Incheon -

Incheon, South Korea - Day 18 - 9 July 2016

Today we arrived into Incheon at 7am to a hot and sunny day. After our face to face immigration inspection we met our guide Matt from Miki Tours and our friendly bus driver Mr Wong who usually managed to find the wong way! We headed into Seoul and straight to Gyeongbok Palace to see the Changing of the Guards Ceremony at 10am. This was quite a colourful display but very hot standing in the sun with temps over 30 degrees. The Palace is a mix of wing roofed buildings, spacious courtyards and well manicured gardens and takes you back 600 years to the days of old Korea and its vivid Imperial history. We then spent a couple of hours walking through the various courtyards and serene gardens that are within the Palace walls.

We then headed to our lunch stop which was a local traditional Korean chicken restaurant. The signature dish was a small whole chicken boiled in a broth to make a soup…. we opted for the kimchi omelet and the spicy chicken which was a very delicious take off of KFC!

After lunch we were in need of a walk so we visited the old town which has a lot of streets with the houses preserved as they were in the olden days. The houses were very beautiful and set up hilly streets which gave you a very picturesque view of the modern buildings in the city. A lot of tourists visit this area so there a people holding signs asking people to be quiet…. shh please!

Our last stop was to a street market which was bustling with people as it was a Saturday. I think the main purchase of the day was wine and beer in the 7/11 store.

I think there were a few people catnapping on our journey back to the dock.

All in all a good day had by all but oh so hot and tiring.

Next stop Tianjin where we will stay overnight.

Quick Facts:

Population: 2,900,898

Language: Korean

Currency: South Korean Won (KRW)

Climate: Humid continental characterised by four distinct seasons