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.

Bus 10A from airport to hotel.
Bus stop 10A from airport to hotel.
Stop to alight.
Stop to alight.
Hotel Vision.
Hotel Vision.
Room
Room
Came with side table.
Came with side table.
Bath tub.
Bath tub.
Looked hi-tech.
Looked hi-tech.
Our station.
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.
Jogyesa Temple.
Buddha within the temple.
Buddha within the temple.
Tree at the compound.
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.

Insadong Geujip restaurant
Side dishes.
Side dishes.
Hotplate mains.
Hotplate mains.

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.
Starbucks in Korean.
IMG_0052
One of the many shopping streets in Seoul

There was also underground shopping center at the Jonggak subway station.

Jonggak Underground shopping center.
Jonggak Underground shopping center.
Jongak Underground.
Jonggak Underground.

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.
Namdaemun Market.
The entrance
The entrance

Didn’t stay long since there were anything and went back to the hotel, ending the first day in Seoul.