Day 2 - 24/3 Bukchon Hanok Village, Banpo Bridge

Didn't bother waking up early the next morning.  :)  First destination - Bukchon Hanok Village, which is Korea's most famous residential area with traditional Korean houses (which are called 'hanok').  It being very early spring, I was excited to see the first tree in blossom.

 

A flowering tree!

Hmm we found the place a little underwhelming.  It was pleasant enough, but seemed too new and clean to be 'traditional'. 

Does this look traditional?

Traditional walls

More of the village

I had penciled in some cafe to check out since cafe culture is apparently huge in Korea.  Nearby Dotori Garden cafe looked really cute with interesting offerings.  I loved the Studio Ghibli-inspired deco.

Found the cafe!

Got this funny creature in the flesh

HOWEVER... SE wanted to try a Korea BBQ all-you-can-eat.  No point filling ourselves up beforehand!  So we just looked around and then headed to Mongvely at Myeongdong.  Now, if our dinner the night before lacked meat, we sure made up for this at lunch!  The place offered various cuts of beef and pork at KRW31700/MYR86 per head. We ate contentedly for the whole 2-hour period.  Good stuff indeed!

  

First grilled meat platter, of many-many

Next we walked to the Line Friends Square shop where the BTS gang had left handprints.  Historic moment for a BTS fan haha.

Oooh I'm touching Jung Kook's hands'

She found a BTS bear statue nearby too.  

Me with BTS bear

Once the BTS fan was satisfied, we went quite a distance to Banpo bridge for the musical rainbow fountain show which normally starts in April.  It was brought forward to mid-March this year which was perfect for us.  The jets of water and lights are supposed to be synchronised with the music.  The girls weren't impressed though and pointed out most people were only there coz they were dating.  Oh well you can't win them all.  At least it was one item ticked off my list.

Dancing fountain

We headed back and grabbed some food from a convenience store for dinner.  Too full from our late and big lunch for a proper dinner.  As the main trip planner, I always try to evaluate how the plan went... this day rating, ok not bad. :)