We just did a weeklong trip to Seoul, South Korea! This would be our third big family trip since moving back to Singapore, and we had such an enjoyable time that I know we will be back! I booked this trip relatively late, about 5 weeks before our travel dates. Izzy had one week of half term break and it so happens that K's birthday is during that week too, hence I was determined for us to have a memorable family trip. After some chats with friends, I was convinced that we should check Seoul out, although K was still rather skeptical. He insisted that he would prefer Japan even though he hasn't set foot on South Korea.. (sorry South Korea!). Nonetheless he agreed and I went on about planning the trip. He was really busy with his work, and I had friends and colleagues who could give valuable recommendations so from there I started my meticulous planning. To the point where the day before we flew out, K told me that he has no clue what I had planned, and that I can't really rely on him much on this trip, unlike the Japan one two years ago.
In terms of where to stay, my colleague Amanda gave a brilliant suggestion, which was to stay in a traditional hanok, to experience how people from the olden times lived. I found one on Air BnB, a little off grid I must say, but the kids loved it. It was a cute little hanok, so well preserved, clean and comfortable. Really no complains about it, except for ahem the price :). Which explained why we only stayed there for two nights. The owner was really kind too - knowing we had two young kids in tow, she allowed us to check in early around 12pm (vs 3pm), and check out later at our leisure (vs 11am). The kids loved exploring the little hanok which also came with a cute tea room. There were wooden sliding doors and windows, and a double bed in an attic bedroom which was accessible by a little wooden ladder. Super cute. The kids learnt about the hanok, and kept asking if we could just stay in and not go out... despite how old the house must be, we even had air conditioning, heater, and even underfloor heating. Super impressed.
Weather
Weather wise, it was a huge range in the one week we were there. Our first day daytime was a sunny 20degC, very comfortable without jackets. At night it fell to about 10degC which was still nice. From there on the temperatures dropped bit by bit, until day 4 where we woke up to heavy snowfall! Oh the buzz and the excitement! More on snow day later, but boy was I glad that we brought winter clothes and kids were equipped with lined wellies to keep their feet warm throughout. After snow day, the daytime temperatures went up again to a balmy 12-14degC, very comfortable.
Food
As for food, K is a huge fan of kBBQ and of the 7 dinners there we had 4 kBBQs and 2 Korean Fried Chicken much to the kids' disappointment because if they could choose, they would choose Sushiro (the Japanese sushi chain opposite our B&B) everyday. But we did visit Sushiro once to appease the kids :). Also very thankful for friends who sent so many recommendations my way, which made it quite easy for us. On the last day at the airport K bought himself some KFC which he raved about, telling me how juicy the chicken was and why did we not try that earlier in the trip.
Getting around
Uber app was the most used app for us during our week there. Because there were 4 of us, and the average cost per trip was about SGD10, we thought it was an easy choice to choose Uber, which was very easy to get taxis. For one of the days we took their subway which was very good too, but lots of stairs and walking within their underground system. When we arrived we took the airport limousine bus (a coach bus) and we paid around SGD15 per person. Hence our return trip to the airport we decided to Uber again, for the convenience and the very slight top up in price (we paid SGD65 to get to the airport).
Kids Friendly Activities
Again thanks to friends who visited Seoul with kids around our age, I received great recommendations which I will be blogging more about.
---
First up, our cute little Hanok in Seungbuk district, which was about a 15-20min Uber ride to the main Gyungbukgung Palace. Admittedly we Uber'ed a lot in the first two days at the hanok and did not explore the Seungbuk neighbourhood. There were also lots of protests happening around the palace area which had road closures, causing some traffic delays and inconvenience.
On the day of check in, I received a message from the owner, about some construction works behind the house, supposedly in another hanok. She told me they will stop work around 4pm everyday and hoped that we wouldn't be inconvenienced much. When we arrived at the hanok, I found an orange paper bag hung outside the door. When I used google translate, I was pleasantly surprised. It turns out that the gift (a set of hand towels) was from the construction company! The note read "We are from the XYZ Construction Company and we are doing some works on this road. We apologise for the noise and we will do our best. Please accept this gift from us as a token." On the towels the words Thank You in Korean were embroidered on them. How sweet, and what a glimpse into their culture!
Comments