Today, our trip in Jeju ended, so after taken our breakfast, we took the flight back to Seoul. When arrived at Gimpo airport, we hop onto the railway to Dongdaemun to settle down our luggage in New Korea Hotel again.
Our first destination in Seoul is the graceful Deoksugung, where tradition and modernity intersect.
Daehanmun is the main gate of Deoksugung. You can buy the entrance ticket at ticket counter with the price of 1,000 won/ person.
A traditional big drum at the main gate of Deoksugung.
In drama or historical book, we might have seen and read a lot of story regarding royal family, palace, prince and princess. But in real, it is a special glamour to visit the palace which is still well maintained in the heart of a bustling modern city.
We went into Deoksugung while waiting for the royal guards changing ceremony to start.
This is King Sejong statue located inside Deoksugung.
Yellow golden leaves...
After that we went back to the Daehanmun, to wait for the royal guards changing ceremony to start. A group of school children already waiting there.
You should not miss out the royal guards changing ceremony in front of Daehanmun. This re-enacted ceremony demonstrated the olden era ruler by King where defense and patrol troops were responsible to ensure the safety of the King dynasty.
This is an uniqued experience. Free colourful costume are borrowed to tourist and we were allowed to take photo in uniforms with the "Royal Guards". Do I look like a Korean? ;p
Time for lunch! Korean Sushi Roll...
We continue to visit Deoksugung after that. Autumn in Korea is just cool!
Remember the famous Stephen Chow movie 九品芝麻官 ^^
The throne hall, Junghwa-jeon is engraved with dragon in the emperor's pathway.
This is the interior of the throne hall for officers to meet with the king. No entry, we can only see from outside.
Leaving the memory at Gwangmyeongmun. The bell of Heungcheon temple and the self striking water clock or known as Jagyeongnu.
The exhibition at National Museum of Comtemporary Art.
Deoksugung are embellished with yellow gingko leaves and red map leaves in fall season.
3 oldies were resting along the walkway...
The flower-patterned wall given the feel of ancient time.
The reception hall for foreign diplomats.
This were the last picture we took in Deoksugung before our exit.
And now this is the beauty of backpack where we could go anywhere we like. Strolling around the outside of Deoksugung, we found a very special lane full with pretty hand drawn arts.
Along this whole walkway was the gigantic brick wall of Deoksugung and it would make a very special background for potraits shooting.
Nice paintings are exhibited/for sale along the brick wall.
We saw tonnes of different things along our journey until we see this. I thought my eyes gone harewire when I saw this. I rubbed my eyes and it's still the same.
So what is all about this? Ancient Koreans and also the koreans in present especially woman will store many fermented sauces in traditional sauce jar called Jangdock and these sauce jar are gathered at a place called Jangdockdae and it will be passed down every generation. Hence, Jangdockdae resembles the memories for every generation of the family.
One day, the creator of this deflated figures, saw the Jangdockdae was covered by snow. This struck him as he thought of family enduring winter and this, inspired him deeply to make the deflated family figures which reveals three generation of family consisted of grandparents, parents and their children.
Every single street of Seoul city are picture-square. You can feel the romantic atmosphere of fall season everywhere. A very relaxing afternoon.
We went past one of the famous high school in Seoul, Ehwa Woman Highschool. How I wish I could study here. ;p
Chongdong Theater & Nanta Theater are popular cultural point in Seoul. Feeling abit hungry, we tried out one small food stall outside of Nanta Threater.
A typical Korean style foodstall which offers local delicacy such as stir fried rice cake, rice instestine and fish cake, tempura and etc. We opted for stir fried rice cake, rice instestine and fish cake. Total costed 3,500 won.
The rice intenstine was actually made up of pig intestine which was filled with glutinous rice and pig blood. Sounds special? A korean treated us this. He said it is a must try! But not our favor.
The stir rice cake was fried with sweet and spicy sauce. Too big for us. We couldn't finish it.
Lastly, the fish cake. We prefer this the most as it suits our taste buds more. You can actually drink the soup in the cup. However we didn't do that.
Our next destination was Cheonyecheon Stream. Along the 5.8km stream, there are 22 bridges and 9 fountains. Some history about Cheonyecheon Stream, it was previously a freeway running on top of the stream but it was then turned into one of the famous location in the center of Seoul.
During our visit, a hope campaign is launched prior to 2010 Seoul Lantern Festival. How lucky we were to join this happening events.
Yeah! Give me 5!
The night is brightly shone with the beautiful lanterns and lights.
Lantern from China.
Write your wish here and it will comes true.
We only managed to walk for 2.5km distance and we felt so tired and painful with the cold weather. We walked up from one of the staircase which lead us to the main road. We are not sure where are we now so to try some new discovery, we just followed our common sense, we walked and walked till we ended at an area crowded with lots of young guys.
Dinner time. Full restaurant indicates good restaurant. So, we chose this. Izakaya Japanese Noodle City.
Kimchi in Japanese Restaurant! Gosh, I think Koreans need kimchi!
Pei Quan opted for pork spicy noodles.
For me, I chose Soba with pork chop. I cant,t use words to describe how good the pork chops soba are. The noodle is very 'Q' and not sticky.
The dinner cost us 16,000 won.
We ended our day by trying out the public bus in Seoul back to our hotel.
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