Triumph & Disaster

We stopped by the COEX Mall for lunch. This underground shopping mall is the largest in Asia, there's a Kimchi Field Museum inside which you might want to visit if you're interested in kimchi.

Lunch at this cafe called Mix & Bake, look at the menu! Chicken Nasigoreng! I admit I ordered coz it says nasi goreng instead of fried rice. Haha... I'm so patriotic. 

We proceed to Changdeokgung which we missed the other day. The queue was long and we had like 8 minutes before the 2:30pm Secret Garden guided tour started and we ran (as in walk super fast) all the way to the Secret Garden! 

There was already a large group of people waiting at the admission gate of the Secret Garden when we reached there. The Secret Garden is also known as the Rear Garden, or Huwon. There's no much secret about it, as the guide explained to us, it merely means the garden for royals only, forbidden to the public of that era.

Eosumun, which literally mean the Fish and Water Gate, symbolizes the King and his subject, one cannot prosper without the other. The two small gates on both sides of Eosumun are for the servants to use. 

Passing through the original Never Old Door, I'm never getting old! Hahaha...

Yeongyeongdang, a traditional mansion with separate buildings for men and women. The buildings are very plainly adorned, which sort of match with the nature well. The men and women's building may be separated, but you can see all the way from the men's to the women's.

Guess what's this stone for in the old times? Giving speech? No, it's for mounting horse!

The gazebos in this area have different shape of the roof when seen from different sides, and if I understand the guide correctly, she's saying the pond's shape is according to the shape of the roof as well. But I can't really see the shapes, I guess I'm not artistic enough... :(

Ongnyucheon, a winding stream, where the royals enjoyed their wine and poetry.

The three pavilions surrounding the stream, the left and middle ones are for the royals, and the right one is for the farmers who planted grains and sometimes the king would try to plant as well.

Walking out of the Secret Garden. Splendid autumn...

Our guide to the Secret Garden.

After finishing the Secret Garden tour, we continued on our own around the palace. 

Injeong-jeon, the throne hall of the palace.

A building without name. I just want to show you how beautiful the weather was that day~

I like the name of this pavilion, literally means Announcing the Spring Pavilion. Such happy pavilion!

We were pretty tired after the long walk around the palace, and the best thing about Korea is, cafe is in abundance! We walked in to this cafe with a very nice name, A Twosome Place. That's how important a name is, I wouldn't want to go in to the Lonesome Place even if I'm alone. :p

We had coffee and cake, rest a bit, and planned our journey ahead.

The fourth day of our journey was a relaxing one. Our main target was to catch the 2:30pm English tour guide for Changdeok Palace's Secret Garden. So for the morning, we decided to go to Bongeunsa Temple, which is not too far away.

On the way, we saw this waiting area pavilion with lots of lighting gear on top. My first thought: Concert!! 

Wrong! It's Gangnam Fashion Festival. Later only did I learn that it's pretty big stuff in Korea, Rain even did a 2-hour solo concert for this event. 

The Bongeunsa Temple is a 1,200-year-old temple located on the slope of Sudo Mountain, across the street from the COEX Mall.

The temple is famous for its Temple Stay Program for tourists to experience the daily life at a traditional Buddha temple. The program includes temple tour, tea ceremony, meditation, lotus flower making etc.

Most temples welcome visitors with their Ilju-mun (One Pillar Gate), at Bongeunsa however, the Jinyeo-mun (Gate of Suchness) leads the visitors into the temple. Jinyeo, means things just as they are, the ultimate truth which is beyond words, with no relative distinction. 

Beopwang-ru (Pavilion of Dharma King), houses the King of the Dharma. The pavilion is used for services such as morning ceremonies, prayers, grand Dharma meetings and practice.

Daewoong-jeon, is the heart of the temple, with Sakyamuni Buddha in the center of the hall, flanked by Amitabha Buddha and Medicine Buddha.

The temple is surrounded with flowers of all colours.

Mireuk Daebul (Great Statue of Maitreya Buddha), is 23 meters high, and depicts Maitreya coming down to earth to save all those who are suffering. 

A very old pavilion, which housed a bell.

After returning to Seoul, since we have few hours to kill before dinner, we decided to go visit Bosingak, which is a bell pavilion. During the Joseon-era, the bell was rung to announce the time. Nowadays, the bell is only rung at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Opposite the road is Jongno Tower. This 132m office building of 33 floors is famous for its view of Jongno from the top floor. The 23rd to 30th floor is hollow. 

Next, we walked to Tapgol Park, which is not too far from Jongno Tower. The public park is former site for Wongaksa Temple. The park is historically important as the site of one of the independence movement.

The pavilion at the center of the park.

The Wongaksa Pagoda, a 10-story high stone pagoda, once on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The pagoda was built in 1467, is Korea's National Treasure #2 and now it is in a protective glass case. I've never seen such an old pagoda with such importance in a public park before. The security here must be very good!

On our way to Insadong, we saw some Korean traditional performance on the street and we stopped to watch.

We bought our breakfast at this breakfast stall just beside the Euljiro-sa-ga subway station near our hostel. I didn't notice the stall there yesterday, maybe because lack of sleep, hehe. The ahjuma is very nice, she explained the types of breakfast she sells to us in Korean. She asked if we wanted gimbap, luckily I knew that word and no, gimbap is too heavy for me. So we ordered the toast with egg. The ahjuma asked us to sit and we saw that besides making the toast, she also sells many other instant food like instant ramen, instant coffee etc. She's pretty camery shy and turned away when one of the customer told her we were taking her photos. By the way the toast is delicious! We bought the toast again the next day.

We bought the visa to Naminara Republic for 8,000 won. Don't be scared off by the word visa, as Naminara Republic is an imaginary country, and in other words, visa just meant ticket. :) Naminara Republic is also know as Nami Island or Namiseom, or better known to the K-drama fever lots as the shooting location for the drama Winter Sonata.

Waiting for the ferry to come...

The tall structure on the right is actually the Zip-Tower, where you can take the Zip Wire ride to Nami Island, what adventurous way!

Reach Nami Island!

The leaves are just changing colours, if you want to catch the prime fall foliage, do come in mid of October.

The island is beautiful, the weather is great. There are lots of footpaths with different types of trees, like the Pine Tree Lane, Ginkgo Tree Lane etc. You can rent a bike or just walk peacefully down the lane. (Look out for students on those bicycles though, not as peaceful a walk as I imagined)

The First Kiss Bridge

The island itself is romantic by nature, you may find simple yet heart-warming gestures along the way.

The Ginkgo Tree Lane

I can lie on the grass whole day long.

The best place to sit and lose yourself in the most beautiful thoughts.

For lunch we ordered some kimchi pancakes (I think) and kimchi rice in a metal lunch box.

As we opened the lunch box and about to eat our lunch, a pretty Korean gal came to us and asked us if we speak English. We said yes, and she told us that she saw that we're eating the meal in a wrong way, and she kindly showed us the way.

You gotta shake the box to mix everything inside! 

Our visit to Nami Island comes to an end. I strongly recommend the island to those who decided to travel to Seoul, the island might be a small one but you will definitely see its beauty!