Annyeong wonderful non-existent readers!
I have returned with a sudden burst of interest in writing a post on beautiful Seoul. 🙂
So I had the privilege to stop by Seoul for an extremely brief weekend (1.5 days) and my only wish was to cycle along the Han river. Odd, I know.
Took the red-eye into Seoul and by the time I got to my friend’s hotel it was 10am. I think I only had about 5 hours of sleep. Then off we go following my friendly colleague’s itinerary.
First stop Insadong. We stop by a sticky rice shop for breakfast.
Pumpkin porridge. Not really what I expected. Tasty but a little too sticky.
They have some pretty streets here and also a nice shopping area.
Ssamziegil. A place for instagram worthy Mary Poppins impersonators?
Walked a bit and headed to Bukchon for more accessories shopping. Not for me but my fellow wanderers.
Along the way I see many beautiful modern hanboks and wandered could I wear this to attend weddings? Kinda expensive and a bit warm for the Malaysian weather though… hmmm…
Beautiful but expensive hanbok. I’ll probably need to be pretty slim too.
Bukchon is a much nicer area to walk around than Insadong. Maybe cause it’s a bigger area and there are much more shops. Quite a number of shops were converted from the traditional hanoks too.
Time for a break and we had one of the best bingsu (shaved ice) at Bukchon Bingsu. I always felt that ice kacang was better than bingsu but the bingsu here changed my perception. hahah
The entrance to Bukchon Bingsu. Yum!
This is starting to feel like an eating trip because our next trip was to Tosokchon for Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken).
We all ordered the black chicken with wild ginseng. Boy, that was one delicious ginseng chicken! I would definitely go back for this one.
And the night was still not ending yet. We headed to Hongdae to experience the “nightlife”. Wandered around a bit, did some shopping, stopped by a cafe and it started raining heavily. Not the most ideal and we only had 1 umbrella for 4 of us. It was difficult to get a cab but we made it in the end.
The next day we woke up to meet a nice Korean lady I met in Vietnam. There was light rain in the morning and were wondering where she would bring us. I had told her I felt like eating Bossam. But it seemed a little heavy in the morning. Irregardless, we took the train and headed to the Jongno 3 station.
She brought us to a back alley nearby where there were about 3 or 4 Bossam shops. There were also pig’s feet soaked in water. I’m sure this place has really delicious food.
The oyster Bossam was really good! You take a piece of lettuce leaf, place a piece of boiled pork, oyster, some sauce, a kimchi, wrap it and savour the flavour.
The shop throws in a free gamja tang (pork bone soup) and pan fried fish. We were absolutely stuffed.
Of course, when we left the restaurant it was raining heavier. We took a short walk to a beautiful place called Inseokdong. It’s kinda like Bukchon where the shops are refurbished from old hanoks. Very beautiful place.
Inseokdong: My favourite place between Insadong, Bukchon and Inseokdong
It’s not as popular with tourists yet, but I foresee it will be in the near future.
We headed to Myeongdong after that to buy some masks before I had to head off to the airport for my flight to Shanghai. I vowed to return as I obviously did not complete what I had set out to do. To cycle along the Han river. I did take a taxi ride along the Han river. LOL
1.5 day itinerary
Day 1 – Insadong, Bukchon, Tosokchon (Ginseng chicken), Hongdae
Day 2 – Jongno 3, Inseokdong, Myeongdong
It was a packed schedule but it was kinda nice and relaxing nonetheless. We made a lot of rest stops in between which was good. There are also lotsa cafes in Seoul which is not unexpected actually. If only the weather was better.
That’s all folks! Hope you enjoyed this short recap of my trip. I don’t know when I’ll write again but hopefully it’ll be soon 🙂
Destiny... I'm coming! 