It was nice to be back in Seoul. I had seen most of it last time

Quick flight from Japan, in a plane way big for such a 2H flight :)

Shopping streets are lively:

Gyeongbokgung Palace is always impressive:

Some random picts, they are geotagged:

Nice cultural villages:

making friends :)

Seoul still has the longest city wall in the world:

Next door was Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) with the DDP Digital Art Museum (clickme):

Great to meet my former coworker Adam Lazur who nicely came to have dinner with me

The next morning, went to check out another museum I hadn't seen yet:

Then went to Lotte tower and park:

cool park, didn't have time for it

It had a folk museum inside:

Next was the Aquarium (clickme):

Skybridge and buildings around were cool:

The last half day, I went to check out Namsangol Hanok Village:

part of the very long wall around the city

And finished with the Myeongdong Shopping Street area, and a few cat cafés (clickme):

I had done the Eastern South Korea Tour 9 years prior, so it was very nice to be able to do the other half. The tour guy was full of energy and lots of fun :)

Started with an old fortress site that didn't have a lot left, but nice park:

royal tomb

Next stop was Jeonju Hanok Village, definitely a highlight, very cute village:

a few cats, but not very friendly :)

Got to try local clothing:

got the king's clothes :)

Next morning, went to some small village murals:

Quick walk around:

our driver, taking us place to place, was decked out :)

After that was a nice monk center in a lovely forest:

we did a guided meditation with the monk who hosted us

The next day, we went to see a tea growing field:

and the exciting part after that was the Suncheon Bay Nature Reserve, which was very exciting to me because it had mudskippers, the first ones I've seen in the wild:

Check out the video:

From there, the next day was supposed to be in Busan, but given how much there was to do there, I opted to skip the group and do my own tour (read Busan on this page)

Markets:

Nice buildings and sandcastles:

Next morning, started early:

and went to Haedong Younggungsa Temple:

very nice area

Next, went to check the Busam Museum and the UN Memorial Cemetery:

Next Huinnyeoul Cultural Village:

found another cat

this one was closed

After that, |Sindonga Fish Market:

what are these, again?

oh no, cuttlefish, please don't eat those, so sad :(

more :(

yum

My plan for the cable car was good on paper, but with the heavy rain, not as much:

Un Petit Prince Expo:

Cool bridge:

Gamcheon Culture Village was nice, but the rain made it hard:

more petit prince

not great weather, though

Then, went to check out Texas Street by the train station:

nice fast train to Seoul every 10 to 20mn

I love puffers

Nice octopus:

Very cool robot fish:

yes, it is a bit scary :)

The elevator ride, was fun:

Nice view from the top:

this was a bit scary :)

Getting ready to go out:

perfect timing

And more nice views afterwards:

So yes, it was definitely well worth it and challenging of you have agrophobia ;)

That said, this is what I found nearby (and that was stil 30 to 40mn drive, ICN airport is really out of the way):

let's start with a great find I made, 'with orange pieces', haha

Found a nice museum on writings around the ages:

Nice buildings in the area:

Then went for a nearby chinatown and portion of the town with cute decors:

yum :)

Then, went to a waterfront:

Now that it's out of the way, this trip allowed me to see how Korea had changed in 9 years, as well as do the Western part of the Korea tour (last time I only had time for the Eastern part).

For the rest, compared to my previous report, I don't have a lot to add. I was super excited to have seen my first mudskippers in the wild during the western tour. Glad to have been back.

Otherwise, being there for EDC Korea was loads of fun! (clickme)