South Korea 🇰🇷 Part I : Seoul

I’ve been in Australia for two weeks working and now it’s holiday time so Shane and I are flying from Sydney to Seoul, the capital of South Korea for a first time visit for us both. Very excited to make this country number 76 that I’ve visited.

It’s a ten hour flight but passes fairly handy with a movie and some guidebook studying! We arrive around 8pm and there’s a crazy long queue for immigration that takes an hour to get through. I do like the decor in the airport though.…

Incheon airport is about an hour outside central Seoul so we’ve booked a taxi to take us direct to our hotel which is in a neighbourhood called Insadong. We’re staying at the Orakai Suites in a one bedroom apartment which is really big. The bathroom has a very special toilet which reminds me of my trip to Japan… I shall be trying all the settings!!

It’s fairly late by the time we’ve checked in so we don’t get to suss out much other than our local convenience store. Next morning we are up early and out to explore. It’s a quiet morning and seems like the city is just waking up as we make our way (kinda by accident) to Jogyesa temple. This is Seouls most prominent temple and the headquarters of the Jogye order, Koreas primary Buddhist sect.

It was Buddhas birthday a couple of weeks ago so the temple is decorated with hundreds of lanterns. The colours are beautiful, in fact you can barely make out the temple.

Inside the main hall there are three beautiful gold Buddha statues, here’s two of them!

It’s time for our first meal in Korea – it’s breakfast but that’s kind of meaningless as what’s on offer could work for lunch or dinner too! We order omelette (which is served over rice) and tteokbokki which is rice cakes (kinda like gnocchi) in a spicy sauce. Nearly every meal is served with a side of kimchi and some radishes. It was very nice and a good omen of things to come on the food front.

We head across the main road to a lovely park (Songhyeon-dong) and admire all the wild and manicured flowers and gardens.

There are some beautiful hanok buildings behind. Hanoks are Korea’s traditional wooden houses, rare nowadays, but there are pockets of them to be found.

We carry on to Gyeongbokgung – the Palace of Shining Happiness. It’s a huge complex of royal buildings, halls and gardens.

Lots of people dress in the traditional clothes and walk around posing for photos. It’s like being in the middle of a photo shoot! I get a chance to have a photo with a couple of girls and they’re very happy to pose with this foreigner! Shane takes a photo of us and one of the girls inspects it, changes some settings and gets him to take it again!!

Another picturesque part of the palace, very popular for the photo shoots!

On the way out we visit the museum which is a beautiful building from the outside and has some interesting exhibits, mainly about the home life of the locals through the years. to view.

It’s time for some lunch so we stop for soup (a bit sour for my taste) and some gimbap or as we would call them sushi rolls. Mind you there’s not a whole lot of fish in there mostly egg and veg, tasty though.

From here we head across the narrow street up a little alleyway where we spotted a craft beer bar called Kiwa Taproom. It’s very cool and I get an unusual tasting cider that tastes somewhat of rosewater. We’ve covered a lot of ground on our first day so we had back for a bit of a rest before going out later for some dinner. On the way home we see another parade through the streets.

I’ve picked up a few packets of local crisps to try out.. none of these are potato chips, mostly rice chips but I don’t discriminate I tend to love them all!!

Our intention is to go to one of the food markets for dinner tonight but when we walk outside there is a full on food market on our doorstep. We think this only happens on Sunday when they stop traffic on the road so we decide to stay local. Some bbq pork for us with all the accoutrements. I also enjoy the local Terra beer.

We finish the evening with a walk along the canal. I do like looking at the high rise buildings so nicely lit up.

But the canal is so nice and peaceful right in the centre of the city, it’s a nice escape from the busy streets and traffic crossings.

Day 2 in Seoul we go to the Bukchon Hanok Village. This is a small village within walking distance from our hotel, with a concentration of hanok houses. It’s really beautiful to walk around.

There are lots of signs asking visitors to keep quiet as there are plenty of tourists here and essentially we are all just gawping at people’s houses.

As we walk back toward the canal, which we will follow all the way to the famous Gwangjang market we stop for a custard pastry.

The market is very impressive and has so much choice. We are keen to try the mungbean pancake so find a seat and order one to share.

Shane spots blood sausage (i.e. black pudding) on the menu so we give that a go. It’s a bit chewy so I’m not inclined to have much more than a taste. Shane gives it a good go but it’s a huge portion which includes some other intestines or something!! We offer some to a couple from Malaysia sitting beside us so we don’t leave too much!

We try some freshly squeezed orange juice topped off with grapefruit and then of course I have to try the twisted donut (which has a famous stall where there’s a massive queue but there’s no queue here), I choose lemon flavour and it’s lovely.

We continue along the canal which locally is called Cheonggyecheon, and is 8km long in total. We walk toward Central Seoul where it ends with a very nice waterfall.

We go to the main train station to suss out our tickets for later in the week and then head to the high line for another walk (a fair bit shorter this time) for a view of the city buildings.

After the walk we are ready for some refreshments so we stop at a craft beer bar. The Koreans love beer with fried chicken so the menus is essentially that – beer and chicken!

I’m excited when I see cider on the menu but not so much when it’s handed to me and the guy says “enjoy your sprite”… unfortunately that’s what it is!!

There’s another bar across the road so we decide to have another before heading home where I want to check out the swimming pool. We’ve decided that tonight’s the night to try the Korean staple of chicken and beer, well I actually have a cocktail but you know what I mean!

We order the mixed chicken- plain and with the signature sauce. I have to make do with the corn snacks provided as we didn’t order chips, seriously, fried chicken but no chips, we’re so good!!!

We get chatting to an Irish couple who are moving back home after three years in Australia. They’re good craic! The girl (Aodainn I think) is from Waterford and mentions her aunt was in a choir competition back home on Sunday, I said my choir was too but mine won!! We also got talking about Morrissey (her boyfriend was a Smiths fan) and she told me a friend of hers is a big fan and caught Morrisseys shirt at the end of a gig in Galway some years back. I said I did too and I have the proof of it. She reckons it could have been her friend who I fought with for the shirt that had to be ripped and shared – small world or what!

Day 3 we’re a little later leaving for the day so we decide we will head for brunch and then tackle the places on our list. En route to the area we walk through our “local” park and see lots of old men playing some sort of draughts game. We also see a long line of what is predominantly men lining up for a food kitchen which is quite sad to see.

In the park there’s a monument to those who signed the constitution when Korea became a republic.

I really want to have bibimbap which is veggies and rice with an egg on top so we stop at Mr Youns and I really like it along with my citrus iced tea.

In the train station I spot a stall for a custard pastry that is served really hot. It’s from Deli Manjoo and I’d seen it in a YouTube video so I have to try it, sure they’re tiny!

We are now heading upward to the Namsan tower. There’s a cable car but we decide to hike it…. There’s a lot of steps but a lot of great views on the way.

At the top the place is full of locks for those who feel the need to express their love for each other and vandalise public property! 🤣🤣

Not us though!!

Some great 360 views across the city.

After a bit of a rest and a look around we head down the other side of the hill. We pass through a concrete monument which contains a time capsule and then reach a beautiful hanok for a cold drink.

We continue on to another Hanok village – Namsangol. The hanoks here are in beautiful condition but it’s more like a museum as no one is living there now. It’s an impressive complex with some great views of the area and tower.

We decide to head over the river to South Seoul for the afternoon. This is where Gangnam is. It’s a decent journey on the metro but there’s 4 items on our list to tick off. We start with the Starfield COEX mall to see the Starfield library. It is really impressive. It’s totally full of tourists and posers taking photos though, so we settle for a basic photo and actually try and find some English books!!

Second on the list is the Gangnam statue. Full disclosure this is not on Shane’s list but I want to see it. “Oppa Gangnam style”!

No.3 on the list is another temple – Bongeunsa. This is the key Buddhist temple south of the river and is another huge complex

It is also decorated in lanterns for Buddhas birthday.

There’s a large Buddha at the back of the gardens.

Last on the list is Seonjeongneung cemetery which is the burial place of the Korean royals. The royals of dynastic Korea were buried with their possessions in large mounds of earth – a simple and natural version of the pyramids in Egypt.

It’s a calm tree filled park and although we’ve already covered a lot of ground today (the step count is already over 20,000) we head for the kings grave. My feet are killing me!

It’s time to head back to our neck of the woods and it’s rush hour so the station is mental. I’ve never witnessed anything like it. Not only are there hundreds and hundreds of people but 99% of them are walking around on their phones – not just answering texts or talking, they’re playing games and watching tv as they move through the station. It is mental! We squeeze our way on and are safely squashed among the masses.. mad! I’d never manage this a regular commute.

Finally back in Insadong we are ready for Korean bbq. This time the plan is to have some beef. There’s only a short queue for the place we want to eat at and even before we reach the top we are pulled out and brought to the upstairs section. A great final meal for the first part of our Korean adventure.

Tomorrow we head to Mongolia but we’ll be back!