Splash of Yellow: 5 Travel Tips when visiting Seoul

I like Korean food. There's this small Korean take-out place near my office and I always buy their packed meal. It has rice, a main dish and several banchan (side dishes) like kimchi, spicy dilis and some tofu slices. I wish though that they would also offer beef stew. :)

So last April when I visited Seoul with my cousins, I was so excited just thinking about the food. Haha...

Sharing with you my top 5 travel tips when visiting Seoul:

1. While waiting for your luggage at the Incheon airport, stay away from the carousel at least 1 meter away. There's a sticker on the floor that says - "No carts allowed". I was groggy when we got there (we were on a red eye flight) and the only reason why I noticed it is because most were away from the carousel, though there were a handful who missed to see it too.

It's a simple but great practice which I think should be the norm in all airports - whether or not there's a sticker on the floor - because it just makes it easier to pull out one's luggage.

2. Buy a T Money card and load it upon arrival. You can get one from any convenience store like 7-eleven at the airport. You can readily use this to ride the AREX (airport express train from Incheon to Seoul) and the trains around the metro.

T Money Card

The express train ride to Seoul costs about 14,500 won so your initial top up could be around 20,000 to 25,000 won to at least get to your hotel, then just top up more once you've estimated how much you'll consume for the rest of your trip. (And just in case you still have credits at the end of your trip, you could easily claim refund from any convenience store.)

Similar to Japan, trains in Korea, are on the dot. If the board says the train is arriving at 11:25am, it will arrive exactly at 11:25am in clockwork precision so don't be late. :)

3. Not a lot of Koreans speak English but just the same, don't hesitate to ask if you need help because most of them have smartphones and data plans so they could really help you.

We had a difficult time looking for the Hello Kitty Cafe because it just moved to a new location. We asked a parking attendant if he could help us but he couldn't understand a thing we said except for the word "Hello Kitty"! Haha... After that, he pulled out his smartphone and searched for it. We just took a snapshot of the map on his phone and eventually found our way.

4. There are a lot of tourist attractions in Seoul so just pick which ones suit your interests. And once you've picked the attractions, decide if you'll just explore on your own or join guided tours. For me, there are places where it is best to join walking tours since tour guides offer the most interesting stories and trivia. For this trip, we were just on our own that's why I wasn't able to really maximize learning about each place.

One of my cousins did our itinerary so here are the ones we visited:

Gyeongbokgung Palace. I think Seoul has 5 grand palaces and this is the grandest one built in 1395 which was the main palace of the Joeseon Dynasty. I read from Wikipedia that this palace has 7,700 rooms. Whoa....

We actually decided not to enter the palace since we had limited time but we were able to see a portion of the changing of guards' ceremony. You can check out the schedule of the changing of guards here.

When the guards are in their place already, you can take selfies with them. But like any official guard, they are stationary. It takes an extraordinary level of discipline and concentration to be able to do that for hours. And to make it even more challenging, they could maintain a deadpan face when people pull out their selfie sticks and do all kinds of poses beside them. I wouldn't survive the first 3 minutes of my duty if I were in their place. Haha...

Since it was April, there were also beautiful cherry blossoms around the palace grounds.

If we had the luxury of time, I would have loved to join a guided tour of the palace and learn more about the Joseon Dynasty.

Bukchon Hanok Village. "Hanok" means traditional houses. The hanoks in Buchon Village dates back to the Joseon Dynasty which ruled for more than 500 years from 1392 to 1910. Back then, the village was the residential area of high-ranking government officials and nobility. Check out the traditional houses and the beautiful details.

Though some houses have been converted to tea houses and galleries, there are some that are still being used as private residences. That's why around the village, you'll see signboards reminding you to maintain peace and quiet. Visiting time is also limited from 10am to sunset.

Here's a nice message I saw in a window - Laugh and the world laughs with you. I looked it up and this quote is from the poem "Solitude" by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

In one of the stores, I saw this cute set of figurines.

Bukchon Hanok Village fascinated me and like the Gyeongbokgung Palace, I recommend joining a guided walking tour instead of doing it on your own. Personally, I would have loved to hear stories about the houses and people who once lived there and learn more about the architecture of hanoks.

Lotte World. Lotte is everywhere in Korea. There's Lotteria (fastfood chain), there's Lotte Cinema, Lotte Mall, Lotte Hotel, name it... and there's Lotte World - the popular indoor theme park.

Lotte World and Everland are the 2 most popular theme parks in Seoul but we picked Lotte World because when we were there, the temperature dropped to as low as 8 degree Celsius so we thought an indoor park was a smarter, er, warmer choice. Haha...

Like any theme park, it has a combination of scary (like the ride below!) and not so scary rides.

Since I am not a fan of scary rides, what I enjoyed the most are the 4D simulators - Wild Wing, Wild Valley, Wild Jungle. Everything felt so real! You get the thrill and adrenaline rush without the risk of an actual fall.

Another super fun attraction is its 4D Shooting Theater. Your chair is equipped with a gun. Villains will pop up on the screen every now and then, and the objective is to shoot as many villains as you can. Here's the fun part - the system will keep track of your scores, rank all of the players and flash your photos on the screen according to your rank (the theater's cameras are able to capture your photos as you shoot). Guess how I ranked? I was the second to the last out of 20 or 30 players composed mostly of kids! Bwahaha....

Lotte World has also shows scheduled throughout the day like this -

And just in case you know how to skate, you might want to try its huge skating rink.

N Seoul Tower. This is the highest point in Seoul at 236 meters.

To get there, there's a bus from the train station but the queue was so long so we thought walking and taking the cable car would be faster than waiting in line. So we took a shortcut through the Namsangol Gardens.

Namsangol Gardens

Upon exiting the gardens, the path led us to Namsan Park. We thought the cable cars were inside the Namsan Park.

Namsan Park

Beautiful tulips at Namsan Park

Then after 2 hours of walking and climbing without reaching the cable cars, we knew something was wrong - we took the walking path all the way to the tower! Huhuhu... And no one was wearing appropriate hiking attire. We were all in dresses. Haha....

We reached the point of debating whether we should still go ahead or not but what kept us going was no one wanted to take the same walk path as going down! Haha... So we just keep on climbing. The first thing we did when we reached the top was go straight to a vendo machine and buy water because we were already dehydrated!

Here's the view from the top.

Love locks on the deck.

And finally - the N Seoul Tower.

We didn't go up the tower anymore though because the queue was so long and we were starving so we just ate in one of the restaurants there.

And yes, on the way back, we finally took the cable car. Didn't miss it this time. Haha...

In hindsight, I would have skipped this tour. If you've visited higher towers in other cities, you may want to prioritize other attractions unless you really want to see the 360 degree view of the city at the highest point. And as a learning, make sure you don't get lost like us and end up hiking for hours. Haha... Please take note that the Namsan Cable Car is outside the Namsan Park so don't enter the park. :)

Nami Island. Nami is located about 2 hours away from Seoul. It was named after a popular general from the Joseon Dynasty who led a great victory against rebels in the 13th century. He died though at a young age of 26.

Nami is popular for its tree-line roads. There's a pine tree lane, maple tree lane, cherry tree lane, ginkgo tree lane, etc. I think this is the pine tree lane.

This is called the First Kiss Glass Sequoia Bridge but I don't know why it's called First Kiss.

The bridge is adorned with these beautiful glass artworks.

Nami is a good place to visit if you love nature. You can just sit, relax and have a picnic in the grounds. Once in a while, you'll also spot rabbits, squirrels and all kinds of birds. I actually got entertained not by watching squirrels but by watching kids watch the squirrels (in awe) and chase them. Haha...

BTW, you need your passports to enter Nami so please don't forget to bring them.

Petite France. This is a small village which has touches of French culture. You'll also find familiar characters and scenes from the book "The Little Prince".

Around the village are various galleries like this one which houses vintage dolls.

And there's a memorial hall in honor of the author of The Little Prince, St. Exupery.

Check out these original illustrations of the Little Prince.

We got to Petite France pretty late like an hour before closing time. It wasn't worth it because there was very little to do (the place isn't that big either). But I saw in their brochure that there are shows like pantomime, hand puppet play, marionette play and musical performances in the amphitheater. So if you plan to visit Petite France, just research about their show schedules to maximize your visit. But if you've been to France, I suggest that you skip this one and prioritize other attractions.

Hello Kitty Cafe. Sanrio characters are a big part of my childhood that's why this was on our list. Haha... Though I've been to Sanrio Puroland in Japan and Hello Kitty Town in Malaysia, I'm always game for anything kawaii (the Japanese word for cute).

Check out how kawaii everything is -

There's even a Hello Kitty-shaped window -

And the cafe's roof is pink -

The cafe has also a Hello Kitty bedroom in the second floor -

Don't expect so much on the food though - it's just ok. They have sandwiches, hotdogs and cakes. The place is really for kawaii-tripping. :) But if you've been to Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo (which is the ultimate Sanrio kingdom), you may skip this. Getting there is a bit out of the way - it's like a 20-30 minute walk from the train station so you may want to prioritize other attractions.

Myeong-dong Cathedral. If you're going to hear mass, go to the Myeong-dong Cathedral. They have anticipated mass on Saturday (6pm) and hourly mass on Sundays from 9am to 12nn, then 4pm to 7pm. Beautiful and huge church! We attended the 9am English mass and was so surprised that the cathedral was full. A lot of the readers and volunteer collectors were Pinoys too. :)

After mass, you might want to try some Korean hopia right across the cathedral (sorry, don't know what they are actually called so I am calling them Korean hopia. Haha...) . Here's the store which sells them.

And here's how they look like.

You can choose what filling you like. I got the red bean flavor. Yum!

5. For food trip, other trying the usual Korean dishes we're familiar with, make sure to try Korean street food. Here are some yummy Korean street food we tried -

Egg Muffins

Assorted Korean sticks

More barbecue! :)

Spiral Potato or some call it Tornado Potato

Octopus sticks

Yum, yum, yum!

In the evening when it gets super cold, our comfort street food was fishcake guk (soup).

Source

There is a Korean restaurant near our hotel. It's usually where we eat at the end of the day. We don't even know what's the name of the resto because everything is in Korean (no English translation). Attendants also don't speak English so the only way we communicate is point at pictures and do sign language.

Super yum!:)

Around Seoul, you'll notice that there are a lot of coffee places. One popular place is called Coffee Prince because there was a Koreanovela which aired years ago with the same title. A specific branch was used as the setting of the show and that branch has become a tourist haven since then.

One of my cousins suggested that we check it out so we followed the directions from one blog which said to get off a specific train station. As soon as emerge from the subway exit, we saw this -

So we thought - that was easy! But when we got inside, it wasn't crowded like how it was described in blogs. While enjoying our drinks and cakes, we found out that this wasn't the Coffee Prince Koreanovela branch. Of course, we didn't realize it sooner because no one in the group watched the show so we didn't know how the coffee shop looks like in the first place. Haha... Apparently, the train station where we got off was correct but you have to walk towards another street to get to the Koreanovela branch (a long walk from what we gathered). We prematurely concluded when we saw the first Coffee Prince on sight. Haha...

While in Korea, be on the lookout for some funny wordplays like this - Starparks Coffee! Haha....