::: Sweet Disposition:::: Seoul Searching

Our flight was 1:00 am so we went straight to NAIA after work, Friday of May 4, 2012. Before the flight, we had our dinner at Pancake House then we just took pictures while waiting to board the plane.

It was a smooth four hours flight after all. We arrived at Incheon International Airport at around 6am. Korea is an hour advance to Manila. Our group was separated from Chris because one of his friend, Diwi has her auntie nearby Myeongdong Area where they stayed. I'm left with Eric, Katits, and Pat. We went straight to the Shuttle Bus going to COEX Mall near our hotel in Gangnam and rode the taxi from there. Upon arrival in Hotel Highland, we took a rest and went out after lunch.

Around 1pm, we went to Paris Baguette for lunch. It is one of the best bakery I have tried. I ordered a lot.. as in a lot. Since our stomach is full, we are off to go.

We started the tour with the ever famous place in Seoul, the Gyeongbokgung Palace which translates to "Palace of Shining Happiness" - it was such a big Palace. I am amazed with it. Since I am not particular to the details of the building itself, I just took pictures from the outside. It was such a nice view. By the way, a Korean student volunteered to join our tour. She is the one who is talking and giving all the historic information about the Palace. I think we visited around 5 palace in that area. She's even willing to tour us to more palaces but we are so tired and we thought it won't be necessary. After all, Gyeongbokgung Palace is the main attraction here.

Upon exit, we also dropped by the National Museum of Korea where you could see the history of Korea when it comes to clothing, food, culture, etc. but we didn't enter inside because it was too crowded. We just took pictures outside the museum where there are many beautiful flowers around.

We felt hungry after Gyeongbokgung Palace so we looked in the lonely planet book to find a good recommended place to eat. While reading the book, we saw a street food stand so I bought a strwberry filled pancake. Patrick got one too but I don't know what it is, mine tastes better though. =)

In the book, we found Semarkan is a good place to eat somewhere in Dongdaemun Market. So we rode the taxi and went there. Unfortunately, we can't find the restaurant after one hour of searching and looking around the area. We are getting irate already so we just bought another street food to fill up our stomach. We loved it. A sausage wrapped with cubes of potatoes for arounf Php 75 is not bad. It is enough to fill our stomach for more action.

Finally we found this Hong Kong restaurant in a basement where we ate our dinner. Not bad at all. We ordered their best seller noodles (which is very spicy!) and another one life a sweet and sour pork meal (which is very spicy again!). They wer all very delicious and we are all satisfied.

We finished at around 9pm so it is very cold when we went outside, we are really chilling. Then we saw this Cheonggyecheon stream and stopped to take pictures. It is such a beautiful scene. It's like full of serenity. If it is not because of the cold weather, I could have stayed there longer.

On our way to the hotel, we rode the MTR which is very complicated. I could say it is not so tourist friendly. There are so many exits and the signs are not translated to English. Glad we have Eric as our navigator who could somehow understand their MTR system.