South Korea 2011 Day 7 – Yonggungsa Temple, Gwangandaegyo Bridge and Busan shopping
Category: South Korea
South Korea 2011 Day 6 – Beomeosa Temple, Geumjeong Fortress, Seokbul-sa Temple and Jagalchi Market
South Korea 2011 Day 5 – Day trip to historical town of Gyeongju
South Korea 2011 Day 4 – Seoraksan cable car, Gwongeumseong Fortress and bus to Daegu
South Korea 2011 Day 3 – To Seoraksan, Sinheungsa and hiking
South Korea 2011 Day 2 – Palace hopping, Seodaemun Prison and Shopping
Breakfast at Holly’s coffee just around the corner of our hotel before the day’s tour of Seoul.
Train to Anguk station and a walk to the UNESCO site of Changdeokgung Palace, huge and grand, fit for royalties.
Huge place, took a while to walk around the compound and before we exited the palace and have lunch in some random Korean store.
Then another store to have a sweet fish pastry to desert.
Another palace visit, by walking there. Gyeongbokgung palace, similar size but more modern architecture.
After we completed the exploration within the palace compounds, we returned to the entrance where the changing of guards took place.
The last attraction of the day was to visit a prison, Seodaemun Prison, taking a one stop from Anguk to Dongnimmun station, and a short walk to the entrance. A much smaller compound compared to the palaces and manageable to complete exploring within an hour.
Then it was shopping at night, got off at Dongdaemun station, there was a majestic gate called Heunginjimun near the station.
A mixture of malls from trendy fashion at a costlier price at Doota mall and Maxtyle mall to the more affordable market like stores Pyoung Hwa clothing market.
South Korea 2011 Day 1 – Arrival in Seoul, Jogyesa Temple and Jonggak shopping.
Caught a red eye flight with a transit in Hong Kong. Finally arrived at Incheon airport in the afternoon. To get to our affordable accommodation, Hotel Vision, in Seoul, we took bus 6101 from bus 10A from the airport and alight at Seongdong-Gu stop.
Got to first attraction by subway, minutes walk from our accommodation, then walked to Jogyesa Temple, but it looked closed by the time we arrived. Didn’t enter but just walked around the compound.
Then we walked along looking for a place for dinner and ended up in a Insadong Geujip restaurant that looked like quite cosy (and crowded) and had tasty hot plate meals.
After dinner, we roamed the busy streets brightened from the lights from the retail stores on both sides of the road. Ujeongguk-ro was one of the streets.
There was also underground shopping center at the Jonggak subway station.
Hopped onto the train, headed for the last location. Thought that there would be night markets like those in Taiwan and visited Namdaemun Market. However, upon reaching, found that the place was almost closing.
Didn’t stay long since there were anything and went back to the hotel, ending the first day in Seoul.
Escape Plan to South Korea October 2011
A brief summary on the itinerary
Escape Plan to South Korea 2011:
Total duration 13D12N
South Korea is 1hrs ahead of Singapore.
Flight time is 11hrs 50mins on Cathay Pacific with a transit at Hong Kong before arrival at Incheon Airport.
Morning flight is on Cathay Pacific on 26th October at 1:15am and arrival in Hong Kong at 5:10am and depart Hong Kong at 9:30am and arrive at Seoul at 2:05pm.
Return flight is on Cathay Pacific on the 7th November at 10:15am and arrival in Hong Kong at 1:15pm and transfer to 4pm flight and arrival at 7:45pm in Singapore on the 7th November.
Day 1 – Arrival in Seoul, Jogyesa Temple and Jonggak shopping.
Day 2 – Palace hopping, Seodaemun Prison and Shopping
Day 3 – Mt. Sorak and Sinheungsa Temple
Day 4 – Seoraksan cable car, Gwongeumseong Fortress and bus to Daegu
Day 5 – Day trip to historical town of Gyeongju
Day 6 – Beomeosa Temple, Geumjeong Fortress, Seokbul-sa Temple and Jagalchi Market
Day 7 – Yonggungsa Temple, Gwangandaegyo Bridge and Busan shopping
Day 8 – From Busan to Jeju and Mysterious Road, Miniature Land and rocks
Day 9 – Seongsan Ilchulbong, Manjanggul Lava Cave, Sangumburi Crater, Jeju Folk Museum and Haenyeo Woman Divers
Day 10 – Daepo Jusangjeolli Cliff, Teddy Bear Museum, Sanbangsan and flight from Jeju to Seoul
Day 11 – DMZ tour – world’s most heavily fortified border
Day 12 – Shopping again at Seoul
Day 13 – Home Sweet Home
This escape plan was planned to cover 2 days of public holiday consecutively to minimise the number of leave days required, so that 7 days leave yielded 13 days of holidaying.
Budget nature: Affordable outside city.
Other than the big cities where prices were expected to be higher, moving around the other areas of this big country can be pretty affordable. Take public transportation and stay at non-luxurious accommodation to bring costs down.
Complexity: Not so straightforward.
Cities and tourist places were very well connected with public transport. However, language became a barrier for communication especially outside Seoul. The hand language worked though, and the translation on Lonely Planet guide book made it easier.
Driving in Jeju helped to us to get from places to places effectively in the huge island and since traffic was light, it was not difficult to drive.