Long Layover in South Korea (Gwanghwamun, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Namsangol Hanok Village and Namsan S

While my peers are going on grad trips, I am stuck at home cleaning like a maniac. Therefore, it is a good time to reminisce about my past trips to relive some of the boredom (and before I forgot all of the details). I went to South Korea nearly 2 years ago on a layover to Las Vegas.

Viewing the sunrise while on board a Korean Air flight

My first inflight meal

I took the train from Incheon Airport to Seoul's city centre. A one-day pass can be bought at the airport and returned at the end of your trip. The ride lasted around 30 to 45 minutes.

My first stop was Gwanghwamun Square.

Gwanghwamun is the largest gate of the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was my second stop. I enjoyed looking at the architecture of the palace, although I had to rush through my visit as I had other places on my itinerary. I remember that it was a sweltering day as well and I wanted to get away from the heat.

From Gwanghwamun, I searched for the Seoul City Tour Bus, a hop-on and hop-off tour bus around the city.

I headed to Namsangol Hanok Village, which was actually a mistake as I wanted to go to the Bukchon Hanok Village instead. The village featured traditional Korean houses but visitors were not allowed to enter and could only view from behind barriers. There were also cultural activities e.g. trying on hanbok (traditional Korean dress), which I did not participate in as I was running out of cash too (life of a poor student...).

Finally, I moved on to my most anticipated attraction - Namsan Seoul Tower. I think it is quite obvious to Kpop fans by now that my itinerary was based on EXO Showtime Episode 7, where Lay (!!), Kris, Tao and Luhan visited various places in Seoul with Baekhyun and D.O. as tour guides.

I got off at the wrong stop and it took me some climbing before I found my way up the tower. After buying a ticket, I went on a fast elevator ride to the top of the tower and was treated to a bird's eye view of Seoul.

Another attractive feature of Namsan Tower is the love locks. They can be bought at the souvenir stores and locked onto various ledges and trees at the tower. As I did not need to seal love pacts with anyone, I decided to get myself a beautiful bronze keychain featuring the Namsan Tower.

I enjoyed myself so much that I nearly missed my flight to Las Vegas. Firstly, I could not find the entrance to the train station and kept running around in circles. Next, the queue at immigration was extremely long and slow, and thankfully I was allowed to cut ahead. Lastly, my gate was the furthest from the security and I had to dash to it on an empty stomach (yes I ran out of money). My layover ended on a happy note though as the flight was delayed and I flew to Las Vegas successfully. South Korea and Japan have always been on my to-go list and I definitely want to spend one of my future holidays at these two countries again.

Viewing the sunset while panicking on the train back to the airport