South Korea Trip: Tosokchon, The Famous Samgyetang near Gyeongbokgung Palace

After visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace, we started to feel hungry. We have planned to visit a famous Samgyetang seller near the palace. The restaurant name is Tosokchon, it is very famous for its samgyetang. My office mate who ever visit seoul also recommended this restaurant.

The location is not far from Gyeongbokgung. It is located in a small alley, but since this one is famous, people already know its location and already queued outside the restaurant. The queue is not long, I guess because the restaurant is big so they have plenty seats.

we had to queue to get into Tosokchon

we ordered Chicken Stew with Ginseng. We thought it is only consist of chicken, but amazingly it also has rice and herbs inside the chicken! it taste great and ginseng really useful in keeping our body warm.

the famous and tasty Samgyetang

they also gave us free fermented ginseng, or is this soju?

The great thing is, even though this restaurant famous, its price are affordable. Really recommend everybody to come and try its samgyetang :)

the price list

When we come out from the restaurant, the queue already disappeared, maybe it's only happened during lunch time.

in front of Tosokchon

XOXO,
The Tourist

South Korea Trip: Bukchon Hanok Village and Gyeongbokgung Palace

On the third day in Seoul, we planned to go to the north of Seoul to feel the traditional feeling of South Korea. We visited Bukchon Hanok Village and Gyeongbokgung Palace since both location are close to each other and can be reach by feet.

Bukchon Hanok Village is Korean traditional village. Bukchon means Nothern village while Hanok is the name of the traditional houses in there. Many houses in Bukchon have become cultural centers, but some of are still residence. Since many tourists visits this place, there are some board that reminds the tourist to not make loud sound especially at night because the residences in there may be disturbed by that sound.

we stopped at Anguk station, took exit 3, and start walking from there. Since Bukchon Hanok Village is a touristy place, so we could see many tourist, both local and foreign tourist walked to the village. My first thought when arrived at the Bukchon Hanok Village was "it's simply a residence". What we're trying to find was a spot that often appear in the internet when we googled "Bukchon Hanok Village". And when we found it, we directly took out the tripod and set timer, haha....

My favorit spot when visiting Bukchon was the place where we could see the Gyeongbokgung Palace from far away and the mountain in its background. I just love to see such landscape. 

With Gyeongbokgung and the mountain

And when we're going to leave the Bukchon, we found some funny painting at the walls. So we took a chance to grab picture with it.

pictures on the wall

the kissing scene

which one is real?

The distance from Bukchon Hanok Village to Gyeongbokgung is not far, and especially the view on the street is beautiful too, so you'll enjoy your walk.

with autumn leaves everywhere

finally we arrived at Gyeongbokgung palace. The guards in front of the palace as so tall and so stiff. I almost thought they were mannequin. 

Gyeongbokgung Palace's guardian

in front the palace

We were so lucky that not long after our arrival, it was the time for the guard changing ceremony. All tourists are directed to the audience place so they can enjoy and not disturb the ceremony at the same time.

changing guard ceremony

The ticket to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace is 3,000 won. Behind the ticket, you can learn the history of the palace. We could also find the map of the palace in the entrance.

Gyeongbokgung Palace entrance ticket

an informative ticket with the palace history behind it

location map

Two famous place inside Gyeoungbokgung that we visited was Gyeonghoe-ru Pavilion and Hyangwon-jeong. Gyeonghoe-ru Pavilion of National Treasure is where the king threw feast for foreign envoys or host court official. While Hyangwon-jeong is a palace back garden with a bridge to reach the artificial islet. The name itself means Pavilion of Far-Reaching Fragrance (details info can be found in here).

Gyeonghoe-ru Pavilion

Hyangwon-jeong

There are plenty of plants and trees inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, but my favorit is this mandarin orange tree. It was my first time seeing this tree, so it amazed me to see how cute the tree was.

the fruitful mandarin orange tree

XOXO,

The Tourist

South Korea Trip: Seoul Central Mosque and Lotte World

After finished the hanbok photo session, we continued our journey to Seoul Central Mosque which located at Itaewon. The mosque is located in the uphill location, so prepare your feet to take a long ascending stairs to get there. Before entering the mosque gate, there's a board which informed about how to dress up when entering the mosque.

dress code

in front of Seoul Central mosque

inside the mosque

The unique thing about Itaewon is you'll find many Africans in here, but I don't know the history why most of them dwell in Itaewon instead in other part of Seoul.

After finished our prayer, we directly went to Jamsil station since we wanted to visit Lotte World. Actually when we went to Seoul, we planned to visit only one from two theme parks (Lotte World or Everland), because entering two theme parks will be costly. At that time we planned to visit Everland only, but when arrived at the gate of Lotte World, it was very tempting to get in, just to fill in our curiosity.

me and Lotte World castle

Since what we want to see inside Lotte World is its famous castle, so to avoid any regret we bought general admission ticket only without any plan to play any of the attraction. The great thing is, Lotte World entrance ticket price is reduced at 4 p.m. from 31,000 won to 26,000 won, and if you enter at 7 p.m. the price will be lower to 17,000 only. It was already 7 p.m., so we were excited to know that we can enter Lotte World with its lowest price.

Lotte World ticket

17,000 won only, yeay!

Lotte World has two area, the first one is Magic Land. Magic Land is an man-made island just for the theme park. It's also where the castle located.

Atlantis attraction in Magic Land

the popular Gyro Swing

Snow White diorama

there's even a place for lovers in the magic island

The second area is the indoor park. If you come at night at late November just like what I did, it's more comfortable being in the indoor park since the temperature is warmer.

inside the indoor park

with Lotte World mascot

The indoor park located inside the Lotte shopping mall, so when we came out of the theme park we can shop and window shopping at Lotte department store.


XOXO,
The Tourist