Here's the youtube playlist of the videos of the 9-day trip:-
Seoul 2017 (youtube playlist)
For a more complete list of photos, go here:-
day1-day5
day6-day10
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Here are the details (credit to my wife :))
Seoul, South Korea 101217 ~ 102117_DAY1 to DAY5
First mission: not to lose our way to place to sleep... and not to lose my T-Money card too.
Day 2: we spent most of the time to familiarise the subway route & touring around the city area... also bought some souvenirs from Line Friends Store at Myeongdong.
Day 3: went to visit Hongdae university area. The street here isn't as clean as other places we visited.
First, we stopped by Kakao Store and I found my new fav character - APeach.
Then we go to 三代 炒马for seafood noodle & jyajangmyeong.
Stopped by flee market to see those handicrafts stalls.
After that, we go to Meerkat Cafe. We were greeted by wallabies at the entrance, raccoon, genet, artic foxes. Each guests were given 10mins to play with the meerkats. Check out the videos to see how playful the meerkats are. It costs ₩20,000 for 2 of us to visit this cafe.
Then we did some light shopping around there before treating our sweet tooth.
Cafe de Paris serves nice desserts. We had Hibiscus Ade (hibiscus drinks with ice) & White Grape bon bon (layered with grapes, fresh cream, honey roasted oats & shaved ice). Yummy !
Then going to Yongsan Station for Korean Traditional Steam bath @ Dragon Hill. Bought the entry ticket via KKDAY which made the check in very fast & efficient. We wore the towel to snap pics with sweet rice drinks & 3 colour eggs in the SPA resort.
That's called a day and we went home early for rest.
Day 5: Hiking to Seoraksan National Park by KKDAY tour.
Woke up at 6am to get ourselves ready to meet up the tour guide at Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park station exit at 7:30am. The tour guide is a Korean oppa, we called him Wonoppa. He speaks fluent Mandarin & English.
It took us around 2hrs + to reach Seoraksan and apparently many local do visit the park at this season which traffic wad quite busy near the park. We reached there around 10:30am.
First, we hiked for 1.5hrs to Biryong Fall (飛龍瀑布) and we had our lunch box ( Gimbap - Korean sushi) at the waterfall area. Then, we hiked back for 1hr and we went to visit the Buddha sculpture & temple at downhill.
At 2:30pm, we took cable car to visit the other side of the mountain. The view is terrific!
Overall the scenery is very nice, but the maple leaves have yet turning colour at most places at this time.
7:30pm we reached Myeongdong for dinner. Went to Red Hong for Korean rice cake hot pot which they offer customer to choose the level of spiciness. It cost us ₩16000 for 2 which I consider this is cheap in Seoul for 2pax dinner.
After dinner, we helped Ming to get her Laneige stuff and had some grilled ice cream before heading home.
Guess what, we walked 20k steps on this day alone
💪💪💪
Seoul, South Korea 101217 ~ 102117_DAY6 to
DAY10
Day 2: we spent most of the time to familiarise the subway route & touring around the city area... also bought some souvenirs from Line Friends Store at Myeongdong.
Day 3: went to visit Hongdae university area. The street here isn't as clean as other places we visited.
First, we stopped by Kakao Store and I found my new fav character - APeach.
Then we go to 三代 炒马for seafood noodle & jyajangmyeong.
Stopped by flee market to see those handicrafts stalls.
After that, we go to Meerkat Cafe. We were greeted by wallabies at the entrance, raccoon, genet, artic foxes. Each guests were given 10mins to play with the meerkats. Check out the videos to see how playful the meerkats are. It costs ₩20,000 for 2 of us to visit this cafe.
Then we did some light shopping around there before treating our sweet tooth.
Cafe de Paris serves nice desserts. We had Hibiscus Ade (hibiscus drinks with ice) & White Grape bon bon (layered with grapes, fresh cream, honey roasted oats & shaved ice). Yummy !
Then going to Yongsan Station for Korean Traditional Steam bath @ Dragon Hill. Bought the entry ticket via KKDAY which made the check in very fast & efficient. We wore the towel to snap pics with sweet rice drinks & 3 colour eggs in the SPA resort.
That's called a day and we went home early for rest.
Day 5: Hiking to Seoraksan National Park by KKDAY tour.
Woke up at 6am to get ourselves ready to meet up the tour guide at Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park station exit at 7:30am. The tour guide is a Korean oppa, we called him Wonoppa. He speaks fluent Mandarin & English.
It took us around 2hrs + to reach Seoraksan and apparently many local do visit the park at this season which traffic wad quite busy near the park. We reached there around 10:30am.
First, we hiked for 1.5hrs to Biryong Fall (飛龍瀑布) and we had our lunch box ( Gimbap - Korean sushi) at the waterfall area. Then, we hiked back for 1hr and we went to visit the Buddha sculpture & temple at downhill.
At 2:30pm, we took cable car to visit the other side of the mountain. The view is terrific!
Overall the scenery is very nice, but the maple leaves have yet turning colour at most places at this time.
7:30pm we reached Myeongdong for dinner. Went to Red Hong for Korean rice cake hot pot which they offer customer to choose the level of spiciness. It cost us ₩16000 for 2 which I consider this is cheap in Seoul for 2pax dinner.
After dinner, we helped Ming to get her Laneige stuff and had some grilled ice cream before heading home.
Guess what, we walked 20k steps on this day alone
💪💪💪Seoul, South Korea 101217 ~ 102117_DAY6 to
DAY10
DAY 6-1 (Tue): Visiting Gwangjang market (廣藏市場)
Took subway Line 1 to Jongno 5 (o)-ga and then exit at gate 7 to have brunch at Gwangjang market. Just learnt from a friend saying this market is famous of pajeon (korean pancake), we did order 8 slices (unfortunately that is the smallest portion they sell for take away) for ₩5,000, we don't quite like it because it's too oily. The ajuma also not friendly
😂😂😂. After that we took a walk at the market area. Although it's a very old market, it's well organized & clean. I bought some souvenirs from there too. After the walk, we stopped by a stall to have some japchae (korean fried glass noodle) for ₩5,000. We found the ajuma there can carry stuff using their heads. Just like you see those Indians selling kacang putih during old times, quite interesting to see it here.
DAY 6-2 (Tue): Visiting Buchon Hanok Village (北村韩屋村) and Changdeokgung (昌德宫)
Initially, we planned visiting this place on 2nd day of our trip, yet due to some delays, we switched the plan to Day 6.
Took subway Line 3 to Gyeongbokgung Station (景福宫站) exit at gate 3 to rent hanbok (Korean traditional costume) at Hanbok Plus. If you downloaded Creatrip app, they will give 10% discount for each customers who show them the app. Paid ₩31,500 for 2 pax to rent the costumes for 4hrs. The staff there will help ladies to wear the hanbok and will help to style your hair to match the costumes too.
If you wanted to visit Gyeongbokgung, it's not open on Tue. We detour to visit Buchon Hanok Village & Changdeokgung.
Buchon Hanok Village is a very big area inside residential areas. You need to plan longer hours to finish walking at that area. Due to time constraint, we spent 1hr walking in Buchon Hanok Village only before we changed to Changdeokgung.
If you wear hanbok visiting the palaces, it's free of charge to enter the palaces. So, I will recommend you to try renting the hanbok to visit those palaces.
Changdeokgung is quite big, they have free tour guides who speaks English, Korean, Japanese & Chinese. Do check the time before you go, as the tour guide does explain the stories in details if you follow them. We only able to stay there for 1.5hrs before returning the hanbok.
DAY 6-3 (Tue): Seoul City Night Tour Bus.
After returning from the cosplay session, we headed to Seoul City Night Tour. We went to cafe for a simple dinner before catching the bus.
After returning from the cosplay session, we headed to Seoul City Night Tour. We went to cafe for a simple dinner before catching the bus.
Here is the night bus route:
Depart from Gwangwhamun 光化门
Mapo Bridge 麻浦大桥
Seogang Bridge 西江大桥
Gangbyeon Expressway 江边北路
Banpo Bridge 盘浦大桥
Somesevit (rest for 30mins)
Dongjak Bridge 铜雀大桥
Seongsu Bridge 圣水大桥
Hannam Bridge 汉南大桥
N Seoul Tower 南山N首尔塔
Namdeamun Market 南大门市场
Cheonggye Plaza 清溪廣場 -- ended
It took about 1.5hrs for this night bus ride including the 30mins rest time.
Frankly speaking, both of us didn't enjoy this session as the seat we got was open top bus and you can imagine how freaking cold for 17 degree weather and we are sitting there for 1hr. Really freaking cold!!!
Depart from Gwangwhamun 光化门
Mapo Bridge 麻浦大桥
Seogang Bridge 西江大桥
Gangbyeon Expressway 江边北路
Banpo Bridge 盘浦大桥
Somesevit (rest for 30mins)
Dongjak Bridge 铜雀大桥
Seongsu Bridge 圣水大桥
Hannam Bridge 汉南大桥
N Seoul Tower 南山N首尔塔
Namdeamun Market 南大门市场
Cheonggye Plaza 清溪廣場 -- ended
It took about 1.5hrs for this night bus ride including the 30mins rest time.
Frankly speaking, both of us didn't enjoy this session as the seat we got was open top bus and you can imagine how freaking cold for 17 degree weather and we are sitting there for 1hr. Really freaking cold!!!
DAY 7-1(Wed): Korean cuisine cooking class #omecookingclass
KKDAY tour: https://www.kkday.com/en/product/9441
KKDAY tour: https://www.kkday.com/en/product/9441
I'm so happy that L willing to join me for this cooking class session. Jegi-dong is famous of selling traditional medicine & herbs. This place is packed with a lot of golden age folks.
We were hosted by a young chef, Yuni. She stays at Incheon and she spent 4hrs everyday to travel to work at Seoul. Really respect her passion.
First, she took us to market nearby for a short tour. We saw a lot of different type & age fresh ginseng. She told us that those younger ginseng (I.e. 6 years old) are used for cooking and older ones are used for medication. Then we saw garlics are sold in big bundle. She shared with us that, local ppl eat a lot of garlic so there is no problem for them to finish those garlic in a normal family. They even will peel the garlic & store in freezer for few months to consume.
We also learnt autumn season is good for making kimchi as they harvest a lot of cabbages & White radish during this time.
The in season fruits are pears, figs & persimmon. There is an old shop selling freshly squeezed sesame oil everyday. It's really interesting to see how then produce the sesame oil there.
After the tour, we headed to OME cooking class. We are lucky enough as we are the only 2 ppl attending the class on that day. Usually, each session they can handle up to 8 pax of students. Yuni is one of the chefs teaching cooking at OME. Her boss is currently attending a Korean food & Cultural festival at Russia which invited by government. So, I think this cooking studio is quite famous.
We learnt 5 dishes that day, which are seafood pajeon, seafood toufu stew, Gimbap, bulgolgi fried beef, tteopokki.
After finishing the cooking, we had lunch together with all of the staffs at the studio. They told us that the cooking menu is the same for every week, but it always tastes different as the dishes are cooked by different ppl😂😂😂pity them have to help us eat all the food we cooked 
😃😃😃
We were hosted by a young chef, Yuni. She stays at Incheon and she spent 4hrs everyday to travel to work at Seoul. Really respect her passion.
First, she took us to market nearby for a short tour. We saw a lot of different type & age fresh ginseng. She told us that those younger ginseng (I.e. 6 years old) are used for cooking and older ones are used for medication. Then we saw garlics are sold in big bundle. She shared with us that, local ppl eat a lot of garlic so there is no problem for them to finish those garlic in a normal family. They even will peel the garlic & store in freezer for few months to consume.
We also learnt autumn season is good for making kimchi as they harvest a lot of cabbages & White radish during this time.
The in season fruits are pears, figs & persimmon. There is an old shop selling freshly squeezed sesame oil everyday. It's really interesting to see how then produce the sesame oil there.
After the tour, we headed to OME cooking class. We are lucky enough as we are the only 2 ppl attending the class on that day. Usually, each session they can handle up to 8 pax of students. Yuni is one of the chefs teaching cooking at OME. Her boss is currently attending a Korean food & Cultural festival at Russia which invited by government. So, I think this cooking studio is quite famous.
We learnt 5 dishes that day, which are seafood pajeon, seafood toufu stew, Gimbap, bulgolgi fried beef, tteopokki.
After finishing the cooking, we had lunch together with all of the staffs at the studio. They told us that the cooking menu is the same for every week, but it always tastes different as the dishes are cooked by different ppl
😂😂😂pity them have to help us eat all the food we cooked 😃😃😃DAY 7-2 (Wed): finally got to meet up with Yujin in her homeland
💕💕💕We didn't inform Yujin before coming to Korea. It's to surprise her since we haven't met with each other for more than 6 years.
So fortunate that she is able to make time to meet up on her off day after our cooking class at Jegi-dong station (祭基洞站).
While waiting for her to reach, L helped an old lady who fell down from escalator. That area is packed with old ppl and almost everyone pushed their own shopping carts for marketing. That incident happen to be that old lady shopping cart got stuck at the end of escalator and she was able to react fast enough to adjust her position which caused her fell down. L saw it & quickly grabbed her & luckily she was able to stand up by herself with the help of L. We can't imagine what will happen if no one there to lend her a hand. After few minutes, the station official assign someone to standby near the escalator, I guess this kind of accident does happen frequently as you can see there is warning sign to educate ppl to be more careful when handling their shopping cart at the escalator.
Finally, we saw Yujin. We headed to Ediya Coffee for some long chats. It's indeed a good session to catch up with her.
After the coffee session, she brought us to try out this grilled fish stall. Very nice!
Yujin, hope to see you soon again
😘😘😘Also, thanks for the coffee & nice dinner. Next meet up pls allow us to get you some good food
😊DAY 7-3 (Wed): DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) & Coex Mall - Starfield Library
Soon after say goodbye to Yujin, we dropped by DDP and after that going to Coex Mall to check out the library in a shopping mall.
Took subway Line 6 to Samseong station, and here we go to the Coex Mall. It's so special to have a library inside middle of the mall. So many books but all in Korean I guess.
Upon arriving at the library, L caught with some issue with his Gopro & karma grip again
😅😅😅 it took us a while to learn how to hard reset the Karma Grip gimble. Phew, at least we know how to get it work again!Nice environment and ppl going there mostly take pics
😄😄😄
DAY 8-1 (Thu): Petite France Village by KKDAY Tour https://www.kkday.com/en/product/1922?qs=Petite
Boarded to KKDAY tour bus at Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park at 8:30am, our tour guide Winnie comes from Hong Kong who speaks perfect Mandarin & Cantonese.
This tour is one of the popular itinerary thus the bus is packed with tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan & Malaysia.
It took 1.5hrs to reach Petite France Village (小王子村) and this is where they filmed My Love from the Star (来自星星的你). This theme parked is fully built by imported woods from France and the coverage isn't very big but there is a few exhibition centres & many statues and puppet performance that you can spend 2 hrs there to enjoy.
Winnie recommended few must or worth to try activities, which are snapping pictures with Petite France prince statue at the entrance, panaroma view of the scenery at the highest point of the theme park, attending the antique musical boxes show time & watching the interactive puppets show. We tried all of those since we had limited time to stay there.
It was a bright sunny day and a lot of students went there for excursions.
I love the antique musical box show time which the staff will play all the antique musical box at that time. The only regret is he only explained in Korean.
L loves the puppets show and the performers gave us 2 lollipops during the show as when he interacted with L.
Overall, quite a nice place for photo shooting.
This tour is one of the popular itinerary thus the bus is packed with tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan & Malaysia.
It took 1.5hrs to reach Petite France Village (小王子村) and this is where they filmed My Love from the Star (来自星星的你). This theme parked is fully built by imported woods from France and the coverage isn't very big but there is a few exhibition centres & many statues and puppet performance that you can spend 2 hrs there to enjoy.
Winnie recommended few must or worth to try activities, which are snapping pictures with Petite France prince statue at the entrance, panaroma view of the scenery at the highest point of the theme park, attending the antique musical boxes show time & watching the interactive puppets show. We tried all of those since we had limited time to stay there.
It was a bright sunny day and a lot of students went there for excursions.
I love the antique musical box show time which the staff will play all the antique musical box at that time. The only regret is he only explained in Korean.
L loves the puppets show and the performers gave us 2 lollipops during the show as when he interacted with L.
Overall, quite a nice place for photo shooting.
After Petite France, we went to have spicy fried chicken & rice cake. This tour provides vegetarian meal to L.
DAY 8-3 (Thu): trip to Nami island (南怡島).
Nami island is very special as it is also called as Nami island Republic. It sounds like it's an independent country as it has it's own currency and stamps. You can change Nami island coins to spend there. Do check out the exchange rate from one of the pictures in this album.
This place is too commercialized and packed with many tourists. The view is nice but I just didn't enjoy quite well there as most of the tourists don't queue for taking pictures at popular spots
😂😂😂DAY 8-4 (Thu): Gangchon Rail Park (江村铁路单车)
This park was repurposed from an abandoned railway. It becomes popular place for tourists especially a lot of local students go there for excursions. Running show also went there for shooting too.
Although it's sunny during day time, we took 5pm session for the ride, so tour guide kept reminding us to bring along jacket as the ride took about 1.5hrs (ride for 5km by ourselves & a train will took us for another 3km journey to complete the whole route).
The park is located at outskirt area and surrounded by some farms. We did have fun at this picturesque park.
The wind was quite chilling at night. Sky got dark at 6pm there, one thing I hope they an improve is they should instal more lights. There was an accident happen which one of the tourists fell down during getting down from the train. Our tour guide rush him to hospital after coming out from the park. Thus, it got some delays when we headed back to Seoul.
Then, we headed back to Seoul.
We had dinner at Myeongdong, since it's so cold, I requested to have hot soup. Guess what, L had naengmyeon (冷面) as dinner.
After the dinner, we walked passed several dessert stalls but we didn't try as those are all ice cream stalls
😂😂😂aa
