South Korea 181101 to 181112

Apsan Park Daegu, Naejiangsan Jeongeup, Seoul Forest and Haneul Park. Places that I am looking forward to visit during Autum in South Korea.

The best  time to view autumn leaves in Korea is November. I took the advantage to enjoy the autumn leaves when I visited this place from 1st to 12th November for12 days.

For the 1st to 7th, we put up at Grid Inn , location in Central Seoul where all the attraction is. The rates were cheaper since it is an Inn and we booked a 3 bedded room so that my daughter can come and stay with us.

Hotel provides free breakfast,  very comforting ones.

Then of course, we went to Sogang University Exchage Students' dormitory to meet my daughter. School compound was good, dormitory has security guard and we feel so comforted that she is well taken care by the school. 

We start our 1st day tour (2nd Nov) by joining a cooking class with Sobaan.. Since it ends at 2pm, we continued with Namsan Hanok Village and followed by Shopping at Myeondong  (no pictures for Namsan and Myeondong)

This is the only picture I have for Myeondong. Mum's  Touch chicken. The difference in this chicken is it has pieces of topokki mixed with soy sauce served with the chicken. We can add like 1000 won worth of topokki. But I do noticed not all outlet has the toppoki. We ate at the outlet near Daeheung station do not have this option. 

We continued our 2nd day 3 Nov 2018 trip by visiting Apsan Park and Daegu Town. since we have some time to spare after climbing mountains.

On Sunday, 4 Nov 18, we decided to have ginseng chicken from the famous Tosokchon Samgyetang and visit Changdeokgung Palace and its Secret Garden. After the visit, we went Insadong for Bingsu at Sulbing Insadong before we proceed to Seoul Station for Lotte Shopping.

On Day 5, Monday, Nov 2018, we visited the Jungbu and Gwangjiang Market, there after Haneul Park. Went Haneul Park after reading blogs about it. Never know grass / lalangs can turn up so pretty.

On Day 6, we went shopping at Namdaemun Market and Goto Mall.

Nandaemun Market another traditional market. 

Goto Mall, located just under Seoul Express Terminal. A shopping heaven for ladies. 

Day 7, 7 Nov 2018
After sending my friend off to the airport bus-stop around 8.15am, we proceed to Jungbu Market to get my red ginseng powder. When we reach there, the shop owners  aunties were busy having work out with pipe music over the whole market. We do not want to disturb the ginseng shop owner exercising. So we ended up walking about and waited for another 15mins before getting what we want.
We wanted to search for Soya Cold Noodles near Grid Inn before we move to Standard Hotel (more to the west of Seoul). Since we were not able to find it as the season is over, we decided to try our luck by walking the shops near Standard Hotel.
In Seoul, there are no taxi stands to wait for taxis. Grid Inn receptionist told us we just wave for a cap anywhere. Getting a cab is easy. But it takes us quite some time to communicate with the taxi driver where we want to go.
This is the day we do nothing much, we explore Jungbu Market & Standard Hotel and neaby places only.

Day 8, 8 Nov 2018.
It really helps when Standard Hotel has a really resort feel. So we felt really comfortable to have breakfast in room with bread purchased inside the sub-way station. Eventually, I spent most of my time at E Mart located just 1 sub-way station away.

Day 9, 9 Nov 2018.
The day has come. Read so much about this place and hoping to visit one day when I got the chance.

Naejangsan National Park

Day 10, Nov 10 2018, Saturday

We take a break today by visiting places in Seoul will do.

Started the  day by having our brunch at Tosokchon Samgyetang then we proceed to  Seoul Forest.

We ended the day by having  BBQ at Hongdae and a walk here.

Day 11, Nov 11 2018, Sunday
It is the our last day in Seoul. Our last minute decision to visit Chinatown in Incheon.
We wanted to see how is Chinatown like with Chinese living here. But we were wrong. The whole place is meant for tourist. Still not bad to be here. Just to see look and walk walk.

I must say, this is the best meal in Seoul
This place is called Guuud-Gosami.
My daughter brought us here for the grill fish. Eventually, the squid and the tofu soup is awesome.
The beancurd like bean past tofu is so so delicious.
Of course the fish is good. So you can imagine, we spent only $35 for this meal.

Located somewhere near Sinchon Station
Try them out at 53-8 Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

So this is the end of our trip.
Will I come back?
Maybe for the shopping during May or Jun?