Korea – Seoul – Part 2

Another aspect of Korean life has to be its chill out lifestyle, other than the hustle of the daily grind.

We found a quiet spot in the heart of some shopping district. The wife here chilling out over cheesecake and fresh brewed coffee.

A trip to the famous Seoul Tower.

And then the Teddy Museum, located within the tower. This little dude here caught my attention. Apparently vandalising the classroom wall lol.

And of course, the DMZ. The trip was good, although rushed. But we got a good feel of the intensity of the place.

Well wishes from locals and foreigners. Praying for the peace of both Koreas.

Kid you not, the railway in the background is still in service. While we were there, a train went by into the North of the border.

MPs on the guard.

This is our cool looking guard. Over at the backend, the grey building, is the North side of Korea.

We managed to get a glimpse of a few North Korean soldiers as well.

Lotte World – One of Seoul’s theme park. Apparently this is the world’s largest theme park also.

A few of our Seoul companions.

Yes, there is a reason why this is the world’s largest theme park. It was tiring just walking around.

Korea is an ultra modern country with strong roots in its history. Hence you can find a lot of palaces in Seoul.

The palace entrance.

This is supposedly the King’s private quarters.

The back entrance The Secret Garden?

House of Fortune!

A stove, for firewood to provide warmth to the inhabitants during the winter.

This here is a chimney, that was used to exhaust the fumes from the kitchen and heating.

The Gate of Longevity!

The building in the back served as library for the royals of the past.

 

The tablets marked the location of each court official for their daily reports to the king. Ranking at 1st, 2nd, etc.

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Korea – Seoul – Part 1

Well, the only proper way to introduce Seoul is the shopping. And yes, this is one of the few countries I have travelled that actually caused me shop and shop.

Korean fashion is a class of its own. And rightly so. With its own instinctive city style.

I do recall this is the shopping belt around the Women’s University. And yes I splurged a bit here 😀

The food is good, being that we scouted out the local fares, and the occasional Mcd.

We had some 100% local food at this night market. Cant really recall the names of the dishes though.

My fav, pig’s innards.

For Seoul, we put up in The Gangnam Guesthouse. Also another really nice place, with its kitchen and all.

There is Sam, cooking up a fare for the night.

If you look closely, there are actually 7 persons in this photo lol

Makoli – Korean rice wine.

Korea – Busan

Here are some highlights of my trip to Busan recently. Being tropical folks, the cool breeze of Busan is a nice welcome.

Also to allay all fears of the non Korean speaking folks, the locals speak a pretty good smattering of English. Especially  the younger generation. And almost every sign has an English translation. Of course you get a nice pleasant surprise and encouraging smile when you attempt to converse in their local language.

Haeundae Beach – this place is packed during the school holidays.

Sand sculptures – Psy

Sand sculptures – Wife… i mean Hulk 😀

Falling for each other 😀

Yes, apparently the locals do not really like to go into direct sun light. So the beach is dotted with these.

Of course being an unguided trip, we decided to venture into the daily lives of the locals, hence we went to places like the wet markets, coffee stalls, eateries, etc.

This is a central location in the wet market, which actually turned out to be a “end of the day dumping ground” lol.

Yup, tons of garlic.

The wife deciding what to buy for dinner 🙂

This is an underground shopping mall that was connected to the market, which is actually very common in the country.

Every trip to Korea should have a hike up one of it’s famous peaks. And that is what we will do.

Today we are doing Mt Jangsan.

Before we start the hike.

An ice cream stall as we near the peak. The kind gentleman obliged us with a photo, actually Koreans are very shy and reserved folks.

Bumped into a church 3/4 the way up. It looks deserted, but fresh tracks around tells us this place actually had 2 or 3 vehicles earlier.

And of course, the place we were staying in. It goes by the name of Miss Egg Hotel. The place is fabulous to stay in. It is a guesthouse, and yes, we get to meet alot of travellers.

A special note, this hotel is really very conveniently located. It is just a few minutes away to the beach. And the train station is a stroll off in the other direction.

Add to that , when you step out, there are convenient stores. And next door is a 24 hr internet cafe, where you can do some printing as well.

Photo opportunity with the boss. Yes, this young chap owns the Egg Hotels!

Leaving a memorabilia. Ok my arts and craft a bit of rusty.

There is also a slew of local eateries around. Serving delicious local food of course. And a bar just a building away.

A local BBQ place. And the food is nice!

At night, Busan comes to another stage of liveliness.

Says “food from 500 won”, I think, but street corner stalls like this is common place in Busan. And the food not bad.

What we did was to select the pieces, and the owner will either microwave it up or fry it.

Once done, we dipped them into the sauces (black bowls) before eating.

At the end of the 3 days, we headed to Seoul… on Rail!

Ain’t this like a time machine?

Final call for Busan to Seoul 😀

A view of the exterior of the station.