Day 5
In the morning we headed out to
Namdaemun market for some SHOPPING!!! In my opinion, this place is totally worth coming because the souvenirs sold here are at least 1000 - 3000won cheaper than other tourist hotspots such as Insadong/Myeongdong. It was actually really close by our guesthouse so we just walked there after breakfast.
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| The Namdaemun Gate |
Souvenir shopping tips:
- make sure you go into the shops inside of Namdaemun Market, it is at least 1000won cheaper inside than outside
- The korean bookmark was sold for 1000won here and 2000won in Insadong (double price!).
- Try to speak as much Korean as you can. Korean ajusshi and ajuma loves that! (and they might give you free stuff as service)
Our lunch at Namdaemun Market was kalguksu (hand-rolled noodle soup)
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| The noodles came in really big portion for 5000won and with naengmyun (picture below) and rice as the side dish. So we couldn't finish the food as it was too much! |
After shopping at Namdaemun and having a very filling lunch, we somehow stumbled across a nice little neighbourhood in Seoul with street art and a nice view.
(new note: I finally figure where this place is! It's called
Naksan Park.)
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| street art on the staircase |
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| Having a cup of iced Americano (Korean's fav coffee) and fermented plum green tea. It is actually pretty refreshing! |
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| Stumbled upon a little shop in the neighbourhood that offers sewing classes :) |
Ending our visit at the unknown neighbourhood, we journeyed on to Gyeonggi-do to try the
Yang Pyeong Railway Bike Trail. It took us quite a while to get there from central Seoul. We were sleeping on the train XD
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| Excited for our ride YAY! |
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| Wefie while we are biking LOL! |
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| Found this lovely place we could rest... I wish we had some food to munch on :D |
The ride lasted about 1 hour. There is a stop in the middle for us to rest. The only irritating thing that happen was the bikers behind us kept rushing and we were trying to go moderately slow because we wanted to view the scenery but they kept shouting and asking us to hurry and all in KOREAN. I mean hello! But we ignored them LOL.
On the side note, it isn't going to be easy to find a taxi to get you back to the station. We took a taxi there and had to walk about 20 minutes to get back... not too bad... but yea, be ready to walk.
Finally when we got back it was pretty late, about 8.30pm so we decided to eat near our guesthouse and had BBQ meat!!
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| Yum yum pork shortribs.. |
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| Can you believe one chuck of this cost 13000won (about RM40) :P |
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| Spicy stir fried squid |
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| Maekgolli (rice wine) |
Day 6
Today we are heading to
Petite France! We found coupon online that gave us
25% discount on entrance fee.
The concept of Petite France encapsulates ‘flowers, stars, and the Little Prince.’ The village contains a memorial hall dedicated to Saint-Exupery, the author of the celebrated French novel, Le Petit Prince (1943) and as such it is called the Little Prince theme park. It also has a gallery displaying sculptures and paintings of le coq gaulois (the Gallic rooster), the national symbol of France; Orgel House where a 200-year-old music box plays a sweet melody; a shop that sells herbal and aromatic products; a souvenir shop; and many other locales where you can experience French culture.
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| Min-joon & Song yi couple |
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| Petite France has been the filming location of popular korean dramas such as You who is from the Stars, Secret Garden, Running Man (variety show), Beethoven virus. |
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| Lee Minho's signature!!! |
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| Signaturesof many of my fav K-pop/ K-drama idols :) |
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| Just look at the size of this!!! cost us 3000won each |
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| Delicious apple and grape juice! |
After spending the morning in Petite France, our next stop was
Jade Garden, the filming location for That Winter, The Wind Blows starring Jo In-sung and Song Hye-gyo. Other films/dramas done here include "You are my pet (movie)", Full house 2, Love Rain.
Jade Garden, created under the theme of ‘Small Europe in the Forest,’ is located near Jade Palace Golf Club on a plot of land measuring 160,000 square meters. The 24 distinctively-themed areas in the garden boast a total of 3,000 plant species including rhododendron, maple trees, irises, and blueberry bushes as well as patches of thick, natural forests. The arboretum makes the most out of its natural valley topography and presents visitors with a mix of tidy gardens, graceful flowers, and an array of European-style architecture.
Unfortunately when we visit, it wasn't the flowering season which ended in late June (we were there mid July), so most of everything we saw was just trees and leaves. But it was still nice, and this place again requires at least 2 hours of visit due to the large compound.
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| Blueberry! One of the fun things we did was to pick them and eat them fresh :) |
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| trying to be drama here haha... |
So after our afternoon visit to Jade Garden (a lot of walking involved,so not a kid friendly place unless you have a stroller), we went back to Myeongdong to go to Lotte Duty Free Shop because it closes at 9pm.
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| Look at the amount of people shopping in here. I'm telling you the noise level is higher than in a market! |
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| The pretty lights and LED boards of various k-pop stars |
Now for the Myeongdong street food that filled our tummy!!
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| Dunkin Donuts (mango, peach , strawberry and choco flavour) |
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| Hotteok! Fried bread with brown sugar and sunflower seed filling |
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| Meat balls with mayo |
Will come back with updates soon :)
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