The fourth day in Seoul was our last day in Korea before we fly to Hong Kong in the next day. Our itinerary for today was to visit the half-moon shaped isle, Namisoem island! Namisoem island is very famous among international tourists for the photogenic tree lined road and among all Korean drama lovers for the Winter Sonata statue❤️
For the transportation from Seoul, we can take the subway, but we opt to take the shuttle bus service provided by the Nami island's management. The shuttle bus ticket for round trip was 15,000, but they also offer a package of shuttle bus + entrance ticket for foreigner with price 23,000. The bus departs for Nami island from Insadong or Namdaemun at 9:30 AM, and take you back from Nami island to your departing point at 4:00 PM (check the latest update about time in their website). If you only plan to visit Nami island (not the other surrounding spots such as Petite France and the Garden of Morning Calm), I think the bus is really convenient. My only drawback is their site to do the payment only accessible from Internet Explorer and it was quite troublesome for me. Just try to contact their customer service, they were really helpful to settle your concern!
As Namdaemun was nearer from our hotel, we booked the tickets departing from Namdaemun and found ourself headed to Namdaemun on that Monday morning. We arrived too early (so we grab our morning coffee in the Starbucks nearby) and the bus was only available around 9 AM. Once the bus was there, we showed the booking confirmation and the man exchanged it with the bus tickets and the 'entry visa'. Before the bus departed at 9:30 AM, the man scanned all the passengers to ensure everyone's wearing the safety belt. They really emphasized on safety!
After around 1.5 hours spent sleeping in the bus, we arrived at our destination. First thing first, lunch! We went to the restaurant at the bus park area. Actually, at that time the restaurant only available for tour reservation. Lucky us, because the tour groups haven't arrived, they allowed us to sit on the corner and we directly ordered their BBQ chicken. Yums!
With the happy full tummy, we left the restaurant and headed to the 'immigration' area a.k.a the entrance. As we already had the 'entry visa' with us, we just directly went straight inside the Gapyeong Wharf and queued for the ferry ride to cross the lake.
As soon as we stepped our feet on Nami island, directly went to the information centre to take the island map. However, we ended up neglecting the map as the ambiance there were really enjoyable that you would prefer to not skip anything. Everything was also photo-worthy that we took many pictures!
If you notice from the pictures in this post, that day was very hot. Throughout our stay in Korea, the average temperature was below 20C. However, the temperature on that particular day was 22C with very strong sun. Most of the time I took off my coat and just hung it on my arm. The good thing of hot weather is, it gave me the the perfect excuse for chocolate-vanilla soft serve ice cream!
Our bus back to Namdaemun will be at 4 PM, so at 3 PM we slowly made our way back to the entrance to take the ferry back to Gapyeong Wharf. We were so surprized to see the very long line of people waiting for the ferry! We were relieved that we came earlier and had enough time to queue and got into the ferry. If we just come close to the departing time of our bus, maybe we will miss the bus and need to find another way to back to Seoul. Time management is really important to anticipate such condition!
On our last night in Seoul, my cousin showed us the place to have Korean dessert bingsoo. Bingsoo is the milk based shaved ice with various flavors and toppings. We went to Insadong to have the bingsoo in a Korean dessert cafe called Sulbing. One portion is big enough for 2-3 people. So good!
Just a moment later, a handsome Korean oppa joined our table in bingsoo cafe: it was my Korean exchange friend during my study in HKBU, Kim Geunwoo! So happy we could catch up in the last minute despite of his busy internship schedule and my fully planned itinerary! He also took us for late dinner in his father's favourite noodle shop. The noodle's soup was clear, but super tasty and full of flavor. No wonder his dad loves it so much and Geunwoo insisted us to go there even though we need to take taxi from Insadong hahaha. Thank you so much Geunwoo for your hospitality! Thank you for sparing us some time with your swollen teeth after your dental appointment!😆
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| I was super ugly but you were so cool so let's just put emoji on my face and focus on your handsomeness |
Hope you guys enjoyed my Spring trip posts series and hope it helped you to plan your trip to Busan or Seoul! Make sure you don't miss any👇🏻👇🏻
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