After our Taiwan tour, we flew from Taipei to Seoul. Seoul is so much “brighter” than Taiwan. There were big screen TVs everywhere. At night the city seemed to be so vibrant and bustling. We landed in the late afternoon, but after getting our luggage and going through customs, we were driving from Inchon to Seoul right at rush hour. It took us TWO hours to get through traffic to our hotel.
Day 1
We stayed at Home Stay Namsan for the week (entrance is right next to Starbucks), which was very conveniently located right above the Chungmuro subway Station. The apartment had a full bath, stove, large fridge, bed and a sitting area—but most importantly, a washer and dryer! That was my main requirement when looking for a place to stay, since by the time we arrived in Seoul, it would be week 3 of our trip and I didn’t want to have to pack too much clothes. We immediately used Google translate and did a load of laundry before heading out to Myeongdong.
Myeongdong, an area known for shopping and eating, has the flagship store HBAF where every imaginable flavor of almonds was present.
More almond flavors at HBAF. I got cookies and cream, honey butter, baked corn, ttbokkei, boba milk tea, and tiramisu flavored almonds to try.
There’s also a Butters:) shop which has all things cute and various areas for photo ops.
Myeongdong had lots of street food stalls. We got the sausage encased in fish cake from this stall (5000won, $3.50) and it was good on its own, but much better with a healthy squirt of ketchup which they had as a condiment.
We also tried this cheese kimchi pork roll (10,000won, $7). They flame grill it and cut it into pieces and then you can put on a BBQ, spicy gochujang, a mild ssamjang or wasabi mayo sauce. Or use all 4 sauces like we did if you want! Stay near the stall, cuz then you can apply more sauce as you eat. The rolls really needed the sauce for flavor.
Fried potatoes coated in cheese powder... Nothing special or unique as we have these tornado potatoes at carnivals in the states, but who can resist the smell of fresh French fries?
Day 2
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast pastries and coffee at Paris Baguette across the street, and headed to Gyeongbokgong Palace via subway.
Gyeongbokgong Palace was originally constructed in 1394 during the Joseon dynasty, but had to be rebuilt TWICE because it was destroyed by fire during the Imjin War 1592-1598, and then again during Japanese occupation in 1915. We got to the palace by 8:30AM, bought our tickets, and took some pictures outside the entrance. That’s when we heard over the PA system that the changing of the guards performance was canceled due to bad air quality. We were so bummed! But nothing we could do, so we entered the palace and started exploring.
We got to Throne hall (Geunjeongjeon) first. Look how intricately detailed and colorful the hall is.
Throne Hall is where the king would give speeches and greet foreign ambassadors during the Joseon dynasty.
Strolled by Donggung, the residence of the crown prince and his wife.
There were no cherry blossoms at the palace, but the gardens here were still beautiful. There were lots of people dressed up in hanboks (traditional Korean clothing) taking pictures here.
The pavilion on a man made lake that is at the back of the palace was especially gorgeous. It’s been featured in many Kdramas and is a definite “must see”. At around this time is when we heard a very faint drumming sound. Are they DOING the changing of the guards right now even when originally they said it was cancelled?! I looked at my watch and it was 10AM, which was the original scheduled time for this performance. So we raced back to the front of the palace, and sure enough, it’s happening!!!
Changing of the Guards happens everyday at 10AM and 2PM. The ceremony lasts about 15 to 20 minutes. Luckily, we got there in time to see most of this, and only missed about a few minutes in the beginning. After this, we waited around the courtyard by the ticket booth for the English tour of the palace at 11AM. Since this was a free tour, there were at least 60 people, so it was hard to hear what the guide was saying. But she took us to the throne hall, the king’s quarters, queen’s quarters, king’s mother’s quarters and then ended the tour at the lake pavilion.
After the palace tour, we walked over to Bukchon Hanok Village. There’s a shaved ice place called Samcheong Bingsu, up on the 2nd floor, so we stopped in for this mango bingsu (13,000 won, $10). The shaved ice was super fine and had lots of flavor even without the mango sauce thanks to the condensed milk that’s already embedded in the ice before shaving. One was big enough to share!
We had lunch at Snack Seoul Samcheongdong Restaurant. The fried squid (10,000 won) came as huge tentacles. They gave us scissors to cut the squid and it was delicious —tender yet snappy, and crispy. The tteokbokki with pollack cod roe sauce (14,000 won) was not too spicy and very flavorful. Really good, cuz I’m a wimp and can’t take the super spicy red ones at the street food carts.
Bukchon Hanok Village: a hilly neighborhood in central Seoul with the largest collection of privately owned hanoks. Hanoks are the traditional tiled roof houses of Korea. The wooden door here is so ornate.
Strolling down one of the streets in Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village: it was very crowded here with tons of tourists taking pictures and so it’s hard to find a time when people have cleared out to take a nice picture.
So this is a more realistic picture of what you will experience at Bukchon Hanok Village. Not too enjoyable…
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP): designed in 2009 by Zaha Hadid, and inaugurated in 2014, DDP is a massive and futuristic looking building. It houses various shops and art installations/exhibits. Since we got here at 8PM, DDP was closed, so we could only explore the outside. This is a picture from one of the entrances.
As you can see from various angles, the architecture of Dongdaemun Design Plaza is quite amazing.
Heunginjimun Gate: East gate of the former fortress wall of Seoul is nearby DDP and looks much prettier at night when it’s lit up.
we could watch her roll out the noodles and cut them as we ate.
Gwanggang Market: knife cut noodle soup (6000 won), kimchi and pork mandu (6000 won). Everything, even the kimchi was so good. Can you believe that when she first started out, the other stalls were jealous, and put garbage bags at her stall and told her she was garbage and to leave? So I’m happy to see how successful her stall is now, as it was 9PM and still very busy.
Gwanggang Market: For dessert, we stood in a long line to pick up these freshly fried twisted donuts (1000 won each, ie 70 cents). Nothing special, but there’s probably a long line because this was so cheap. Don’t get me wrong though, freshly fried dough is always delicious.
After dinner, we walked back home via the Cheonggyecheon Stream. It's really a nice oasis among the busy hustle and bustle of Seoul.
Day 3
The next day, we used the same stream to walk to the Fortress Wall Museum. It’s about a 40-45 minutes walk, but very enjoyable and much better than walking above on the streets. You can even have an early lunch like we did along the stream’s banks.
Cheonggyecheon Stream: this is a 6.8 mile stream that flows through downtown Seoul and connects to the Han River. Interestingly, it was used as Seoul’s early sewage system until the Korean War. After the war, people started putting tents up, and it became such an eyesore, the government decided to fill the stream up with concrete. In 2003, the mayor decided to remove the concrete and restore the stream to what it is today. 
We purchased some gimbaps at the shop downstairs of our apartment so we could eat by the stream.
Vegetarian gimbap (3500 won, $3) wasn’t all veggies as there’s fish cake in there! 😂 I thought that was funny. But it could also have been a google translate failure. Ha ha. The tuna gimbap (4500 won, $4) was the same as the vegetarian one, except the fishcake and egg were replaced with tuna mayo. They were both tasty—not too much rice, lots of fillings
This egret watched as we ate our brunch here.
Seoul City Wall Museum: the museum was quite interesting and had lots of English panels. It explained how the Joseon Dynasty king decided to pick Seoul as the capital and how the fortress protected Seoul for over 600 years. Today, some sections of the fortress remains in tact and you can walk outside the museum to check it out. Pictured above is a scaled model of Seoul and the lit up part is the fortress wall.
Seoul City Wall Museum: the fortress wall was constantly monitored and repaired when needed during the various kings’ reigns. This panel describes the different styles during Taejo, Sejong, Sukjong, and Sunjo’s reigns.
After the museum, walk outside to hike along parts of the fortress.
After the museum, we walked back to DDP so we could see what exhibitions were inside. They had a section featuring the use of AI in the future for the beauty industry. So for example, they had a station where they analyzed your skin for wrinkles and age spots and recommended a face cream product that would be good for you. Or they had this station pictured above where they analyzed your face and recommended the following hair cuts. And they recommended GRAY hair for me in some of the suggestions. Do I look THAT OLD? It was hilarious!😆
There was also a hello kitty exhibit at DDP because 2024 is Hello Kitty’s 50th Anniversary!
Close to DDP is the Sulbing Cafe. It’s a chain selling bingsu and I think they even just opened one here in the Bay Area. We got the combo—strawberry bingsu and kinako (soy bean powder) bingsu with mochi bits and condensed milk (16000 won, $12). It was good, but not as good as the one we had yesterday in Bukchon village.
After resting at the apartment for a bit, we took the subway to Gangnam CoEx Mall . Of course, we had to take a picture of the Gangnam hands statue
The Starfield library at the COEX mall is pretty neat too. It has floor to ceiling shelves of books and tables where you can snack and read. That’s such a foreign concept to me because I grew up where libraries had a strict no food and drinks allowed policy.
We had dinner at Songgang Freshwater Eel near the Bongeunsa subway Station (126,000 won, $95). We accidentally ordered too much food. I thought I ordered a half soy sauce eel, and a half bbq eel with rice, but instead it turned out I ordered a whole soy sauce eel, a whole spicy bbq eel, PLUS two half soy sauce eels with rice. So imagine when we were served the above, and then part way through eating, they brought another set of eel. The waitress said she didn’t think our order was wrong because ours was a common order among Koreans. WOW, really? They can eat 1.5 WHOLE large eels per person, plus all the sides? Anyways, we couldn’t even finish a whole eel per person, let alone the other two half eels, so we asked for “to go” boxes. Side dishes were a rich bone soup, cabbage salad, cold seaweed soup, soy marinated quail eggs, stewed mushrooms, bean sprouts, garlic chives. The raw garlic, raw ginger, ssamjang sauce, and perilla and lettuce leaves are for wrapping your grilled eel. The eel itself with lettuce was tasty without the raw garlic and ginger or ssamjang sauce. The raw garlic and ginger was too strong and masked the eel flavors.
From Bongeunsa station, we took the train to Banpo Hangang Park. After getting off the Express bus terminal station , you still have to walk 22 minutes to get here, but as you are walking, pay attention to when you can cross the street and take a ramp down the the river. Otherwise you end up at the top of Banpo bridge where the cars go. You want to be below the bridge by the river. From here, you can watch the nightly water fountain show at 8PM, 8:30PM, and 9PM. Lots of people brought fried chicken, etc, and picnicked here while watching the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain . It’s in the Guinness book of world records for the longest bridge fountain. It was installed in 2008 and pumps 190 tons of water per minute into the Han River.
Rainbow bridge fountain show. We stayed to watch all 3 shows
Rainbow bridge fountain show. Each show is about 20 minutes and accompanied with songs. There’s maybe a 10 minute break between the shows.
After the fountain shows, we walked over to the nearby chain of man made floating islands, Sevit Island. It’s pretty at night when everything’s lit up and we saw some people renting boats from the island. There was also a beer garden and a convention center hall, but other than that, not much else.
Before calling it a night, we stopped by A twosome place for a peach boba tea drink (7000 won, $5). It was good with real bits of peach and a good tea flavor. This was a chain dessert and drink place.
Day 4
Today was Saturday with rain in the forecast. So we planned to walk over to the Hanok village nearby, then meet my old boss from my chemistry days for lunch, followed by a museum.
Namsangol Hanok Village: this is a recreation of 5 hanoks of folklore that had been scattered around Seoul. It opened in 1998 and has the 5 hanoks, a theater, garden and a time capsule. It was quite enjoyable to stroll through here and pretend you are back in the Joseon -era. There’s also activities such as making traditional rice cakes, or making key chains, baskets, bows and arches, traditional Korean games, etc that you can pay a nominal fee to participate.
Namsangol Hanok Village: A recreation of a bedroom during the Joseon-era
Namsangol Hanok Village: A recreation of a traditional kitchen during Joseon times.
Namsangol Hanok Village: traditional Gardens have a nice view of Namsam tower too!
Lunch with my former boss and his wife during my Exelixis days. They moved back to Seoul more than 13 years ago and I haven’t seen them since. So this was a great reunion to catch up. They never age!
Leeum Art Museum: We read on a blog that suggested this museum, so we made reservations for 4PM on a rainy day. The museum held traditional art pieces in a modern building with two cool staircases (pictured above and below). It was just an OK museum. I probably would not recommend this for first time visitors to Seoul. The workers there were a bit rude.
Leeum Art Museum: the other cool staircase
I call this “The mistake dinner”: I warmed up all our leftover bbq eel from last night and ate in the apartment. It was totally enough for a filling dinner for two. I still can’t believe the waitress said it’s very common for Koreans to eat all this, plus the two eels we had last night, for just one meal. They have big appetites!
Day 5
Today, we had booked a tour of the DMZ at 10AM. I originally wanted to grab some bakery items and gimbap at the shops downstairs as our snack and lunch for the tour, but it turns out that the shops downstairs were closed on Sundays! So we walked across the street to Paris baguette to pick up some savory buns for lunch and sweet ones for breakfast. They do have restaurants at the rest stop on the DMZ tour, but you are not given very much time to eat. Maybe about 10-15 minutes, so we were glad we had our baked buns. We saw others on the tour standing in line to buy food to go, and running back to the bus. You are not allowed to eat on the bus, so they had to wait for the next rest stop to eat outside.
DMZ: This is a 4 km wide demilitarized zone, 2 km on each North and South Korea side, running roughly along the 38th Parallel. The 38th Parallel was the original boundary line between the US and Soviet Unions administration of the two koreas in 1948. On 25June1950, North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. In the Armistice agreement on 27July1953, both sides agreed to move their troops 2 km behind the front line (which was roughly around the 38th Parallel), creating the DMZ. So technically, the two koreas are still at war, which is why borders on both sides of the DMZ are one of the most heavily militarized in the world. On our tour to the DMZ, soldiers came in the bus to check our passports. We were not allowed to take pictures of any of the soldiers, barbed wire fences, or anything military related.
DMZ: On the tour, we got to explore 265 meters of the 3rd infiltration tunnel, up to the point where there is the 3rd blockade. In Sept 1974, a North Korean defector informed the South Korean military of the tunnel. In 1978, the tunnel was located. The tunnel is very narrow and there’s evidence that this was intended to be used by the north to invade South Korea. There are now 3 blockades to close off the tunnel with CCTV cameras to monitor any activity. Tourists were allowed in 2004. As tourists, we wear helmets and go down the walk way about 350 meters to the entrance, and then hunch over to explore 265 meters of this narrow tunnel that is humid (from seeping natural water). It’s a bit strenuous since you’re bent over most of the time. If you’re short and small, then you will have an easier time, because you can walk normally. No pictures allowed. In fact you had to put your purse, phones, etc in a keyed locker outside before entering the tunnel. By the way, there are 4 infiltration tunnels discovered thus far, hence the nomenclature.
DMZ: telescopes are available to look at the North Korean side. I wonder if they have scopes looking at us?
DMZ: can you spot the North Korean flag?
DMZ: when the DMZ was created, there were thousands of villages that had to be cleared out, but two were allowed to remain in the DMZ. One village on the north side and one on the south side of the DMZ line. These were supposed to be beacons of hope that the DMZ was temporary and reunification would happen one day. But it’s now been 70 years…anyways, this here was a rest stop where we could buy soy bean ice cream and other soy bean treats.
Seoul City Hall: The DMZ tour ended around 5PM at city hall. I can see why some described city hall as a metal and glass looking tsunami building…
Seoul City Hall: the inside was neat too, with its huge living wall. These plants are real!
Dinner at this all you can eat Korean BBQ place In Myeongdong. They had various cuts of pork, marinated chicken thighs, and thinly sliced beef to BBQ over wood charcoal which was nice. They also had soups and some sides and lettuce to wrap the meats. It was good!
After dinner, we walked to Cheonggye plaza, where the Cheonggyecheon stream starts.
The start of the stream is characterized by this giant cone sculpture called “Spring”. It was created by Swedish pop artists and meant to be a symbol of renewal.
We continued walking north along the Main Street to see the statue of Admiral Yi-Sun-Sin. He is best known for his military prowess during the Imjin War. The statue sits behind the 12.23 fountain which commemorates the 23 battles he fought with 12 war ships.
At Gwanghwamun plaza, Statue of King Sejong, the 4th king of the Joseon dynasty best remembered for his invention of Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
And then ended the night taking some night photos of Gyeongbokgong Palace
Day 6
Today, we walked around downtown Seoul, visited Seoullo, upon a friends recommendation, did food souvenir shopping at Lotte Market, walk to Namdaemun Market, and ended the day at Namsan tower.
Breakfast pastries from the cafe downstairs: red bean bun, sausage buns, Kougin Amman, purple sweet potato bun (mochi texture on the outside with mashed purple sweet potato inside), chestnut bun
Seoullo, a raised walkway along downtown Seoul.
Namdaemun market: hotteok (pan fried pancake filled with honey)
Namdaemun market: kimchi and pork dumplings
Lunch at BHC fried chicken. We got half oriental and half spicy garlic. It was a lot and we couldn’t finish this since we already snacked at Namdaemun market and also had a drink at a Twosome Place afterwards.
Namsan Tower: we took the bus to Neman tower. There's a wall of love locks. You can buy a lock from the vending machine on site, write a message , and add to the wall.
Namsan Tower love locks area
Namsan tower sunset views
Namsan tower night views. Yes, we stayed here quite some time to wait for the sky to get dark
Namsan tower: There’s a vending machine that makes cotton candy!
The end result was cool!
Day 7
This morning, we took a walk back to the cheonggye stream, before checking out and taking the airport bus. We got to the airport super early to the point that United checkin desks weren’t even open yet. Well, we didn’t want to be late, and seeing how it took two hours to get to Seoul from the airport, we budgeted 2 hours as well to get back. Turned out to only be a 1 hour and 5 min ride. So we could have done a bit more sightseeing. Oh well. All in all, we had fun in Seoul and will need to come back to see other parts of Korea.