Asian City Megatour '24 Kickoff - Seoul

It's been over a decade since David's been to Asia, and even longer for Paul, so when we were planning a 2024 vacation the continent rose to the top of the list. We started planning a two week vacation, and settled in on Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. These are brand new cities for us, and David had never been to this region (Paul was in Cambodia and Vietnam way back in 2007). The main problem with traveling to Southeast Asia is it's incredibly far from Atlanta - about a 16 or so hour flight to either Japan or South Korea, a layover, and then a connecting 6 hour flight. So we decided to break it up a bit and spend a few days in Seoul and Tokyo rather than just connecting in the airport. With our Atlanta → Seoul → Singapore → Kuala Lumpur → Tokyo → Atlanta itinerary set, we hopped on our first flight and began our trip.

David's ready to go to Seoul with the express train mascots.

Our route for the trip. Lots and lots of time in airplanes.

Our Delta flight left at 11:30pm on a Thursday, and with the long flight time and time zones, we landed a bit before 5am on Saturday. We took the AREX express from the airport to Seoul Station, which took around 50 minutes. Unfortunately it was still dark so we couldn't see much. We transferred to the subway and made our way to the Lotte City Hotel in the Myeongdong neighborhood. Since we arrived around 7:10am, it was too early to check in, so we dropped off our bags. Despite being tired from travelling (and the 14 hour time change), we hit the ground running to maximize our time in Seoul. Well, after getting some coffee at the Angel-in-us cafe in our hotel. Korea has a fun coffee culture, in general. There are tons of awkwardly-named-in-English chain coffee spots across Seoul.

Since this first day was supposed to be the sunniest (although coldest) weather of our time in Seoul, we made our first stop the Namhansanseong fortress/palace, a UNESCO world heritage site on the southern outskirts of the city. Since Seoul has great transit, it was pretty easy to take the subway and then a connecting bus to reach the site. The bus was full of older people going to take a morning walk around the grounds. Namhansanseong was built as an emergency palace, and largely constructed and used during the 16th to 18th centuries. It's built on a mountainous site about 1,500 feet above sea level, so it was quite a bit colder than Seoul and there was a fair amount of snow around the site. This would be the only snow we'd see on the trip.

We started by walking around some of the walls and taking in the views. Although it was sunny, the air quality was not the best, so the views of central Seoul (about 15 miles away) were hazy but still beautiful. Seoul, in general, has very poor air quality. As the sun continued to rise the snow dripped from the trees. We stopped by Gugcheongsa (국청사) temple, a small and quiet temple inside the fortress grounds that looked charming in the snow. We wrapped up in the center of the site, visiting the palace itself, which had a small entrance fee. While the palace and gates were nice, the appeal of Namhansanseong is certainly the setting, the walls, and the views.

By now it was getting close to lunch time, so we left the palace and crossed the street to a row of restaurants and cafes. The area right around the entrance is set up pretty well for tourists, and parts are even quite cute. We ate at a place called Kimgane Bindaetteok (김가네빈대떡), which was like a cozy wooden cabin and a nice break from the chilly weather outside. A man from the table next to us saw us looking through the Korean-only menu and came over to help us order. Unlike the main tourists areas of Seoul, this whole area was all Koreans; we didn't see any other foreigners.

Seoul has an excellent and easy to use metro system. Getting around the city is a breeze!

On the bus with people bundled up for a walk in the snow.

Walking up to one of the gates.

David in the morning cold.

There was a lot of snow in some areas.

Top of gate selfie!

Views toward Seoul, including the massive Lotte World Tower...which does not look like the eye of Sauron.

Icicles on the roof of a gate.

David on top of the gate!

The serene little temple courtyard.

Korean temples are often painted in brilliant colors.

Buddhas in the temple. 

The main gate of the palace compound.

One of the rooms in the palace.

Looking out over the grounds.

The restaurant we ate at was nice and cozy.

Hot soups on a cold day!

After lunch, we caught the bus back to the subway, and went to the Jamsil area, which has the Lotte World Tower we had seen from Namhansanseong. This 555m (1,821ft) tall skyscraper is currently the 6th tallest building on earth, and we were excited to go to the top and check out the views. We walked through the (very busy) mall at the base of the tower, which has a cute Studio Ghibli store, before taking the elevator up to the "Seoul Sky" observation deck. There was no security (just an unused metal detector) which was a nice change of pace from the US. The views from the top were expansive, although there was still quite a bit of haze. There was also a glass floor with views straight down to the ground.

David with Totoro!

Paul with Kaonashi from Spirited Away.

Looking up at the Lotte World Tower from the plaza.

Lotte World amusement park is right next door.

Looking out over the expanse of Seoul.

Don't look down...is not a message Paul ever received.

Coming down from the observation tower, we got rehydrated at a 7-11 in the mall (7-11s and similar small convenience stores are EVERYWHERE in Korea and Japan), then took the subway to the Gangnam neighborhood. Mostly we went here because Paul wanted to revisit Bongeunsa (a Buddhist temple across the street from super large malls and skyscrapers). This part of town was very busy on a Saturday afternoon.

From Bongeunsa we walked across the street to the Starfield/Coex mall to check out the Starfield "library" and the Gangnam Style hands statute. The library was packed and it was impossible to look around; there was a live performance occurring which didn't help the crowding. After wandering around a bit, we took the subway back to the hotel to check-in and chill for a few minutes before wandering off for dinner.

Lanterns at Bongeunsa.

Who doesn't love the juxtaposition of modern and ancient buildings?

Bongeunsa Buddha.

Korean Buddhist temples are always so colorful!

Starfield Library.

This is a perfectly cromulent number of people to be in a small space with.

oh...Konglish. Don't ever change.

Oppan Gangnam Style!

Like almost every other hotel we've ever stayed at in Korea, there was almost no control over the temperature of the room. Our room was quite warm, and we basically needed to keep the window open the entire time we were there, despite it being around freezing at night. We were on the 14th floor, with views of the surrounding skyscrapers and glimpses of the nearby cheonggyecheon stream and the mountains at the edge of the city. Overall the room was pretty nice, had a great shower, great location, and was a good value. We would definitely recommend the Lotte City Hotel.

After settling in for a bit, we walked to dinner up in Insadong - about 15 minutes, from our hotel. Insadong is a really nice souvenir/craft shopping area with lots of restaurants. It's pretty touristy, though. We ate at a Buddhist temple food restaurant called Sanchon. To be honest the flavors were really mild, but we guess that's to be expected of vegan temple food? It was still interesting to try a variety of different vegetables and banchan. Paul really liked the pickled celery leaves, as well as one made with soft tofu and seaweed. There was also a good house made pine tea with fruits. The interesting interior design of the restaurant was neat too, with art on the walls and lots of plants throughout.

View from our hotel room overlooking cheonggyecheon.

Cheonggyecheon stream, which we had visited back in 2011.

Insadong is lively at night, with a pedestrian main street.

Makgeolli - rice wine.

So much banchan. Honestly, this was probably the most vegetables we ate of the whole trip!

Cheonggyecheon stream at night.

After the 16 hour flight, a day lost to time zones, and 15 hours exploring Seoul, we were exhausted. We went back to the hotel and got ready for bed by 8:15pm. Two more days in Seoul to go, then on the Singapore!