We made a multi-day layover in South Korea during our flight home this time. The plan was to spend all our time wandering around in Seoul instead of making unnecessary travels to fully make use of our 3 full days there.
Although English isn’t widely spoken in Seoul and most local folks speak minimal English, some sellers do speak Mandarin and we got by in some cases by using hand gestures. We chose to stay in Myeong-dong, one of the main shopping districts in Seoul. It allowed us to easily get to most attraction spots by either walking or riding train.
There are five royal palaces in Seoul and we covered four of them: Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung. Some of the attraction spots covered include Jongmyo Shrine, Bukchon Hanok Village, Namsangol Hanok Village, N Seoul Tower on Namsan Mountain, Insa-dong and Gangnam.
We made an interesting trip to Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market for seafood lunch. Basically, we bought the seafood from the wet market to be cooked by the restaurant in the market. That whole lunch cost $165, which includes a king crab, abalones, whelks, live baby octopuses, sea bass and a bottle of Soju. Besides that, we tried several authentic Korean dishes, such as wild ginseng chicken soup, bibimbap, dumplings, noodle soup and many more.
It was an incredible experience, and we will definitely visit South Korea again the next time we fly back home.
