Leaving footprints in Korea Day 4 @ Namsan Tower
17 December 2012
Its the early morning of Day 4 and today was more free and easy. Actually I really like that we are not on tour and that we can decide where we want to go ourselves. Being on tour can be quite rushing so I am very glad that the bestie went to do research and learn how to get to the different destinations. Really very clever! I don’t think I could do it myself. Plus being bad at directions and alien to this place, I was no help at all. Hahaha.
Our simple breakfast of instant noodles and hot chocolate. In such cold weather, this combination was really comforting to the tummy.
We were staying nearby Samziegel, a place full of shops that were arty farty, so we wanted to walk around there first. However, we stumbled onto this place.
Just for fun, we decided to just go ahead and dress in Korea’s traditional outfit! Bestie was wearing a ‘Queen’ outfit.
If you are in Korea for the first time, you should try on the Korean’s traditional costume, the Hanbok, The hanboks are usually so pretty, its meant to bring out the elegance in korean ladies. Its almost impossible to look bad wearing a hanbok.
I chose my outfit in blue to match my scarf! Loved it!
Do we look like Korean royalty now? Hahahaha. 😛
Insadong was clearly a tourist attraction, there are tourists everywhere. You can find Korean traditional culture and crafts here. Stores located along the main road of Insadong is selling wide variety of traditional goods and souvenirs.
We continued to walk around Samziegil and the rooftop was extremely pretty.
Beautifully decorated by written notes.
We also came across this cosy book cafe on the rooftop of Samziegil! Wish there were such cosy book cafes in Singapore!
The exterior was equally pretty too. We walked around in fascination because everything looked nicely decorated.
Our next stop was Itaewon, where the mosque was situated. Isn’t it wonderful to have such a big mosque in Seoul?
We had to tediously walk up steep slopes to get here. The slopes were fine, its just that, it was freezing cold and no matter how tired we were, we had to continue walking to get indoors. Haha! The view from the front of the mosque was spectacular….
I managed to do my Zohor prayers here and the musollah for ladies was on the third floor! I am going to be so fit after this trip. Lol.
The bestie may be interested to come and teach here. Lol. We left after performing Zohor prayers.
All the walking made us hungry. Halal turkish restaurant. Meat! Yay!
The restaurant is on the second level, and after entering it, I was a bit nervous because it looked like a posh restaurant. Can we afford to eat here?
After looking through the menu, the prices does not seem too expensive so we went ahead and ordered our lunch.
I am very happy to be eating chicken! Haha. It was not until in the middle of lunch, that bestie somehow thought that the prices on the menue may not have included taxes and such so we may have to pay a lot more than what was shown in the menu.
Hmm…I had limited cash so frankly, I thought we would not have enough money too! Haha!
Fortunately, it was not like that. The prices of the food were really as stated in the menu. There were no additional costs whatsoever. Haizz..thank God. I think living in Singapore meant that we were used to the high cost of living that, here in Korea, everything seemed cheap. Haha.
If you are looking for halal restaurants, you will find plenty in Itaewon. The whole street is lined up with halal restaurants. There are turkish food, indonesian food, malay food and even halal korean food.
Walking along the monumental river around Cheonggyecheon area.
It was a nice walk but there were not many people walking mainly due to the cold. I was freezing and my fingers had frost bites even though I was wearing gloves.
Its always amazing to see locals offering their help to take photo of us, even without us asking them to!
Our third stop of the day.
The view up from the cable car.
The sun was starting to set so the view when we reach up was truly gorgeous!
We have come to the conclusion that Koreans really love stairs. I think its the secret weapon in keeping the public fit.
Can you see the sun setting? No matter how beautiful the photos are, I can assure you that being there was truly an amazing experience.
Doing our regular 10 shots poses and there were people looking at us when we do it with a ‘Are they crazy?’ look.
Soooo beautiful! I love sunset!
I also loved how the branches just shadows itself and allow the colours of the sunset to appear more outstanding.
At the peak of it.
They had benches with artsy designs and we just had to do our stupid poses there!
Behind us were beautifully decorated christmas trees with all kinds of love locks.
There’s just so many of them.
So couples are suppose to write their names on the lockers and then throw the key away. It signifies that their love for each other are now locked and can never be released.
Are these people seriously thinking this will work?! Sounds like jail to me. Gosh. Ok, I admit I am a sceptic.
I had to stop my scepticism to stop the bestie from doing dance around the pole. I thought that its not appropriate since there were kids around 😀
The sun was really setting….
The whole place was very nice mainly because of the joyful christmas atmosphere that they created.
Taking our last few shots before leaving.
The sky is now dark but the beauty of the night shone through the city lights.
Time to chill at our cafe of the day. Walking from the train station to this cafe was not very far but in that few metres, I really thought I was going to freeze. It was windy too.
Dilly dally was conveniently cosy and not crowded at all.
Our desserts!! I love my choclate cake! Yum!
What a nice way to end our day full of walking! Check out my pink cheeks not from blusher but from the cold. I really do not know how the bestie can drink cold drinks in this weather.
Loving day 4 too. We are scheduled to leave Seoul tomorrow to head to Sokcho which means that tonight will be our last night in the guesthouse.