Korea/Seoul Apr’19: Nami Island, Gangchon Rail Park & Garden of Morning Calm

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Annyeong chingu! This post covers our 5th day in Korea! We had just returned to Seoul from Busan the night before and I’m glad we got our day tour package to Nami Island, Gangchon Rail Park and Garden of Morning Calm via Changi Recommends!

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It was a nice change as we did not have to fuss over the logistics of booking entrance passes and transportation. Shuttle bus service is provided so all we had to do was just to hop on and off at the designated timings! The hubs could finally take a break from all the navigation he had to do over the past few days.

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There are 3 pickup locations namely Hongik, Myeongdong and Dongdaemun. We selected Myeongdong as it was closest to our accommodation and we picked up some delicious gimbap along the way!

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Our first stop of the day was Nami Island! Gotta take a photo with these adorable snowmen figurines! My first trip to this attraction was more than 10 years ago, after watching the famous Korean drama “Winter Sonata” starring Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo. I’m sure most of you would know that the popular series was shot on Nami Island!

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There are a number of activities which you can do at Nami Island, one of which is to take photos of/with the beautiful flowers!

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A collection of photos from Winter Sonata!

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I remember there used to be this life-sized cardboard cutout of Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo in this exact same pose.

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Our very own version! Can pass? 😛

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We saw some people riding rented bicycles around the park but I don’t know how to cycle so we stuck around taking photos.

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Our local guide told us to meet him earlier if we wanted to eat the best Dak Galbi on Nami Island and since it was lunch time, we thought it was a great idea! I’m not sure why we opted for the non-spicy version though since I’m a fan of spicy food! We also ordered some tteokbokki and garlic fried rice. Mashisoyo~!

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Do note that this isn’t included in the tour package but it’s really yummy so you wouldn’t wanna miss this!

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Spent the next hour on the shuttle bus to get to our second destination of the day, Gangchon Rail Park! To be honest, I was most looking forward to this part of the day tour! It seems like rail bikes are fast gaining popularity in Korea.

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If you wanna have some privacy with your friends or other half, I would strongly recommend paying a little bit more for the private rail bikes. The queue is also significantly shorter.

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This was the queue for the shared rail bike which was snaking all the way to the back. Also, I strongly suggest that a trip to the washroom be made before you start queuing for the rail bike tour as the queuing plus activity itself would take about an hour.

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One of the perks of joining the day tour is having your local guide snap photos for you!

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Wheeeee! And off we go!

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Pedaling is fairly effortless only if all parties pedal at the same time. Once in a while I would be too engrossed with taking photos, leaving misterchewy to do the pedaling on his own. LOL.

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The Happy Bubble Tunnel is one of the highlights of Gangchon Rail Park as there are different colored lightings and bubbles as we passed through the tunnel. Very pretty!

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We were having the time of our lives!

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It was certainly a very fun experience and I highly recommend trying out this activity!

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The last stop of our day tour was the Garden of Morning Calm, which we ironically visited in the evening! By then we were already very tired but we were thankful to be transported in the comfortable shuttle bus which is included in the day tour package.

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We were given slightly more than an hour to tour the garden and since it was fairly huge, misterchewy and I narrowed down to just two areas for some photos.

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We reckon that the pavilion situated in the middle of the pond is the most beautiful sight at the Garden of Morning Calm. Also, “Love in the Moonlight” starring Park Bo-gum and Kim Yoo-jung was shot at this location! *Eyes shooting hearts*

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There’s also a nice little white church which can accommodate about 8 people.

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Even though we had a filling lunch earlier, we were famished after the rail bike activity and walking around the garden. Grabbed a quick bite before we boarded the shuttle bus back to Myeongdong and this marked the end of our superb day tour to Gapyeong!

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The day tour to Nami Island, Gangchon Rail Park and Garden of Morning Calm by Changi Recommends is highly recommended and you can book it easily via this link. Hope you guys enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for the next! 🙂