Triumph & Disaster

Our first stop after lunch was Namsangol Hanok Village. Namsangol Hanok Village presents the tradition and culture of Korea from the Joseon-era, and you will get to see five traditional houses of that era which had been moved and restored to here. Best of all, it's free. :)

When we walked in, there was a stage erected in front of a pavilion. According to my guide book, traditional performances are held regularly, and just our luck, a taekwondo demonstration was just about to begin. The warm up was a Korean traditional dance performance.

After the dance, the serious stuff began. I thought that this would be like its name, a demonstration, but in fact, it's more than that. The athletes put their 200% for the show, like it's a competition. The best thing is, it's creatively done. They started out with a dance, then with the taekwondo stunts, then to theatrical efforts with plots and dance incorporated! That's one very packed one hour show! (Did I mentioned it's free?)

This spot is where we can spot the Seoul Tower, a great contrast between the traditional and modern Korea.

We tried this very delicious banana milk drink (and had this for almost every morning, haha). A little sweet for those who don't have a sweet tooth. :p

After visiting the Namsangol Hanok Village, we walked to the N Seoul Tower. The Seoul Tower is located on Mt. Namsan, so you can imagine, even though we took the cable car up to the tower, walking to the cable car stop alone is a bit tiring for me. We bought the round trip cable car ticket for 7,500 won.

Upon reaching the tower, immediately we were presented with great panoramic views of Seoul. Couples lock their vows here and throw the keys. At least the locks here are very colourful, rather than the plain metal gold ones in China.

We bought the observatory + Teddy Bear Museum package ticket for 14,000 won. The Teddy Bear Museum aims to spotlight Seoul's rich history and highlight some of its exciting trends today with teddy bears. So why teddy bear? Click here to learn. So, the bear has been a symbol of perseverance to the Koreans. And I personally feel kids who dreaded going to museums should had love going to this one.  

The exhibition hall is divided into two halls, The Past and The Present.

The Past traced the history from Hanyang of the Joseon Dynasty to modern day Seoul of Korea.

The Present introduced interesting facets of modern Seoul, from Apgujeong to Samcheong.

The view from the observatory. Not too easy to take photos with the glass window in between though. It was said that the Sky Restroom offers a great view too, with cleaner glass. But I guess news have traveled in the net, coz the view is still great, but the glass is not any cleaner.

We went to Myeongdong to spend the rest of the evening there. It's really a happening shopping district where you can see a variety of everything. This is cosmetic shopping heaven for girls! Free mask for just entering the shop, you don't even have to buy anything. The free samples are very overwhelming as well, I never get so much free samples in my life!

Famous Korea sausages eh? Let us try... Not too bad!

After walking like ten thousand miles, we finally settled to had dinner in this shop, with a lot of sticky notes (messages from customer worldwide) up until their ceiling. 

That's how we end our first night in Seoul. :)