We reached Seoul at 6 am in the morning and took airport Limousine to our hotel area - Hotel Aropa. Our hotel was located near the City Hall mrt station and within walking distance to Myeong Dong. The hotel didn't have extra room for us to check-in early. Thus we had no choice but to leave our luggage at the hotel and head to the Dunkin Donuts cafe beside Deoksugung and wait for its 11am change of guards. The change of guards was alright, nothing spectacular.
We then walked to Namdaemun market to experience how street markets in Seoul is like. After taking a brief rest back in our hotel lobby at peak of noon, we then walked to a nearby pretty famous Chicken Soup restaurant to try this must-try food. The Chicken Soup was really good. I liked the glutinous rice more than the chicken actually. Finally, check-in! We were exhausted as we didn't sleep for the entire night and headed straight for bed.
Woke up and it's alright 6pm, feeling dis-oriented. Next activity will be going to Myeong Dong for some shopping and street food. Myeong Dong is a happening place with lots and lots of delicious street foods. Too bad our belly weren't large enough to engulf everything.
Day 2 (Sunday):
Woke up close to noon to further catch up on sleep debt, feeling dis-oriented and giddy again. Today is a rainy day, lousy day for trip. We first took train to Anguk mrt station for Insadong. Insadong is a day-time chillax area with a lot of local food, stores and cafe. We went to one of the traditional Korea restaurants and was served with over 20 small dishes of good food. Feeling bloated, we slowly walked to Gyeongbokgung for its change of guards. As the change of guards ended, rain started to pour and we didn't have umbrellas with us. Thinking that going back to Anguk mrt was almost as far as walking back hotel, we braved our way back in the rain.
As expected, we slept through again, waking, only to be woken up by downpour noise at night. Ate some simple dinner right down our hotel, and bought an umbrella at the 7-11. As we slept way too much today, we decided to go Myeong Dong for some late night stroll again. By then the rain had kind of died down and more bearable.
Day 3 (Monday):
Once again, didn't wake up for hotel breakfirst. We headed straight towards Insadong again, but this time by foot. We realized that you can practically walk to everywhere in Seoul as the city is that small and clusters. On the way to Insadong, we passed by the CBD area and saw some really cheap and nice Korea food. Had the queue with the lunch time crowd but it was totally worth it. We then took the early afternoon to stroll around Insadong as we left there hastily yesterday.
We then continue to head to Hanok Bukchon Village to visit this mandatory landmark.
Before we left, we even tried on traditional Korea costume for some photos. In the evening, we continued our journey towards Namsam Park and Mural Village. This time the walk was pretty long and it took us more than half an hour to get there. Namsam Park required a lot of climbing but it was really worth it and probably the best place we visited throughout our trip. The view was amazing up there.
Namsan Park, my favourite place in Seoul
Day 4 (Tuesday):
Finally woke up for breakfast, but the food kind of sucked. After that we went back to sleep. Woke up again at noon and we head out to Cheongbokgung. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the tour in order to enter the secret garden so we decided to skip it.
Ate lunch at the CBD restaurant again because it's that cheap and good haha. After that, we took mrt (finally) to Erwa Woman University for a quick tour of the campus. The afternoon was then concluded with some shopping for clothes at Erwa Street Market.
Erwa Women University, boring place
After taking a brief rest back at our hotel, we headed to Namsam Tower in the evening with the hope of some great night views. The view at the top really exceeded my expectations, it was amazing.
The best night view I have ever seen. Considering I have been too quite a few including the famous Hokkaido night view, this is quite an amazing statement say
Day 5 (Wednesday):
Woke up early to change money to pay for wedding photoshoot. It was an absolute disaster as we could not find a single ATM (including Citibank, Stan Chart) which allows you to withdraw money from an overseas ATM card. This gruesome search wasted us close to 3 hours, until we had no choice but to hastily checkout and take mrt to Gangnam.
Trip to Gangnam was pretty long, almost 1 hour MRT ride. We gave our last attempt at withdrawing in Hansan Bank at Gangnam, and to our surprise, it worked! Left with little time to reach HelloMuse for appointment, we grabbed some quick food from 7-11 and cabbed over.
Ate famous raw crab for dinner, very nice but expensive. Chill out at night in Gangnam, no street food!!!
Day 6 (Thursday):
Wake at 6+am for photoshoot. Tiring day. We ate dinner at some BBQ place beside our hotel. Supposed to sleep early for photoshoot next day but ended up sleeping late again.
Day 7 (Friday):
Chill day. Woke at noon as expected and headed for Korean Fried Chicken. It was FANTASTIC, omg, Singapore needs this badly.
Best fried chicken in Seoul
A pretty boring place, we ran out of ideas
Went Gangnam at night and ate the famous Korean Fried Chicken there but this time it was soso...
Final night in Seoul, getting mentally prepared to go to work.
Day 8 (Saturday)
Home sweet home.
