Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 23

With a few hours to spare in the Gangnam area, I decided to head to these royal tombs. They are easily accessible from Seollung subway station, which is connected to both Line 2 and the Bundang Line. The tombs are about a five minute walk and you can see the car park first, which lets you know you are in the right place. The entrance fee was 1,000 won, a complete bargain. I paid my entrance fee and picked up an English leaflet. I have been to the royal tombs in Hwaseon, so I was curious to see how similar these ones would be. The trees were looking lovely with the autumn colours coming through. I came across the first tomb that of King Seongjong, he was the 9th ruler of the Joseon Dynasty. I was ... read more

We left Seoul early, the traffic wasn't too bad and it didn't take us long to reach the park. The weather was gorgeous, I couldn't believe that it was almost the end of October. We walked along the long strip of restaurants, cafes, and shops that lead to the entrance to the park. We paid the entrance fee, I think it was a couple of thousand won and went in. We walked along this gorgeous path that was lined with trees in all their autumnal glory. I love autumn time, all the beautiful colours that are all about. We walked along the path, and after a while we reached the Yongmunsa temple. The temple was originally built during the Silla Dynasty. It suffered a lot of damage during the Korean War. The temple is known for ... read more

Wednesday 14th October 2015 We took the same bus back to Seoul that we had taken to Gyeongju and after a comfortable 3 hour journey arrived in Seoul. This time we had decided to stay at K-Pop Guesthouse which is just outside of Seoul station. After walking up and down a street and not being able to locate out guesthouse, a helpful local man pointed us to an alleyway where we were able to find and then check into the guesthouse. The room itself was very basic. Again we had bunk beds and an small en suite wet room. The room was never going to win any awards and I imagine the only certificate this place has is from the health and safety department telling them that they need to close this place down. It was ... read more

There are so many things that are different here that I can't even begin to explain, but I'll try to mentions some that I notice a lot. People don't say anything when you sneeze. "Bless you" is not a thing here... Sometimes it takes up to 5 minutes for a light to turn green. Seriously, if you want to cross a street and the light is still green, you better run for it. The traffic rules here confuse me. Illegal U-turns don't look very illegal here, since everyone just turns when they feel like it. Motorcycles apparently count as pedestrians if they want to: they drive on the sidewalk and use the pedestrian crossings regularly. I have had a bunch of people asking me if my hair color is natural and if I got a perm. ... read more

Sunday 11th October 2015 We arrived at the Express bus station early for our 3 hour journey South East to Gyeongju. The bus wasn't something I was particularly excited about as it was very cheap costing approx £12 return each so didn't hold many high expectations. Having said that, when we boarded we were more than pleasantly surprised. The Bus was set out like an airplane with just 3 seats per row and each seat reclining back almost flat with a leg support. Plenty of space around the soft leather seat. For the next 3 hours we slept. Gyeongju was recommended by a few forums and guides we had read. It is about 30km inland from the east coast and is a place where lots of all kings and generals are buried and surrounded by countryside. ... read more