Day 6 : Gyeongbokgung - Bukchon Hanok Village - Shopping at Dongdaemun

The sky seemed cloudy that morning; I prayed that it would hold because I was scared that it would be too hot and sunny. I chose to stay at near Dongdaemun History and Culture Park because I had access to 3 subway lines from here. This morning, we took the purple line to Gwanghwamun. And as soon as we exited the subway, we could see the statue of Admiral Yi San. 

Nearby was the statue of King Sejong, the king who created the Korean alphabet, the Hangul.

Ahead was Gyeongbokgung ... 

We reached there about 9.45 a.m. and there was already people waiting for the changing of guards ceremony ... we purchased tickets to go into the palace for KRW3,000 each. Then we hanged out at the yard to wait for the ceremony to start .... 

The ceremony was about 15 minutes long .... then we proceeded inside the palace. I was happy to spend my time here leisurely, taking in the views; it reminded me of my trip to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Only that Forbidden City was of a bigger scale and the time we spent there was too short and too rushed that I did not get to appreciate the place at all. In contrast to the Forbidden City, I went on my own pace .... and managed to explore almost the entire Gyeongbokgung. I enjoyed myself here a lot.

The throne 

We spent about 3 hours at Gyeongbokgung .... and after we exited, we went to look for Tosokchon to eat lunch. Tosokchon was famous for its Samgyetang .... many reviews online said the samgyetang was as authentic as it could be .... so when we finally found the shop, there was a short queue outside of the shop .... we waited about 20 minutes before we could get into the restaurant ....

A serving cost KRW16,000

There was free flow of kimchi and kkakdugi .... both were so yummy. I found the chicken soup to be very hearty and wholesome .... but it was such a huge portion that I was struggling to finish ....

After lunch, I craved for something sweet .... so I went to Ediya ....

Iced caramel latte 

Next, we went to Bukchon Hanok and spent some time strolling around the neighbourhood ... 

We chanced upon Choongang High School .... it looked so beautiful that I thought I was at a mansion somewhere in a small European town ....

Later we were excited to find out that it was the filming location for Winter Sonata and Goblin. Bukchon Hanok completed, we walked to Changdeokgung .... we merely took a photo at the entrance

At night, we went to get a toast from Isaac Toast ... just wanted to have something light after our heavy lunch ....

Yummy! Nicer than the one I had at KLIA2 ... 

And we went clothes shopping! There were so many buildings here with floors and floors of clothing retail ... 

Each floor had stalls upon stalls, all selling clothing 

Goodness! 

I bought a t-shirt for KRW10,000 ... that's the max that I would fork out for a shirt ... cause after conversion to MYR, it isn't really cheap anyway .... 

Day 5 : Morning Market - Busan Station - Seoul Station - Dongdaemun - Gwangjang Market

The sky was clear .... and the view of the sea was beautiful. Too bad we were leaving Busan that day. After breakfast at our hostel, I decided to go to Jagalchi because I wanted to buy dried oysters. Of course they were of varying grades, some costing more than the others. I bought 1 packet for KRW10,000. They would be good for cooking soup or porridge.

Then we exited the market ... behind the market was a promenade ... and one could see the harbour from here.

Yeongdo Bridge opens at 2 pm daily ... 

A fishing vessel docked right by the market 

Last photo of the market .... it was really clean and there was no smell at all ...

We ventured to the market ..... there were plenty of stalls along the small lanes outside .... and we walked and walked till we found ourselves at another market, called the Chungmu-dong Daybreak Market. 

Lots of fresh produce on sale 

We looked at the fresh fruits and vegetables and wished that we could buy some home. Sigh. We then went back to our hostel, checked out and headed to Busan Station. We would be taking the KTX to Seoul Station. 

After buying tickets, we went in search of our train platform .... 

Inside KTX Busan ... I paid KRW56,800 for a ticket

The journey was pleasant and took about 2 hours and 45 minutes. 

Seoul Station

I was excited to be in Seoul finally, a city I'd always wanted to visit. We took the metro to Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, came out of Exit 4 and there was our hotel, just across the road, the K-Guesthouse Dongdaemun Premium.  

Our room for 6 nights, more spacious than Nampo-dong, but very noisy because of the traffic

We dumped our bags and then went out ..... 

The futuristic-looking Dongdaemun Design Plaza

What an interesting sculpture 

Cheonggyecheon Stream

Pyeonghwa Market on the left; Dongdaemun Shopping Complex on the right

We walked along the river and it brought us to Gwangjang Market ... 

Yummy Bibimbap ... 

So delicious with barley rice! Only KRW5,000

Mandu Guk was also KRW5,000

Very yummy! 

I'd just finished that bowl of rice and felt like having a second helping ... heh .. but of course I was too full for another bowl. I'll have to return one more time before I go home. We bought binddaeteok or mung bean pancake to go .... we'll eat that for dinner. :)) 

We strolled along the market ... taking note of the things we could buy home. We found fresh ginseng and we would buy some home. 

The East Gate

Dongdaemun 

So lovely were the flowers at the park; the city wall is located here ....  and what a lovely view of Dongdaemun from this park

 A stretch of wall ... and a church behind the park ....

We walked back to our hotel to rest .... 

 Tasted like 7UP ... hmn ... 

The Binddaetteok was delicious! So going to buy this again! 

We rested while watching tv for the night .... so tired ....

Day 4 : Taejondae - Haeundae - Shinsegae - Gwangali

I wanted to go to Taejongdae. I'd seen many photos of Taejongdae on Instagram. It's a scenic area in Busan, located at the southern-most tip of Yeongdo-gu in Busan, facing an open sea. So we needed to get out of the city to get to Taejongdae. The guidebooks said the journey by bus would take an hour.

So off we went to Exit 6 of Nampo-dong subway; this was right in front of Lotte Gwangbok Departmental store. There was a bus stop there .... and we would be able to use any bus that went to Taejongdae.Thank Goodness I read can read Hangul phonetically .... And so I watched out for any bus that had "태종대" written on it.

The journey did not take that long - perhaps only about 40 minutes. We got down when a lady told us that it was the last station for the bus. We were in the middle of a street with many shops lining both sides of the road ... But where was Taejongdae? We were feeling a bit lost. We asked an Ahjumma (who was trying to get us to eat at her restaurant) and she said we had to walk uphill about 200m away. We did that and soon we reached the entrance, where we bought train tickets for the Danubi train - costing KRW3000.

The Danubi Train

We waited a while and the train departed. The train would only make 3 stops .... and the first stop was at the observation deck. 

View from the observation deck ... it seemed rather misty that the horizon line seemed blurred .... 

A statue at the observation deck 

Just a short walk away was the second stop - the lighthouse .... 

The lighthouse .... 

The third stop was the temple .... we saw the temple from afar ... and it wasn't that impressive. We did not go there at all. We took a bus Somyeon Station .... where we boarded a train to Haeundae. Next time, we should take Bus 1008 that brings people all the way from Taejongdae to Haeundae. That would be much more convenient. 

Pretty flowers right in front of the metro station ... walk straight to the beach 

Sand art 

Haeundae Beach 

Haeundae Beach

It was midday and it was really hot ... so we quickly left the beach and went to the Traditional Market. Right at the end of the market, we saw a bakery ... 

We bought some buns for lunch .... forgot the name of the bakery 

Next we went to Centum City, and visited Shinsegae, it's the flagship store, the biggest departmental store in South Korea.  .... 

As soon as we exited the Metro, we saw this amazing fountain .... a replica of the Trevi Fountain

Of course this deparmental store is huge, had many floors and divided into many sections. We merely browsed a few sections ..... 

And we found a little outdoor theme park here called Zooraji ... located on the 9th floor rooftop. There are plenty of dinosaurs, and animals fashioned out of metal crockery ... and of course, I could enjoy the Busan skyline from here as well. 

Our next stop was Gwangan .... where we walked to the beach to see the Gwangali Bridge or the Diamond Bridge.

Gwangali Bridge 

We sat and looked at the bridge ... I wanted to wait for it to light up since it was supposed to be very beautiful at night. But since it was summer and daylight was so much longer ... I did not feel like I could wait for so long. We did sit for a while by the beach, just basking in the relaxing atmosphere and enjoying the buskers who were performing by the beach. 

We then walked back to the Gwangan Metro station .... and on the way we happened to see this! We'd just saw people eating this on tv that morning .... and of course I had often seened the BJs eating this on mukbang on Youtube. 

Fried whole chicken, KRW7000 per bird.

We got excited and thought we'd buy one bird for dinner .... We brought it back to our hostel for dinner. 

So crispy and juicy and yummy .... 

That evening, we merely relaxed while we did out laundry back at the hostel .... it was nice that we could do laundry for free at K Guesthouse here at Nampo-dong. More adventure awaits the next day.