Korea Day 7 (Insadong > Korean BBQ > Incheon Airport > Home)

After checking out the hotel, all of us squeezed into a cab and headed down back to Insadong where sells the most Korean souvenirs.

 

Before we start our last day souvenir shopping dash .......we had breakfast @ Paris Baguette.

 

How can we not have Paris Croissant/Baguette while we are there in Korea!

  

Paris Croissant Breakfast

 

Paris Croissant (파리 크라상) founded in 1986 is a upscale cafe version with made-to order items, drinks, catering, and overall feels a tad fancier compared to many other bread cafes.

Paris Baguette 파리바게트, the younger sis of Paris Croissant is a huge Korean bread and confectionery chain.  We saw them everywhere in Seoul and they have branches around the world.

 

• The overall ambience, service, variety and food for a bread and confectionery café was 8.5/10.
• Luv the sandwiches in Korea. (Not just from Paris Croissant) They always go with fresh lettuce, crunchy pickles & mustard sauce.

Insadong for Souvenir Shopping

 

You will discover many interesting art/murals within the Ssamziegil building, walls, benches, cafes, shops, stairs and toilets.

(Miu likes the monster window in the toilet but was afraid to sit inside. It's one of her fav pic cos of the monster)

• As we are only left with 2 hrs to shop and lunch, we rushed through, Ssamziegil, the lanes & shops.
• And of cos, our last buy of the PooPoo biscuits.
• We also bought some Korean snacks @ 7-11 cause no time to go Lotte Mart

 

Korea BBQ Lunch

 

From Insadong, we walked 5mins to Gwancheol-Dong where our concierge recommended.

Indeed....there we were spoilt for choices on food restuarants. Aiyah! Why we din know this place earlier!

 

Anyway..... We finally get to eat Korean BBQ & Beef!!!

• The meat weren't as thinly sliced as we expected but the experience of the BBQ and food was good!
• As dear have to carry the sleeping Myn, he has to eat what I creatively wrapped for him. (lettuce, bean sprout, sauce, kimchi, etc).

The BBQ meal was a nice closure to our trip and we rushed back to hotel as we exceeded half hr than our planned time. Luckily, the Airport shuttle bus arrived in less than 15mins time. (no time wasted. heeeeee)

 

At the airport, time was limited. Straight check in, buy some bread & milk from Paris Baguette and head for boarding.

Again.....7hrs challenge to keep the kids entertained and quiet.

Esp this one. Climbing up & down and going to the toilet ALL THE TIME! Dirtying the floor & chair. Lotsa nonsense cum Big nuisance!

But we are glad to have her in the trip. Had a good bonding time with her.

We were Home Sweet Home before midnight =O)

Below are the buys for my girls.

Poor thing..That's all I got.

 

Look at my sis's.

 

~ End of updates to our 7D/6N Family Trip to Seoul, Summer August 2013 ~

 

Looking forward to our 2014's one. =O) Taiwan? Australia? Hong Kong Disneyland? =o)

 

 

 

 

Korea Day 6 (Nami Island)

 

We were quite drained from the previous days and such we decided to go more relax with our timing ....waking up later and keeping one venue on our agenda today..... Nami Island.

 

To go to Nami island from Insadong, we can opt for a direct shuttle from Tapgol Park (Insadong) or by train. As we missed the shuttle timing and it needed reservation, we took the subways which I think we needed at least 3 transit and lastly a 5mins taxi ride to the ferry port. The total journey is about an hr with the last transit abt 30mins. It was a refreshing and interesting ride with scenery thru an suburban area with hills, farms with people fishing and kids tubbing along the rivers. (My kids and even us Singaporean adults will enjoy it)

 

Namiseom Island was formed as a result of the construction of the Cheongpyeong Dam. It is a half moon shaped (462,809㎡) isle, and on it is the grave of General Nami, who led a great victory against the rebels in the 13th year of the 7th king of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejo (reign 1455 ~ 1468). 

A special feature of Namiseom Island is that there are no telephone poles. This is because all electric wires were built underground to keep the natural feeling of the landscape. The complex is 553,560 square yards and famous for its beautiful tree lined roads around the isle. The island gained fame and even more popular for its locals (couples and families) and tourists to visit, being the shooting place for the Winter Sonata drama.

The island transforms every season. And it seems at its most beautiful time at Autumn and Winter.

 

You can choose to take the ferry or flying fox (thrilling!) into the island.

Example of Monkey SEE Monkey DO.

 The island is really great for relaxing and enjoying the nature, especially for us, family with young kids. Lush garden, scenic pine trees queued to a picture perfect background, catching glimpse of wild rabbits, peacock,  geese, squirrels and ostriches. The island is surround by a lake with boating (swan boat & speedboats) and water sports activities(Water-ski, banana boat, etc).

In the middle of the isle, there is a grass field about 316,320 square yards. It is composed of education and training facilities, camping sites, swimming pools, restaurants. The park is sectioned into different facilities/theme.

We first hit the playground area and took a sky-bicycle ride.

Next! One of the reasons that attract us here ........ Family bicycle ride thru the island. It was bumpily fun!

 

It was just an hr of bike rental and it was just enough to go around the island. Should have extended another half an hr.

After returning the cycling, we continued to explore the trails of the island.

Myn was too exhausted from the excitement after the ride.

 

Shiokness found in the hot summer weather..... 

 

A couple of interesting sculptures in the park.

 

There is an area where many stones & pebbles are being piled up. Do not know what does the piles means.

 For good luck? For health? For beauty? For love? For career? For wealth? For happiness?

I WANT Everything!!! =o)

Or could it be just a scene in the Winter Sonata  drama that the female & male leads did and everybody started doing then..? LOL!!!!

 

Next is Speed-Boating round the island!

 

 

Soon, the sky was getting a little dim.

 

We would like to explore more but we are not too sure when is the last ferry and everybody seem to start leaving the island.

 

We quickly capture a few more shots along the way to the port.

 

Leaving the island ......

 

We will definitely visit again, perhaps during the autumn/winter season, to once again be spell-binded by the beauty of this place.......

 

Reached back mainland and saw this Nami island theme café with creative eco-friendly plant pots leading to the entrance of the café.

 

Tired and hungry. It's dinner time before our 1 hr journey back to Seoul town.

 

We settled for Korean *Dak Galbi...which turned out to be Dear's favourite Korean meal for the trip.

 

*A popular Korean dish generally made by stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a gochujang (chili pepper paste) based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions, ggaennip, and tteok (rice cake) together on a hot plate

 

It was a pleasant and fuss free meal as all the ingredients are placed in hotplate the staff helped us to watched over it and stir-fried it through out. There wasn't any splatter of oil (which I hate for hotplate/BBQ) 

 

 

 

Random Pics of Day 6: