Better vs. last time

Before writing you a huge travel diary, we just wanted to update you on something: As we felt completely lost in Seoul (see our article Lost in Translation: Seoul version), we reviewed our way of visiting Seoul and realized that our guides and resources were simply not adapted.

Before coming to Seoul, I used to spend hours watching the vlogs of Korean-American women. So of course, they are used to eating soups full of chilli pepper, so what they consider “too good” isn’t good at all for me.

In addition, we made the mistake of following a guide that I bought in Vietnam, it is written by a Vietnamese woman who spent 7 years in Seoul. At the beginning, I thought it was a good guide because there are some super interesting anecdotes about the life of a local in Seoul. Then I understood that you can’t invent a career as a tour guide just because you live in a city. The author is already a writer, not a tour guide. When she writes “go to hongik university station, exit 9”, it’s nice but when you go there, you have to try to reach which street exactly? We aren’t going to count on our luck to fall by chance on the right street.

So, after realizing our mistake, we read the anecdotes and threw the book in the trash and bought Seoul in the Pocket by Lonely Planet. And it goes really, much better! There are even suggested pedestrian routes to better take advantage of e.g. Bukchon Hanok Village, a place where one gets lost very easily too.

As for the looks I get (or rather we get) all the time, at first I thought it was related to the fact that I don’t wear makeup. And then I understood that it wasn’t related to that, with or without makeup, they realize that we’re different (JB obviously, he’s Caucasian), but me, despite my Asian face, I’m definitely not Korean type. I’ve learned to completely ignore looks and not take it personally.

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

Let’s go to the travel diary! Yeahhh! It took us 2 afternoons to visit all this but you can group everything together in one day without any worries.

Changdeokgung Palace

Having seen pictures of my friends in hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) to visit Korean palaces, I too take out my modern hanbok bought a few weeks ago and put it on for the first time. My hanbok is a modern version (bought at Coreano in Insadong) and even if it is more and more trendy, it is still very rare, even for Koreans, to see it in the street. I even saw some Koreans crashing into it by accident because they were too busy looking at my hanbok ahahah (I had the same reaction when I saw a modern hanbok for the first time… in Kyoto)

Here is the traditional hanbok (that you can rent in Insadong, for 15,000won to 20,000won for 4h)

And my modern hanbok:

When I arrive at the palace, I discover that when you wear a hanbok, the entrance to the palaces is free. JB, on the other hand, has to buy the entrance ticket. We choose to buy for him a combo ticket at 10,000won which gives access to 4 palaces + a temple. It is more economical.

There are free guided tours in English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese, I put the schedules below.

We make a small fast tour (to take photos especially) before waiting for our guide near the entrance.

We are at first about ten tourists, and then gradually, other tourists join us and we are about thirty at the end. I find that it is nice to visit with a guide because this palace is rather small, there are no explanatory panels, to visit alone isn’t a very good option because we get bored quickly.

Note the details on the ceiling and the color of the tiles

Immediately after this guided tour, we have another guided tour (in English) to visit the Secret Garden (which is also in the palace). You can’t visit it without a guide, and the tour costs 5,000won (more than the entrance to the palace, or included in the 10,000won ticket). There are 100 seats per session, 50 on sale online (until the day before) and 50 on site. Despite my hanbok, I still have to pay 5,000won for this garden.

It is really beautiful but I think that we do not visit it at the right time because there are no flowers (end of May 2018). I think that when the cherry trees are in bloom, or if we go there in summer, it will be better.

The visit lasts 1h30, it is quite pleasant and the guide is very interesting too.

Insadong

We visit Insadong for the nth time. Each time, we find an alleyway or a store that we hadn’t seen before.

On the gastronomy side, I think that this is where you can find the most things to eat (to our taste) in Seoul.

I opt for a beef tartare. I already tried this dish once in a Korean restaurant in New York and I didn’t like it. Before judging a dish definitively, I usually have to taste it at least twice. And the second time is the right one because it is SUPER GOOD!

The meat is marinated in sesame oil + soy sauce. And the white stuff on the side is Korean pear, sweet but quite crunchy.

Be aware that beef is very expensive in Korea. And beef for tartar is even more expensive because it has to be fresh. So I paid 33,000 won for this little dish, which is 26€ for 100g of beef.

Seoul City Tour Bus

We take the Seoul City Tour bus for 18,000won/person. There are several routes, I think we took route A which goes through Myeongdong, the palaces and Namsan Tower. It took us 2 hours to complete it.

It’s nice, we spotted some cool places like this suspended footbridge not far from Seoul Station. But here is, we understand very quickly that we made the essential of what it is necessary to visit in the surroundings. And the traffic jams (one Saturday moreover) are unbearable.

The advantage of taking this bus is to be dropped off right at the bottom of Namsan Tower. At the moment, I stayed in the bus, without getting off, I had not understood the advantage of such a route. It’s by returning to Namsan Tower a few days later and queuing for 1h30 to arrive exactly at the same place that I regretted my choice. In short, if you take the City Tour Bus, it’s worth stopping at Namsan Tower, you’ll save a lot of time.

And on the way back to nearby Yongsan Station by making a detour through the Dragon Hill Spa, we are treated to this sunset.

Noryangjin Fish Market

A few days later, after a well-deserved sleep in the morning, we get motivated to take a BUS for the first time (until then, we only took the subways). Bus drivers tend to accelerate and brake abruptly, hold on to something as soon as you get on a Korean bus.

Since we arrived by bus, we follow a path leading us wrongly towards the old fish market.

Hygiene seems a bit dubious and the “underground parking” aspect makes JB have no desire to settle down and eat there. And then we turn around and see that the new market is right next door.

And it’s much cleaner.

The fish sellers accost us and we are a little surprised. We don’t look like “residents in Korea”. Who makes them believe that we have a pan to cook all this? And then after information, we realized that we could:

Buying fish from vendors
They will then show us the restaurants on the ground floor or first floor where we can bring them the raw fish and cook on demand (soup, barbecue…) for a cover charge + the cooking. Be careful to ask the price before because some aren’t made have by the price of the restaurants.

There are two things that the Vietnamese guide advised us to taste in her book: penis-shaped fish and live octopus that are still moving while they are cut into thousand pieces.

These two things are to be eaten in raw sashimi with a spicy sauce. Here you go, if you have your heart set on it, go ahead and give us a feedback(did the tentacle get stuck in your throat?), but we stayed ultra classic.

Indeed, we spotted a salmon sashimi (and sushi) seller and for 15,000won, we are entitled to a large tray. We ask him if he has a table where we can sit. He shows us the table he uses to eat, HIM. And we sit down there to eat, quiet… that makes the salesmen laugh a lot 😀

It reminds us a lot of the fish market in Sydney where we used to buy sashimis by the kilo.

There are other restaurants with ready-made things (especially on the 3rd floor), but the price is higher than if one bought the fresh ingredients directly from the vendors. So we tested these tampuras (the shrimps are fried with their heads and the Koreans eat them).

Next time we’ll come back to it and I hope we’ll take advantage of the Korean market, i.e. to pick a fish and bring it to a restaurant to be prepared, it will be fresher and more fun.

Hongdae

It is a very lively neighborhood with street artists at all hours of the day. By taking the subway to hongik university station, take exit 9 and walk quietly to Hongdae shopping street (365-8 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul). Today it’s crowded because it’s the weekend. Suddenly the people around us look better dressed than usual. It’s normal, there are a lot of students, young people and they are very stylish.

While walking around, you will discover many clothing stores at low prices (15,000won/garment, about 11€) but of good quality. It’s a bit more expensive than at the Express Bus Terminal where I used to shop, but here everything is cuter.

The dresses from Milkcocoa are super beautiful.

And just next door, we spot a hairdressing salon whose interior is a little too beautiful to be cheap. We ask the price: 30,000won for a man’s haircut (with shampoo of course). That’s how JB lost 3cm of hair.

Restaurants also look cooler than those near us. And the street artists, very young, are super talented. So, if you get bored one night, come here!

Namsan Tower

I end this long article by the visit of Namsan Tower, which we should have visited with the Seoul City Tour Bus. But hey, if I hadn’t messed up my itinerary, you wouldn’t have been able to learn from my mistakes.

Then, it is necessary to know that a good, pretty sunset is rather rare these last times, it must be very beautiful in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. So, by looking at the weather forecast, we were almost sure to have a nice sunset.

Leaving Hongdae 2 hours before sunset, we thought we were wide. But no! We wait for an elevator to go up 20m (we thought that it continued afterwards but in fact, it only deposits us at the entrance of the cable car). In short, if you see this elevator and that there are people in front of it, know that we can go up on foot, much faster.

Then, we queue for 1 hour to take the cable car

– just to get to the foot of Namsan Tower (where hundreds and hundreds of lockers are hung – you can even buy lockers on the spot, at the distributor, they will be provided with ahaha felt).

Then you have to buy a ticket to go up to the top of the tower (it’s faster this time, only 10mn wait) and finally… NOTHING TO SEE. :(((((

The clouds are everywhere!!

The view is still worth the effort. There are no big buildings or skyscrapers nearby, we have a completely unobstructed view of the whole city.

We wait for the sun to set and the lights to come on. It’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

We end the evening at the foot of the tower, in an Italian restaurant with a view. The return will be faster fortunately, by bus.

Part 2: Practical Tips

To go to Insadong, type Insadong Maru on the Naver Maps app, the whole area around is worth exploring, don’t hesitate to enter the alleys, it’s where the most beautiful restaurants are hidden. Insadong is a great place to buy souvenirs as well as hanboks, traditional or modern. Mine was bought at Coreano.
To rent a hanbok before visiting the palaces, first go to Insadong. There is even a hanbok rental shop in the basement of the subway. When you get to Anguk station, look for exit 6 and you will see it.
Hongdae is a great area to visit any day of the week to get to know the real Seoul. Visit Hongdae Shopping Street 365-8 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul . On the way from hongik university subway station (exit no. 9) to this street, you will see many street artists. On Saturdays, there are a few stands selling cheap products, or run by students, ready to make a portrait of you for cheap.