16 Dec 2013 -8 C Nami Island

Gapyeong station - link to Nami Island

Outside Gapyeong Station

Getting ready to board the ferry

Because of 'Winter Sonata', Nami Island and the Hallyu wave would forever be mentioned in the same breath. It was the shooting location of Winter Sonata, which launched the Hallyu and Korean wave around the world.

The show was a mind-boggling and complicated story of boy meets girl who turned out to be his half sister and who eventually died. I have forgotten much of the show but the romance between the characters made the island famous.

Avenue of Gingko

Winter Sonata snowman everywhere

Daring squirrels in Nami Island

Kitchsy but that's Nami for me

More kitsch, this time with Mr G

Mascot, Mr G, likes the ambience in Nami

 The trip to Nami was one of the most convoluted and tedious, From Hongdae, we made 2 train changes, one at Wangsimni and the other at Mangu. From there, we hopped up the train to Gapyeong , then a taxi ( 3100 won ) to Gapyeong wharf. Finally, it was ferry across to Nami Island ( 8000 won ). All in all, our commute took us more than 2 hours.

Waiting for Mrs G

Igloo under construction

Mr G's snow angel

Busloads of tourists swamped the island and most spoke a foreign language. It was a mini Sentosa , with a love story as legacy. General Nami , a loyal matry, was buried there and lent his name to the place.

Caught on candid camera - boy steals a kiss.

Honeymooning couple doing the Nami photo shoots

Our 22nd anniversary. Hope the young folks can get to this stage and beyond.

The island was straight forward to navigate and kitsch was more than apt to describe the place. Despite this, the island thrive on the love story from Winter Sonata. Hubs thought it was interesting and we had some lovey dovey moments captured on film.

Traditional Korean fare in Nami Island

Dolsot bibimbap

By noon, the tourists were gone and we had most of the space to ourselves. 12.30 noon, we lunched at a Korean restaurant, bibimbap for me and Galbi Tang for hubs, He loved it while I considered mine a shadow of the bibimbap at Gogung. For 30 000 won, I was not complaining.

Red bean snow man - more Winter Sonata themes on the mainland

Before we reverse our steps back to Seoul, we had a little coffee moment at a little café near Nami wharf ( coffee and sweet potato latte ). It’s specialty was snowman pie, cutie pies filled with red bean paste ( 6 for 3000 won ). From our window seat, we saw a couple pose for photos beside the waters with soft toy mascots. Suddenly hubs did not feel so weird taking photos of Mr G , my personal mascot!

Dongdaemun at night

Back in Seoul, we revisited Dongdaemun. Our pre-dinner shopping spree started from the underground shopping alley – handphone case ( 23000 won ), wool scarf ( 15 000 won ),  knitted dress at Pyonghwa market ( 35 000 won ).

Dinner at Doota

Dinner was curry rice at Doota’s garden café ( 20 500 won ), with pretty decent sized katsudon and tempura.

Post-dinner workout was more shopping in Doota – leather wallet ( 40000 won ) , belt ( 25 000 won ), Adidas bag ( 95 000 won + tax refund 3000 won ). It was a workout for the wallet in a single day!

We reached Studio41st at 10pm, completely bushed and too tired to Skype with H. It was probably because we spent almost 5 hours commuting from Nami and shopping in a single building!

Next up, a day for the eyes at  Changdeokgung and Trick Eye Museum.