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Korea 2015: Sightseeing
posted : Friday, April 03, 2015
No specific reason to wake up early so everybody gladly slept in. Even had time to sit down at dining table for breakfast before heading out.
It's our mandatory sightseeing day! First stop - lunch at Tosokchon for their famous Samgyetang. Perhaps surprisingly there was no queue and they actually opened up a room for us and the customers who came in just after us.
Art installation at GBG station.
 
No queue!
Ordered two varieties of the soup. Also had seafood pancake and baked chicken.
 Verdict - the gals thought it was just so-so. And also side note - eating out in Korea can be expensive and we were frequently caught by surprise in retrospect. For instance a bowl of the samgyetang costs I think 22k KRW which is about 26SGD? At this point the rest were running out of cash oops and after analyzing, we identified food (and the cosmetic products at Myeongdong) as the culprit. Frugal mode activated ahahah.
Walked over to Gyeongbokgung Palace nearby after lunch, just in time to catch the hourly change of guards ceremony.
Changing of guards.
  
Frozen lake!
Initial itinerary also had Changdeokgung Palace but we figured that the palaces probably had a similar feel and vibe and we probably don't really appreciate the history behind it anyway so we decided to skip it. By the way there's also a palace pass which allows visitors to visit 5 famous palaces in Seoul but we knew we won't be visiting that many so we didn't get those.
Next up on the itinerary is to visit Bukchon Hanok Village. Walked back to GBG metro station, and take to Anguk station (which is actually just one stop away). We ended up dropping by Paris Croissant (upscale sister of Paris Baguette) inside Anguk coz gals were reluctant to head out to face the cold weather (admittedly, it was the coldest weather we had during our trip). Where I also proceeded to emo a bit about work coz boss texted me about RTC :/
  
Pretty. Yummy.
Kinda forgot that sun sets early so by the time we left Anguk, it's already dark outside. Debated a bit before deciding to head to the village anyway, since we are alr in the vicinity anyway.
Hanok Village at night.
Walk back to the station was kind of an unappealing idea so we tried to hail a cab as we walked back, but to no success. Ended up taking metro to Hoehyeon station, to visit Namdaemun Market. At this point it was drizzling even.
Not sure if it's because of the rain or the time but many shops are closing up alr. Browsed the market, San bought ginseng for parents and we walked all the way up to the actual Namdaemun gate which has closed for the day. Then headed back towards Hoehyeon for "tent experience" a.k.a dining inside one of the Pojangmachas!
Namdaemun Market which was pretty deserted.
Namdaemun
布帐马车 Pojangmacha
Stir fried pork!
And called it a day!
(Oh yea we did watch half of Gone Girl before turning in also. Had been talking about it for days since ChunHong mentioned it over dinner when we were in KL, giving rave reviews.)
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