Kingdoms, Palaces and Cherry Blossoms

The best part of travelling is the actual cultural immersion. This is when you blend yourself together with the locals and understanding their history to better understand them today. 

In this part of the blog, I will show you 3 of the palaces that we visited during our travel to Seoul and how we were amazed by the massive structures of each complex and the history behind it that shaped Korea as a nation. What's even better is, these 3 palaces are almost close to each other by distance thus a walk to the complexes becomes easier.

Changgyeonggung Palace.  📷 - my wife - Deborah

Changdeokgung Palace and Huwon:

This is the closes in terms of proximity to our hotel. We stayed at City Park Hotel in Jongno and Changdeok as the locals call it, is just about 300 meter away. To give you an overview of how close this palace to the hotel, please check the map below:

Walk from City Park Hotel to Changdeokgung Palace. 

The whole complex is part of UNESCO World Heritage List and regarded as one of the "Five Grand Palaces".

According to history, this palace was built by King Taejong, the third ruler of Joseon Dynasty in 1405. Unlike other palace structures in Korea, Changdeok complex was built at the foot of a mountain which made it stand in perfect harmony with nature. 

Changdeok Palace facade. 📷 - my wife - Deborah

We were not able to go to Huwon (Secret Garden) due to time constraints. As you probably know, the garden can be accessed via Changdeok Palace but with separate gate and entrance fee. This garden is only accessible to visitors via a guided tour. Unfortunately, the next English guided tour was scheduled almost at the same time we were scheduled to leave Seoul for the airport. We'll probably see it next time when we get the chance. 

Changgyeonggung Palace:

Interestingly, this palace is already accessible via Changdeok Palace's entrance - nice!

Initially, this palace was named Suganggung Palace but was renamed Changgyeonggung Palace by the late King Seongjong of Joseon dynasty and used as the residential home of his father King Taejong.

To be honest, to me, they all look pretty the same in terms of architecture although for some, the details maybe different in terms of the design and structure. 


Changgyeonggung Palace.  📷 - my wife - Deborah

Gyeongbokgung Palace:
This is the biggest among the 3 palaces we visited not mentioning the vastness of the palace complex. Actually, this is biggest among the "Five Grand Palaces" of Korea. It also served as the main palace of the Joseon dynasty. 

Gyeongbokgung Palace facade. 📷 - my wife - Deborah

If you look at the map as mentioned above, this is still relatively close to where we stayed in thus walkable. 

City Park Hotel surrounded by palaces of Korea

This is where you will also find numerous cherry blossom trees when you're lucky. Visiting Seoul from late March to early April is the best time to see these famous flower bearing trees. Although I must say this may still be a "hit or miss" for most people, as majority of cherry blossom forecasts do not predict the actual blooming days of the trees. If you really are eager to see them bloom, plan your trip at least for the whole forecast week/s. Remember, this is one of the most talked about attraction in Korea during spring time so better get your cameras ready and get yourself a photo with some of these trees. 

Here are some of our Cherry Blossom photos inside Gyeongbok Palace's complex. 

Aren't they beautiful? 📷 - my wife - Deborah

The lonely one. 📷 - my wife - Deborah

Not quite in full bloom yet. 📷 - my wife - Deborah

Gyeongbok Palace is also home of the famous Changing of Royal Guards. This is one spectacle to watch as all performances are done in full costumes. This activity will bring you back to the time when these guards are doing it regularly and not just for ceremonial purposes. 

Below are the performance times according to visitkorea.or.kr website. 

Performance Times

Sumunjang (Royal Guard) Changing Ceremony
10:00, 14:00 / 20 minutes per ceremony
Gwanghwamun Gate Guard-on-Duty Performance
11:00, 13:00 / 10 minutes per ceremony
Sumungun (Gatekeeper) Military Training (outside Hyeopsaengmun Gate)
09:35, 13:35 / 15 minutes per ceremony

This drum is getting ready for the performance. 
📷 - my wife - Deborah


Lastly, if you still can't get enough of Korean culture - head to the 2 museums located inside Gyeongbok Palace. The National Palace Museum of Korea is located south of Heungnyemun gate while the National Folk Museum is located at the eastern side.

There's really a lot to see in Seoul. We had a great time. Ask Andrei. He definitely will tell you how happy he was during his Seoul escape!

He may look Korean to you but he is definitely Pinoy. 
📷 - my wife - Deborah

The Happiest Place in Korea (Everland Adventures)

I am not a fan of themed parks although if given the chance, I don't say "no" to it. I began to gain interest on themed parks again after my 1st child was born. I thought he needs to see these places to gain experience and enjoy his childhood.

On this post, I will share with you all our adventures at Korea's Everland and how this became one of the best places to visit for kids and kids at heart.

It was Sunday, March 30, 2019. We arranged our Everland trip via Klook for both our transfer/s to and from Seoul and the actual themed park pass. The bus was scheduled to leave at 9:40 am. The departure point was the subway line 1, 3, or 5 at Jongno 3 (sam) - ga Station exit 12. We got there from the hotel 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. Few meters from the departure point, we already saw tourists queuing for the bus. We lined up as well and showed our vouchers as issued by the provider and boarded in. The bus left at exactly the same time as scheduled and stopped at 2 more pick up points for other passengers to board. We left Seoul for Everland officially at 10:10 am. The journey took about 1 hr and 30 minutes.

There was a huge parking space for tourist buses close to the resort. The bus stopped there as we needed to transfer to another bus going to the themed park. Our bus driver told us to meet him again at 3:00 pm on the same drop off point for our ride back to Seoul. Off we went to Everland bus! Queue up people! The bus ride took about 5-10 minutes before it reached Everland's main entrance gate.

We got to the entrance gate at Everland and had our first photo opportunity there. At the Everland's gate, our voucher's QR code were scanned and got in. Convenient right? There's no need for you to print anything unless you already have done so, that's okay too.

Ivan and his wife Adel were with us during the whole Korean trip. 

On to our next adventures, friends!

When we got in, I was amazed by how massive the area is and how attractions were arranged. Below are the arrangements of the of the attractions and rides. You can also download the full map here.

• European Adventure
• Magic Land
• American Adventure
• Zootopia
• Global Fair

Then, another photo opportunity came up right after we got in.

My wife - Deborah immediately noticed this big and 

colorful tree and posed for another photo!

As mentioned, this is a massive themed park and the only way to go around is by foot. If you will be bringing toddlers - I would suggest you bring baby stroller with you as we did for a more convenient movement. Don't worry, as the whole themed park has paved walkways and alleys. There's also "walkalators" at Zootopia so you will be okay. Unfortunately there are slopes that you may need to pass through as you go around so just breath as you push your baby strollers up. Tiring indeed but well worth it if your family's happy! 

My wife and our son - Andrei posing with some Dutch inspired buildings 

at the background.

Restaurants, gift and souvenir shops are strategically located in between attraction sections for those shopping enthusiasts. For hungry folks, restaurants cuisines depend on the area they are in. European cuisine are available in the European Adventure section of the park while American restaurants can be found in American Adventure section. If you're lucky, you may find KFC inside the park. You can also see snack bars offering various delightful treats for the street food lovers. Just be advised though that depending on the number of guests in the restaurant, the food will be served to you in as late as 40 minutes. We went to Venitian Pizza for our early lunch fix and got the food after that long. If you think about eating in one of the restaurants here, try to go in first and see the number of people inside and decide if your stomach can wait a little longer than the average food serving time. 

Winter could be harsh especially for people from tropical countries. Remember, you will walk in chilly temperature with cold winds blowing on your face, so make sure you prepare before your travel. I was a victim of harsh weather in one of my previous travels to Europe and was told by one of my Swedish friend "Don't blame the weather - blame your layers". 

My wife and our son - Andrei posing with the Everland sign at the 

European Adventure section of the park.

Everland has numerous gardens too. Maybe the most prominent one is the Tulip Garden located in Little Holland. These are real living tulips my friends. If you're okay to just sit back and relax while enjoying the little piece of Holland with you, then this is the place for you. 

They even sell real tulips in Everland for just 4,000 won

per piece. Any takers?

Little Holland at Everland

The best time to go to Everland is during the summer as hopefully all the rides and attractions are open to tourists. Depending on the weather, Everland closes some attractions for safety purposes so it's better to plan your tour ahead. You may end up not seeing some attractions during rainy, snowy or windy weather. 

Before we leave Everland, another spectacle greeted us - that's the Everland parade where grand floats and fairy creatures danced with the tune of Everland theme songs. It was magical and entertaining. What's surprising is, you will likely see few local dancers in the group. We saw mostly caucasian men and women as part of the dance troupe. Regardless, it was indeed entertaining and fun. 

One of the grand floats which roamed the park at 1:00 pm

in Everland

Some of the dancers singing and dancing in the tune

of Everland theme songs! What a spectacle!

We ended our tour at 2:45 pm and headed to the main bus station few kilometers away from the park, which unfortunately is also the worst part of the whole experience.

As agreed with the bus operator, we will meet him again at 3:00 pm on the same place where we left him. We arrived there 10 minutes before the scheduled departure but we saw our bus already leaving for Seoul. We ask the other drivers there why the bus was leaving early and we were told that the bus is heading to a different drop off point. We were then told that we would need to transfer to a different bus and we need to wait. At exactly 3:00 pm we still did not know which bus to take going back so we asked some drivers there. We just got a rude reply from one Korean driver saying - "I don't speak English" as he walked away. 

We ended up taking another bus to our destination back to the city but since it was not the same route our new driver was familiar of, we arrived in Seoul at around 6:30 pm. That's 3.5 hours compared to the 1.5 hours travel time going to the park. 

If you will remove that unfortunate travel experience, our trip to Everland would have been perfect. Yes - we might come back again to see this park covered in snow. When? - only time will tell.