An Autumn Anniversary in Seoul

Korea, known in my country for its romantic TV series,   has become the setting for my own love story. We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Seoul, hoping it would be against the backdrop of colorful autumn. To our dismay, leaves were still deep green at the onset of October (1st-4th).  Nevertheless, it was a a great experience of getting lost between subway stations, burning our tongues with the spicy local cuisines, and stepping onto historical grounds.

Our flight was on schedule amidst typhoon Namgae. Our plane was in the middle of the runway, at 4pm on a Saturday, waiting for its turn to take off when crazy winds and rain passed through the city which ended before we lifted off.  The traffic delayed our flight for an hour but the pilot was considerate enough to speed up and so we landed on Seoul just around 10 minutes late. We decided to take the train, using out T-money, and transfer from one line to another since it was cheaper and faster than taking a bus. T-money is like Hong Kong’s octopus card  which you can use in paying fares in buses and trains and buying at convenient stores. We reserved a room at Yim's House, at Waryong- dong and upon our arrival we were welcomed by a friendly host at the reception and walked us to our room (it wasn't Mr. Yim, but we met him the following day and he's very friendly). For 50000 KW/night, the guesthouse offered a decent room with ensuite bathroom (which is not common in most guesthouses in the town). There's no breakfast but it has a common kitchen for guests.

 

  

  

There's also a hot and cold water dispenser available in each floor. Interestingly,  the guesthouse is conveniently situated at a quiet neighborhood adjacent to the Changdeok Palace, with a convenient store (GS 25)  and the Jeongno 3 (sam) -ga station closeby. It is a quiet and safe place as well, even if you go out at night - which we did on the first day,  at around 11 pm, at 6 degrees, with my husband in short pants and short-sleeved shirt. Before getting the needed sleep we stuffed our bodies first with unhealthy fats from the burger that we bought from Lottera at the train station (2 burgers for P168).
 



Exploring Seoul's History

Changdeokgung (gung means palace) is less than a kilometer away from Yim's House. There's usually an entrance fee and we were not sure if it was free that Sunday or we just got away from the checker.

 

 

  

 

We finished touring the  palace at 1pm and so we grabbed a waffle from a stand beside the compound. It was a simple but yummy appetizer, a crispy yeasted waffle with butter and syrup.   

On the way to the Hanbok village, we stopped by a restaurant for lunch. We had deep fried dumplings and seafood noodle for lunch for only 11k.

 

Along the way to the village are shops selling clothes, accessories, souvenirs. We weren't actually able to get to the hanbok village, which they say sort of retained its old architecture,  so we instead entered the Bukchon Traditional Culture center on the way out. 

  

We headed towards Insa-dong, neigborhood of art, food and al sorts of stuff.  You may buy souvenirs here but being a tourist spot, prices are surely high.

  

One of my objectives in Korea was to get myself a cheap galaxy tab or any reader. We passed by the Cheonggye Stream, a 10km artificial and natural stream in the middle of the city.  It serves as a park for many locals.

 

We headed towards Dongdaemun, the Great East Gate.

 We checked out the Doosa Mall for a tab but it is just a big department store full of booths selling clothes and accessories. We didn't see stalls selling electronics so we just headed for dinner at the foodcourt. I had bibimbap with young veggies and i didn't expect these veggies to be raw but the red bean paste that goes with it was reeeally good - taste is so strong, comparable to our bagoong. Hubby had bulgogi, which was unexpectedly in soup form, much like the Japanese sukiyaki.

 We passed by the stream on our way home, only capturing this lighted Christmas tree because our camera batteries had no more charge to capture the beauty of water and light against darkness. We passed by GS 25 and grabbed 2 bottles of Jinro Soju (around P75 per bottle). Upon our first gulp, we knew why locals who drink after work get intoxicated immediately; the drink, with 70% alcohol is too strong that we didn't even bother to continue drinking it and regret buying two bottles.

  

Hunt for History…and Electronics

We continued with our historical tour, towards the king’s residence, the Gyeongbok palace. We didn’t bother to go and visit the palace halls since the queue for buying tickets was too long and besides, we were lucky enough and contented to witness the changing of the guards at noon.

 

Aside from the long queue, we didn't anymore visit the inside premises of the palace thinking we would just see the same features as those in Cheongdok palace. We walked towards the statue of King Sejong just in front of the palace, then towards that of Admiral Yi Sun-sin . We wanted to check out the City Hall but was under construction that time. We looked for the nearest subway station instead to go to Itaewon at Yongsan, the electronics hub in Seoul. 

We finally got to the station and rode the train to the Yongsan station, which is connected to the I’Park Mall. We first took our lunch at the food section. It was a very satisfying lunch of bibimbap, omelet, dumpling and side dish of miso soup, radish, kimchi (around P650).

 

 

 Afterwhich, we went to the electronics section and as expected I was not able to buy anything. It's not that there aren't anything on sale, there are actually lots of equipment here - from  camera lenses to laptops to vacuum cleaners - and hundred of stalls selling thousands of electronics of different sorts that it's tiring to canvass in each, add to that the language barrier. There were lots of tablets around but can't be used in the Philippines. A vendor showed us cellphone units that will be fine for use outside Korea but the units are very old models.  Leaving behind my hopes of bringing home a tab, we headed back to the mall to catch a train back to our inn.

Korean food fiesta

From tablet-hunting, we headed on to food-hunting along the streets near our hotel. We started with the local grapes which my husband said, as he read in a blog, are the most delicious grapes that the blogger had tasted. For us it just tasted like the duhat. 

For dinner, we went to an alley near Tapgol Park which lined with restos and food carts selling authentic Korean food. There was the crispy waffle which The pancake House can't beat, the Korean barbeque, gimbap and rice cakes.  To hubby’s disappointment, he wasn’t able to taste the blood sausage but anyway, these ultimate Korean street foods filled our stomachs, add to that bottles of local beer – Hite.  Then we went out to have coffee at the nearby Nescafe coffee shop fronting the Changdeokgung. We crossed the street and sip our cups of steaming hot coffee in front of the palace on a chilly night.

 

Last stop to shop

It was late for us to realize that we shouldn't have visited yet the Changdeok palace a few steps away on our first day but should have done this on our last day while waiting for our flight scheduled for the evening. Since we have not yet shopped for anything, we decided to go to their divisoria, Namdaemun Market. This is a huge shopping place that sells almost everything-from differently colored ribbons to food. The only item that we bought though are quality jackets for only 10000 won each (less than P400 only).

 

 

Incheon International Airport

Our flight back to Manila was scheduled late in the evening and so we decided to take a bus ride instead of train to get a last glimpse of the city while the sun is still up. The ride took almost the same time as riding a train including the transfers.

Before checking in, we had our dinner at the foodcourt which offers reasonable prices, not to mention the free appetizer/side dish bar, from which you can have as many pickled veggies as you want!
 

True enough, it is a beautiful airport but the goods are expensive so we only shopped for chocolates.

Guide to Seoul

For information on accommodations and train travel in Korea , see: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TR/TR_EN_5_1_2.jsp
English Map of Seoul (since google maps present writings in hangul)
Visa Applications in Manila ,see the Embassy's website: http://embassy_philippines.mofat.go.kr/english/as/embassy_philippines/visa/issuance/index.jsp