Korea Day 5: [[Suwon Hwaseong Fortress+ Folk Village + Walnut cake+ Lotteria + Haha Restaurant Pal Ja Mak Chang]]

This morning, we took the rail to Suwon with the main objective of visiting the Hwaseong Fortress and the Folk Village. Suwon is a mere half an hour outskirt of Seoul. Suwon is a very cosy small town. The people are unusually friendly! We were a little lost in direction and the very kind tourist center officer took the effort to explain the direction to us and even showed us the way to the bus stop to take the bus to the fortress. 

Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO heritage site was quite worthly a trip to make. Not sure what was the occasion then but it was free entry the day we went! how lucky! :)

The wall surrounded much of the central of Suwon and consist of various towers and gates that was very interesting to explore. It was a very tiring but great hike up and around the fortress. Once within, many elderly can be seen gathering together doing their morning exercise and hiking in groups. Boy... they were all oh-so-fit!!!

The fortress is so big, it was almost impossible to finish exploring the whole area. Mr Kwek and I probably only covered a third of the whole fortress during our three to fours hours hike! We were tired out when we reached the first peak scenic photo-taking area. The view on the top of the fortress was magnificent! We were glad that we were able to stop and take a rest, admire the scenery and breeze before making our way down to visit the palace.

The palace was unfortunately sworn with school children which makes it quite impossible to catch the show display of soldiers at the main compound area. We decided to give the show a miss and went straight into the palace to explore.

The palace was quite boring IMO as it felt rather restored. We wondered around for an hour or so before making our way back to the main subway station to grab lunch at Lotteria.

After lunch, we made our way to the Suwon Folk Village with the guide from the same tourist center officer! He assisted to walk us to the correct subway station, told us where to stop and told us which bus we should hop on. His directions were so clear, we managed to locate the folk village successfully! :)

The folk village is very interesting and engaging! It gives much insights into old day Korea. Mr Kwek and I had much fun exploring the place, stopping at various spot to catch various performances related to old day Korea and getting our hands on trying the shooting game played by the emporior in old day Korea!

The folk village happens to be a site where various Korea drama filming took place. Hence, the standees of some actresses/actors can be found at various location around the folk village.

The folk village also has a theme park which cater more for kids. Unfortunately it looked rather deserted. Mr Kwek and I walked around for a little before deciding to make our way back to Seoul.

In all, we took four to five hours to finish exploring the village. By the time we are back at the main station to train back to Seoul, it was already dinner time.

As we were quite hungry, we bought a packet of walnut cake to snack on the train. These were one of the nicest snack we ate in Korea! :) The warm walnut cake consist of red bean filling and walnut bites. It was so good, ten of it was quickly finished by us in no time! These can be found in most train/subway stations. Do give it a try!

Once in Seoul, we made our way to Haha Restaurant for dinner! :)

HaHa’s restaurant is located at Hongdae, near Hongik University (Hongdae station) and a shopping mall called ‘SangSang Madang’ 상상마당

Address: Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu 395-17

Directions: To get to SangSang Madang, take subway line 2 to Hongdae University, exit 5

Haha's Restaurant is famous for BBQ pig intestines. When we reached the restaurant at 7-ish in the evening, a queue had arleady formed outside the restaurant. We were pretty lucky to be third in queue. We waited for about half an hour before we finally get a seat.

We ordered one serving of pork intestines, one serving of cow intestines and a kimchi soup to share. Food was not bad but on the pricer end. Our meal, which left us both not full, cost about SGD35-40.

 

After dinner, it was close to 9pm. Most shops around Hongdae were still buzzing with life. Unfortunately, we were smelling of our BBQ dinner and our legs were breaking from all the walking, we decided to head back to the hotel.

This concludes last night in Seoul as we packed up and trained to Busan where we will be spending our last two days in Korea! Stay tune to my next blog post on pretty Busan! :)


Korea Day 1: Seoul [[Ewha Woman University + N Seoul Tower + Namdaemun]]

Korea Day 2: Seoul [[Gyeongbokgung Palace + Tosokchon + Buckchon Hanok Village + Insadong + Myeong Dong Kyoja]]

Korea Day 3: Seoul [[Nami Island + Petite France + Red Sun Budae-jjigae + Dongdaemum]]

Korea Day 4: Seoul [[Panmunjom JSA + DMZ + 3rd Tunnel Tour+Gwangjang Market]]

Korea Day 6: Busan [[Nampodong Street + Yongdusan Park + Busan Tower + Gwangbok-dong Cultural & Fashion Street + Jagalchi Market + Gwangalli beach]]

Korea Day 7 Finale: Busan [[Haedong Yonggungsa Temple + Haeundae Beach + Gukbap Alley + Gamcheon Culture Village]]