Travelz And Eatz!: An-nyeong-ha-se-yo, Seoul!

Life is all about obtaining experiences, whether it's good or bad. As parents, it's our role to expose our kids to the mechanics of Life and the running of the world. And so, we packed our bags and headed to Seoul, Korea to experience their culture and daily life. This trip has been a year in the making and to see its fruition is an achievement indeed. The day has come and six hours of flight required us to occupy ourselves with reading and reading and read again the flight magazines!

We hauled our luggage bags through the streets of Myeongdong to STEP Inn, a backpackers' location of choice stay which garnered 8.9 points in Trip Advisor. Hungry at 2100 hrs, we made our way into Yoogane restaurant for a hearty meal of marinated chicken galbi + maehwasu liquor, for W39,500. After a good night's rest, we headed to Nami Island on a 1.5 hours express bus ride which was pre-booked online. A beautiful island where nature rules and best still, the location where Winter Sonata was shot.

A ride on the MRT on the Chongmuro line the following morning, we reached Gyeongbokgung station at mid-day, where the palace museum is located. Renting the hanbook costume is a must, if you really want to immerse yourself in local culture. At W15,000 for the premium range and W3,000 for the hat, here's thehapi8wanderer looking resplendent in his attempt to imagine himself in bygone dynasty days. Like minded visitors colour the old palace's grounds as they freeze their moments in time here.

Satisfied with this immersion into the past, the kids were on their way to the next destination, Buchok Hanok Village. Here, old style houses are arranged neatly uphill separated by narrow roads. The weather in the evening at a cool 19 degrees Celsius, the hike up wasn't too strenous. Be reminded that the visiting hours end at 1700 hrs, as this a living village and the peace is to be maintained for the residents. Signages are abound, hinting visitors to keep conversations at the lowest volume possible.

What's Korea travel without a chance to make kimchi, a local dish of pickled vegetables, usually made with cabbage or radish soaked in brine. So, off to the Kimchikan Museum at Insadong and after departing with W40,000 we started with decorating the cup holder and after that, mixed and rubbed the sauce into every leaf of the cabbage. It's smelly and tastes funny, but kimchi is an acquired taste which we thoroughly enjoyed at every meal here. And there's a thousand variant of it, mind you.

After packing the kimchi nicely away for consumption later in the night, off we continued our tour of Insadong. I like the streets here as the thoroughfare for pedestrians is wider and there's many foodie shops, a bit different from Myeongdong. There's less of the pharmaceutical shops around, pushing facial masks to you. Less of the carts hogging the walking path, for sure. A fake monk was seen roaming this street (monks don't ask for alms after 1200 hrs) and it's already 1600 hrs now.

Back to Sindang with our regular fare of W6,500 (3 adults, 1 kid) riding the clean and no-long-wait MRT line. Supper was had at CVS convenience shop. Up at 1000 hrs the next morning, we made our way to Gwangjang market. Our breakfast was mung bean pancake and noodles with spicy snail salad for W25,000. If you wanted to savour Seoul in one foodie go, this is the place to be. Originally a textile centre, it gradually transformed into a massive base for a wide range of food over the years.

Before we call it a day in the metropolitan capital city of South Korea, we managed to squeeze in one final destination - Dongjak, where people gather to cycle (4 km cycling track), or just to exercise at the public gym below the bridge and not forgetting the sunset view looking at Banpo Bridge. We climbed up the 8 storey observation deck to have a cuppa as we recall our fun 5 days in Myeongdang and Sindang districts. We certainly enjoyed ourselves here but we still have many other holiday destinations to go. So, till then...