South Korea Diary 26 JAN - 3 FEB 2013
Finding snow
Finding snow
South Korea is located on the Korean Peninsula, in the East Asian territory. For this trip, we want to finding snow, so we plan to go in winter. Starting from finding ticket, we choose Korean Air around 19,630 Baht.
Our plan for this trip
26 JAN 2013
00:15AM is our boarding time; KE654. It takes around 5 hours from Bangkok to Inchoen. A food set on board is stir fry noodle with seafood, muffin and fruit. 07:00AM - Korea time, we are at Inchoen International airport with very cold weather, nearly freezing point. We take around 1 hour from Inchoen to Seoul by airport limousine bus and Metro to Anguk station, and finally we are at Noble hotel. Its cost is 70,000 KRW/night with twin bed and simple breakast. At noon, we have a lunch near Samcheong-dong street. It is a traditional Korean restaurant. We order Buchu Mandu, Kimchi Pajeon, and Naengmyun.
1:00 PM, we go to The National Folk Museum of Korea, located inside Gyeongbokgung Palace. It presents over 4,000 historical artifacts that were used in the daily lives of ordinary Korean people. Here you can fully immerse yourselves in previous domestic and agricultural lifestyles, and learn about Korea’s cultural beliefs. It has three permanent and two special exhibitions as well as a library, souvenir shop, and other subsidiary facilities. We take around one and half hour here.
1:00 PM, we go to The National Folk Museum of Korea, located inside Gyeongbokgung Palace. It presents over 4,000 historical artifacts that were used in the daily lives of ordinary Korean people. Here you can fully immerse yourselves in previous domestic and agricultural lifestyles, and learn about Korea’s cultural beliefs. It has three permanent and two special exhibitions as well as a library, souvenir shop, and other subsidiary facilities. We take around one and half hour here.
After that, we move to Gyeongbokgung palace. It is built in 1395, the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty. It is located in northern Seoul. The largest of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon dynasty, Gyeongbokgung served as the home of Kings of the Joseon dynasty, the Kings' households, as well as the government of Joseon. Next, we move to the Blue House (Cheongwadae; literally "pavilion of blue tiles"), the executive office and official residence of the South Korean head of state, the President of the Republic of Korea and located in the capital city of Seoul. The Blue House is in fact a complex of buildings, built largely in the traditional Korean architectural style with some modern elements. There is phoenix statue in the Mugunghwa Valley. We come back to hotel and have a rest for a while.
In the evening; 8:00 PM, we have a dinner at Maar restaurant, Korean grill pork with side dish; variety of vegetable, Kimchi etc. Green tea latte and Baskin & Robin ice-cream are dessert for this night. Take a taxi come back hotel. ...zzzZZZ
27 JAN 2013
10:00 AM, I wake up and have a breakfast. Cheonggyecheon stream, located in Seoul Downtown, is our target in the morning. We take blue-line metro to Dongdaemun. It begins at Cheonggye Plaza and you can see the giant sculpture of seashell. We walk along the stream around 8.4 km long. Cheonggyecheon flows west to east through downtown Seoul, and then meeting Jungnangcheon, which in turn connects to the Han River and empties into the Yellow Sea. During the presidency of Park Chung-hee, Cheonggyecheon was covered with concrete for roads. In 1968, an elevated highway was built over it. Next, we take a taxi to N Seoul tower, Numsan park and Teddy bear museum. The 236.7m Seoul Tower sits atop Namsan Mountain (243m), Seoul Tower offers panoramic views of Seoul and the surrounding areas. The hightlight here is "Love of lock". It situates on top of the roof terrace, a wooden viewing deck.
We walk from the top to ground with very cold weather and have a lunch at Sancha restaurant. I order a big Tonkatsu with curry. Next, we take taxi to Chongdong theater for MISO show, a Korean word that means “beautiful smile”. The 2010 version of MISO is the story of Byeon Hakdo’s intense jealousy of Chunhyang and the enduring love between Chunhyang and Monryong (based on the Korean folktale ‘Chunhyangjeon’).
After that, we go to Deoksugung palace. Located at the corner of Seoul's downtown intersection, opposite to the City Hall. It is famous for its elegant stone-wall road. It is also the only palace that sits alongside a series of western style buildings that add to the uniqueness of the surrounding scenery. We walk to Lotte department store and Myeong-dong for dinner. The main dish is big bowl of glass noodel with stewed pork leg with spices. Then, we walk along Myeong-dong, the fashion, skincare, and the works shopping center, and come back hotel. Tonight, I pack my bag ready for going up-country tomorrow.
We walk from the top to ground with very cold weather and have a lunch at Sancha restaurant. I order a big Tonkatsu with curry. Next, we take taxi to Chongdong theater for MISO show, a Korean word that means “beautiful smile”. The 2010 version of MISO is the story of Byeon Hakdo’s intense jealousy of Chunhyang and the enduring love between Chunhyang and Monryong (based on the Korean folktale ‘Chunhyangjeon’).
After that, we go to Deoksugung palace. Located at the corner of Seoul's downtown intersection, opposite to the City Hall. It is famous for its elegant stone-wall road. It is also the only palace that sits alongside a series of western style buildings that add to the uniqueness of the surrounding scenery. We walk to Lotte department store and Myeong-dong for dinner. The main dish is big bowl of glass noodel with stewed pork leg with spices. Then, we walk along Myeong-dong, the fashion, skincare, and the works shopping center, and come back hotel. Tonight, I pack my bag ready for going up-country tomorrow.
to be continued ...