The Road Taken: Kembara Musim Panas

Salam.

I hope you enjoy reading my picture-blog. Here's the continuation of our adventure in Seoul.

Day 3

Off to Gwanghamun square and Sejong Center for Performing Arts.

Gwanghwamun - the main and largest gate of Gyeongbok Palace

A breathtaking scenery

Sejong Center for Performing Arts (Running Man Ep 7)

At King Sejong Museum ( Running Man Ep 7)

King Sejong is great king in the heart of the Koreans. Apart from taking care of his people well, he had great ideas of systems and inventions which really helped his citizens. He is also the one who created the Hangeul writing system (which is still used till today) which shows his concern towards the illiterates.

Running man fans, does this ring a bell? hehe

It also houses an exhibition about Admiral Yi Sunshin who was famous as the creator of the turtle ship and his intelligent war strategy against the Japanese in his time.

The museum is free; free admission plus free PDA borrowing. Cool. Plus, the PDA made the museum more fun. Extra cool. And I bought a cute King Sejong pen et the souvenir shop...hehe saja nak bagitau. There is also a booth at the entrance where the visitors can try out the king's hanbok. For free. Double cool.

With Haechi Seoul - the mascot of Seoul City. See the red-blue spiral thing? That's actually the mark for the beginning of the Cheonggyecheon stream

Crossing the stream that runs west to east through the downtown Seoul.

Day 4

Seoul Folk Flea Market is actually a walk-able distance from our lodging. When we arrived, it was still very early. So we skipped the market and headed to the next destination after taking commemorative photographs. You know what, the old folks passing by were actually staring at us with a puzzled face. I am not sure if it's because we were taking picture there or it is due to our tudung. Hmm, the stares are really puzzling. They were even turning their heads to see us as they were passing by us. Oh, I should have greeted them in Korean language to see their reactions. Haha that could be fun...

Seoul Folk Flea Market (Running Man Ep 39)

Then we head to the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-Gu. It's a very big museum with no admission fee. Yes, it is free of charge. Quite impressive. But there is no PDA in this museum. What a pity.

We were greeted by the beautiful scenery of N Seoul Tower at the museum entrance. Macam gambar poskad tak?

The extensive building of the museum (Running Man Ep 48)

After that, we headed to Itaewon and stopped by at Itaewon mosque. It is also open for non-Muslims who visited Itaewon, but they had restricted access. They are not allowed to go into the praying hall. An ahjumma tried to go inside, as she was curious to see what is inside. When the person in charge told her that she is not allowed to go in, she was questioning the reason as she couldn't understand. If a non-muslim asked me, I wouldn't know how to answer either, without offending that person, that is.

Masjid Itaewon

Itaewon is a place where you could find the imported goods and European-sized clothes and shoes. There is also a lot of halal food restaurants of Indian cuisine, Pakistani restaurant, makanan Arab, etc; but no Malaysian cuisine yet.

Our next stop that evening was Banpo Han-gang(river) park to see the rainbow fountain. There is a funny story about this. We asked the subway information center about which stop is the best; and with a puzzled look, he said it is of 10-15 minutes of a walking distance, so we decided to walk. And then we met with a very friendly English-speaking volunteer. They wanted to walk? was written clearly on his face. However, since we said we don't mind walking, he kindly instruct us on the directions. And you know what, the walk from Itaewon to Banpo bridge took up about 50 minutes! But since it was windy, and we still had time to catch the rainbow fountain show, I enjoyed the walk, especially while crossing the bridge.

The riverbank park from the bridge.

There were so many people; family picnicking, friends hanging out, bicyclers, and not to be missed, couples dating. It was a very nice park with a very nice view.

To think that we actually crossed the bridge on foot. From Itaewon to this Banpo bridge, crossing from that end to this end. Whoah! Jambatan Sultan Ismail yang kat Muar tu pun aku tak pernah lintas jalan kaki.

People gathered to see the rainbow fountain. I bet the best angle to enjoy the dancing fountain and light effects is from the river

A pair of Japanese tourists helped us took our picture

The two students were very helpful when we asked for the nearest subway station. Haha knowing some Korean phrases from Kdramas sure helps

Day 5

This time, we are going to have a look at one of the palaces. The biggest palace is the Gyeoungbok palace, but as Running Man fans doing a Running Man tour, we went to Gyeonghui palace where the Running Man did their recordings (Running Man Ep 8, Ep 71)

At the entrance of Gyeonghuigung, the Sungjeongmun gate

We met with a group of Singaporean tourists who mistook Gyeonghui as Gyeoungbok palace an ended up taking pictures for each other. "Wow, you ladies are very adventurous..." The Singaporean tourist said upon knowing we traveled with just the two of us.

Say "Kimchee..."

Two adventurous ladies, huh?

Praise be to Allah for protecting us along the journey

Next door building of the Gyeonghui Palace is the Seoul Museum of History, the maroon painted building. Yes, there are sooo many museums in Seoul

The interior of Seoul Museum of History (Running Man Ep 8). Jauh botol air tu merantau; dari Malaysia ke Korea

Seoul Museum of Korea is a museum dedicated for Seoul history as a capital city since the Joseon dynasty. There is no admission fee to see the evolution of Seoul going through the eras, and re-developing after the effect of war with Japan.

Current Seoul City model in the Museum

Day 6

We had a last minute shopping in Namdaemun in the morning and off to Incheon International Airport with the limousine bus at noon. With that, we wrapped up our adventurous journey in Korea...