6 Days Korea Tour ~ Day 1 (25 oct 09)

This is our first trip to korea. Either levin or myself speaks hangul or a fan of korean drama. But I was really keen to see maple leave and after much consideration I decided to take up the challenge to draft out an itinerary from scratch for a 6 days F&E trip to korea. We took the midnight SQ flight and reach incheon at 720am. Took an airport limo bus to Seoul, call our apartment Mr Ko to pick us up, dropped our luggage and here we are in Seoul.......

First stop, lunch cum shopping at Myeongdong which is 10 min walk from our apartment.

Next destination ~ The Seoul Tower. The cable car station is a 15 min slope walk from our apartment. The walk wasn't that bad especially the weather is very cooling and we actually went back to the apartment to rest for more than 1/2 hr.

The cable car station to Seoul Tower. The cable cabin has only standing room with a capacity of abt 20 to 30 pax.We reached the Seoul Tower. The yellow leaves are the most beautiful among all the other color - purple, red, orange and yellow. Levin thinks so too.

Another attraction at the Seoul Tower is the Teddy Bear Museum. There are only 3 in Korea, ie Seoul, Sokcho and Jeju.The bears are so cuddlabe and even charlie could not resist them.The Museum uses teddy bear to illustrate the ancient and modern korea. I personally prefer the olden days display which is more interesting and very well presented with all the fine details. Some of the teddy bears can even moved and danced with music.

After which, we went for dinner and back to the apartment for an early night. Charlie was so tired that she actually slept throught dinner time and skipped her meal and milk while yy was so "stone" siting on the chair facing his port cultet rice but not eating much.

Day 2 (26 oct)

Second day ! we all slept well last night especially after a sleepless night on the plane. As for the apartment, it is clean and the beds are comfortable. We stayed in Seoul Tower Guesthouse. It is residence apartment converted to guesthouse. We paid about S$70 per night for a room with 2 single and 1 queen size bed, full basic facilities plus oven, water disperser, vacuum cleaner, fridge and washing machine. It is abt 7 min slope walk from Myeongdong stn. There are GS25 convenience stores and many small resturants along the way. Other than the 5 min slope cum stairway back each night. I would say Good choice! (ps on 3rd night onwards, we took taxi back from Myeongdong stn for less thanS$4) We went to the zoo today. The zoo is located inside the Seoul Grand Park which consists of the zoo, children zoo, rose garden, greenhouse plant land, lake, dolphin lagoon and Seoul Land theme park. It is very big. The distance from the ticketing counter to the entry of the park is approx 5 min ride on the elephant tram which is moving at a rather fast speed. Fortunately we opt for that if not by the time we reached the entry we would need to recharge our batteries. From the entrance, we took the sky lift which took us to the inner part of the zoo. Both levin and myself were muttering to ourselves how lucky we did not choose to walk in.

The sky lift which is about 2 to 3 storeys away from the ground.

Bought charlie a Hello Kitty balloon. At the end of the day while waiting for taxi, the balloon flown off, luckily she did not cry over it .

The animal displays are widely spread out. It is more like a park walk then a zoo trip. The walk was very enjoyable in the cool weather and there is no unpleasant smell at all.

Charlie is taking the weather very well. Infact I have planned to let her wear her pink sweater over this plain T shirt but she kept insisting she is hot and wanting to remove her sweater.
After the zoo, we went to Dongdaemum for shopping. Only bought a t shirt for yy. Walked past the Cheonggyechoeon Steam too.

Day 3 (27 oct 09)

The kids were too excited to sleep last night. They played and talked till past mid-night. This morning, they are too tired to wake up as per schedule and in the end we are 1 hr plus behind time.

First stop, COEX Aquarium. It is so much bigger as compared to our Underwater World at Sentosa. It has many theme and display hall. yy was wearing the t shirt we bought yesterday.

The display I liked best is the sardine fish. It is a very small and flat fish but they swim in a group and circular motion. The tank is big enough to hold shark thus it has ample room to allow the fishes to swim gracefully in BIG circular direction. Just by siting there watching the movement is already very peaceful and smoothing but of course with all the disturbance from the 2 little ones.

Next stop - Lotte World

Both levin and myself were a bit disappointed with it. As everyone is talking abt lotte world and everland being the 2 popular attractions not to be missed. I was under the impression that Lotte World is something like Disney land with lot of interesting characters and a big scale theme park. To my surprise, it's indoor area is like Genting Highland theme park while the outdoor park is rather small although the castle is quite beautiful.

By the time we finished our late lunch and it was about 3pm when we reached Lotte World.

Both Levin and myself slept late last night. He was busy working on his project while I tried to consolidate our expenses and doing laundry too. ps there is a washing machine and a balcony for drying clothing at our apartment. very shiok right.

I was so groggy and sleepy from the lack of sleep. I suggested that levin go with yy for the dragon ride (adventures of Sinbad) while I get myself a cup of coffee. When yy is back, he was crying hard cos the ride was scarely. I was under the impression that it was just a smooth ride in the valley of dragon and monsters. not awared that there were some up and down along the ride. After that, we went to the outdoor theme park to ride on some kiddy rides.

Charlie tried on her first "adverture" ride. She started to cry when it suddenly go down from a certain height.

By 5.45pm, the sky is totally dark. Infact, the sun starts to set around 4.30pm.

There was a parade at the end of the day with colorful lighted up floated and dance and some fireworks at the beginning.

Day 4 (28 oct 09)

Today itinerary is more of a city tour around ancient and artistic side of Seoul.

First stop, insadong street 仁寺洞 - a street full of smaller shops, galleries, teahouses and restaurants. Despite this is our first stop for the day, by the time we reached it was already noon time. Basically for the past few days except the first night, the kids will only sleep around midnight and wake up after 9pm, drink their milk and watch cartoon before we leave the apartment. Talking about F&E. ps : blessing in disguise too, I cant imagine what the morning scene is likes if we opt for tour package.

The first half of the insadong street consists of small shops selling souvenirs, craft works and unique accessories. However the second half of the street is more commercial with nothing much interesting. We noticed that shops at the side lanes are actually more artistic and appealing.

The building structure in this area are more unique too.

You can see quite a few teahouses along the street but we did not patronise them

as we just took our lunch and the kids will not appreciate them anyway.

Next stop, Gyeongbok Palace 景福宫 - one of the 5 palaces in Seoul. As we are behind schedule, by the time we reached the palace we missed all the 3 slots for english tour (11am, 1.30pm, 3.30pm) and 3 time slots for changing ceremony of royal guard. A pity especially the guard changing ceremony which is quite out of the ordinary :(

noticed the toy hanging round yy's neck. It is called Lotty - bought from Lotte World. Charlie dont have cos she was sleeping when we bought it. Too bad sleeping beauty.

Charlie was waving bye bye to one of the guard but they just stood there motionless and expressionless while tourists taking turn to take pictures with them. Kind of weird wonder what kind of training they been through.

By the time we left Gyeongbok, it was already sunset.
We proceeded to Namsangong - a free exhibits of 5 traditional houses and a range of activities. However when we reached, most of the activites had ended left with only some games left on the site and some cooking going on. It should be quite interesting with we have visited it in the daytime.

A game set was left on the ground.

The kids are testing out their skills throwing the arrows inside a tube.
I think they are cooking porridge. The funny part is they actually went to pick

branches for burning.Bow and arrow time ! Levin showing yy how to play with them.
Our last night at Seoul. We went ahead again to Myeongdong for dinner and some last min shopping for facial products.

Day 5 (29 oct 09)

5th day, we woke up every early today at 630am to catch the 830am coach at Hanhwa building. The apartment owner is kind enough to send us there this morning and also to allow us to leave our luggage with him for 2 days. The coach journey is abt 3 hr plus. Quite smooth except the part where yy vomited as he may has eaten too full in the morning. After we reached Sokcho, we managed to check in our hotel, rest, the kids took their lunch at the hotel restaurant then we headed for Soraksan.Surprising the weather was not any colder then in Seoul. I even packed long john along worrying that the weather may be cold afterall it is higher here, or is it? There are ample taxi waiting at the hanhwa condo resort and they do understand the destination in English (maybe the few popular sites at Sokcho)I specially like this stream which is located near to the entrance of temple. The big and off white rocks along the stream are so attractive.

The 10m tall bronze Buddha status situated at the temple.

We purchased the cable ticket ride and it allocated time is an hr later. the cable was rather big and may hold abt 50 pax each time. Levin was calculating how much money was generated from the cable ridership each year. After the ride up, we moved along with the crowd to the top of the mountain.

We have to walk along the stairs and unpaved road for abt 20 min.Finally we have reached the top of the Soraksan. It was definitely worth the trip. It was very windy and the view is super.
This is how charlie travelled up and down Soraksan.

Next we headed for the waterpia theme park which is within 10 min walk from our resort. It is a 100% spring water theme park with various hot spring baths and theme pool, both indoor and outdoor. We reached there after 5pm and the sky is already dark. There are 3 indoor theme pools ie aqua zone, spa zone and hot spring sauna and for outdoor there are the spa valley and shark wave pool. We are assigned female and male lockers for our shoes and proceeded to separate changing room with lockers for our clothing. After which, we went to the spa zone which is linked to the changing room. At the spa zone (indoor), they have the wave pool and spa area which is a warm pool cum acupuncture bath. The spa zone is linked to the aqua zone (indoor) via rainbow stream (outdoor). It was really an experience to swim outdoor at about 13 deg C. 13 deg C or higher I really dont know. The temp range is abt 10 to 20 deg C and we swimmed till 8pm so should be around there. It wasnt very cold as long we keep our shoulders and hands below the water. I would say even the kids, especially charlie, are enjoying themselves swimming outdoor. As it is too cold to walk outdoor in our swimming costumes, we did not visit the other theme pools ie spa valley (outdoor) and hot spring sauna (indoor) which should be quite exciting too.

One interesting thing to add here is the bathroom facilities they have are the open concept style (male and female separate of course). There is no partition or curtain at all, they just take their shower, dry their hair with the hair dryer, spin dry their swimming costumes in the dryer provided and proceed to the locker for their clothing. All these in nude. Lucky I did not go with anyone I know except for charlie who is screaming and crying cos she dont want to bath. As for me, I hurry rinsed myself and proceed to the locker to put on my clothing. So embarrassed.

http://www.seorakwaterpia.com/irsweb/waterpia/eng/index.asp