Asia 2016 - Day 5 - Seoul Town

Here is a quick post summarizing our stay in Seoul. I did not update the blog yesterday as we were quite tired from running around town.

Somehow we managed to sleep in despite the rather hardish bed and the fact that the blinds can't fully keep the the morning light out of the room.

The first thing we usually do is to book a ride on a hop-on hop-off bus tour that will give us fair overview of the tourist sites to visit. To go to the main departure station we took a taxi from our guest house.

As long as you don't take the black deluxe taxies, they are not all that expensive. The only thing to remember is that the drivers don't speak a grain of English apart from Ok and Stop. But this goes also for the rest of the city, some exceptions aside.

The news about the terrorist attacks in Brussels have not only reached China but also Korea.

The audio commentary on the city sight seeing bus was not the best ever but at least announced some interesting stations like shopping malls like i-Park at Yongsan station.

This gigantic shopping complex makes you realize that 15 out of the 20 million South-Koreans are living in Seoul. This means that their shopping and entertainment needs are vastly greater than at home.

Overwhelmed with all the shops, a whole 7 floor building is dedicated to electronics and toys with 5 e-sport arenas sitting on the roof.

After this stop in a shopping eldorado we stepped back on the bus and rode it to Itaewon, the former American Army district. Nowadays it is known as the favorite spot for foreigners and expats who are looking for a taste of home. If you expect to see foreign restaurants apart from the ever-present KFC or McDonalds then it is here.

After I an hour-long stroll along the main street in Itaewon we hopped on the bus again and got off around Myeongdong where we had a delicious lunch. The restaurant called itself a traditional Korean restaurant and offered only 4 dishes; three types of noodle soup and dumplings. We took the hot noodle soup with ground meat and the dumplings. It was really declicious, especially with the spicy Kimchi.

The kimchi and noodles were so heavy on garlic that they offered us a pair of mints immediately after we ordered :).

Another thing we noticed were that like in France we get a free bottle of water along with the food and Kimchi. But unlike Chinese restaurants which offer boiled water often with tea, Koreans serve it with plenty of ice.

Here is a little pop-quiz. If Koreans eat Kimchi with breakfast and lunch, what side dish accompanies their dinner :) ?

Well fed and rested, we stayed in a cat cafe we took a taxi that was supposed to drop us off at the shuttle bus station for the N Seoul tower, but as with our usual communications problems we were at the foot of the Namsan park and ended up climbing the 1.3km up the hill.

Exhausted but happy that we made it up we would have like the view but the sunny afternoon had turned into a rainy and foggy evening.

At the end of the day we only managed to get some food from the market and then fell into bed.

I seemed like we barely did anything but going over the pictures, it looks like a well spent day.