Walk With Me

As if yesterday's DMZ Third Tunnel wasn't enough, yours truly found another place that almost gave me a heart attack.

The city of Suwon is about 80 minutes by subway from Seoul. Yes, the subway system reaches that far! Coming from Seattle, I get giddy whenever I'm in Asia because every city in the continent seems to have an efficient rail public transportation (yes, even I'm calling Manila's MRT efficient).

First stop? Korean Folk Village. I was actually grumpy in the beginning because Woori Bank gave me the most horrible exchange rate ever (it was the only bank open at 9:15am) and I ended up missing the first run of the free shuttle bus by ten minutes so I had to wait another 50 minutes for the next one to come along. By the time I got there, it was noon already and I didn't even bother to eat lunch because I only had two hours to explore the village before the 2pm return shuttle. Yeah, I'm letting off steam). LoL.

Well, the highlight of the village was my seeing all the elementary school kids on their field trip. I swear, they're all so cute from the tiny tots to the grade schoolers. One of them actually chased me down and asked me a question. Oh little one, if only I knew more Korean, we could converse and I can ask you if you have a twenty-something uncle! Tsk! ;P The areas of the village all looked the same after a while (similar to when you go to Siem Reap, Cambodia and you get all templed out after two days). With a headache from not having eaten lunch, I took the shuttle bus back to Suwon Station at 2pm. I immediately ran to the AK Mall and had jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) at Golden Plate. Another item on my must-eats down!

By 3pm, I was on a public bus to Paldalmun of Hwaseong Fortress. I was actually scared to take the bus because I knew that none of the drivers spoke English, but hey, you can't get lost when your destination is a big ass fortress gate.

I first checked out Hwaseong Haenggung, "The Best of detached Palace Architecture in Joseon Dynasty" as written verbatim from their tourist map. If you watched Jewel in the Palace, you might dig this place since parts of the TV drama was filmed here and some of the costumes used are displayed. I, however, haven't seen an episode so it looked like any other palace that I've been to thus far in Seoul. This led me to hike up the hill to Mirohanjeong to see a bird's eye view of the palace. The view was awesome. But alas, that wasn't the last of my strenous exercises for the day.

The real tourist "spot" in this part of South Korea is Hwaseong Fortress, consisting of four main gates. Little did I know that the second gate after Paldalmun, Hwaseomun, was not the highest part of the fortress. In turned out that the highest part is actually Seojangdae, which I kept aiming for since I kept seeing it from Haenggung. If I had aimed for Hwaseomun correctly, it would've been a much easier climb. Thankfully, I bought water before the climb ("Ajussi...mul" was the successful broken Korean phrase of the day) because I might've passed out half-way up that darn mountain. By the time I got to the third gate, Janganmun, I decided to just return to Paldalmun by walking along Paldal Street instead of walking along the fortress wall. Afterall, each "destination" along the wall looked the same to me as Cathy forewarned me about.

By 6:15, I was on the subway back to Seoul. I got off at the City Hall subway stop and ran to the nearest fast food place which turned out to be KFC. I've had KFC in the Philippines and Thailand so I know there's a bit of a difference in each country from the usual fare we get in the States. What's the difference here in Korea? No gravy (Thailand gives you sweet chili sauce instead) and no sides (Philippines serves rice). Just two pieces of chicken and a drink. Bon appetit!

I finished my meal as quickly as possible so I can catch my 8pm NANTA show. It turned out that the Tourist Information Center yesterday reserved my ticket at the wrong branch! So I ended up paying W10,000 more for a VIP seat just so that I can watch it right there and then. It wouldn't have been bad (my seat was dead center in the fifth row) had the theater not been small. Hmph! But I quickly forgot all my money issues of the day when two of the actors, just like in JUMP, took their shirts off during the latter half of the show. They must really know their audience. HaHa! The show is fun and quite entertaining music-wise and I can see how this is one of the most watched shows in Seoul. Two thumbs up!

When I got back to the hotel, I realized that tomorrow is Saturday already. *SIGH. This trip is nearing its end. *Sniff!