From the capital city of Seoul, we joined another tour company to take us around South Korea heading south for a total of five days. There were sixteen people in the tour bus including us. Some were from New Zealand, Australia and a single lady from Mexico. The tour bus was meticulously clean and very comfortable. Justin Choi was our tour guide and he spoke perfect English unlike our guide in the city whose heavy accent made it extremely difficult to follow whatever she was telling us.

The first day was cold and raining and fortunately we were prepared for this kind of weather. We drove to Gongju for two and a half hours. There we visited the tomb of King Muryeong and walked around the ancient fortress of Gonsangseon. Justin, our guide was very knowledgeable with Korea’s history that you felt transported to the era he was lecturing about.

When we arrived at the ancient fortress of Gonsanseong, several in our group stayed at the lower level when they saw how steep the pathway was going to the center. Gassy, George, Ligaya and me went ahead and followed the group who walked faster as they were much younger than these senior citizens.

Along the way to our final destination for the day, we stopped by to watch two Korean young ladies perform. One gave us a rendition of a traditional Korean vocal and the other played a Korean violin.

Then we had a sumptuous Korean lunch called bibimbap (literary mixed rice). It came with different main ingredients and I opted for the “live” octopus. As always, there were spicy side dishes which can cause heartburn if you’re not used to it!

After the hot and spicy lunch, we went to Jeonju Hanok Village, a quaint and vibrant small town with small stores selling colorful traditional dresses. The clean streets were made of cobblestones and we really enjoyed just people watching and browsing the sidewalk wares.

The following day we drove almost two hours to the historical and very important city of Gwangju. This city is also called the Home of Democracy. On May 18, 1980 a democratic movement started here by a group of college students which led to the massacre of dozens of them. We visited the solemn National Cemetery honoring these students who sacrificed their lives for democracy.

Some interesting signage I encountered:

More photos from the group:

This trip initially was planned for Trini and myself; however, after her relatives learned that we booked this trip through a mutual travel agent (Cesar Gatchalian), our group grew from two to eight persons – Gassy and Beth Ayson, Tony and Lourdes Sumabat, and George and Ligaya Nolasco. We welcomed the addition since as they say “the more the merrier“!

Although South Korea was in the world’s spotlight a couple of months ago due to the declaration of martial law, which lasted only for six hours, it was very peaceful when we arrived. In Seoul, the capital of South Korea, we witnessed protesters and demonstrators all over the city in support of Ukraine, Israel, Palestine and other countries but we did not feel any danger at all. Police were positioned around the areas but there were no indication of any violence.

Our tour guide picked us up at our hotel and took us around Seoul. The city is home to almost ten million people. We were immediately impressed on how clean the city was. Although the volume of vehicles on the roads were heavy, traffic moved smoothly (contrast it to Manila traffic where it is almost always chaotic due to undisciplined drivers). We visited Susong Dong Temple where the grounds were decorated with colorful streamers and paper flowers. We had to remove our shoes to enter the temple and photography was not allowed.

The temperature was pleasant requiring only light jacket and/or sweaters and we all had our fingers crossed that this would last throughout our trip. But it was not meant to be since the weather turned from nice to ugly.

Our tour guide, Junee, took us to watch the changing of the guard ceremony at Gyeongbokgung Palace. The place was crowded and we saw a lot of tourists and locals alike garbed in the traditional clothes (called hanbok). The place looked vibrant with all these costumes.

The much awaited changing of the guard ceremony commenced with a blaring Korean music occasionally interrupted by a loud drum beat. There were several colors for each “platoon” of guards who marched to the music.

Next, we visited the National Folk Museum. At this time, the temperature was gradually going south as the breeze made it colder than what my app showed so we had to don our jackets and scarves to keep us warm.

For every tour, there is always a stop in a store so they can sell you something to take back home. In this case, our group visited a Ginseng Store. A store employee who spoke good English gave us a very interesting lecture on how the popular and “medicinal” ginseng plant are grown and harvested. Of course, their product which they claim can prevent diabetes, arthritis, dementia and all diseases under the sun are very expensive. I ended up buying ginseng cigars, yes, they do make them! Trini also bought a bag of hard candies made of….you guessed it – ginseng.

Our tour van dropped us off about a block away from our hotel. The shopping radar of the ladies immediately went up as soon as we got off the van! Of course, us guys just had to follow them and patiently waited until they were finished.

Below are more photos during our first day.

After our Seoul tour, we went to a five-day road tour outside of the city and I will talk about this in my next post.