Saturday, September 23, 2006

Seoul Again

During my first visit to Korea, it was short but quite eventful. To browse visit, click here :

Tour 2 Seoul Part One
Tour 2 Seoul Part Two
Tour 2 Seoul Part Three
On Top of the Dragon Peak - Lost Love Found

Question is after the first visit, how much do I want to go back ? I have been always keen to see Korea again. This time, I re-visited Seoul. Much for business and abit of sightseeing.
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After work, the first night, we visited Insadong, a place best loved by foreign visitors. Narrow streets are lined with traditional buildings, housing arts and craft shops, restaurants and tea shops. It was good experience as we had delicious dishes that taste of Korean traditional home cooking - it was like a full course for taste of Korea - some 20 to 30 dishes were served. Burp !
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The restaurant has a neat atmosphere and the serving staffs were very friendly, and in korean dress.
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Jogyesa Temple is the center of Zen Buddhism in Korea, and is famous for being located in the city.
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The Daeungjeon, the main building, is particularly beautiful with all the different colors painted on it, and inside the building is the Seokgamoni statue. The Buddha story is actually quite nicely crafted.
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The world seems becoming more colorful - hand-crafted and painted from some solid hard wood.
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Jogyesa Temple operates a temple life program for its foreign visitors. It is an opportunity to observe traditional Korean Buddhist temple life. One can learn about various Buddhist cultures such as Chamseon, Dado, and Balugongyang.
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The details were just amazing and such colorful presentation.
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The temple does not give off the solemn and traditional air of the other temples located deep in the mountains, or offer the seasonal scenery of the mountains and the sea. But because it is located in the middle of the city, the transportation is convenient, it is frequently visited by the locals (mostly women).
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Itaewon is a popular tourist and shopping destination for foreigners who visit Korea. There are over 2,000 stores clustered together.
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The many English signs and many foreigners will make you feel as if you are in not in Korea.
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I stayed two nights at Blue Pearl - comfortable and some sort of a business hotel.
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Room views are mostly disappointing unless you'd enjoy watching traffic. IMG_9242
A free event in the airport that one can enjoy korean traditional craft making. Nice.
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It was a rather short trip but mission accomplished and heading to Bangkok.

The best way to travel to Korea, plan now - Tour2Korea.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You went to Seoul for a holiday?
AL

Eddie said...

should i go and see Korea?
Look a bit boring leh
But, kim-chi, i love kim-chi

Patrick Leong said...

ailing : no i didn't go there for holiday. it was just a 2-day trip to attend a few customers. work mostly but managed some time to visit one temple.

eddie : korea is nice. i think other places like pusan and jeju island are also worth seeing. i wanted to see the dmz border but perhaps, have to wait for next year.

SooHK said...

I am planning to go but one thing that deters me is I heard common folks on street could not speak english. I prefer free and easy type as I do not like to travel at midnight...