Wanderlust Diary

Seoul has just the right mix of culture and cosmopolitan. This city often reminds me of Beijing but much more orderly.

This is a rather delayed track back of my trip in Seoul. I recall, in a span of 4 hours, mindlessly drafting a sheepish itinerary which consists mostly of restaurants I want to try (thanks to Daniel’s blog Seouleats) and basic places to see.

We stayed at comfortable Provista Hotel, conveniently near to the subway and restaurants. The room is spacious and clean.

It was supposed to be a business trip, but I couldn’t help but explore. Too bad the trip was short. I could have visited the famous Jeju island.

Here is the places I have visited so far:

Gyeongbokgung Palace

This palace has a striking resemblance to China’s Summer Palace. I am not surprise since due to geography, influence on architectures must have been strong.

It was wonderful to see spring time blooming around the palace when we visited. The colors were bursting alive.

You can follow this direction I got online:

Directions
1. From Exit No. 5 of Gyeongbokgung Subway Station (Seoul Subway Line No.3), walk 5 minutes.
2. From Exit No. 2 of Ganghwamun Subway Station (Seoul Subway Line No.5), walk 5 minutes.

Seoul Towers

I was suppose to follow some free guided tour for this but end up getting ditched. Good thing my friend Youri saved our time and day by being the tour guide.

Seoul tower is on Mt. Namsan. If you are up to some leisure hiking, you can opt to walk up to the tower. We opted to take the bus though. My boots are not made for walking (shoot!)

The tower also has this mini Bear Museum which Korea is so famous for. They dress up the bears as cute representation of different people, culture, history. This certainly attracts young people which in turn can make them learn something at the same time. Very smart idea.

We happened to stroll to another place called Hanok Village which featured ancient houses of Koreans. The basics were very well preserved even though there were a lot of tourists and locals around.

We even saw wedding prenup happening. Renting the unique korean outfits were the highlight of this trip. Those colorful robes reminded me of Jewel in the Palace series.

Yeouido Park

We were suppose to visit this park to see cherry blossoms well bloomed but we were a week late. Fallen flowers around made me sad but we have a beautiful time biking around. This made me feel like a kid again.

Directions:
From Exit # 1 of Yeouinaru Subway Station (Seoul Subway Line 5)
walk 10 minutes towards SBS TV Station.
- From Exit # 3 of Yeouido Subway Station (Seoul Subway Line 5), walk 5 minutes
towards the National Assembly building.

DETOUR:
Cheonggyecheon Stream
This is not the usual tourist spot around but my friend introduced us to a cool place where young people date or where you can find solace walking by the stream.

Beneath, you get to feel so drawn to the sound of water and cool breeze flowing nearby. I love how this place can calm minds among the chaos above it. You can join a walking tour for this, just register online.

Food essentials:

We had tried the famous Korean BBQ, kimchis, galbi. Another on our list was this Chicken shop that serves the best Chicken stew with Ginseng and Roasted Chicken in the city…Tosokchon (???).

I love how the menu was simplified and straight to the point.

Directions: Stop at Gyeongbokgung station on subway Line 3 and go out exit #2. Walk straight for about 5 minutes.

Double fry spicy chicken
I never heard of this before. However, while roaming around the bars nearby our hotel, we discovered a local favorite paired with cool beer. This spicy wings can rock your tongue/lips. Nowadays, there’s commercialized Bonchon around the corner.

Smoothie King
This one is a US franchised, famous for their smoothies. Surprisingly, this juice bar was as big as Burger King. Maybe locals are a bit health conscious?