Autumn 2022 in South Korea! Day 4 – Gapyeong Day

And the day we’d go to Gapyeong finally arrived! We have visited Nami Island twice in the past, but we have never been to Petite France and the Garden of Morning Calm.

As we did not have the patience to go from  one place to another, we opted to book the tour from Klook instead. We got the tour back in September for Php 3,034 per head.

Good morning, Seoul!

We had to wake up very early at 6:30 AM, as our meet-up time was 8:00 AM at Myeongdong Station Exit 2. It took us only 15 minutes to wolf down our breakfast, as we had to rush and get ready. The walk from Stanford Hotel to Exit 2 would take 11 minutes according to Naver, and we could not afford to be late.

The voucher mentioned we should be there 15 minutes before the departure time, but at 7:45 AM, we were still at Myeongdong.

We eventually reached Exit 2 with 3 minutes before 8:00 AM to spare. The throng of people and several flaglets were hard to miss. We were not late.

And our bus was late

I approached one of the tour guides to ask which bus we had to go. We, however, were informed that our bus won’t leave until 9:00 AM.

We should have received a message a night before that the trip would be delayed for 1 hour. I checked my inbox and got none. I could have slept for 30 minutes more. So we just sat by the benches near 7/11, and waited to be signaled to go onboard.

A couple of minutes past 9:00 am, we finally left Myeongdong. My back was hurting a bit because of the cold during the bus ride that I applied the Salonpas Gel at least thrice during the travel. I did not care if the strong menthol smell drifted across the bus. I just needed relief.

My savior. Pardon the hands that needed to be moisturized — hard.

I may have slept for around 15 minutes during the 90-minute ride. I woke up to a long stretch of hills and trees before we se started winding up a road that leads to Petite France. A big Pinocchio statue was visible from the distance. We arrived at around 11:15 AM.

The weather was still cold, but the ‘heat’ was also already quite high. I resorted to using my scarf as a shade as we got brochure and instructions from our tour guide on the time we had to go back to our buses.

We basically had the free time to go around, as long as we come back at around 12:15 PM.

It was cold, but it was hot. I was confused LOL

The hills are alive

The view from above

I immediately went to the comfort room, as I had been holding it in since we left Myeongdong. I did not even drink water just to be safe. Mon knew I am not a big fan of ventriloquist dolls, marionettes, etc. It was creepy to be staring at these as I waited for Mon to finish up.

Walking around Petite France, it looked really different from the structure you would see around South Korea. It was very intentional.

As beautiful Petite France, it was difficult to get decent photos under the harsh sunlight. We did our best to take a couple of photos before we headed back to the shaded areas.

And the stuff of my nightmares

Tried as he may, Mon can’t keep his eyes open under this sun

Autumn colors at Petite France

Reaching for the leaves

There were several stores inside, but we did not buy anything. We looked around, stepping from one building to another.

As previously mentioned, it was only during the pandemic that I began to watch KDramas. My first ever, fully-watched series was My Love from the Starwhich had shot at Petite France. Near the Amphitheater even had cut-out standees of the protagonists Do Min-joon and Cheon Song-yiz

Colors, colors and more colors

Making the most of the noon lighting

A bunch of colorful plates

Time flew by surprisingly, and before we knew it, we were headed back to the bus for our next stop.

The drive from Petite France to Naminara took around 40 minutes. As soon as we descended the bus, I was under the impression that we would have the opportunity to eat lunch at one of the restaurants outside.

We, however, had to be whisked immediately to the area leading up to the wharf. No chance to eat again at the same place we ate lunch from, then.

At the Naminara Immigration gate and the golden leaves

Boarding the wharf to Nami Island

On the way to Nami Island!

Autumn is obviously the peak season. It was precisely the reason our departure was delayed to one hour after because of the demand from tourists and tour companies.

We descended the wharf and it felt like the pandemic did not happen at all. There were a lot of people, as excited as us to have a glimpse of the island at the most anticipated season of the year.

It was already 1:17 PM when the wharf hit the riverbank, and we were already hungry. Mon was busy checking the map for a restaurant to eat from, and I just allowed him to navigate us to wherever we were eating.

And just like that, as if the pandemic did not happen

Our late lunch

There was a long line, but we chose to wait it out instead as there was no guarantee that we’d see less packed restaurants with the number of visitors the island had. It took us 15 minutes before we were finally seated.

It was almost 2:30 PM when we finally finished our lunch. We then began to roam around to take advantage of the autumn colors.

I had a great time taking photos despite the hundreds, and possibly thousands of people. I was very happy to have found a decent tripod at Daiso the day before. If not, we would have less decent shots at Nami.

Yep, our first autumn at Nami Island

The closest to no people we could have for this area

At the metasequoia tree lane

A couple biking

The most jampacked area of the island was the Ginkgo Tree Lane. While the Metasequoia Tree Lande, at least for me, was the most picturesque during winter, the ginkgo trees were king during autumn.

It was so quintessentially so autumn that it was close to impossible to take a bad shot there. Everybody just looks pretty under the pretty yellow light. That’s a rule.

The ginkgo tree lane was packed

GOLD!

This will be my autumn 2022 shot

I believe we may have stayed the longest at the ginkgo trees, before we decided to get some coffee at a café. It was already 4:00 PM by that time.

We had to be back at the bus by 4:40 PM, and with the many people who were also thinking of getting on the wharf back to the other side of the river, we thought of going there much earlier.

We even spotted a black and white kitty napping. We wondered whether it was related to the fat black and white kitty we spotted back in 2012.

And the behind the scene

We were actually rushing to finish off our coffee

Our sleepy Gapyeong kitty

At exactly 4:45 PM, our bus traveled all the way to our last stop for the day: the Garden of the Morning Calm. It took us around 40 minutes of travel from Nami Island.

As the days are shortest this time of the year, it meant we would be struggling to get decent photos wit less sunlight. My old iPhone, which took awesome shots during daytime, stood no chance when the lights are low. We had to use Mon’s phone towards the last stretch of our 40-minute stay.

Arrived at the Garden of Morning Calm

Mon with the pink muhly grass

Our walking shot

We also did not have enough time to explore the Garden. We were a bit worried how long the travel back to Seoul would be, as we had to meet Monette in Myeongdong at 7:30 PM. Nevertheless, it was something we could not control as we literally were not the ones driving the bus.

Nevertheless, we managed to walk around a bit, but not straying too from where the buses are, unless we wanted to get lost. The Garden was so vast that getting lost was not a remote possibility.

Mon’s KDrama autumn shot

Before we lost the light

At around 6:15 PM, we already travelled back to Seoul. According to Naver, we won’t be back until almost 8:00 PM. We immediately alerted Monette to wait us up, as she may be there well ahead of us.

She fortunately wanted to walk around Myeongdong as well, so we were sure she would not feel us arriving late that much.

During the ride back, I was thinking thoroughly about the tour that we took. On one hand, we finally crossed out the visit to Petite France and the Garden of the Morning Calm off of our list.

On the other, we also thought that the train rides may have been better to us instead. I just had some difficulties sitting for the whole length of the bus ride, fidgeting to find the best position. Or my back was just aching a bit on our 3rd full day, that it was immaterial whether or not it was the cold weather or the bus ride.

Still, riding the bus had its pros as it meant not having to worry about getting lost navigating.

Our last evening at Myeongdong

And some additional KPop merch shopping before dinner

As optimistice I was that we’d arrive almost 8:00 PM, we arrived instead at around 8:15 PM. Monette was already waiting by the waiting shed across Tous Les Jours and we let her decide where to eat instead.

We haven’t had any Korean barbecue during our stay, thus she brought us to this barbecue place recommended by one of her classmates.

It coincidentally was at the perfect spot, as it also has this KPop merch store that Mon wanted to visit on our last evening. So while Monette ordered the food ahead of us, Mon bought the things he had to buy.

Dinner with Monette

I must say that she could not have picked a much better spot for our dinner. Everything was so good, even the grilled beef intestines (which Mon did not touch). I also especially loved the grilled mushroom.

Over our late dinner, we also continued with the exchange we had from our lunch the previous day. It was enriching to have these kinds of discussion that spanned from the inane to serious to the existential.

It hit me how happy she was to be with us, as seeing familiar faces from home is always welcome for someone who had to stay overseas for an extended period. To commemorate our spending of time together in Seoul, I gave one of my unused silk scarves to her (aside from the Tylenol she requested from us that traveled the whole day to Gapyeong). That’ll come in handy in one of her official functions.

Our 10pm coffee

Our 10pm coffee

We also managed to squeeze in our late coffee and chatted some more. Then while walking around after, Bing Bang’s Lies played, which sent us to a frenzy.

We basically started getting into KPop around the same time back in late 2008. We were laughing so hard as I sang loudly my misheard lyrics for the song.

We then walked back to our hotel, near to where she would ride the train back to Hongik. We stopped and hugged each other tightly and promised to meet again back home with her thesis finished.

She also remarked how on Earth we missed a sculpture of renowned Korean artist, Lee Jae-Hyo outside our hotel. (I had to Google after).

Despite the aching back, it was bittersweet that it was our last night in South Korea… and so we thought.

bryologue

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