CLUB DAY - Hongik University

The last friday of every month is celebrated as club day in Hongik university area. This event has promoted the Korean club scene and indie culture to both local and foreign visitors. A Club Day ticket offers access to a number of different clubs. We started at 9.30 PM from suwon take subway line 1 and reach Sindurim, and change to Line 2 and get down in Hongik University station. You walk down the main street, you will find many clubs such as NB-2, DD etc.

For 20,000 won at any of the 22 participating clubs, you will receive a paper ID bracelet and a beverage coupon that you can use at any club for a beer or soft drink. Clubs usually open between 8pm and 9pm. However, there aren’t many people at this hour. The peak time to go is around 11pm, but you might have to wait in a 30-meter-long line to get in. Clubs like ‘M2’, ‘MI’, offer electronica-style house and break beat genres; ‘DD’, ‘NB’ are mainly hip-hop. For those who like rock, try the ‘M2,’ and ‘NB.’ They are the biggest clubs and they have the most colorful lights.

The night life in Hongik university area is very lively and you wont be able to make out at any point that its late night, so many people, so many vehicles, its like a fest!. Most of the people visiting here are either college students or the youngsters working in different companies. The mass is good, and guess more than 10000 people over all, and inside club, you just cant find a space for youself, The time flies when you strat dancing to the hip-hop music, and by no time it will be morning. Catch a train to reach back to suwon! Even though it was early morning, the train was ful and harldly few seats left, I could not understand where these old people travelling this early morning.

Legs were tired os dancing and so does the body, I was so sleepy and slept in the train itself on the way back, got up only when Pandey said we have reached suwon. Coming out of train station, it was raining heavily, it was kind of unbearable to see it raining, because I was dreaming of getting on the coach as soon as possible, and get a nice nap.

More information about the place can be found on Korea tourism website

Ever Land Fantasy Park

This is the largest fantasy park in Asia. It is maintained by Samsung, so to avail discount try contacting someone who holds Samsung Credit cards. You get about 50% off, other wise it cost 35,000 KRW. There is a bus from Suwon station to this fantasy park, but better way to go there is to get in to a taxi if you have 4 or more people. It costs about 25,000 won to reach there in taxi. The route is awesome, and you will enjoy the drive if you happen to go in winter or early summer.

It was drizzling when I went there, so there wasn’t much crowd, and that was good, otherwise you may have to wait at least half an hour for each ride. One you have taken the ticket you don’t need to pay for each ride, you can go on taking the rides.

I enjoyed the 4D movie, where in you actually feel that you are in the place where the movie is going on, and you feel everything from breezing air to splashing water from the falls. It is an awesome experience. Other things you can enjoy are the rotating haunted house, roller coaster ride, the water ride over falls. The clock ride, where they take you to a great height on a rotating wheel and you can have a nice view of the fantasy park. There are many funny rides where you really go crazy, you must be very daring to take all. Some rides are only worth for kids, and we even gone in some of those to recall those childhood days.

There is a water ride on an artificial river, like river rafting. It is one of the enjoyable rides. We took this twice and it was raining so heavily that time, we all got drenched but the enjoyment it brought is not comparable. The drive through the wild life in a bus, so called Safari is also good. But animals looked to be very much trained and you don’t feel that wildness in them, they will mostly be lying on the sides of the road under some shelter or upon rocks. On the way back we took bus as we could not find any Taxies, it took about an hour and a half, so tiring it was to come back in bus. But at the end we enjoyed a lot, and that’s all it matters. This is a must go place in Korea, and I heard Lotte World is also same as this but it’s smaller and easily reachable in Train.

Suwon Fort and Namun Market

If you happen to have enough time before you return back to India, just give a visit to this Suwon fort, Its not all that great, but you can click some pictures on top of it, a nice view of Suwon city from there, when I went there I forgot to take my camera along as it was a visit in hurry to get some traditional Korean items from the Namun Market, a small market place near the fort, where you get lot of traditional Korean Items for sale.

The fort is not very big, you need to climb lot of stairs before reaching the top, and on Top you won’t find anything that makes you feel worth that effort. A long wall built few centuries ago, and a wishing tree, it’s believed that whatever you wish will come true.

There is a museum also, which showcase the dresses and the weapons used by Koreans in war and by ancestors, but I could not visit that as it was already late. Getting there is very easy, take a taxi from Suwon and ask him to take to Namun Market. May be you better write it down on a paper in Korean and show him as most of them don’t understand English.

Yangson Electronics Market

This is one of the best place to buy any electronics items from Korea, place is very easily reachable from Suwon station, take the train to Seoul and get down in Yangson station, from the station just take the escalator up to get inside this big electronic mart.

There is wide variety of electronic items available here, I have not seen some of them before in my life, and they have electronic gadgets for every aspect of daily life. Most important thing is the price and the quality, you need to very careful about this here, Price is not fixed, it will go on reducing depending on the your skill of bargaining. Check in at least 4-5 shops before buying any items, otherwise at the end you may find that you have paid more than the price of the Gadget.

As I heard from someone in Korea, they believe that the electronic items, especially serviceable items produced for Korean domestic market are of cheaper quality than the International ones as service industry one of the biggest in Korea. So better not buy laptops and all in Korea. They sell products made in Japan, Korea and China and the quality is in the same order, so be careful while choosing any product, see where it is manufactured.

Coex Aquarium, Samseong

This place is amazing if you like watching fishes, and nothing great about this place, but will make a nice weekend plan, just take a train and get down in Samseong station and when you exiting the station just follow the signboard to reach this Mall. There is lot of things to shop in the mall other than this aquarium. But aquarium is the main attraction. You can see a wide variety of fishes, from small tiny fishes to big sharks all under one roof. The aquariums are room sized and you will enjoy the fishy world, and sometimes I wishes if they could give a fry of them!! But one thing I did not appreciate was the price you pay for. It seemed a little high compared to all the other attractions in Korea.

Han River Cruise and 63 Building

Everyone who visits Korea must go for the Han River cruise, it’s such a wonderful experience, and you will never forget in your life. You need to plan it properly and be there near the river side by 5.30 to 6.00 or so, so that you can get tickets for the 7.00 PM cruise, and I am telling you must get into this 7.00 PM one, as it would be just the right time to enjoy the cruise on the river, while the sun is setting in the east and the cold breeze makes your body chill, and you can chill out.

May be after taking the ticket you can just go to building 63 and go to the top of it, It’s called sky deck, there the view of Seoul City and the Han river is amazing, In the night the bridges across the city and the city looks awesome. There is a place called Sky thriller, where the floor is made of glass and it feels like you are standing on the transparent glass above 63 floors, you must have that daring to look down through that floor to see the ground. It’s a wonderful experience.

Here is a blog page of my friend had written on how we enjoyed that evening on the banks of han river, if you find sometime just go through it, may be that makes you feel not to miss cruise in Korea.

Seoul Grand Park, Dolphin show

This isn’t that great place to enjoy, especially if you happen to go in summer you will get tired walking. Best thing about this place is the Dolphin show, and I think better thing to do is go in the afternoon and get the tickets for this Dolphins show and sleep under any tree, you will get a sound sleep under the tree in the soothing wind. Get up before 4.00 PM and go to the Dolphin show and enjoy the show, and once you are back it will be evening and then you can walk around in the shades and enjoy seeing all animals. Rides are not that great, Cable car is moderate, may be you will enjoy. Tramp is one thing better not get into, they will just take you one round around the grand park. May be you can use this as a way of transportation to get in to the other side of the park.

It’s one of the biggest parks in Korea; don’t forget to see different animals. To go here you need to take train from Suwon and get down in Seoul Grand Park station. It’s pretty easy.

For more information check this link.

New Seoul Tower

A place for a weekend time pass, a nice view from the top of the tower is the amazing thing about this tower. It seems it was opened first in 1980 and then it was renewed with better facilities in 2005 and hence the name New Seoul Tower.

You can easily reach this place, take train from Suwon, line 4, and get down in Chungmuro station, and go out of Exit 2 to the right of Daehan Multiplex entrance. You will reach a bus stop; get into the yellow bus, which takes you to the tower.

The things you must see and enjoy are, The view of Seoul city from the top of the tower, the locks put in the grills as a symbol of love, the sky rest room, the revolving restaurant (you need to book in advance, else you may have to come back like without entering the hotel like us) and the light garden. There is a laser show after 7 in the evening, where they illuminate the tower with different colors and it looks amazing at that time, and even a show is setup in front of the tower with nice music. You will enjoy this part. You must enjoy the green tea sherbet and other sherbet flavors you get in the tower, I am sure you will like it. Don’t forget to take a picture at the New Delhi point, and view of 63 building from here; it looks like a small match stick!!

More info can be found here

Namdaemun Market, Seoul

A crowded market place, with lots of retail shops where you can find almost everything you need from fancy items for your girlfriend to clothes. There are few Malls too, but you will enjoy more on the market side. You get yummy sea food too. It’s really a worth visit to this place, especially at the end of trip when you want to get some things for your near and dear ones, there is lot of choice here.

This place is called as Bombay of Korea, as some shopkeeper told me. You find clothes at very cheap price here; quality is not that great, but pretty good. Girls will definitely enjoy shopping here, for guys it’s not disappointing although. You get nice jackets for 5000 Wons! You can get here by train, either by getting down in Seoul station and walk a little distance, a 5 minutes walk, or get down in Hoehyeon station, whose exit enters market directly. There you start shopping. It takes about an hour from Suwon station to here.

More info can be found here
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