A small party, it was..

A party? yes...I guess it was a kind of luggage packaging party. My fellow students who happened to be on a trip to Korea spent three day visit at hour house. Two day trip in Seoul had apparently made their luggage bloated. They bought lots of Korean souvenirs...from Namdaemun.

Farah and Nano bought most of the souvenirs not for themselves....but rather...most of them were the request of others. ^^So, a night before they left Seoul, they got to pack all of the things they bought.

To end the day of their visit, their other fellow friends who happened to be currently spending their 1-year program at Kyunghee University (Melizza & Asma) came to our house and ...this was when the party started. 

Simply to have a light dinner or so, I packed the meat-free pizzas from Seoul Cheese Pizza which happened to be our fave pizza in the neighborhood. Inexpensive, clean, yummy, and more importantly..it served no-ham nor no pork pizza ....that we could just order upon request. 

Highlights of Dharma Wanita UGM's Visit to Seoul

Note: 

One-day visit to Seoul after a week-long visit to Japan seemed to be not enough, 

but..this was pretty much what we could do to make the most out of it.

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First: Riding a subway would surely give a first-hand experience of what Seoulites mostly do to get round the city. As many as 4 million (more I guess) people use subways each day in Seoul and its satellite cities. That's how important subway is for a bustling city like Seoul. 

So, taking a seoul Metro would be the first choice for anyone who wants to know how this effective system of transportation works in the heart of the Korea capital.

I insisted that the guests from Dharma Wanita UGM should take this one, too. 

A bit tiring and sometimes...energy-consuming, but once again, this might give a deep impression

 of what the city has to offer.

Second: since they did not have ample time to visit most places in just one day, there was no other better way to enjoy what kind city Seoul was....but to take the 2.5 hour ride on Seoul City Tour Bus--a kind of hop-on and hop-off transportation primarily made for anyone who has not enough time to visit Seoul.

So, for only a mere 9,000 Won (a 1,000 Won discount for coming on a group more than 10)^^, we could use the best and effective time of enjoying Seoul. The bus tour would take its passengers to as many as 38 more attractions in Seoul in just one day. ^^

Third: Out of so many attractions that I could write about...I just wanted to tip this on. Changdokgung palace. This palace located right in front of the Seoul City Hall is a must-visit site should anyone wants to enjoy the cultural show at daylight. But, too bad, due to some circumstances, we could not see the show. Instead, we just visited and got around the palace.

Fourth: it seemed that going somewhere without bringing some oleh-oleh or souvenirs back home....

would be like something in vain. 

So, I took the whole group to Namdaemun market--famous as well as infamous for its vast and endless ranges of Korean brand--be it the original and the counterfeit ones. But, what makes Namdaemun famous is surely its charms in bringing in numerous Korean traditional products: ginseng, tea, etc etc etc. 

This time around: Korean souvenirs were what the whole group was looking for. 

So, a 2-hour shopping seemed to be not-enough to dig into the Korean souvenirs.

Got me to ponder: Shop till we drop (literally and figuratively).

Nice experience, I guess. Right, Ibu-ibu? ^^

Namdaemun and Namsan Tower

Although the title of this entry is Namdaemun and Namsan Tower, I just want to jot down about the time when we were in the surrounding areas where Namdaemun and Namsan Tower were.

We were actually near Namdaemun and near Namsan Tower (a bit far actually, but it was visible).  From Shinsagae Department Store—a place where we were heading—we got out of the building and the whole Namdaemun vicinities and its Seoul Tower were visible.

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The Namsan Tower was actually a bit far off from the area, but for those who just want to chip into the area, they could just take off at Namdaemun station (Hoeyon station) and take the Tower as their background in taking pictures—just like what we did there. By doing so, the whole areas were visible.







The busy streets near Namdaemun and its vicinities were part of the whole things to enjoy. But, since it was Winter, for tropical people like us.....the wind could be a downside since we just wanted to be in a hurry so as to skip being frozen and went straight shopping in the market....instead of enjoying the surrounding areas adjacent to Namdaemun Market.