Myeong Dong, Insadong, and Chasing Old Ladies up a Mountain!

Another friend I was lucky enough to hang out with in Seoul is the lovely Ms. Grace Kwon. She was back visiting family and luckily our dates coincided, so I was lucky enough to have her show me around Seoul as well.

I met up with Grace at Myeong Dong, which is a cool night market area (really reminded me of HK and Taiwan). We wandered a bit soaking in the atmosphere as well as looking for dinner. There were so many choices to eat, both in restaurants and on the street, but we finally settled on a restaurant that specialized in chicken. We ordered a dish that was kind of like a spicy chicken stir fry, which was cooked at our table. Once we were finished with half of the stir fry, our waitress mixed in some rice, turning it into a spicy chicken fried rice - pretty tasty stuff!

Hanging out in Myeong Dong.

Korean-style chicken fried rice.

Before I saw Grace next, I took a visit to an area called Insadong known for their street market and art scene. I had a great time walking up and down the street market, seeing vendors selling trinkets and food (one amazing sight was a vendor selling honey candy, which they stretched and pulled a thousand times until it became thin strands of white, as thin as hair). For lunch, I stopped by a place that sold soup dumplings, which was really delicious and the broth had a clean, light taste. (As another aside, one thing I really like about restaurants in Korea is that each one specializes in one or two things and only sells those items, which means whatever they cook is generally really tasty).

Street art in Insadong.

Soup dumplings - one of four menu items.

The next day, Grace and I decided we had enough of walking on comfortable, flat ground, so we decided to take a hike up Mt. Bukhansan. The hike was only about five miles total, but was pretty tough since it was so vertical. But the trek was worth it because the views were so gorgeous and it was nice just to sit and soak in Korea from 800 meters up. (On a side note, one thing Grace and I noticed was that there were so many middle and old aged hikers! It was definitely not an easy hike, but all of these older folks (many who were smokers, by the way) looked really comfortable doing it. Pretty amazing considering Grace and I could barely walk the day after.)

The trek begins! Notice she's still smiling...

Now, maybe more of a sweaty grimace.

Gorgeous views and we're not even to the top.

The top!

After our hike (and not eating for a long time since we weren't smart enough to pack snacks), we found a delicious little place at the base of the mountain that served smoked duck and pork. But hold on, there's more! They brought out the smoked meat, and proceeded to grill it for us to get additional crispy texture. Really, really tasty meal, that ofcourse came with a million side dishes, salad, soup, and Korean pancake. It was a great pick me up to a day where I was beat up and down a mountain by little, old ladies...and it was also really nice hanging out with Grace :).

Our well deserved meal.