Strawberry Fields Forever: South Korea Series: Day 1 and 2 at Incheon, Gyeongbokgung and Insadong

It's been a year since we booked our round-trip tickets to South Korea and the day to go has finally arrived!

We arrived at the Incheon International Airport at around 8PM. It was a very nice airport, and like the Kuala Lumpur Internation Airport (KLIA), the arrivals / departure area is separated from the immigrations. We had to board a train to get to the immigrations and luggage claim area. After going through the usual immigrations process (which is hassle free, the officers barely talked to us and did NOT make us feel criminals like what I always witness HERE in PHL), we called the Incheon guesthouse and asked to be picked up. The driver arrived in about 5 minutes and in another 5 minutes we were already in the guesthouse, checking in. The driver turned out to be also the owner of the guesthouse and he was nice enough to offer his suggestions on where we could eat during our first night in Korea.

After putting our things away, we went down and started looking for a restaurant where we could have dinner. We ended up eating at a Korean restaurant at the building's ground floor, and though the food was delicious, this was one of our more expensive meals during our stay, at 10,000KWN each. After dinner, we went around the area to look for a convenience store to buy water, then went home to sleep. It was an uneventful first night.

Day 2 greeted us with warm sunshine the following day. But though the sun was shining, the weather was a VERY pleasant surprise: it was cold enough for us to be able to wear our coats!

Anyway, after having breakfast at one of the restaurants within the guesthouse's vicinity, we started off for Seoul at around 10AM. We went back to the airport using one of the free airport shuttle buses and from the airport, we rode LimousineBus 6011 (the terminal is located at the ground floor) bound for Seoul. The bus routes and schedule can be found here.

The ride to Seoul took around 45 minutes and based on our apartment's location, we were supposed to get off at the Gyeongbokgung station. Unfortunately, we completely missed our stop because when the driver announced the station, it didn't sound like how we were expecting it to sound, so we ended up going down at the Anguk station and taking the train back to our original stop.

We got a little lost while looking for our apartment but after finally finding it, we were lucky that the landlord was already there and the guests who were checking out were also Filipino. After leaving our things, we went around the neighborhood for a bit, then went grocery shopping at Sky Garden, then we had lunch at Momotaro, a Japanese restaurant within the condo building. We went up to the apartment after lunch, and after some house rules discussion with Steve the landlord, we were off to our first sightseeing tour. I think it was around 4PM by then.

First stop was sightseeing at Gyeonbokgung Palace, which was walking distance from our apartment. It was magnificent! For an entrance fee of 3,000KWN, one will be able to see and experience the main and largest palace of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty (info from Wikipedia). It was a grand experience and one travelling tip that I have to give out is that one should wear REALLY comfortable shoes. The place was HUGE and it was a bit tiring to go all over the place... but still worth it.

After the tiring walk around the palace, we rested for a bit at a Starbucks at Anguk then walked over to Insadong. Insadong is a popular tourist attraction around the Jongno-gu area. It has traditional as well as modern Korean shops, a lot of art galleries, teahouses, restaurants, and A LOT of souvenir shops. This place has that distinct Korean feel which makes it popular among tourists. And an added bonus for us was the STREET FOOD! We had street food for dinner: Chicken barbecue and traditional Korean pancakes. After dinner, we were too tired to do anything more so we took a cab home and rested. I think we ended the day at around 10PM.

Now here are the pics:

Waiting for the train that will take us to Immigrations

Waiting for the shuttle from Incheon Guesthouse

Breakfast at an unknown Korean restaurant

At the busstop, while waiting for the shuttle that will take us to the airport.

Just got off the bus.

Limousine bus 6011 should take us to the bus stop near our apartment.

Sights on our way to Seoul:

Our home for the next few days: what a really nice, comfortable place in a safe, quiet neighborhood. I loved this place and will stay here the next time I'm in Seoul!