Our original plan was to spend the entire day at the Namsan/Myeongdong area before heading over to Namsan Tower at night to enjoy the night view. Sounds pretty good right? But more about that later.
First up, Namsan Hanok Village. I wasn't in charge of planning Seoul's itinerary apart from where and what to eat, so I was quite surprised when we arrived. Turns out I've visited here the previous time before! Visited...ish. I think I hid in the washroom most of the time to avoid the cold before succumbing to the cafe nearby. The cold was totally owning my ass. But I made up for it this time!
There weren't a lot of tourists around so we got to explore the place by ourselves, which was nice and all....until we spotted this. Now, if you are familiar with Korean dramas, you would know what this game is about.
We were laughing at our failed attempts at first and then before we know it...
Hui: I'm not leaving till I get this in okay.
Me: Ya me too.
You should have seen the way I picked up the sticks, it was serious business. ఠ_ఠ But we weren't too shabby at aiming la, we both scored eventually!
Walked over to Myeongdong after. Huihui was the guide, of course. I cannot stress enough how good she is with maps and directions, and how much I trust her gut when it comes to navigation. Whenever she would try and justify taking a certain shortcut she spotted on the map/cutting through some dodgy alleyway, this would be my answer.
Me: Aiya you don't have to explain to me how it works. I trust you!
Serious. Also, my horrible sense of direction is accompanied with a lack of panic when I am lost, so it's safer trusting her gut than mine.
*while climbing up some stairs*
Hui: ...and then we can just walk from exit 7.
Me: (not really paying attention) Uh huh, okay.
Hui: I saw 7!
Me: (´⊙ω⊙`)! WHAT? For real?? Where!
Hui: So excited for what! There. *points at exit 7*
Me: What?? Wher-oh cheyyyyyyyyy.
I almost had a seizure from the change of emotions I felt. Can you imagine if it was really him? My goodness. Huihui laughed at me for quite awhile after that.
Shopping time! We haven't done any proper shopping since we arrived, so things got a little...enthusiastic.
Tried on a ridiculous amount of clothes that I had to snap photos to remember how they look like on me/ask for a second opinion. When Hui saw the amount of clothes that I was putting into the shopping bag, she immediately said "Remember that we still have Ewha Women's University okay?".
Me: ಥ_ಥ Okay...
Ended up getting only 3 items. Well, 4, if you count the one that I went back and bought the following day. Couldn't resist la.
Hui on the other hand, went bonkers on nail polishes. I turn my back on her at Etude house for 5 minutes and she had 10 bottles sitting in her shopping basket. What in the world. The following is an excerpt of the conversation we were having before we started shopping.
Me: Eh don't buy too many nail polishes hor. You have a ton at home already.
Hui: Ya I know. 买太多也是放在家里干。
SAY ONLY. Hahahaha.
Continued to walk around Myeongdong when it started pouring out of nowhere. We were lucky to be near the restaurant when it happened because seriously, the roads were already flooding when we got there.
The famous Myeongdong Gyoja!
THIS. This ruined DTF's xiao long baos for me. I could never go back to appreciating xlbs the way I did before, it's just not possible. By the way, they only offer 4 items on the menu and the restaurant was packed full of people. Says a lot about the food.
The next day! Woke up early and made our way to Bukchon Hanok Village.
It is a legit residential neighbourhood full of traditional houses. Pretty cool, but I wonder how the people living there feel about having hordes of tourists combing through their neighbourhood everyday. There are a few photo-taking spots you could
Walked over to Gyeongbokgung Palace next.
（；¬＿¬) Shifty eyes, lolol.
I have never been to palaces before so I don't have a reference point, but god damn is Gyeongbokgung huge. There are translated tours given, but I don't know if they were free so I just stalked the group while trying my best to look nonchalant. You should probably get that checked out before looking looking like a suspicious pickpocket.
Walked over to the famous Tosokchon for lunch! The exact directions I wrote down were: "Turn left onto Jihamun-ro 5-gil. Spot the ridiculous queue."
Quite accurate, if you ask me. The entrance is below the white signage.
Superbbbbbbb. I am really running out of things to describe food so just take my word for it when I say that it's delicious okay? And look at the queue again if you need further validation.
Headed over to Dongdaemun next, which was a huge disappointment. I have no idea if we got out from the wrong exit, or we were stuck in a temporary limbo, because all we saw were fabric stores and more fabric stores, an occasional clothing store catered for older ladies, and more fabric stores. This was us after 30 minutes. (?_?) (?_?)
Abandoned Dongdaemun for Han River instead.
Went cycling again! There was nothing much to see along Han River apart from the occasional group of pro-cyclists and a random swimming complex. Pretty view, nonetheless. Cycled for about 3 hours before heading over to Myeongdong for dinner.
Army base stew. This meal is an embodiment of our good luck. Huihui really wanted to try this dish, but she didn't have the directions to the restaurant nor the Korean translation for the dish. We were pretty tired by the time we reached Myeongdong, so our plan for dinner was just any restaurant that looked promising. We initially thought that it was another Korean BBQ joint until we saw the menu.
Hui: *points at the menu* This looks like the army stew that I wanted to try leh.
Me: For real? Lemme see!...Holy crap I think it is lor!
We really lucked out. Also, I would like to think that it was Myeongdong's way of compensating us for the horrible weather the day before. Lol.
Made our way to the cable car station after to take us up to Namsan Tower. I've read somewhere that there is an escalator that you could take up to the station, but we couldn't find it so we walked instead. I mean, the cable car is the main transportation that brings you up there right? So how far could it be?
VERY FAR.
You literally had to hike for 15 minutes up a steep slope to reach the cable car station. And here I thought that choosing the cable car meant that there was no hiking.
It gets dark pretty quickly in Korea, so we got to enjoy the beautiful night view of Seoul. This was the best I could do inside the cable car after 5 disappointing attempts at a panoramic shot.
Speaking of being inside the cable car. Everyone was clamoring to get close to the windows so take photos/enjoy the view, when...
I spotted a Korean couple taking advantage of the 80% darkness. They were being very sneaky about it too.
Mmhmm, I see you. Lolol.
Love locks. Symbolic of locking your love I guess? And proof of human beings' insatiable greed. Apparently the locks didn't provide sufficient writing space so some smart aleck couple brought along phone casings to write on instead. *inserts look of contempt*
Took the cable car back down to the station and walked to the metro station. Our legs were falling off by then, so we began making our way back to the guesthouse.
The last two days in Seoul are pretty chill except for our experience at the public bath house, but I'll leave that for another post.
xx
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