Garden of Morning Calm

On my second-last day in Seoul, I booked a trip out of Seoul with Klook. The trip covered the Garden of Morning Calm, and the place made famous by Winter Sonata, Nami Island. Since these two places were outside of Seoul, it was easier to book this tour which included transport and entrance fees, instead of finding my way there with public transport and then buying my own tickets.

The bus had a few pick-up points, and I selected the one at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (which I will post about later on).

Here's what the bus looked like. The tour guide was explaining the destination to us. She distributed the map of the garden and told us which route was recommended, and what spots to look out for.

I specially took this photo to show the multicoloured lights above the seats. The lights were later switched off to allow us to get some sleep (it took about an hour or more between destinations).

the parking lot of the garden and the winding road that leads to it

souvenir shop (and the greenhouse in the background)

ticketing booth (on the right) and the entrance to the garden

We just walked straight in with the tour.

a pretty little place to sit right upon entering, right outside the toilets, haha

There was a little gallery showing photos of the garden in all seasons.

And there was this bench near the entrance where everyone wanted to sit and take photos with the signboard. I think I quickly snapped a photo as someone left the seat. :P

Then there was thing hanging bridge, which the tour guide had told us can swing in the wind...so she assured those who weren't into such routes that we could go another way around without taking the bridge.

a bunch of kids were taking the route for scaredy-cats too :P

the other end of the bridge

There were too many people for me to wait and take a photo without them.

I don't know what rock this is, but there was writing on it, so I took a photo.

inside the greenhouse

The garden is huge, so I will just dump most photos here without any explanation. The different parts of the garden actually have different names (different themes), but I won't bother (I can't remember them anyway :P ); you can see the names in some of the photos where I snapped the signboards.

our tour guide said that this was the filming spot for a famous drama, I can't remember the name

this was a house that looks like those of rich Koreans in ancient times

notice the railway that is mentioned in the sign in the next photo

I remember that this was quite high up; some people were asking others, "Is there anything else to see up there?"

looking at the bridge again

later I managed to get a photo with less people there

a staff building? Pretty

I didn't go down this (less-important :P ) path; it was on a less-visited side of the garden, and there wasn't that much time left

We were given two hours to explore the garden. I might have spent less time if I had come on my own. Because at the end, I only went to take a look at that less-visited side (the staff building, for example) because I still had some time. Or who knows, maybe I would have spent longer because I wouldn't have been looking at the time? :P