Highlights of Korea Trip May 2015 (Part 2 of 3)

This is a continuation of the Korea trip post series.
Itinerary from Hong Thai Travel Agency [pdf]

Part 1: Nami Island, Gyeongbokgong, Deoksugung
Part 2: N Seoul Tower, Painters Performance
Part 3: Jeju
Shopping in Korea

N Seoul Tower

N Seoul Tower was not in our package tour itinerary, but luckily we have 1 free day, and we spent the free day mourning here. We walked to Namsam Park to take the cable car, but we kind of lost our way and we were on our way climbing uphill towards N Seoul Tower!

Thanks to the detour, we passed by this flight of stairs, where a scene was taken in the drama, 我叫金三顺. We took a similar photo (because the old folks were not with us, haha).

Note: If you're planning to go N Seoul Tower by cable car and you have been climbing uphill and you are on this flight of stairs, you're on the wrong way. Turn back! Unless you want to see a bronze statue at the top of the stairs or you intend to climb all the way to N Seoul Tower!

A scene from the drama 我叫金三顺

Recreating the scene

We turned back and found our way to the cable car station. The cable car ride cost 17k won per adult for a round trip. The cable car was packed really full, it must be really uncomfortable to stand in the middle. We were lucky to be near the front of the queue so we got to stand at the side to catch a good view.

Inside the cable car

View outside the cable car

After reaching N Seoul Tower, we were lucky once again - there was free rental of traditional Korean costumes. It is a small white booth for free Korean costumes rental where you can see at several tourist attractions at certain time slots. We saw it at Deoksugung too, but did not wear it there. The bad thing is there are limited costumes and when there is a crowd, you have to wait for people to return the costumes before you can get one. Some Chinese tourists forcefully cut our queue too, and their friends join them into the queue, that is quite annoying. I even told one of them that their friend already cut our queue, but they didn't feel wrong doing it! Try not to take too long wearing the costumes as it may deny others a chance to wear it.

Us in Korean Traditional Costumes on N Seoul Tower!

Stuff to see on the N Seoul Tower

One of the major attractions on N Seoul Tower is the Heart Chair and Lover's Padlock. You see the lover's padlock everywhere on N Seoul Tower. The Heart Chair is shaped like a heart, sitting on it as a couple will bring you closer together due to the slope.

Heart Chair / Lover Chair

If you did not bring a padlock, you can purchase 1 over there, at a much inflated price of course. 1 padlock like what we bought below cost 8000 won (> $10 sgd for our exchange rate), comes with a free marker. So if you want to save money, you can bring your own padlock AND marker. Some people use their handphone cases instead, looks funny.

Trees of Love Padlock

Our Lock!

On our way down, we took the Ohreumi inclined elevator. It's an elevator that is like an escalator, see picture for better understanding. It's pretty cool!

The Ohreumi elevator

View from inside the elevator

The Painters Performance

We also caught a performance by a group from The Painters. It was very impressive and entertaining at the same time. There are 5 teams under The Painters: Chaplin, Jackson, Superman, Beethoven and the Picasso team. The show we caught was presented by the newest team - Picasso.

The Painters: Picasso

There were no spoken words throughout the show, just funny actions and sounds. Combining with dance and music, the artists also had to draw uber fast, and very well! They also have to practise very high precision in their drawing. The Michael Jackson was painted on 4 separate tiles in different orientations, and they have to piece up seamlessly. The tiger drawing was also colored by light after it was completed, to the point I wondered if there is any guidelines on the sketch paper to ensure such precision.

The mermaid picture was a painting done on water, quite novel. I think the performance is one of its kind, and the artists are really talented. Would recommend this show!

Read on:
Highlights of Korea Trip May 2015 (Part 3 of 3)
Shopping in Korea