Korea - Day 2 - Nami Island tour

Good day everyone.  After a long night yesterday, since I was not able to sleep because I keep getting nose clogged because of the smell of the room, as you may have recalled we were staying in a smoking room because the hotel was also full.  First thing in the morning, when we woke up around 9 AM, we called reception to remind them of the change of room.  And finally at 10 AM, we were transferred to a non-smoking room.

Thank you Ibis Ambassador Hotel.

After this we decided to go on with our day trip to Nami Island.  Where and why Nami Island?  Nami Island is the island where almost the whole "Winter Sonata" series was filmed.  In case you are not a Korean series fanatic, same goes for me.  It was the best selling series in Korea of all time.  They loved the series and the characters involved, and it was an Asia-wide phenomenon, not sure about the world though.  To the extent that they had to re-film the ending of the series just to satisfy the viewers and prevent hysteria from happening, I mean really hysteria when the original ending would have aired.

Now how do you get to Nami Island?

1.) Take a subway ride to CHEONG NYANGNI

2.) When you get there go up exit 4 - Cheong nyangni station square, look for the building marked CHEONG NYANGNI station, and go up the escalator to get to the ticketing lobby.

3.) Buy a train ticket headed to Gapyeong, ticket is 3,800 Won for a reserved seat ticket, it takes around an hour and a half to get there. The seats are very comfy and leg room is very generous.  You can bring it snacks, foods and drinks to your ride just make sure not to leave a mess.

4.) When you get to Gapyeong, options are to take a taxi to the Ferry Terminal, just say "Nami Island" and they know where to take you.  It is almost the only route the taxis there take.  I'm not really sure about the fare as I did not take the cab. instead, there is another option of walking to the bus terminal around a 5 min. walk from the ferry terminal and taking the green bus which leaves every 30 - 45 mins. and takes you to the ferry terminal. Fare is only 1,000 Won, or if you have bought the a prepaid value card, something like a  subway card, you can use to flash it on the bus sensor when you get off.  Travel time is only 10 mins., but if you are in a hurry I suggest you take the taxi.

5.) When you get to the ferry terminal, first thing you will notice is that there are lots of Korean Chicken barbecue all over the place and it really smells good.  We can't resist so we gave in to our hungry stomachs.
The problem here is the menu is purely Korean and they speak only 10% English, hmmm but some of them also understand Chinese, since there were many Chinese tourists coming over.  They gave us appetizers and  what is it? Of course, spicy Korean vegetables / Kimchi. and we ordered Chicken BBQ as I think this was the signature dish in all of the restaurants there.

Chicken BBQ grilled with hot charcoal - be careful really hot charcoal

appetizers

the Chicken BBQ / Bulgogi tastes awesome!! eat it straight up or wrapped in lettuce with dip

we also ordered the cold noodles, seaweeds, vegetables in pickle soup

It was a full meal. sorry about that I just could not hold back the food any longer now back to the steps.

6.) Go to the ticketing counter to purchase round trip ferry ticket including the entrance ticket to Nami Island.

It costs 8,000 Won each and the ferry ride takes around 10 mins.  Here are some pictures of Nami Island.  This place is unspoiled and very clean yes there are more in development but I believe they can keep the place low profile.  Come on weekdays as weekends can be full of tourists.

If you love nature then this place is for you... there should have been all snow here to look like the scenes in Winter Sonata

If you need more info about Nami Island, please do visit their website http://www.namisum.com/

On the island as well, there was a live music museum showcasing the musical instruments used during the early times.

Then further into the island, we saw where the first kiss at the Winter Sonata Series was filmed

Of course we were imagining we were the stars haha

Something to see are these huts donated by UNICEF, called Unicef Village Huts

This was the check-in place for staying guests at the Island

On our way back from Nami Island, we stopped by at a mini grocery and the shopping choices were so many...

It was a fun day indeed, it was tiring, hot and a good place to spend time with nature. It was almost 8 PM when we arrived back to the Cheongnyangni, funny thing is that, when we got out in the open.  The sun was still there.  Ah, I remember long day short night since Korea is quite high up in the northern hemisphere already, not used to such a daily thing here.  So we were hungry and went to Dongdaemon to get our fix and stroll along the malls for some goodies and gifts.  Tomorrow we continue...

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