First Day: Myeongdong Market

After a bigwalk at Gyeoungbokgung, we took the same underground back to Myeongdong where we stayed. Myeongdong means the "the street of light". This is very true. The street never sleep. This might be the most popular street for shopping. There were many things you can buy here especially clothes and food. Prices are not very expensive and there are so many thing you can shop. There are department stores and also street shops. Plenty of restaurant are there.

Myeongdong market is the place that Thai tourists never miss. Many of them come to buy cosmetics here. There are plenty of popular Korean brand name cosmetics shops here. I was the one who bought a lot of them. Of course, I was not using it. They were the order from my friends. All girls know that buying them in Korea, the price was a half from purchasing in Thailand.

We took a walk around the market for a while before taking a rest at a coffee shop. It was a very big day. We were making decision about getting up to N-Seoul Tower on Namsan mountain which is not very far from our place. The answer was we were too tired and we just had some dinner before going to Chonggechon canal tonight. I decided to come back here next day to buy cosmetics as the order.

First Day:Gyeoungbokgung

This is the main palace of Joseon dynasty built by King Yi Seong-gye,in the year 1395. The palace was rebuilt again in the year 1868 after razing in the japanese invasion period during 1592-1598. Travelling to Gyeoungbokgung was easy. We took the underground from Myeongdong where we stayed to be there.After we arriving, we was surprised by the very large and wide area of the palace. To sightseeing around the palace, if you wanted to completed watching every spot, I could tell you that it might take almost whole day.Be careful, you might get lost to your friend easily as I did. It took around couple hours for me to find them but on another hand, this gave me a plenty of mangnificent photo shots.

The ticket office

Heungryemun Gate

 

The throne hall of the palace

Inside the palace

gate inside
Joseonean guard

Travelling to Seoul city

From Thailand, travelling to Korea doesn't take a long time only 6 hours if you fly straight away from Bangkok. However, the tickets to fly straight to Seoul was all booked.I therefore had to choose to transfer at Taiwan.

Time to fly had come. There were two guys and one girl in this trip. China Airline brought us from Bangkok at noon, only four hours the plane arrived at Taoyuan airport.We spent two hours sitting and eatting there. Then we checked in again to be on board with Korean Air. Only two hours, we arrived at Incheon airport.

It was dark already due to it was two hours before Thailand.

The first night we stayed at a guesthouse near the airport.Do not talk about the temperature, the spring was getting started and it looked like it had just stop snowing.In the mid of April, Incheon was still very cold. Flowers hadn't bloomed yet.

In the morning, we leaved the Incheon for Seoul. Subway was very good choice for travelling due to the price and short time. We took four trains to get to Myeongdong area, the city centre. We took a big walk up to the hill.Finally, we reached Namsan Guest house exhaustly. This was the place for staying whole trip.

South Korean Basic information for travelers

What I was amused about South Korea was how the country recovered from war very quickly and finally had become one of the largest economy countries in Asia. It was not easy for a country that suffered from many wars like South Korea which survived from the Second World War and Korean war. However, South Korean still scared from North Korean threat. When I was in Seoul last years, people were still be mourning from the incident of South Korean battle ship, missiled and sunk.

South Korea has four season spring, summer autumn winter. Spring started around at the end of March. Spring is the good period for visiting Korea. The weather is not too cold and getting warmer. Winter and summer might be very different in temperature. No wonder,  people from hot countries like me would not be familiar with the strong winter in Korea.

Moreover, Korean food now is getting popular. There are many style of food more than I have tried in Thailand. Restaurants and food kiosks are everywhere and some open 24 hrs. Of course, beside Kimji, you will understand more about the test of Korean food.

Travelling in Korea by yourself, map is very necessary. Not many Korean understand English well. Language might be barrier to interact with them but most of them are helpful and try to understand what you say. They are willing to help travelers even though they cannot understand English. However, what I found about the people was South Korean men were strong smokers.I think 60 – 70% of them smoke and drink a lot. Packs of Cigarette can be bought in every street kiosks.  Money from smokers might be a large part of Korean GDP. Furthermore, South Korea is well known in plastic surgery as South Korean ladies have more choices for their beauty.

Finally, South Korea government now is trying hard to promote the country.Culture and tourism is one of the effective strategies. As many things related to tradition were destroyed in the war time.The government has tried hard to recover them and present the identity of the countries by using its modern technologies.

Beginning of the spring in Seoul: South Korean recommended visiting program

Talking about South Korea, many Thai people know more about it because of TV series, dramas or songs. Nobody refuse that K-Pop culture has influenced teenagers all around East and South East Asia. In the rapid stream of Korean fever in Thailand, I am one of the people who never think about visiting Korea like other until my friend told me that it was not expensive to get there. However, as I really need to go oversea to relax and refresh myself from working. I agreed with him and booked tickets couple days later. As the long weekend of Songkran festival in Thailand, I finally sent the annual leave request for 3 days in the middle of April. Oh god,this was going to be a trip in spring time.Flowers and Sakura were wating for me. As I didn’t expect much about this trip but when I arrived Korea, my thinking was getting changed.