! Dongdaemun shopping is divided into 2 parts - wholesale and retail. There is really a lot to shop! But not all the shop inside the wholesale mall are willing to sell one piece de.

kimchi tuna porridge!

side dishes, 紫菜，苏东, tuna and raddish

seafood porridge

doota shopping centre (retail)

Area 6 (wholesale)

U:US (wholesale)

路边摊 - 炒年糕，炸鱼，寿司

Mr WoW sausages

The porridge are not tat filling so we went to roadside stalls and bot sausage while walking ard too! Is again 买东西吃东西，买东西吃东西! hahaha. We then went to the tourist information to ask where exactly is all the pasar malam cos we feel tat it is not 热闹 enuf as described by the 天书 i had. Then the person told us bcos of the rain most of the stalls will open at ard 10pm instead of their usual 8pm. And true enuf at 10 plus the market is like just started!!! Really can shop till 天亮. After another hour of shopping, we went to buy some snacks and drinks from the super mart and return to apartment.

To be continued... Day 2.

Cheers, 全部的神仙保佑我吧！

We are back! From Seoul - HK...

We are back from seoul liao! Reached on thurs morning! Will blog soon, after i sorted out the photos! Too much liao ard 2k loh... Many repeated ones and street views.



Cheers, 全部的神仙保佑我吧！