Showing posts with label gwanghwamun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gwanghwamun. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

130709-10 Date in Seoul

ok, the team has a bad habit of doing everything last minute, but i don't. so when i heard the busan event was the coming weekend, i woke up everyday and work till late for my karma costume. but i figured out it was more worth it to go on a date then to keep staying home while i'm in korea, and i was still confident of finishing my stuff.

so my dear suggested that we go on a full day trip to seoul and stay over there at a themed hotel, and of cos i had to go along with it *_* tee hee~

we went to gwanghwamun since i wanted to try the famous samgaetang in the area. when we reached, it seems that there was some martial arts performance going on. they had the audience break the wooden planks... wooo..



then they did some kicking tricks... and there was no mistakes at all!

and the performance wrapped up with a photo taking session with the audience (of which was not that greatly received... whoops).


we then went just below king sejong's statue... there's actually a huge museum on hangeul and on korea's (or even the world's) greatest navy tactician, lee soon shin.


acks, couldn't get king sejong in my self-cam.


and so down we went into the basement into the world of hangeul~~


it was actually far better than i had expected... there's so many lcd panels displaying a myriad of things and the whole set up is really hi-tech and modern, i was shocked!




and then there's also the museum of the genius navy tactician, lee soon shin, who actually appeared in a drama i was then watching called the Gu Family Book 구가의 서.


and we examined what's inside the ship. oooh the contemplating shadow of 00 makes this scene looks like it's from a movie *_*


there's even a panel for you to take photos, add a message then add them to the pile that's already there. and then send the photo to your email.



we also went for a round of shipping battle game where you could shoot enemy ships or fire bombs at them. hoho


and here they showed video clips of how lee soon shin managed to overcome the formidable japanese army with his knowledge of the weather and the lands.




his surround ships tactic



after that we somehow went back to the hangeul place since there was sometime before the 4D movie starts and chanced upon the hangeul library.



and chairs made out of hangeul


on the far side of the hangeul place, there's also an astronomical circle and other displays


some models of the ancient instruments


and then it's back to our 4D theatre. it was a pretty good show, there's wind and water from the back of the seat as well. whooaaaa. this museum really rocks.


although i think 00's toothy grin is the funniest. i've never seen him make these kind of faces in photos. i had a good laugh >.<


and to end off the trip, i absolutely had to take a picture on the seat where king sejong sat. hurhur.


after the museum, we went to find our samgaetang! it was near exit 2 at gyeongbokgong station.


never expected it to have such a fine decor inside and outside... a really touristy place indeed!


their menu doubles up as a bill... neat!


we ordered samgaetang and ojgaetang (4th item from the left top), just to try a variety.



ojgaetang soup (bottom pic) tasted like it had brand's essence, and i totally loved it. the little cup of ginseng liquor, as they said, was supposed to be poured in the soup but i totally drank it raw. yeowwwch. and samgaetang as the rumor has it, is really delicious. the soup just tastes different from other samgaetangs i've had (not that i've had many). and i like the glutinous rice that's within the chicken. jjang!

after that we went over to times square, at yeongdeungpo, where i shopped like crazy, while 00 devil maker all he way =.= it was boring to look at things alone, but at least he waited very patiently. *muacks*

at night, we went over to our themed hotel. it's about 60k-120k a night, depending on the size of rooms you want, which is actually pretty cheap considering it doesn't matter how many people stayed in. 




oh, and i walked in the lobbies of I and F and it was different so i supposed each building had its own theme. but i was sure that every room is different. check out their site here.

we had the 80k room and it was huuuuge.




the only complaint i have is they probably didn't do a very good job at cleaning because i spotted hair stuck on the comb that's supposedly disposable... and the aircon looked like it was in the middle of being fixed since the cover was opened =_= otherwise, we had a pretty good sleep ^_^

and the next day, we checked out at 12 and had breakfast (well, that's what i'd call all the first meals i have...!) at tomstoms cafe, where they served corn pretzels and cheese toast.



it was all delicious, except it may be too much carbo for 2 person, especially since 00 didn't much like bread that much so i had to finish all the pretzels and 1/3 of the toast x.x at least there's ice red bean!


it was so-so actually. bleahs. continued shopping some more before we went back yongin for the day... oh by the way i wanted to get a light brown color for eyebrows and i think this is the best i've seen. if anyone goes to japan, help!!! it's so expensive in korea and singapore!


Sunday, March 31, 2013

130331 Insadong, Gyeongbukgong

because someone was too busy to entertain me, i met up with daeyong and he brought me around seoul. but i got to have a short breakfast at a local cafe, and i cheated him into buying me a book and a pin. nwahaha. yippee~~





took a bus over, but i reached pretty early so i stopped at gwanghwamun to look around.


here's the sejong museum if you're interested. didn't manage to go in though.



there was also some daytime market going on but i didn't have enough time to stroll through.  the buildings are pretty modern, but there's some joseon statues in the middle of the street. pretty interesting.



on to meet my friend. it's pretty nice to meet up with an old friend that you got to know in a foreign land, and whom you get to meet up again in yet another foreign land.

so daeyoung brought me to insadong first - it seems like a place where youngsters hang out but it actually sells a lot of traditional korean stuff.




daeyoung still looks as bearish as ever


passed by a shop that has 신의 advert hurhur



at the top is where lovers write wishes on some tags and place them around.



there was a shop selling faeces-pancake / ddongbbang 똥빵 ... so we bought it to try. erhurhur.



went to a nearby temple to look around. not much.





 walked over to gyeongbukgong 경복궁 next. luckily, there was a palace guard changing ceremony just at the time we reached. nice timing~~



muahah i picked a handsome guard to take pictures with.


and then we entered the area.


wanted to follow the english tour but her accent was too difficult to decipher so ended up going separately. turns out that daeyong was a much better tour guide sinec he was here many times. heh.


here is where the ranks of the guards line up according to the labels on the stones.




and where the king sits~


where the king spends his time to read, watch the scenery etc (basically to pass his time)


and where the king sleeps.


and the queen chambers.


the rest of the buildings look more or less the same so i didn't take much more. wouldn't recognise them either even if the chinese words are different -_-

here's the backyard where there's supposed to be a lot more houses but due to a fire everything was burned down and now it's just an empty land.




and i'm standing in front of the pavillion where the king and his concubines/queen date.



and we're nearing the house where the president stays! just in front of the mountain. exciting.



the guards standing in the boxes are so amusing.



took a rest at the souvenir shop.


what! why are they selling merlion???


i find their touch screen vending machines pretty fascinating.


went to look around the little exhibition area too.





nuahahahah guess what we found! junki-ssi!


there's also some machines where you could take pictures of yourself and send to your email. whoo. this is how it turns out.


went to have dinner next at a market place. saw a cute kindergarten on the way.


and a little prince cafe!!! must come here next time!


so here's where we had our dinner - dokkboggi.





had some mandu and dokboggi meat, and the owner is so nice - i got free sikge 식헤 o drink. kekek.




stopped at a theatre to rest and chat, then went home for the day around 7.