Korea Trip - Day 3 (Part 1)

Day 3 must be the day we walked the most. We started the day by following 'Cheonggyecheon Stream Walking Tour'. I booked this tour online and it was provided free by Seoul Walking Tour Office. We arrived at 10 am and our guide, Mrs Kim Jung Mee was already waiting for us, but another group (Malaysians too) were late so we had to wait. We took the opportunity to take pictures around the beginning area of the stream.

Beautiful flowers everywhere. After I took this picture, the ahjusshi inside that bus waved at me.

It was on a Saturday morning so the were many people, including groups of school kids probably on a trip. While I was busy taking pictures of flowers, I saw a school boy kept looking at me. After a while he approached me and asked "Are you a Muslim?". I said yes, and we made small talks. Apparently he is interested in religion, he said he knows about Prophet Muhammad, has even read Qur'an, and even knows that the headscarf I'm wearing is called "hijab". But then he said, even though he read about religions, in the end he thinks that religion is pointless. I had nothing to say about that. While we were talking, his friends kept looking at us, apparently interested in chatting with me too, but were shy/can't speak English. We took pictures together and suddenly one of them wasn't shy anymore and tried putting his arm around me. I pushed it away. LOL.

I never got the boy's name. He was the one wearing green shirt.

Then I had to go because the other group had arrived. Before I left a lady which I think was their teacher said "Syukran" to me. Hmm.. she must think that every Muslim is an Arab. I smiled and nodded at her.

We started the walking tour, the tour guide provided us with a lot of information but I was mostly distracted with watching people, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery around me. The water of the stream was crystal clear, there were many fishes, ducks (and their ducks were different from Malaysian ducks) and we even saw a stork (cue me singing "Bangau oh Bangau").

The grand fountain at the beginning of Cheonggyecheon Stream.

Seoul's residents love hanging around the stream, I can understand why. The temperature down the stream is noticeably colder, and the stream is just too beautiful.

Playing guitar.

Painting pictures.

Annyeong!

Listening to a volunteer wearing Korean's traditional clothes.

Along the wall of the stream, there were many significant art pieces. This one was a replica of a painting depicting the royal procession of King Jeongjo and his mother Queen Hgyeonggung when they visited his late father's tomb. The mural is 2.4 meters height and is 186 meters long. What is interesting about this painting is the king didn't sit inside the palanquin, he gave it for his mother to sit in. He was a few steps at the back on a horse.

Very long mural.

Found! Royal palanquin and the king.

Me taking picture of Nadia taking picture of Anis taking picture.

Cheonggyecheon stream wasn't always this beautiful. It was at one time heavily polluted, home to trash, sand and waste (sounds familiar?) until it was covered by concrete and finally an elevated highway was built on top of it. However in 2003 the Seoul Metropolitan Government decided to restore the stream which included removing the elevated highway and pumping water from Han River to the stream. The result: extraordinary.

Ducks swimming happily.

Finally it was the end of our 2.7 km walk. Our feet were screaming, but we were thankful that the weather was nice to us. It was predicted to rain that day, but thankfully it didn't rain in the morning.

When we took this picture, Mrs Kim Jung Mee said that I look like one of her children. I told her that I am already 27, but she said her oldest child is 25. WHOA. She further said that she is already 50 plus. We couldn't believe our ears. But having a job conducting walking tours must be one of the factors of her youthful look.

The end of our tour was near Dongdaemun, one of the three shopping destinations in Seoul. We went to the clothing market, and I bought a shirt for me and a shirt for my brother. Then we went to the opposite building to look at fabrics. Having no interest in fabrics, me and Anis decided to go pick up our tickets to Nami Island at the shuttle bus office near Tapgol Park. And this, was when we got lost.