Breakfast at Holly’s coffee just around the corner of our hotel before the day’s tour of Seoul.
Breakfast at Holly’s coffee.Our breakfast.
Train to Anguk station and a walk to the UNESCO site of Changdeokgung Palace, huge and grand, fit for royalties.
Unesco Changdeokgung.Map of the palace.One of the many halls.Inside the hall.Pond inside the palace.Like a scene from a Korean drama.Tiny gate.Another pond in the compounds.Autumn colours.Yet another pond.
Huge place, took a while to walk around the compound and before we exited the palace and have lunch in some random Korean store.
The place we had lunch.Lunch at a Korean store.
Then another store to have a sweet fish pastry to desert.
Time for some dessert, shaped like a fish.End product.
Another palace visit, by walking there. Gyeongbokgung palace, similar size but more modern architecture.
One of the gates to Gyeongbokgung.Guards.Huge square to the next building.One of the halls.Inside one of the halls.Close view of the hall, such vibrant colours.Map of the palace grounds.Looks like the bedroom.Pond with a building in the middle.Another smaller pond.Pagoda within the compounds.Preservation jars for kimchi?Palace that had a mountain behind it.
After we completed the exploration within the palace compounds, we returned to the entrance where the changing of guards took place.
Changing of guards, retro style.
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.
Seodaemun Prison.Map of the prison.Some deadly contraption.Within the prison compound.Long corridor of cells.Communication between cell and guards.Reverence monument.Corpse tunnel.
Then it was shopping at night, got off at Dongdaemun station, there was a majestic gate called Heunginjimun near the station.
Dongdaemun entrance.Pyoung Hwa clothing market.Doota shopping mall.Doota entrance.Maxtyle shopping mall.Fountain within one of the mall (forgotten which)Dinner for the day.
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.
Bus stop 10A from airport to hotel.Stop to alight.Hotel Vision.RoomCame with side table.Bath tub.Looked hi-tech.Our station, Wangsinmi station
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.
Jogyesa Temple.Buddha within the temple.Tree at 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.
Starbucks in Korean.One of the many shopping streets in Seoul
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.
Namdaemun Market.The entrance
Didn’t stay long since there were anything and went back to the hotel, ending the first day in Seoul.
