Hi again and thank you for keeping on with me! Sorry that the post were a little bit delayed from the last post; blame whole-week overtime on my job now. Boo.
Let's get started then!
For
day 3, I decided to travel a little bit more outside of Seoul, since I'm already get the hang of the transport system here (more or less), and to clear out far away area itinerary before I head off to
Busan and come back Seoul to shop.
The
targeted areas for day 3 were Garden of Morning Calm, Le Petite France and Nami Island, since all of them were in one area of upper Seoul.
Woke
up a little bit earlier than usual, using train and arrived in what so called
Changpyeong Station as a starting point.
From here, I went to the bus stop
directly and ride a day bus which covers all of the area above mentioned for
only one time payment around 6000 won. Don’t forget to take schedule leaflet so
you will know when to take off from one place to the next one with the bus!
My
first stop was The Garden of Morning Calm, 30-40 minutes from the main station.
It
was a very nice garden with several themed areas which makes me eager to stroll
each one of them. Since I went there mid August, there was not much to see, but
I bet when it was spring area it will be more satisfying to go to. Here are
some photos that I took back then:
Vast areas everywhere, literally everywhere.
So much hidden spots that can be explored further too! Not to mention that each garden have its own theme, if I'm not wrong.
Good thing was the garden was not as crowded as I expect it would be, which is nice. So satisfied with this place!
After bought several
souvenirs on the garden shop and a Popsicle in a nearby stall, I decided to continue my
trip to Le Petite France, which I’m quite excited about; since the place itself
have been shown so many time in several Korean Drama. Went there with the same day bus and reaching ~
They even put the drama posters on the entrance! Such a hype from the start!
When
I reached there, it was indeed very crowded. The moment I passed the entrance
was just right with the time for their puppet show, so I sat down on the stadium area
(dunno how to call that one) and watched the performance for around 30 minutes.
It was very fun!
Finished
with the performance, I walked through several areas, and took quite a lot of
photos.
Even though some spots were very eye catching (hands down) and fun to explore, I
can’t say I’m truly satisfied with this place. Some of the spots were really
nice and photo-perfect, however some of the other were just plain dull
and under very low maintenance. It’s as if they only pay attention to some
spots that have high traffic while places with low traffic, they just let it
be.
However,
for overall it was worth the visit if you: 1) personally like Le Petite France story, and 2) interested in visiting one of some famous Korean Drama setting. My only mistake was maybe
I went to the Little Prince Museum in Japan (Hakone) first and it was much calmer and properly maintenanced,
resulting in a constant comparing between those two in the middle of my visit.
The one in Korea is much bigger though.
Continue with the journey ~ Finished
with Le Petite France, I moved on to my final destination of the day, Nami
Island! And I think almost everyone have the same route as me as the queue for
Nami Island itself is very long. I stood alongside the road to Nami Island
because there’s no seat left on the bus, and finally reached the entrance 15
minutes later.
From
there it’s not finished yet, since the Nami Island itself was separated by one
quite big lake; in order to reach the main Island, we have to take ferry to
reach the main spot.
Nami
Island itself were famously known from a drama called Winter Sonata, which was a big hit
during their time. That explains too why most of the tourist definitely will go to this place
once they go Korea. However, personally and neutrally speaking, Nami Island were nice but not so mind-blowing as I expected it will be (boo!). Maybe because I didn't quite follow the Winter Sonata hype? Who knows.
Some of the spots are really camera worthy though:
I
think it will be much different if I visit this place during fall; with all
the yellow leaves it must be really pretty. Since I went there mid August,
it was a standard green all over and not much to see. Oh, and I think somewhat you need companion
here to take a lot of pictures of you. Haha.
They have some cute art stalls beside the main road:
The main place is finally here, the statue of Winter Sonata and the Ginko tree road? I kinda forgot.
The
place itself closes around 6 p.m, and I managed to spend only around 1 hour
for the whole area since it was quite late when I reached the main entrance.
After
finished with my very short exploration and photo-taking in several interesting areas, I decided to leave Nami Island and call it a day by strolling around my staying area If I got the time. I managed to
get to Dongdaemun area since it was only 3 stops from my stay’s station.
Except
the tax free shopping area, personally I didn’t like Dongdaemun at all; the
price were very expensive for some branded stuff; indeed it was cheap on several cheaper
places however in that places, they didn’t accept any fitting for the clothes at all.
I’m quite
confused with the area, is it a high end shopping place? But I don’t think so.
It’s not a low end one either… and I wonder how can they maintain their sales with a mixed target market in one area. Never really fond of this one. I
remember I only went back once again to buy Sulwhasoo skin care series for my
mum in the tax free shopping spot. And then I never visit this place anymore. Sorry Dongdaemun, you're off my repeat visit list!
And
that visit sums up my day 3 in Korea! It was a fun day when it comes to the
touch with the nature (yet I tend to judge quite a lot on this day haha) but overall I had so much fun (judging). With this in mind I
can’t be more than exciting to go to Busan on the next day!
Please
click links below to see which day you want to browse! (Will update the link
one by one with every new post that I’ve uploaded)
See
you on the next posts!
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