We finished our ice skating activity at the Seoul Plaza past 11AM, and it was about time to figure out lunch and also for the kids to find a place to sit down and rest their legs after all the falling and trying to get up again. Our itinerary for the rest of the day was centered at Namsan, including going up the N Seoul Tower for sunset, so we made our way to Myeongdong, since Namsam was within walking distance of Myeongdong Station. We ended up dropping the activity though on account of re-checking the costs of getting up to the tower via cable car and the cost of admission into the tower’s observatory deck itself, and figured that spending more than SGD100 for all of us to go up wasn’t good value for money: and also that we’d already observed four sunsets this trip already: two in Busan, one in Suncheon, and one in Ansan.
Myeongdong was busy this Saturday noon, like our visit last Sunday. We’d yet to try out Korean BBQ this trip, so ducked into a random BBQ restaurant in the shopping street that was offering unlimited BBQ helpings for 19,800 won per person. That restaurant was Hong Bar, and while it’s not in any way near the best rated Korean BBQ restaurant in the city, it was reasonably priced. The restaurant wasn’t crowded, and we had a laid back and stress-free lunch, especially in comparison to the time limit set by many Singaporean restaurants in this type of buffet. We ate well, and still had space thereafter to hit a Mega Coffee cafe nearby for beverages while we considered our options for the rest of the afternoon. We’re already gradually winding down the itinerary activities for this vacation, so after deciding to drop going up Seoul Tower, opted to restore an activity that we earlier dropped from our itinerary: visiting the Shinsegae Department Store and taking a look at the Christmas decorations there.
The Shinsegae is easily reached from Myeongdong, and the huge digital LED wall was impressive: particularly when it was displaying ‘pseudo’-3D content. The 12 floor store carries a large number of luxury goods, but what really caught my attention was the pop-up store for Squid Game Season 2. There was a trio – the gentleman in the black suit with a brief case offering passerbys handing out Squid Game cards (just like in the first episode of the TV show) with two accompanying two game guards – at the store and also roaming around the premise.
The Christmas show at the LED wall outside the mall began promptly at 5PM, and a large crowd had already gathered at the opposite side of the road well before the show began. The around 5-6 minute show was impressive, though we thought it didn’t really make good use of the 3D effect that the other advertisements did. In any case, the weather was getting real chilly, so as soon as the show ended, we made our way to the Hoehyeon subway station to head back home.
That’s a wrap for Day 15. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Seoul, and we’re still figuring out what to do. More to come soon!