Seoul Day 3: Boseong Green Tea Plantation

Day 3. Our plan for the day was to spend our whole day at Boseong Green Tea Plantation. The place is quite far and it takes about 5 hours from Seoul to Boseong. We hired a driver and a van to took us there since we thought going with public transportation would probably took us longer. All4U Korea Tour is the service that we used for the transportation arrangement. The communication for planning and reservation was really easy and the driver and interpreter who met us were really nice and friendly. They even took time to tell us information about the place that we were visiting. I highly recommend this company if you ever thinking of using private transportation service (they offer services in Seoul and outside Seoul).

We started our day very early. 6.30 am, Mr.Choi (the interpreter) met us at our hotel lobby ready to go. We immediately got on to the van and so began our (short) road trip. An hour into the trip or so, we stopped by at a rest area for bathroom breaks. And since we haven’t had any breakfast, we bought some snacks for our breakfast.

After getting some snacks, we continued our journey. The scenery was pretty nice. There were lots of trees and mountains that we passed by. Definitely a different vibe from Seoul’s urban environment.

After almost 5 hours drive, we finally arrived at the plantation. Coincidentally, that day was the first day of the green tea festival. So there were tents set up near the parking lot area. We took a quick look at the festival tents and saw some food stalls and people selling stuff in different stalls. We were going to get lunch since we arrived there almost at noon, but since Mr. Choi recommended us to get lunch inside the plantation—where they sold various green-tea infused food apparently—, we immediately headed for the entrance of the plantation to get in.

We bought our entrance tickets and headed straight to the restaurant.

So the menu on the restaurant is pretty limited, but still give you a decent options to choose from. We ordered a couple of different dishes to try on, and yes, everything on the menu have green tea as their ingredients. So we ordered Naengmyeon (냉면), Jajangmyeon (짜장면) and Bibimbap (비빔밥)—which came with green-tea infused noodle and rice. Everything was tasty. We even ordered seconds.

After we finished our meal, we wanted to start exploring. The view of the plantation was amazing! Although, I have to say, from the beginning, the thought of having to hike to the top of the hill is a little daunting to me.

And surely, after we finished our hike around the plantation, I was completely exhausted. Some of the track was steep and me being not in shape was definitely not helping. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. We ended up going on a slower pace and made jokes along the way to make the hike bearable under the scorching sun. The one thing that I ended up avoiding doing was to look up. It’s just better to not know how far I need to climb :P After we got to the top though, the view was gorgeous. It was worth a hike :)

Halfway to the top, we saw an ahjumma resting with us on one of the rest stop. All of us were really surprise when we looked at what she wore on this hiking trail. High. Heels. Seriously. We couldn’t even begin to understand why would you wear high heels on a hiking trip. I ended up asking the ahjumma if her feet hurts, but she replied, “괜찮아.. 괜찮아” (It’s alright, it’s alright) as if this is something normal that she does everyday. Props to the fashion-concious ahjumma. I would never be able to pull off wearing heels on a hike.

After we finished our hike a couple of hours later, we finally back to the entrance of the plantation. We were sweating and exhausted and in need of something refreshing. So we headed to the dessert stalls and bought green tea ice cream and green tea latte. Afterwards, we took a quick peak at the souvenir shop, bought a couple of boxes of green tea and headed back to Seoul.

On our way back, we stopped by Jeonju for dinner. Jeonju is famous for their Bibimbap, so we thought we give it a try. We visited Go Gung (Mr. Choi picked the restaurant for us) which apparently are famous for their Bibimbap. We each ordered one and after we finished stuffing our stomach with good food, we continued our journey. We arrived at our hotel around 11pm. It truly was a long day.

Seoul Day 2: Garosu-gil, Apgujeong, & Gangnam

After we got our stomach full, we headed to the subway station to go to Gangnam. The subway station is quite different than the ones we’ve been to. And we got lost this time. I wasn’t quite sure where we were, but we were definitely not at the place that we intended to visit. It was pretty funny because we wandered off to a fairly quite area. But, we made the best of it and just laughed it off. What is traveling without getting a little lost right?

On our way back to the subway station, we went through what probably the longest escalator we encountered yet in subway station. I’m amazed on how deep underground the subway system goes in Korea.

Also, I saw this interesting advertisement. Not sure what it’s for or what it means, but it looked intriguing.

After that, we arrived at the famous Garosu-Gil (가로수 길). We were sweating bullets from the hot sun and decided to make a quick pit stop at Caffe Bene for some cold treats.

Mango Bingsu

The area is filled with restaurants, shops, cafes, studios, and galleries that are pretty upscale. So we just started strolling down the street and walked in to some of the shops that interest us.

We saw something that’s totally unexpected: a couple of guys walking donkeys on the other side of the street. Seeing something new everyday here.

After Garosu-gil, we headed to Apgujeong (압구정) also known as the Rodeo Street. The area has a lot of foreign brand shops that are very familiar to us. We just took a quick look around the area since the brands we saw are available in the States.

Afterwards, we took two taxis to Gangnam because our feet kinda gave up on us from all the long walks in the past 7 hours. I have to say Gangnam has some pretty cool and interesting buildings. Tall buildings here and there and kinda reminded me of financial districts in the States.

We were meeting Bella’s college friend for dinner since he worked around the area. He took us to this one awesome samgyeopsal place that I forgot to pay attention to the name of the restaurant, partly because I was tired AND hungry. So as soon as we arrived, we just walked in and sat down on the tables that have been prepared for us. The meat was excellent and we also tried some makgeolli. We also ordered their naengmyeon and ate until we were stuffed.

Seoul Day 2: Gwangjang Market

Day 2. We started our our day with a delicious breakfast at the Gwangjang Market (광장시장). We got there around 10 am and might have arrived a little late because some of the stalls and shops were closed. Even so, many were open, so we got to sightsee the market for a bit. For a market, I think the place is very clean and organized. It felt very different than the markets I've been back home in Indonesia. We ate and tried a couple of different things and after we're done eating we just walked around the market.

Bindaetteok (빈대떡)

Pajeon (파전)

Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

Jokbal (족발) - Pork's Feet // Gimbap (김밥)

Sundae (순대)

I tried it and it doesn't taste as bad as I thought. Very interesting taste and definitely taste better with the sauce/dip that the ajumma gave us.

Seoul Day 1: Lotus Lantern Festival & Cheonggyecheon Stream

We were still walking around the shops in Ssamziegil when we suddenly heard a drumming noise from the street. People started to rush out of the mall to the street, so we took a peek from the 3rd floor to see what’s going on out there. Turned out, the Lotus Lantern Festival parade is passing by. We were there on Buddha’s Birthday weekend celebration and I think the Lotus Lantern Festival ws part of that celebration.

Apparently Insa-dong was on the parade route and we didn’t even know that. We were thinking of going to Cheonggyecheon Stream later on tonight, because that’s where we thought the parade’s going to be. But I guess we lucked out. We also got a pretty good spot up front to see the parade clearly. I managed to snap photos and took a couple of footage of the parade.

After the parade, we started exploring the area around Ssamziegil. There are lots of shops that sell traditional items that are perfect for souvenirs.

Since it's almost 9 pm, we decided that it's time to grab dinner. We picked Gung (개성만두 궁) that's close by. They are known for their famous Gaeseong-style mandu.

Assorted Pancakes – Mung Bean, Ground Potato, Chopped Red Pepper & Leek, Chopped Kimchi

Gaesong Dumplings cooked in Casserole (개성만두전골) ₩30,000

Gaesong Steamed Dumplings (개성만두찜) ₩7,000

After dinner, since we still have time before the subway closes, we decided to head to Cheonggyecheon Stream (청계천), where the Lotus Lantern Festival happened to have their installments at. It was around 10 pm on a Sunday night and we're very surprised that the place was still packed with people—young, old, families, kids, couples. One of my friend made a comment, "It's like they don't need to work or something. How come Sunday night can be this packed?". I have to agree that it feels very different than here in the US. The nightlife in Seoul is definitely more alive. Plus the weather was perfect for just walking around the stream or sitting down while looking at the lanterns. We enjoyed the cool night breeze while watching the people around us. It was a perfect way to end our first day in Seoul.

Seoul Day 1: Bukchon & Ssamziegil

After walking around the Gyeongbokgung Palace for a while, we decided to find the nearest exit and make our way to our next destination. We're tired and hungry and it's already well past 1 pm, so we headed for lunch. We walked towards Bukchon-ro and found ourselves in this one road with a lot of restaurants on the left and right. We took a quick stroll down the road and decided that the first restaurant that we saw looks promising.

The name of the restaurant is 돈까스 (Tonkatsu), or at least that's what I read on the sign of the place when we walked in. I'm not too sure either. Anyway, we walked in, took our seat, started to look at the menus (which are in a form of photo album with the pictures of the food and a sticky label with the name of the food on top of it), and ordered a couple of dishes. The food was pretty delicious and there were definitely things that we never ordered before. Here are some shots of what we ate:

Kimchi Fried Rice with Cheese

Dosirak (도시락)

Spicy Seafood Noodles

After we got our energy back, we headed to Bukchon Hanok Village (북촌한옥마을) to see Korea's traditional houses—called Hanok—that date back to the Joseon Dynasty. Bukchon apparently literally means 'northern village'. When we arrived there, there are quite a number of people walking around, including people who came from out of town (at least that's our guess because they looked like tourists, but they speak Korean).

One interesting thing that we saw, after you walked up the hill, when you looked back, you can see multiple rows of hanoks with modern architecture of the city on the background. It was pretty interesting to see how the two co-exist in Seoul.

One tip for you if you want to visit Bukchon, look up their website and find the photo spots that you want to go to. There are 8 views of Bukchon that can be seen from different places, you just have to find the right spot if you want to see those views. We made a mistake on not finding out about these spots before we came. We also missed it on the map that we got from the information center (that we hold on into the whole time we were there and just found that out towards the end of our time there). As a result, we walked (and ran) up and down the hill in circles. I felt like I just had a work out session after we finished exploring Bukchon. But the whole area is very charming and we had a great time just looking at the architecture of the exterior of the hanoks.

After Bukchon, we walked our way towards Insa-dong. We passed the subway station and saw a couple of interesting things, one of them is there was an ajuhssi begging for money on the street. Nothing about it is odd, but what's surprising is the way they do it is very different than anything I've seen in other countries. If I remembered correctly, my Korean teacher told me that begging for money is something that is considered humiliating in Korean culture, thus the posture. I can't say this for sure though. Maybe someone who have a better insight to Korean culture can gives a better explanation about this.

Anyway, on with our journey, one of the place we want to visit in Insa-dong is Ssamziegil (쌈지길), a shopping center that has a pretty unique architectural structure. There are four floors with over 70 stores that sell different range of items. The feeling that I got from the area is that it's very young and artsy. The place was pretty packed with young people and families and the spiral staircases are not wide enough for the number of people that were there so we have to fight our way forward a little bit.

Here's the spiral staircases that connect the four floors together. All you have to do just walk forward and follow the staircase while you're doing your shopping, and eventually you'll find yourself on the top of the building. Pretty cool right?

View from the top

After a long afternoon of walking (and what I called semi-hiking at Bukchon), we decided to take a break at Ddoong Cafe (또옹 카페) that is located on the top floor of the building. For those who doesn't know, Ddoong means p**p in Korean. I guess you kinda can guess from the graphics that they have on their store windows :p

Since the weather was pretty hot, we were (again) craving for something sweet and cold. So we ordered a couple of desserts for snack.

Waffle with Strawberry, Kiwi, and Green Tea Ice Cream

Fruit Bingsu & Ice Green Tea Latte