Korea WinterLand - Day 7 (Part One - Gwangjang Market & Huwon)

Today is Cultural Heritage Day for us. ^_^

Our Itinerary included Gwangjang Market in the morning, Changdeokgung cum Secret Garden Tour in the afternoon, then to Unhyeongung for hangbok photo-taking session and lastly to Isadong for dinner. All these places except Gwangjang Market are all within walking distance. So the itinerary might looked packed but its all still manageable. 

The kids usually woke up at about 8 plus in the morning and we would leave the apartment about 9 plus. Maybe because DY missed his nap for the past few days, he fell asleep in the train early in the morning on our way to Gwangjang Market! ^_^""

But he quickly woke up when we reached our destination and was his sunny self again.

We went straight to the famous soy pancake stall and ordered a standard pancake and a pork pancake plus a bottle of Makgeolli to wash in down like a typical Korean! It is a lightly sweet rice alcohol that is milky, off-white colour and is about 6-8% alcohol by volume.

As expected, both the kids were not fans of the pancakes so I gave them the sushi roll that I've bought earlier at the shop near our apartment.

We did not have much time to try other food as our Chinese Tour of the Secret Garden starts at 12:30p.m. and we need to reach the palace earlier to buy the tickets, hence we took a quick 10 mins taxi ride to Changdeokgung.

The 90-minutes tour started at a restricted entrance and was conducted by a Korean lady whose Mandarin is a little bit difficult to understand...hence after following the group obediently for the first quarter of the tour, we left the group and walked along the trail at our own pace, enjoying the sights without having to rush and keep up the pace.

Buyongji Pond: The Pavilion with a View

<<不老门>> Bullomun - Gate of Long Life

Yeonghwadang - Civil Service Examination Hall

Gwanramjeong Pavilion and Bandoji Pond

Cheonguijeong - found some rice plant, apparently the King did some farming as well. It is supposed to help him understand the importance of farming to the people.

Chinese Juniper Tree: An almost thousand years old tree! A tree of many faces: if you look closely enough, you can see a monkey, elephant and many more!

Hahaha....I look like a posing model while he looks like a suspect undergoing a body search!! X_X