The Seoul journey commenced on Nov 18th at 00:30AM! Well, it was a midnight flight enroute to Seoul Incheon Airport. When we arrived at Seoul it was about 6am (or round-abouts) and we had to adjust quickly to the cold Korean climate. From memory it was hovering around 2-3 degrees that morning! Lovely!
As we departed the airport and made our way into Seoul City, our friendly tour guide explained and gave a brief outline of activities we would be doing on this 5-day tour. I'm sure he spoke very well, but I could only understand 50-60% of the content, and I think most of the time, I made it up in my head! So this was how it was going to be for my entire Asian trip. No, my Cantonese didn't really improve...I am still as hopeless as the time I joined the tour. (Thank goodness I had Cindy otherwise I was really lost in translation!) But hey, I cannot complain because these Asian tours manage to keep the costs so low, that it was cheaper to go on holidays than to hang around HK paying the hotel fees!
First Stop: We entered this ship on the outskirts of Seoul to watch the seagulls at sunrise! (I am not making this up, we did! We even fed the seagulls!) It may sound rather silly, but it was something 'natural' and it was nice to watch the sunrise in the morning! And if you have ever been to Seoul, it's one of the largest Asian metropolis you will find, so some 'nature' prior to concrete jungle is always a welcome addition.
Morning seagulls!
I obviously found it funny/scary!Next Stop: The 2003 FIFA World Cup Sports Centre. I think we made a stop here because it was another attraction on the way to the City; plus to provide us with some 'relaxation' after that midnight flight. Now we entered an experience that was totally 'Korean'. Our tour guide explained that we had the option of either taking a 'public bath' (male and female were of course separate); OR sleeping in these heated wooden floor rooms (odd? just a little!). Apparently for the Koreans, it is a popular weekend activity. Families will go to these places for a public bath/sauna type experience to recharge from the crazy Korean working hours! Being on a Honky tour, ALL of us opted NOT to go with the public bath option. (The Chinese are still far more conservative!) So our entire tour group got changed into these t-shirts and shorts provided at the complex and proceeded to find a spot to sleep on this heated wooden floors! There are supposed to be health benefits for this kind of activity, something about the heat entering our bodies thereby relaxing us. It took us some getting used to (with the hard wooden floors and no pillows, and being surrounded by numerous strangers) but eventually, we all managed to get around 30 mins of sleep. I guess I was relaxed by the end of it, and to be honest, a bit out of it to fully comprehend what we were doing! Nevertheless, an interesting experience!! (And that was probably the most bizarre thing we got up to for the entire trip!) After our nap, it was time to take some happy snaps and try to relive those 2003 World Cup moments. In other words, Cindy & I walked around the complex to take pictures!
Spa Land - for our relaxation
Posing with the mascots
Food Stop: Our first Korean meal was bimbimbab! YUMMY! We were of course starving by then, and having a pot of stone cooked rice ready for us was definitely a PLUS for this trip. (In fact, food on this tour was generally of a high standard!)
Bimbimbap - stone pot rice
The rest of hte food was hot-pot styleShopping Stop: After driving around Seoul City for a bit (and I'm so glad we joined a tour cuz I'm pretty sure if we went along by ourselves, we would have got totally lost. The roads go around in circles, and there are so many bridges!), there was the obligatory shopping stop. Now I know why Asian tours do this, firstly Asians generally love to go shopping plus, the tour groups can just dump you there for 2-3 hours!
Modern Seoul Building
Well, Cindy and I thought we were going to be good with the shopping after the extravagance of Hong Kong. WRONG!! We were amazed with the Korean street fashion scene and proceeded to buy goods within 10 minutes of being in the shopping centre! It was like nothing we had seen before! And the constant playing of Korean popular music only contributed to the experience. There was one floor with just accessories! They were on the pricier side, but they were so gorgeous! And looked nothing like the slightly tacky Diva one's we get here! By the end of that 2/3 hour stop, we were the girls that acquired the most goods on the tour :P But I must say, those goods were well purchased, I am still wearing those Korean jeans on a weekly basis, they are THAT comfortable! Say goodbye to those Sass & Bides & Liano's back in Oz!
The shopping centre stop we were forced to make!
Hotel Stop: At last, we got to our resting place! Somewhere further away from Seoul City, but it was comfortable and spacious! There was even a large flat screen TV in the room! We got very excited with the TV as it was our nightly routine to watch Korean drama's after a whole day outing! No, we couldn't understand Korean, but I think the 2 of us had seen enough to understand how they worked! Oh life was bliss!! *lol* And to Cindy's total satisfaction, I must point out the hotel room was equip with a hot/cold water dispenser! We were able to make green tea each night without having to boil water! Can life get any better than that?
Day 6: Korean Cultural Day
We began Day 2 of Seoul with a visit to the base of N Seoul Tower (aka Namsan Tower) – one of Seoul’s most famous landmarks, which is actually a public park. The tour didn't actually include a trip to Seoul Tower, so that's something to do for the future! Namsan means ‘South Mountain’ (sounds the same as Chinese), as it is located at the South of Old Seoul. I suppose we came here so we could get a good morning view of Seoul City, as well as getting a breather of fresh air in the Mountains, away from the pollution!
Building at Namsan (not sure what building though!)
Seoul Tower at the backThe next stop was a visit to Namsangol Traditional Garden, as the name suggests, it wasn't too far from Namsan. This traditional garden, or folk village, was created by the Seoul government to resemble the architecture of the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910). Here we got to see how the traditional 'Korean' way of life once was, before modern technology took over. Now perhaps to a westerner (or any foreigner not of Asian descent) the folk village may have been fascinating, but to me, a fan of Chinese history and culture, this just looked similar to everything else I have seen before. The Korean architecture is almost the same as the Chinese (no surprise given their geographical proximity) except it is much more simplified, yet not as minimalistic or zen compared to the Japanese style. I still found their way of life interesting though, despite some of the similarities. From memory, this folk village was actually the residence of a former Chosun princess, in which they restored so tourists can have a glimpse of Korean life.
Interiors of a traditional house
Welcome to my home!
'Picture Point' at the gardensAs it is always the case with Asian tour groups, more shopping! This time it wasn't just another mall, but we went to Insa-Dong to look at the more artistic goods. It definitely felt more like our 'Paddington Markets' than the usual Asian modern fashion and accessories which was a welcome change. I think I still managed to pick up some earrings though, oh yes, and some nice envelopes (definitely an essential item in our modern paperless society!) and a cute bookmark as a present! We got to try some 'street vendor' food too, but it looked a bit higher class and touristy than what the locals would actually eat though!
Shops at Insa-dong
Street vendor foodNow for Cindy's favourite part of the trip - Kim-chi making & dress up time!
At least when it was kim-chi making time, the instructor spoke Mandarin! I was of course excited as it was the only part of the entire trip I could understand fluently! However, that didn't mean I made the best kim-chi. In fact, I can say without a doubt, that Cindy and myself made the worst looking kim-chi. Obviously, we still live at home and don't do much cooking for ourselves. Even some of the Dads on the tour made great looking kim-chi! I feel sorry for the orphans that will be eating it. (That is where the kim-chi goes to after we have a go making them).
My failed attempt at kimchi making!I have mentioned all this because part of the tour package included getting dressed up as if we were on Dae Jang Geum (大長今), and taking pictures of ourselves dressed up. I was expecting to wear a real korean hanbok, but I don't think what we tried on was the real deal! (I don't actually know this for a fact, but it didn't quite feel right!) The photos below should demonstrate how much fun it was to play dress up. (We had our normal clothes on the whole time, so I think this was purely a commercial enterprise designed to attract naive tourist money).
Standing in front of the Dae Jang Geum poster in a pink hanbokI really can't believe how many times they took us shopping on this trip! But after all those cultural activities, we went to the shops around Ewha Women's University in Shinchon for more shopping. Judging by the types of shops and the number of them in this area, you can tell this is where the young ones buy trendy and affordable fashion. Apparently this area has the highest concentration of stores in Korea that sell clothes, shoes, hats, handbags and other accessories that appeal to young females. I think I picked up some jewellery yet again! But this time we were controlled with the spending. Dinner wasn't included for today, so we treated ourselves to some Korean/Western food in a trendy looking cafe :) We felt so local just for an evening!
Korean street fashion
Day 7 Everland + Snow
We woke up to Day 3 Seoul freezing cold extremely early in the morning; and to our great delight, discovered a downpour of snow overnight! Yippee! (Ok, for us that come from Australia, even a little bit of snow looks like a downpour) After the initial excitement of witnessing snow, we were pleasantly treated to a nice HOT Korean breakfast at this restaurant by the Han River, it would have been nice to spend the morning eating outdoors by the river, but it was simply too cold!
We had breakfast at this floating restaurant. I'm sure it would habe been lovely in the summer!
Me by the Han River @ the restaurant
We got excited by the sight of snow...so took a photo after breakfast
Now how can a holiday be complete without an excursion to the amusement park? No, that wasn’t the question I was asking, I made up that question in response to the amusement park day trip that was planned for us!
I didn’t really think about going to an Amusement Park prior to this super Asia trip. In my mind, I was visioning trips to old imperial palaces from the Chosun dynasty, temple visits, museums visits, even a day trip to the South & North Korea border. After all, that is how I usually plan my holidays! But given the situation, and how cheaply we booked this tour, I slowly warmed to the idea of having ‘fun’ on a holiday. Eventually I psyched myself up for this amusement park day!
Everland is almost like Disneyland but not quite. There are definitely no Disneyland characters; they are all Everland characters whom I have never heard of! They play an Everland soundtrack at the park that becomes so addictive you find yourself singing along; and you can see a colourful Everland parade with all of their favourite characters (just like the one at Disneyland)! There were a few things we did together as a tour group, such as a 3D movie (in Korean…it was still fun despite the language barrier); a ‘safari’ of Korean wildlife which was surprisingly good – we got to see a tigers and lions which are unique to Korea and they were simply gorgeous, if not just slightly wild; and some other ride where it took us from point A to point B and you take a cheesy photo at the end. After all the ‘group’ activities, it was free time!
Parade Time
Photo time with our favourite character!! (Not sure what her name was!)
A standing bear - one of the highlights! (They have been trained to stand once the safari bus comes by)
They are gorgeous
This picture of the tiger is definitely my favourite!
It was on this trip that I realised Cindy is not the type to go to Amusement parks, correction: she does like them provided she doesn’t go on any scary rides, unlike me who wanted to try all the scary rides! I managed to convince Cindy to go on the ferris wheel, which in my opinion is pretty tame! Little did I realise that was enough of a ride for her! So off I went on super fast rollercoasters, twisty-turning high flying rides defying the laws of physics screaming my head off! I even used her spare tickets and used the spare tickets of others from my tour group! Yes I certainly DID have fun and gone were all those negative thoughts of wasting a day at the amusement park. I had a blast!
The ferris wheel I made Cindy go on
Part of my roller-coaster ride
The only problem with going to an amusement park in the Korean autumn, which is equivalent to our winter and colder…it gets FREEZING cold when you are up 30 metres high in the sky spinning around!! It was good for the adrenalin rush though!
Can you spot me? First one from the right!
I was definitely freezing up here!
After this Everland experience, I have changed my mind about amusement parks. They are certainly NOT a waste of time, and who doesn't want to be run wild like a kid again?
We woke up to Day 3 Seoul freezing cold extremely early in the morning; and to our great delight, discovered a downpour of snow overnight! Yippee! (Ok, for us that come from Australia, even a little bit of snow looks like a downpour) After the initial excitement of witnessing snow, we were pleasantly treated to a nice HOT Korean breakfast at this restaurant by the Han River, it would have been nice to spend the morning eating outdoors by the river, but it was simply too cold!
We had breakfast at this floating restaurant. I'm sure it would habe been lovely in the summer!
Me by the Han River @ the restaurant
We got excited by the sight of snow...so took a photo after breakfastI didn’t really think about going to an Amusement Park prior to this super Asia trip. In my mind, I was visioning trips to old imperial palaces from the Chosun dynasty, temple visits, museums visits, even a day trip to the South & North Korea border. After all, that is how I usually plan my holidays! But given the situation, and how cheaply we booked this tour, I slowly warmed to the idea of having ‘fun’ on a holiday. Eventually I psyched myself up for this amusement park day!
Everland is almost like Disneyland but not quite. There are definitely no Disneyland characters; they are all Everland characters whom I have never heard of! They play an Everland soundtrack at the park that becomes so addictive you find yourself singing along; and you can see a colourful Everland parade with all of their favourite characters (just like the one at Disneyland)! There were a few things we did together as a tour group, such as a 3D movie (in Korean…it was still fun despite the language barrier); a ‘safari’ of Korean wildlife which was surprisingly good – we got to see a tigers and lions which are unique to Korea and they were simply gorgeous, if not just slightly wild; and some other ride where it took us from point A to point B and you take a cheesy photo at the end. After all the ‘group’ activities, it was free time!
WELCOME TO EVERLAND!!!
Parade Time 
Photo time with our favourite character!! (Not sure what her name was!)
Pictures from the 'Safari' ride:
A standing bear - one of the highlights! (They have been trained to stand once the safari bus comes by) 
They are gorgeous 
This picture of the tiger is definitely my favourite!It was on this trip that I realised Cindy is not the type to go to Amusement parks, correction: she does like them provided she doesn’t go on any scary rides, unlike me who wanted to try all the scary rides! I managed to convince Cindy to go on the ferris wheel, which in my opinion is pretty tame! Little did I realise that was enough of a ride for her! So off I went on super fast rollercoasters, twisty-turning high flying rides defying the laws of physics screaming my head off! I even used her spare tickets and used the spare tickets of others from my tour group! Yes I certainly DID have fun and gone were all those negative thoughts of wasting a day at the amusement park. I had a blast!
The ferris wheel I made Cindy go on
Part of my roller-coaster rideThe only problem with going to an amusement park in the Korean autumn, which is equivalent to our winter and colder…it gets FREEZING cold when you are up 30 metres high in the sky spinning around!! It was good for the adrenalin rush though!
Can you spot me? First one from the right!
I was definitely freezing up here! After this Everland experience, I have changed my mind about amusement parks. They are certainly NOT a waste of time, and who doesn't want to be run wild like a kid again?
Day 8 Lotte World and More!
Just when you thought...yeah I've had enough of amusement parks, they schedule another one into the itinerary! More on Lotte World later!
First, we spent Seoul Day 4 doing more 'cultural' activities such as visiting the 'Blue House' or Cheong Wa Dae, the official residence of the South Korean president. It is called the 'Blue House' for obvious reasons, it looks blue! The roof tiles are blue, the structure of the building is white, with Mount Bugaskan in the background. The surrounding area of Cheong Wa Dae is really beautiful, perhaps accentuated by the fact that there was snow placed just nicely on the trees and on the ground, as well as the changing autumn colours of the trees mixed into the scnery. Of course we didnt' go into Cheong Wa Dae, we were just walking around the area, which also happens to be within walking distance to one of the old Palaces, Gyeongbokgung Palace (景德宮). We didn't go into see the Palace, but managed to hang around the North Gate area to capture some pictures of the 'old' Korea.
See the 'Blue House' & Mt Bugaskan at the back? 
Autumn colours near the presidential residence
With snow!
Glimpses inside Gyeongbokgung Palace
Our chicken ginseng soup
Ginseng displayed at the restaurantThere was another shopping stop at some point to a ginseng seller, but I won't go into details because 1) I didn't understand what they were talking about 2) I didn't buy any because it was out of my budget!
Next stop: Lotte World
What is Lotte World?
Lotte World is a recreation complex that consists of a large indoor theme park, outdoor amusement park, shopping mall, hotel, sport centre and even a folk musuem!! Its a Superworld! It's got everything you need, why would you ever want to leave? In fact around 8 million people visit Lotte World each year. I have to say, Lotte World did look a little out-dated, you could tell it was built quite a while ago (it opened in 1989) and it could do with a facelift in the near future. But still, compared to Sydney, we have nothing like it, so I still had fun there!
One of the random facts I can now recall our tourguide talking about is that - The Koreans are quite dating-conscious. And from the Korean drama's I have seen, yes it does appear to be the case (of course TV shows = reality!). I don't know if its a result of our tourguide pointing this out, or an actual fact, but when we were at Lotte World, all Cindy & I could notice were the number of couples out on a 'date' at Lotte World. Couples were going on rides together, eating together, walking randomly around together. Couples were everywhere!! (I swear I don't see that many couples in Sydney, unless it's Valentines Day, or maybe I'm just blind to all these things back home)
We were also given 3 tickets to go on any ride we wanted to in Lotte World. Yay, this time I actually made Cindy go on the pirate ship ride!!! Hahaha...yep I think she was freaked out again. We also went on some Egyptian discovery type ride with the old folks from our tourgroup, I'm sure they enjoyed our youthful presence! Another ride was on this fake Hot Air Balloon ride, which was actually not a bad choice because we got a tour of almost the whole complex without having to walk it! Well, after the rides there was still plenty of time for us to just explore this korean superworld.
Something that got us excited - when we saw the Ice Skating rink, we thought of the Korean drama 'Full House'!!! Yeah!! This is where they filmed some scenes for the drama!! [Full House is a drama/comedy from 2004/5 that starred the Korean pop-star Rain & another popular actress Song Hye-Kyo. I got myself psyched for Korea by watching this 16 episode drama a few months before this trip!] Well, at least I think this is where they filmed it...well she kept calling it 'Magic Land' on the show...maybe it aint the same thing?! Who knows, it looked the same anyway!
The ice-skating ring (from Full House?!)
Lotte World by Night (almost like Disneyland too)
Day 9 Final Day
All I will really remember of my Seoul trip is amusement parks & shopping. And for our last day, we did a nice wrap up for the shopping.
There were more shopping to specialty shops such as a 紫水晶 retailer. 紫水晶 is also known as Amethyst in English, which is simply a violet coloured variety of quartz. My guess is that Korea produces a lot of this, hence a visit to this specialty outlet. Well, again, I didn't buy any since it was expensive, plus my Dad had already bought me an amethyst necklace the first time he went to Seoul.
We were also taken to another non-descrip place to buy beauty products. Another fact I learnt on this trip, the Korean girls are obsessed with skincare and beauty. I think even more so than any other Asian group of girls!! As a result, they actually produce quality skincare products that are almost exclusively available only in Korea. (Well, unless they are the major beauty franchises such as Skin Food - which can be found in Hong Kong, and even in Sydney these days!) I got talked into buying this peeling cream product!! Basically its a cleanser/facial scrub - just so I felt like I bought something! Now come to think of it, I probably should have bought more skin care products in Korea because they were actually really affordable, and possibly better for my Asian skin! Oh well, there's always another visit to Asia that I can make.
Our final stop in Seoul was Myungdong (明洞) and Namdaemun markets (南大門) where it was just free time to do more window shopping. This is one of Korea's largest wholesale markets which is filled with over 1000 shops, stalls, retailers, street vendors, department stores and so on. You can find virtually anything here. Before letting us go for our free time, our tourguide took us to a 'famous' ice cream shop to have a superlong ice cream cone. Sounds crazy to be having one in that weather, but I got used to the cold by then. It was all good! And yes my mouth was numb after that gigantic cone.
With our ice cream and the shop assistant!
I really didn't think I was capable of doing more shopping, but alas, I bought another winter coat!! (That takes my total up to 3 that I bought in Korea!) And this is actually my favourite which I wear almost all the time in winter, so it was definitely a worthwhile purchase! We also had to find our own lunch today, we just found a cafe somewhere and had this beef soup & a pancake style dish. Nothing spectacular, but it satisfied our stomachs!
Dongdaemun markets
Beef soup
Seafood Pancake
More happy snaps around Myungdong area and off we went to the airport to bid this big asian metropolis farewell!
Bye Bye Myungdong
I will miss the shopping and amusement parks the most. My next visit to Korea will include trips to get 'out' of Seoul, and maybe go hiking to some of their splendid mountains and national parks.
Modern buildings around the myungdong area
Bye Bye Seoul!!
All I will really remember of my Seoul trip is amusement parks & shopping. And for our last day, we did a nice wrap up for the shopping.
There were more shopping to specialty shops such as a 紫水晶 retailer. 紫水晶 is also known as Amethyst in English, which is simply a violet coloured variety of quartz. My guess is that Korea produces a lot of this, hence a visit to this specialty outlet. Well, again, I didn't buy any since it was expensive, plus my Dad had already bought me an amethyst necklace the first time he went to Seoul.
We were also taken to another non-descrip place to buy beauty products. Another fact I learnt on this trip, the Korean girls are obsessed with skincare and beauty. I think even more so than any other Asian group of girls!! As a result, they actually produce quality skincare products that are almost exclusively available only in Korea. (Well, unless they are the major beauty franchises such as Skin Food - which can be found in Hong Kong, and even in Sydney these days!) I got talked into buying this peeling cream product!! Basically its a cleanser/facial scrub - just so I felt like I bought something! Now come to think of it, I probably should have bought more skin care products in Korea because they were actually really affordable, and possibly better for my Asian skin! Oh well, there's always another visit to Asia that I can make.
Our final stop in Seoul was Myungdong (明洞) and Namdaemun markets (南大門) where it was just free time to do more window shopping. This is one of Korea's largest wholesale markets which is filled with over 1000 shops, stalls, retailers, street vendors, department stores and so on. You can find virtually anything here. Before letting us go for our free time, our tourguide took us to a 'famous' ice cream shop to have a superlong ice cream cone. Sounds crazy to be having one in that weather, but I got used to the cold by then. It was all good! And yes my mouth was numb after that gigantic cone.
With our ice cream and the shop assistant! I really didn't think I was capable of doing more shopping, but alas, I bought another winter coat!! (That takes my total up to 3 that I bought in Korea!) And this is actually my favourite which I wear almost all the time in winter, so it was definitely a worthwhile purchase! We also had to find our own lunch today, we just found a cafe somewhere and had this beef soup & a pancake style dish. Nothing spectacular, but it satisfied our stomachs!
Dongdaemun markets
Beef soup
Seafood Pancake 
Bye Bye Myungdong I will miss the shopping and amusement parks the most. My next visit to Korea will include trips to get 'out' of Seoul, and maybe go hiking to some of their splendid mountains and national parks.
Modern buildings around the myungdong area
Bye Bye Seoul!!
