Day 6. Free day. Food tour. 9 April 2024

Breaky photo tour – I took some more shots of the very extensive breakfast at Lotte Hotel Seoul.

Then it was a cab to the ‘C’ Palace and Secret Garden aiming to arrive early to see if we can secure tickets to the Secret Garden tours. English speaking tours sold out online, so our last chance is to see if we can snap up three of the 50 that go on sale at the ticket office at 9. There were more than 50 in front of us, so we hoped for non English speakers. There was a screen displaying number of tickets remaining for each section. The numbers were reducing in front of us as were the tickets remaining. There were 7 as we approached and 2 remaining as we left. Phew! Just made it.

We ventured into the UNESCO listed Changdokkung Palace for a look around before the much anticipated Secret Garden tour.

This palace had a much more relaxed atmosphere and there were many Korean buildings/temples/gates etc with various different styles, colours and garden features too.

We moved to the Secret Garden tour point with about 98 others for our tour through the gardens behind the palace. It was well worth the early start. Again quite peaceful when you let the people move away. The royals used the gardens back in the day for time out and reflection. Lots of history here and many trees planted – I didn’t catch all the significance of.

We then meandered back to ‘C’ palace to grab a coffee and check out the shop and look around…

before catching another cab to the meeting place near the Kwangjang Market for our Food Tour. We had some time to kill so Susie and I wandered for a look.

Chris our food tour guide was awesome. He left us with full bellies – very generous with all the stops, great explanation of whatever we were about to taste, some tips for the language, an interactive map of his fave food places and lots of interesting facts.

The group was great too – three women from Austin Texas, A US military couple from Guam, and a family of three Mum, Dad and Surian also from the states. All really friendly and chatty. We met Chris at 2:30 as planned and finally finished with our tea house visit about 7:30. Highly recommended. Well done to Aunty Sue for researching and picking this tour.

#1.

Ttebokki – rice in chilli sauce

Sushi rolls – kimbabs

Fish skewers

#2 – dumplings.

Variety.

#3

Yukhoe- raw beef and pear.

Mungbean pancake.

Mixed pancakes – fish, Pelagi? Leaf, crab stick, ham, garlic stem, beans.

#4

Shikaye- sweet drink.

#5

Assorted dried fruits. Freeze dried strawberries, sesame seed things, a different rice cake, mango, ginger, white and milk chocolate dipped strawberries. We purchased some bits and pieces for the van ride tomorrow.

#6 donuts – yum.

# 7 Paduk- in Jongmyo Park. A game the older gentlemen play and gamble on too. I think you have to surround your opponents ‘stones’ to take them. Very intense.

#8 Jongmyo shrine built in 1300’s. UNESCO site. Memorial services used to be held here. Stone slab road – spirit road. The spirits of the ancestors walk with you.

Statue of revolutionist. Founder of the Korean YWCA.

#9 Insa dong Pojun Macha – street stalls famous in K drama. The young ones come here to basically get drunk.

The street in Seoul where all the signs have to be in Hangol. One of two Starbucks locations that are written in language one Korean one in Japan.

#10 blueberry or raspberry ice cream- we three had raspberry

Surian – our littlest no tourist Konked out before tea house. He was good fun.

#11 Korean Tea House and gallery.

Many teas to choose from Suzie/Suzie had Black Herbal tea – 10 plants and herbs plus juju bean dates – licorice type tea.

I chose the Omija tea – Korea. Five flavour fruit. Sweet sour savoury in one fruit.

The tea was accompanied by

Dried persimmon. Grilled Rice cake.

A cab caught back to an Optometrist near our hotel called Davich. Glasses are reasonably priced here and I was keen to see what I could get. They closed at 8:30 so we were cutting it fine.

Only 15mins or so by cab and I ended up ordering two pair of glasses which I can pick up when we return to Seoul. They do do a very quick turnaround- I could have had one pair today but no point rushing it. Davion and a young woman who helped with frames and setting things up couldn’t have been more helpful.

LATE ADDITION from the info Chris sent following our food tour.

Also to give y’all a brief summary of what we ate today:

만두 (Mandu) – minced pork/kimchi dumplings

빈대떡 (Bindae-tteok) – mungbean pancakes

육회 (Yuk-hwe) – raw beef with sliced pear and egg yolk (similar to Beef Tartare)

떡볶이 (Tteok-bokki) – spicy rice cakes

마약김밥 (Mayak Gimbab) – seaweed rolls with mustard sauce

오뎅 (Odeng) – fishcakes with broth

식혜 (Sik-hye) – sweet rice punch

약과 (Yak-gwa) – wheat flour and honey snack

Raspberry/Blueberry ice cream at Ikseon-dong

Croissant Carp Shaped Bread (Boong-uh pan) at Ikseon-dong 

쌍화차 or 오미자차 (Ssang-Hwa Tea or Omija Tea) – herbal tea or 5-flavored fruit tea

가래떡구이 (Gare-tteok Gu-i) – grilled rice cakes with honey, almond flakes, and soybean powder

곶감말이 (Got-gam Mal-i) – dried persimmons with walnuts

Also, as a thank you for being on the tour here is a special discount code that will give you a 12% percent off on your next purchase to any of our tours. CODE: STNEXT12

Chris Kim

Secret Tour Guide

Secret Food Tours Seoulcontact@secrettours.comSightseeing Tours: 
www.secrettours.comFood Tours: 
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