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South Korea 27 Nov -11 Dec 2002 (Seoul, Suwon, Gjeongju, Gangneung, Soeraksan National Park)

 
Yong brothers and family at Yangdong Village

The two Yong brothers and family including the mother, wives and three children did a FIT (free independent travel) for 15 days. Transport is relatively cheap. Accomodation and food is on the high side but still affordable if one is not too choosy. On the other hand, the weather was absolutely cold and I would recommend visiting under more favourable climatic condition.

• 27 Nov 2002 Wed - Our flight to Seoul Korea departed KLIA just before midnight and flight was quite full because of the school holiday period. ON plane.
• Thu - We arrived in Korea at 8am local time after some 9 hours flight. We opted for the cheaper public bus which took us within 200m of our pre-booked motel in Central Seoul. After lunch, most of us, especially the children rested while Lee Keng & Lee Min visited the nearby Korea Tourism Office to collect a bundle of literature and brochures. After dinner we visited Insadong, the premier place in Korea for buying antiques, arts and crafts. ON Seoul.
• Fri - We spent a whole day in Lotte World, which is the world's biggest indoor theme park. There is an outdoor section and a very good and must-see Lotte World Folk Museum. Its good to avoid the weekends bec it can get very busy then. Lotte World is accesible via the subway system. ON Seoul.
• Sat - We covered the standard sites including the royal palace of Gyeongbokgung in the morning and The War Memorial in the afternoon. This was followed by a visit to Namdaemum market, the biggest in Seoul. ON Seoul.
• Sun - The Jonggak subway station, some 50m away from the hotel, was where we started our hour long subway ride to Suwon, located on the outskirts of Seoul. Here we wanted to see the Unesco listed Hwaseong Fortress but as it involved a long uphill walk, we only managed the walls of the castle at the foothills. ON Suwon.
• Mon - A free bus took us to Korean Folk Village, which is a tasteful reconstruction of a traditional Korean village. There are scheduled shows including the typical farmer's dance to the sound of gongs and drums, acrobatics and tightrope dance. The eating was also very good and set in an open-air village environment. ON Suwon
• Tue - North East of Suwon is Everland, the largest amusement park in Korea. Attractions include a botanic garden, a zoo, a safari park and a host of gut-gripping rides. The snow sleding was particularly enjoyable with separate slopes for adult and children. Once again, weekdays are recommended as it can get very crowded during weekends. ON Suwon..

   
Farmer's dance Korean Folk Village / White Yongpyeong

• Wed - The 8am train took 4 hours to get to Gjeongju in Southern Korea. We arranged to charter a van for a full day tomorrow at the station before settling into our motel. The rest of the day was spend just wandering about the town market. Gjeongju is a pleasant small town despite being the capital of the Silla dynasty for 1000 years. ON Gjeongju.
• Thu - The full day tour began early with a trip to beautiful Yangdong Folk Village, a 15th century village that have retained its olden days architecture. Other places included Bulguksa (Buddha Nation Temple), Seokguram Grotto with its seated Sakyamuni Buddha and the Tumuli Park with its mass of tombs of kings and noblemen. These attractions are all on the Unesco heritage list. It was late when we finished. ON Gjeongju.
• Fri - Our destination was Gangneung, some 3 hours away by public bus. It was raining almost the whole day and was not a pleasant day for sightseeing. We opted to take it easy as the temperature was particularly cold. ON Gangneung.
• Sat - We are off to Yongpyeong Ski Resort, some 30 mins bus ride from Gangneung. This world class ski resort will be the venue for the next Winter Olympics. There are ski lessons available but we opted for a walkabout at the top of the mountain, accessible by cable car. It was very very cold but the "white scenery" on top was rewarding. ON Gangneung.

   
Everland Theme Park / Soeraksan National Park

• Sun - The bus ride to Sokcho was only an hour and this is the base for the Seoraksan National Park. We arrived at noon in the midst of rain and windy weather. The temperatures were about 3 degrees C. Armed with umbrellas we headed towards the fish market for our lunch. Seafood all over the world tend to be expensive and Sokcho was no exception, despite located next to the fish landing area. We were anxious to get indoors and rushed our visit. ON Sokcho.
• Mon - We woke up today and discovered that it had been snowing the night before. The whole town was blanketed in a thin layer of snow but the roads were still opened. We boarding a bus to nearby Seoraksan National Park but it was only able to travel up to the entrance of the park because of heavy snowfall there. We got down the bus in snowy conditions and walked a short distance into the Park, stopping for shelter at a snow-covered bus stop. Here the children frolicked in the white snow whilst the adults shivered under the shelter. After about an hour we left and return to Sokcho and the comforts of our heated rooms. ON Sokcho.
• Tue - The town was blanketed by a layer of snow, 3 feet deep in some parts because of non-stop snow the whole of yesterday. Many of the out-of-town buses were unable to run and we had some anxious moments finding transport back to Seoul. Finally we got onto a bus that went via the highways instead of inter-town buses. It did not snow as much in Seoul as Sokcho and we were able to get to our motel safely. At night some of the adults visited Dongdaemun Market which starts at 8pm and ends at 8am. The weather was as expected very very cold and we came back early. ON Seoul.
• Wed - Early in the morning, I visited Seoul's fish market. There were imports from as far away as Argentina and some of the octobus and squids were the largest I have ever seen. Later in the morning, we went to the zoo, reputed to be Asia's biggest, but decided against going in because it was too cold, minus 7 degrees C. In fact, there were practically no visitors and most have opted to stay indoors. Instead we ended up in in a Carrefour Hypermarket for lunch and shopping. ON Seoul.
• Thu - After breakfast, we made our way to the nearby bus-stop for the trip to the Inchon International Airport. We flew home at about noon.

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