thoughts escaping my mind
Who would’ve thought a big city would fall asleep on 1st January?
Turns out this happens in Seoul. Major department stores are closed. Some small shops open.
And it turns out majority of the galleries and shops in the Bukchon & Samcheongdong area, found between the two famous palaces of Gyeongbok Palace and Changdeok Palace, were closed.
Continue reading “Old Neighbourhood of Bukchon and Ewha Womans University”
New Year’s Eve and we decided to not set the alarm clock as we had to the day before. But the body clock, all out of whack got us up around 8am.
We got to the trendy gingko tree lined street of Garosugil by 9:30am and discovered half the shops were closed for the new year, and those that were planning on being open only opened their doors around 11am.
Continue reading “Garosugil, Insadong, Dongdaemun Markets, Cheonggyecheon at Night”
On 30th December, the third day of our visit to Seoul, we headed to the demilitarized zone along the border separating North from South.
After so many expectations, getting a 7-day pre-tour approval to visit it because Singapore is under the UN’s list of restricted countries, making sure we didn’t break any of the dress code, waking up early to get to the tour office by 8am, the tour was a letdown.
29th December. I woke up super hungry in Seoul.
Out of the hotel, we turned around the corner and found noodles. We pointed at pictures without any real idea of what we ordered.
While waiting, we had the kimchi. Out of all the restaurants, I enjoyed this version of the kimchi best. The cold soup of raw vegetables reminded me that I’ve had very few greens and fruit on my US trip.
Continue reading “Deosukgung Walk, Gyeonghuigung, Revitalised Cheonggyecheon”
Unlike my earlier trip to Hong Kong where I did a little reading on the country, I visited Seoul with zero expectations of it, except for my already-booked tour to the DMZ.
Besides the confusing names, arriving in about an hour late at around 6:45pm, it was dark, and after a flight where I barely got sleep, it felt like it was 11pm.