Day 7 :
Since we are staying at the same area as last year, of course we have to have our breakfast at this restaurant again.
After a year, they had Chinese menu! I guess there is many Chinese went there within this year.
We had mushroom porridge, seafood porridge and kimbap for 4 person.
After a happy breakfast, off we go to the palace we didn't manage to get in last year - Gyeongbokgung.
How to go : Gyeongbokgung Station, Exit 5
After taking the escalator up, you will this stone "door". Walk straight and climb up the stairs.
After the stairs, walk straight and up the stairs again.
After the last stairs, turn to your right and you will be able to see a entrance to the Gyeongbokgung. Entrance booth is right at the end from this entrance. Take note on the operating hour, we learnt our lesson last year so we went in the morning this time round.
Entrance fee :
Adult ( age 19 - 64 ) - 3000KRW ( = SGD$3.50 )
Kids ( age 7 - 18 ) - 1500KRW ( = SGD$1.70 )
Kids under 6 years old and elderly age from 65 and above - Free
Operating hour :
January to February - 9am to 5pm
March to May - 9am to 6pm
June to August - 9am to 6.30 pm
September to October - 9am to 6pm
November to December - 9am to 5 pm
* Last admission - 1 hour before closing.
** Close on Tuesday
Free guild tour in foreign languages :
English - 11am, 1.30pm, 3.30pm
Japanese - 10am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm
Chinese - 10.30am, 1pm, 3pm
There is 5 palaces ( Gyeongbukgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, Jongmyo Shrine ) in total so for more details on other palaces, visit www.royalpalace.go.kr
This is where the officer in those days stand and by their rank.
Meeting room i guess. We didn't manage to follow any free guild tour so we can only guess by the look of the room and link to the drama that we watched before. Haha!
Clock in the those days?
In those days, they used Chinese word so from the Chinese word written here i guess this is one of their library.
This looks more like the King's bedroom.
I wonder how people in those days walk with such a low walking path.
The lake that the King like to scroll with his Queen and Concubine.
There is so many people there so its not easy to take picture without people walking around but i manage to! All you need to do is wait for everyone to walk pass and when its empty take a very quick shot. Haha.
The concubine's bedroom?
Door is low too!
The 12 Zodiac.
The houses outside the palace. Are they for normal people or someone who is related to the royal? This is what happen when you are not with guilds. Haha!
Kpo-ing.
I guess this is how they measure their height in those days.
Done with our palace tour and back to a modern life. Walking across the street to Samcheongdong.
Stop by this red bean dessert restaurant to have some yummy dessert before we continue.
A very unique place.
Red bean with rice cake and ice! Yummy!!!
Hot red bean porridge. Best is to share with friend. Its a bit sweet and full to finish all by yourself.
Shopping time! Samcheongdong is a mixture with modern and tradition street.
Different from last year, you can now find a lot of people with this red uniform helping tourist in some of the famous area like Hongdae and Samcheongdong. We had a hard time asking for direction with the Koreans there during last year. Its good to have all these people there to help now. Some of them speak Mandarin and some speak English so do approach them if you need help, they are very friendly group of students and very willing to help you.
We are here for our favorite waffle again! One of the best waffle in Korea! We have been waiting for this moment for a year! There is many outlet in Korea. Myeongdong and Dongdeaumun has it too!
Slurp!
After our waffle, heading to the Bukchon Hanok Village, which is not far from Beans Bins cafe.
Bukchon Hanok Village is a street with all the Korea traditional houses, a.k.a Hanok, and with real resident staying there. Many beautiful Hanok there.
The famous photo taking spot.
Trying to peep through to see whats inside a.k.a kpo-ing.
' Please be quiet ' signboard can be seen everywhere because although it is a tourist spot but with real resident staying there, they still hope that people can keep their noise down in order not to disturb the resident.
Back to Myeongdong for the Lotte Duty free! Laneige selling like hot cake there! To shop at the duty free there, just go to the sales staff, tell them what you want and they will write down on a order form, and queue up to pay.
P/s : One thing to take note is you need to know your returning flight number back to your country in order to purchase anything from the duty free there. They are quite strict on this and please remember to bring your passport too.
Its dinner time! We didn't know this 'Red Sun' is famous until we went it. Only when we walk up the stairs, then we know that Korea variety show ' We got married ' ( Taemin & Naeun ) did their shooting here too. This explain why it is so pack. Restaurant is at 2nd and 3rd floor.
Yummy! You can choose your level of spicy, with cheese or without, other then that everything will be the same.
We had it without cheese at first but we are curious how does it taste with cheese, so we ask the staff to add on. Taste slightly different but don't know how to describe the taste with words.
After finishing everything we thought that they remove the pan is to clear the table but they ended up bringing the pan back after awhile with this rice back. I'm not sure what is this call but basically this is the burnt rice from either the base or side in the rice pot. Although it is a little bit burn but its crispy and it surprisingly it taste good.
After dinner its dessert time! Eating ice cream on a cold weather is so good!
One tall ice cream for the 4 of us!
Guess what happen?! Why are they screaming??
Ta da! They drop the ice cream that we barely eaten. We didn't drop in on the floor but on one of the plastic bag we are carrying! Haha! The person who is selling the ice cream pass us some spoon and paper cup so that we can put the ice cream in and continue to eat. Haha! A small joke to end our day!
