Category: Seoul

We walked o Hamsan Park today, which required going up the outdoor elevator to the mountain.

We got to the park and just had a nice walk around. It was incredibly hot today, around 34°C, so it was a very slow walk! 

We’ve been hearing the loud bugs around the whole of Seoul, from the trees, and have been wondering what they are. We saw some today. They’re ugly!

Once we were done at the park, we found our way to Itaewon which is like a ‘little America’. This is right next to the US Military base, so everything around is American. We stopped for a milkshake, too!

The war museum was nearby, and free, so we went there! It was much bigger than expected and actually really interesting, with a lot of weapons and there was also all the military vehicles around, which was awesome. 

This pretty much took up our whole day, before we took the metro back to Myeong-dong and grabbed another pot of chicken, the same as what we had back when we first arrived. Kim then got a waffle with chocolate ice cream.

We move to our next location tomorrow, but we have really enjoyed South Korea and would love to come back! We are just chilling with a beer and then packing for tomorrow’s travel.

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale

We planned to just have a lazy day today, so we slept for the whole morning (we got up for free breakfast, of course) and then left around 14:40 to get Kim a massage!

Kim wanted a massage so she had an hour long, full body massage and felt great afterwards!

Once that was done, it was pretty much dinner time, so we watched some TV and found somewhere to eat. There is a ribs & cheese place to eat, so we thought we would try that.

It works the same as the Korean BBQ, except your ribs are cooked and the cheese isn’t. You just wrap the cheese around the rib and you’re good to go, though the cheese either fell off or you ate it all in one! 

There is also a custom of wearing a glove to eat ribs with which frustrated the both of us as only one glove per person was supplied, so we had to try and eat with one had, which was frustrating!

Once we ate the ribs, the remaining cheese was mixed with rice and, for some reason, seaweed and cooked with an egg. We decided to leave this as the seaweed wasn’t a good taste.

We were still hungry after our somewhat sub par food, so we went and got a banana waffle from a coffee shop, which was lovely!

Tomorrow, we have a cool adventure so should be interesting! 

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale

Today was a nice hot 30°C day, so we thought what better way to spend it then a nice walk? We found the Cheong Gye Cheon Stream which is a stream running through a lot of Seoul which has areas to sit and it is just nice to walk down! We walked down it for a couple of hours and had a few stops, including in front of a bird trying to hunt fish, which he didn’t do very successfully. 

We also saw a lot of large fish, a turtle and a small waterfall, which was nice. 

We walked back to the hotel to relax for a bit and find somewhere to eat. We failed with finding anywhere that looked appealing, so we just walked around to find somewhere. 

We came across a Japanese curry restaurant, which we wanted to avoid as it wasn’t Korean, but having looked around elsewhere and the smell of it, we had to go in. 

Curtis had a spicy (bearing in mind it was only the 3rd spice level out of 5) chicken curry and Kim had a medium chicken curry. Both were delicious!

We then looked around for dessert, but all were a little expensive for what they were!

Now, we’re relaxing, watching some TV and drinking a cheap beer whilst thinking about the fact North Korea are getting closer and closer to starting a war and we’re really close!

안녕!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

We fell back to sleep after breakfast for some reason, but once we woke up we were much more full of life! 

We read the weather forecast which said it was raining all day with thunderstorms, so we thought that we would either have a lazy day or find something indoor to do. 

We went outside and it was really hot with blistering sun too! There’s a lot of people around as it is a Saturday too, so they made it warmer.

We changed our minds and went to another palace instead as it was hot. This palace seemed larger than the other, though it was much less interesting and there was more space around, so technically less to see.

 There was also a replica of an old town, which looked very authentic and was cool to look around.

We went back to the hotel after visiting this for a few hours and had a shower, then we headed out to the top voted Korean BBQ place near us!

We must say, it didnt disappoint! The waitress was lovely with excellent English. We had 2 types of pork belly which we cooked ourself which was a honey & garlic flavour and a pepper & herb flavour, both of which they are apparently famous for! 

This was such a tasty meal and also good fun, with our range of sauce & sides (kimchee & bean-sprouts, unlimited!) And we had a beer because why not! This was a lovely evening and we topped it off with some cake from a coffee shop, which was nice. Curtis had a tiramasu and Kim had a cookie & cheese cake. 

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale 

We woke up pretty tired today and really with no plans.

A lazy day was on the cards, but Curtis needed to get his hair cut, mostly because it was incredibly long but also because it cannot be long for a specific reason which will be revealed in a few days!

We asked at reception before leaving where the best place to get a haircut was and they suggested 2 places which are popular but apparently expensive.

We went to one which was about a 1 minute walk from our hotel and it was incredible!

It starts with being provided with free cold tea. Neither of us like tea, but this was quite sweet so tasted okay. A stylist then came over with an iPad and photos on for Curtis to choose from. Once the style was chosen, Curtis had to get his hair washed. This was a wash but also a small head massage, which was pleasant.

After the wash, the cutting began. This took a very long time and we have never seen anything like it! Towards the end of the cut, another person comes over with a brush to brush away all hairs. 

The cut was complete and then another wash was provided, including another small head massage. Curtis then assumed that was it, but no! 

Another person came over and began styling the hair with a hairdryer, comb, wax & hairspray. What a crazy experience! 

The first lady loved Kim’s hair and couldn’t stop playing with it!

One this was done, we paid our 30000W (around £20) and left, with everyone following us out of the door thanking us and saying goodbye and waving, what a lovely bunch of people they are! Apparently, these were all normal things in hairdressers in Korea. This sounds like an awesome place to be! 

After the haircut, as it was raining, we though that an indoor thing to do wouldn’t be a bad idea, so the national museum of Korea it is! 

We walked around the museum for actually a very long time! It must have been hours and we saw all kinds of things, pots, plates, paintings, weapons and more from prehistoric to modern times. 

We took the metro back as the walk was a little far as we were hungry! 

We stopped for dinner at a street vendor right outside our hotel which sells chicken in a pot and it was excellent!! 

We ate and then went back out to buy some bread. There is a shop that sells small loafs of sweet bread, so we bought strawberry flavour and chocolate flavour..we ate both..

Who knows what we’ll do tomorrow? Maybe more palaces? 😉

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale

Today’s plan was to visit 2 palaces, which is what we did! 

We left the hotel to try and get to the first palace and stumbled upon another, smaller, palace which was free of charge. Whilst we stood confused at the sign, a lovely old man spoke to us in very broken English saying that it was the former king’s palace and that we should go in, so we did!

This palace was called: Inhyeongung.

We walked around this palace for a bit and then walked to our next palace of 3, which was called Changdeokgung.

This palace turned out to be huge as well as beautiful. It has parts which have blue tiles for the roof, which is the only palace in the world to have these.

This palace was built in 1410, which is a long time ago!

This was a very peaceful place and it took us a while to walk around the place, but we really didn’t mind as it was beautiful.

After these, we found a very highly rated Korean dumpling (mandu) place and sat in there for some food. 

The dumplings are not soup filled like with Chinese dumplings, but just with meat, herbs and vegetables.

To be honest, yes, it was cheap, but it wasn’t amazing.

We went to find a dessert place near where we are staying and found a place that does Korean shaved ice. We shared a chocolate shaved ice bowl, which was quite large!

We finished this and went back to the hotel before going back out to see if there were any places selling hot chocolate. We went to the cat cafe on our way because why not! The only problem was that there was an admission fee of equivalent of £6 each! We definitely left when we found that out!

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale

We needed to get our laundry done today and so we found a place that was a little out from where we were but it was also a bar & cafe!

Before we went to do laundry, we had our breakfast which was a simple continental which, to be honest, was a godsend since being in China!

We had a pretty lazy morning then walked to do the laundry.

On the walk, the pavements were spongy, assuming this is to make it more comfortable for people to walk on! A very clever idea.

Places are easier to get to as it seems there is public WiFi in most places.

We took the mile or so walk in the very hot sun (which, in Korea, is actually sun and not just humidity) and we had to take an outdoor elevator up the mountain which was awesome and so was the view!

We got down to the café/bar/laundromat eventually and stayed there for a couple of hours drinking lemonade and waiting for the laundry. We looked online for places to eat and what to do whilst in Seoul.

We left the place and were very hungry but decided we would go to the hotel first and find somewhere to eat. We found somewhere but couldn’t actually find it on the street so found somewhere else and it was tasty!

We had a Korean dish called ‘Hambak’ which is pretty much a beef patty and this came with a sauce, an egg on top, some rice, bean-sprouts & potato wedges.

That was very delicious and we also got a side of creamy pasta and a salad.

Once we ate and waddled through the busy market area, Kim got a very tall ice cream!

We came back to the hotel room to relax and try and book our next few places as we aren’t fully done yet!

안녕!
– Mr & Mrs Hale

🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷안녕!🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷

We left China today, so just had to check out and leave! Checkout was at 12:00, but we decided to leave our bags at reception at 10:30 and go back to the dumpling place to have the same for breakfast! They were too good to say no to…

Once we finished, we went back to the hotel to get our bags and go to the airport. We wanted to make sure we were there early so we got the Maglev high speed train again and then had to catch the metro for 7 stops. 

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and it was actually too much time as we couldn’t check in or drop our bags for 1.5 hours! 

We walked around aimlessly for that time and then had a little sit down, before checking in our bags and then popping for a bite to eat.

Once we finished this, we headed to our gate where we boarded the bus & then the plane, which was fairly empty! 

Oddly, we noticed an odd thing happening on the plane…smoke! Noone else seemed to be panicking, so we assumed it was a normal thing!

We traveled with China Southern Airlines and were actually really happy! We had a decent amount of leg room and had a meal. The meal was okay. It was duck with rice and vegetables, a bread roll & yogurt.

Kim did get some cool photos during the flight, though!

We landed in Korea and had to take a train from the airport to the centre, which took quite a while, then we were meant to take a metro. We struggled a little with how it worked and ended up somehow locking ourselves inside the metro system, without even being able to access the outside world! Luckily, Kim spotted a help button and a kind man let us through the gate and we decided we would walk instead. 

After figuring out where to go, we walked up into a cool, blue-lit bridge, which was a very nice experience as well as a little cooler than the street. 

In general, the temperature is cooler than Shanghai and less humid.

We got to the hotel pretty easily and noticed that last check in was 23:00 and it was 22:50!

Our room is small but very nice! We have been provided with slippers and shower slippers, too! 

The room includes conditioner and Kim is incredibly happy about that! 

Korea seems really awesome so far and seems like an ‘Asian London’. 

We are also able to use all of the internet again, so that is a plus! 

안녕!

– Mr & Mrs Hale