Summer At Korea

It was the first time I went to South Korea, together with my co-worker pal, Olivya, just call her Olip anyway :D It was our first time, so we were like a couple of idiot who hadn't experienced to fly over the ocean and transit to airport. Yeah, we took a flight on Singapore Airlines, so we must transit at Changi Airport before being continued to Incheon Airport Korea. We were sent there in order to business trip for 1 month. Yeah, this is for business, so it was free trip, yayyy! (although actually it's not free for us, I bet you feel confused now :D)

The business duty was executed from Monday to Friday. And the rest days, they were holidaaaaaay. We visited some cool new places at Seoul and Suwon. At the first week, we go to the palace called Deoksugung. Deoksugung is a walled compound of palaces that was inhabited by various Korean royalties until the Japanese occupation of Korea around the turn of the 20th century. We found art museum next to the palace, but we didn't enter since we were just visiting there for the surrounding environment ^__^









Still at the same day, next destination would be Namdaemun and Dongdaemun. Namdaemun Market is a large market in Seoul, South Korea. The location of the market is within a 10 minute walk from Seoul metropolitan station and is even closer to the Hoehyeon subway station. Both of us often kicked there to buy some Korean traditional merchandise, T-shirts, or unique gifts to be given to our friends. After felt satisfied buying everything, we continued the journey to Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun Market is a market and shopping center in Jongno-gu, Seoul. It is the largest shopping center in South Korea. We just entered one building there, which sold some clothes. Wow, the fashion mode was more chic and cool than Bandung's. But we just took a look, not much, and then we drifted to Cheonggyecheon river near that. Cheonggyecheon is a nearly 6 km long, modern public recreation space in downtown Seoul, South Korea. This creek flowing west to east through downtown Seoul, and then meeting Jungnangcheon, which in turn connects to the Hangang river.








At the second weekend, not much we did. We just took a walk around our hotel, Stay 7, visited Gyeonggi Art Center (but we didn't come inside since there wasn't any shows, concerts, or just ordinary performances), so we just took photos in front of it. Afterwards, We slid down to the park in the back of Gyeonggi Art Center, we saw Wolhwawon Palace, but it was closed, we were upset, so we just did relaxing in the park. Afternoon, we walked through the river beside our office.





On the third weekend, we visited Hwaseong Fortress. Hwaseong is the wall surrounding the center of Suwon city, which is built in eighteen century. For me, Hwaseong Fortress is like a miniature of Great Wall of China. The difference are Great Wall of China has reached length over the country and deserts which is just like a snake hiking the mountains, with upper end and lower end, while Hwaseong Fortress has shorter length, which has reached about as big as subdistrict and doesn't have upper and lower end, because the fortress is cyclic. Near the fortress, there was Hwaseong Haenggung. It is a palace built within the walls of Hwaseong to house King Jeongjo when he was away from his palace in Seoul and worshipping at his father's tomb. As people said, Haenggung was a place where the movie "Janggeum" has taken.







At the fourth weekend, we went to Everland. Everland is South Korea's largest theme park and often compared to Disneyland by those who have visited both parks, as some consider the architecture, scale, themes and general atmosphere to be very similar. Just like Dufan at Jakarta but more cool :D Both of us entered to some areas, which firstly to Zootopia, and then continued to the gardens, Four Season Garden, Victoria Garden, and many more. And the last visit must be the playground area. The theme of the month is Helloween, so don't be wondered why the color theme is orange, include my cloth. :D

The entrance fee was KR₩35000. Actually, it was quite expensive for both of us, but fortunately, we had a 50% discount. It's all because our Korean partner had been having a member card which will cost 50% than usual. So by the member card, we could claim it and we did it, yayyy! Thanks to you DY Lee, Jung Su Kim, and Young Min Jang :D


























At the last weekend, we spent the day with our co-worker, Dong Yoon Lee, just call him DY. We were escorted to the place we hadn't visited before. So it's a chance for him to escort us to the new market to buy some merchandises. It was Insadong. Insadong is a neighborhood of the Jongno-gu district connected to a multitude of alleys that lead deeper into the district. At one time it was the largest market for antiques and artworks in Korea. Afterwards, we walked through the Cheonggyecheon river, again. Yeah, it's a hardest day, felt so hot all the time, literally :D so we just took a rest by soaking our feet into the water.








When the sun went down, we kicked the last place, Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is located in Namsan Mountain, central Seoul. The tower features a gift shop and restaurants on the ground floor. We went up the tower for KR₩7000. Most of the city of Seoul can be seen from the top.