The SIDE of SEOUL no one shows YOU 🇰🇷

The SIDE of SEOUL no one shows YOU 🇰🇷

You might think that Seoul is just another mega city, but behind its glittering skyscrapers and intricate little streets lies another world that sets it apart entirely. One full of jaw-dropping nature and views you won’t find anywhere else. It’s a side of Seoul that few tourists ever see, a city built inside nature. We visited last year without realising these beautiful places even existed, so we’re back to dive deeper into what this city has to offer, and to show you that Seoul is not a place to be missed. Good morning guys from Seoul. It definitely feels like they’ve had a big cold snap of weather because it is so much colder than we were expecting. But this morning we have started the day in the Hanok village. This is like a traditional area. It’s about 600 years old. And of course we have the incredible mountains of Seoul in the background. That’s not their official name though. No, but they look insane. And they literally wrap the entire way around the city. I think this Hanok village is actually called Bukcheon. Correct me if I’m saying that wrong. Right now it is autumn here in Seoul. And as you can see in the background, literally the landscape is full of these beautiful array of colours. This Hanok village actually dates back to the Joseon dynasty, which is about 600 years ago. And it’s where top officials and aristocrats used to live. There is actually over 900 buildings that are part of this Hanok village. and a lot of it is actually still inhabited today. So that means you can only get in here from 10am till 5pm, because then otherwise they shut it down so tourists can’t come in, which is probably good for the locals. We’ve just come to this traditional little coffee, tea house place, and it’s so beautiful, isn’t it? It’s so quiet. We’re just down like a little alley. It’s so cute. I’ve got a cappuccino coming, so I’m excited. I’m going for a tea this morning. Trying something a little bit different. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, it’s good. Mine’s got cinnamon. I love cinnamon. I’ve gone for this immediate tea. Now, this isn’t like your English breakfast tea. It’s actually very different. And I’ve looked out because, obviously, I didn’t know about this until we came here. It’s a traditional Korean tea made from dried berries. which translates to 5 flavours. And it basically mixes a combination of sweet, salty, bitter and pungent flavours enjoyed both hot and cold. But it tastes really fruity, but it’s really refreshing. I quite like it. It’s really good, but it burned my lip a bit. Coffee. We’ve just arrived in this beautiful area, but we’re going to head down to a little centre, which is the best place to stop off before you start your hike. Welcome to the Seoul Hiking Centre, one of the three hiking centres in the city, which aims to improve hikers’ experiences in Seoul’s mountains. The great thing is here they actually have lockers as well, so I have a change of output for later in case we go out for dinner after and I don’t want to be in my hiking clothes. But I think I’ll need these today. Yeah, it’s a little bit chilly, isn’t it? It’s locked. Okay, yeah, hopefully I remember that. So you can actually rent any hiking gear here, which is great if you don’t want to bring it with you. It’s a little bit colder than we were expecting in Seoul right now, so we might need like an extra layer or something just so I don’t get cold. All the gear looks so brand new and actually really nice. And it’s actually not expensive. I think these are gloves for Joel. So as well as renting gear like this jacket, which is going to keep me warm, you can also get a lot of information about the different hikes you can do in the area. And they give you maps. And if you want, then you can actually sign up for group tours on their Instagram. So if you want to get more information, and a lot of this is all completely free. So if you are coming to Seoul and you really want to do a hike, then this is the place to come to. So we’ve just arrived at the beginning of Guanaxan Mountain, and this is where we’re going to be hiking up today. Hopefully, we will make it in time for sunset, which would be so nice because the colours are starting to look so good. I think we’re here at like the peak time. Luckily for us, we’re actually with our guide, Chan O Lee, but apparently, even if you don’t have a guide, these trails are quite easy to navigate, so you can just get an application like find your way by yourself. So the path now is starting to get a little bit steeper, but this looks quite fun. You know, a bit more adventurous than a ordinary path. How you doing, Amelia? It’s good. I can’t believe this is like straight out of the city. I know. And I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where they have beautiful hikes like this, like 30 minutes from the center. So cool, right? Yeah. It’s kind of fun. climbing up here. I quite like it. A bit more to it, isn’t there? It’s actually not too difficult either because it’s so much to just like grab on to. We’ve already taken the jackets off because as soon as we started hiking, we’ve warmed up. Even though it’s only like 10 degrees today, look at this position of it. Get on then. Look at the city. We’ve climbed so fast and now you can just see the city from above. Wow. It’s insane. This is the route up here. It’s getting steeper now, isn’t it? Is this one of your favorite hikes? Yeah, this route, exactly. This route, exactly. I like it too, because it’s a bit more scrambling. Yeah, right. It’s fun. I think this is the challenger’s way. I might go this way. Of course, Joe wants to challenge himself. Why not? Do you think I can make it up this route? You’re now holding a camera, so maybe just go around that way for safety. Yeah. I think Joel is right. It’s probably for the best I’d take an easier route. This is so cool. Wow, the view just keeps getting better. Looks so good. Wow. There’s a cat, a domestic cat. Yeah, I don’t think it’s a wild cat. That’s so funny though. Like, where does it live? Because we’re literally just in the middle of nowhere. This bit’s vertical. It’s cool though, isn’t it? I just love these rocks. So obviously we’ve taken the most challenging route that you can do. here, but there’s actually a few different ways to do this hike and there’s a much easier one with stairs, but this is the hardest route and it’s actually pretty fun. I can’t see you, okay? I’m up here. Oh, there you are. You’re literally above the city. I think the Lotte Tower is slightly taller than me still though. For everything else, I think I’m taller than. I think we’ve nearly reached the top. Yay. We have some stairs to follow. We have finally reached the official top and we literally got views all around the city. This is incredible. We made it. A little snack at the top of the mountain. I wasn’t expecting this. Thank you. This is called Gimbap. Gimbap. Oh, thank you. Smells good. Chopsticks or? Yeah, whatever. Yeah, chopsticks is good. Thank you. Is it like traditional to eat food at the top of the mountain then? No. Oh, okay. Cool. Is it good? Okay. A lot of people drink a lot. Like liquor up here. Or just like… Rice wine. Rice wine up here. I can’t imagine doing that after a hike. Thank you. That’s really good. It is good. I don’t know what the sauce is in it, but it’s really nice. So what is the spaceship ball moon thing? Every time I wonder about it. Earlier, I thought it was the moon when I saw it. Apparently on the weekend, it gets so busy here, like the whole place is full. But luckily because it’s Monday, like it’s pretty empty to be honest. To be just outside this mega city, just have a few people up here, it’s lovely. So on top of this mountain, there is this beautiful little temple. wow. This is so cool. Look at all the beautiful lanterns. So apparently all these beautiful lanterns up here are from people who wish their families good luck and happiness and wealth. Which is so sweet. I think it’s time we head back down now so we don’t get stuck in too much darkness up on the mountain. We’ve obviously come down a different route and we’re kind of coming down the valley, but along this valley is so many of these beautiful autumn colours. If you are coming to Seoul at this time of the year, this place is a great place to come if you want to see the colours, the autumn colours. Because the light is so golden now, it’s hitting the tops of the trees and it’s literally like a golden sheet of leaves above green. Golden canopy isn’t it? It’s so beautiful. We’ve just got back to the centre and we’ve grabbed our stuff out the locker. I’ve changed into some normal clothes and I think we’re about ready to go. We have now arrived in the popular area of Myeongdong, and this area has loads of neon lights, lots of shops, but we are here for one main reason, and that is to get a Korean barbecue because we are absolutely starving after that. There’s a van coming, flying out of the way. It’s crazy here. I kind of like this tune too. this area is definitely full of life it feels like this is where everyone comes in the night time because you’ve got all like the little street stalls and all the shops and it’s so busy right now isn’t it it’s so busy I think it’s probably just after work time for everyone so can we go to this one wow we paid roughly 18 pounds per person and we went for the beef option so we can get beef pork or chicken but I think beef is easiest to cook and ah can somebody that wow wow it’s hot I can feel the heat it’s so warm it’s quite nice to be fair wow I feel like I should get marshmallows as well let’s definitely put this pork bit that I’ve done on first because that’s obviously going to take a bit longer than the beef I’m going to be your chef today Amelia let’s put some of this beef on lucky me lucky you chef friend look at that, smoking already. I’ve done this before. Just don’t burn it this time. Yeah, I’ll try not to. It cooks so fast on here. Wow. Yeah, especially the beef. Look at that. I’ve got myself a Hanmak. It’s A Korean beer. It’s fully deserved after the hiking today. Oh, that’s actually really good. One of the interesting things I find about Korean BBQ is that they give you a pair of scissors and chopsticks. Let me cut it. This is not something we’re used to. I love it though. It’s kind of fun. This beef is actually really tasty. I think we chose a good cut. I don’t even know what cut it is, but it’s good. This is a massive piece. Wow. Cook it up. I’m so glad they’ve got extraction fans because imagine just a room full of barbecues. That would not end well. It’s not healthy. That food was so good. It cost 76,000 won, about 40 pounds for both of us. And we’re feeling pretty tired now. It is so chaotic around this area. So we are gonna head on the subway and head back to our hotel. Good morning guys from Seoul. We have just arrived in Hongdae. This area is like the cool, young place where a lot of the young kids hang out. And it’s because there’s actually a university nearby, but I think we’ve just arrived in like the center. And there’s all these beautiful autumn trees here. It feels very artsy around here, like lots of cute little cafes and restaurants. I think there’s a lot of nightlife here, but obviously that’s not so much artsy. So we’re here in the day. I feel like all the clothes and style here in Seoul is super edgy and they love outdoorsy gear. So that’s why Joel and I are wearing our fleeces. Try to fit in. This is kind of crazy, but a lot of the Ys here almost look like Southeast Asia, they’ve all over the place. it’s kind of I’ve not seen that before even when we came to Seoul last time yeah I feel like I didn’t expect that from South Korea so much like it’s more like Vietnam Thailand it is I think in the UK we have a lot of the wires underground so that’s why you don’t probably get the crazy wires like that probably just like that but underground instead you cannot come to Seoul without doing a photo booth I feel like it is a mandatory stop here we did one last time we came and it was a lot of fun these look cool. This is a weird selection. What is that? Oh, I want that. I want… How does that look? It’s kind of creepy. I’m not sure if this is a capybara or if it’s like a potato with hair. Right. Oh, you can do your hair as well. Oh, that’s probably touched a lot of people’s hair. Yeah, I wouldn’t touch those. You don’t know what’s been on those. Okay, in we go. And let’s do a Korean photo shoot. Why am I so hot? I feel like I’m sweating. What’s on your head? You look amazing. It’s my capybara potato with hair. I actually don’t know what it is. Someone tell me. Okay, that’s the first one. Oh my gosh. And then look at the second one. Oh wait, did we not get the other ones? Oh, that’s a shame. There was one that was so good. I had my leg up and I was like kicking Joel in the face and he was like, what? And that was good, but these are a bit too cutesy for me, but then they’re kind of nice. We’ve done a more girly photo shoot for Amelia. Now it’s time for me to take you somewhere. I’m worried. I’m going to enjoy this, but we’ll see if you do. I’ve just translated this because we couldn’t find it and that says baseball practice zone. Are you ready? No. As this is my activity, I’m going to go first. We’ve got the change. Wish me luck. Good luck. Don’t hit yourself or anything with the balls. Oh, that could have been a home run. If you don’t know, Joel usually plays a lot of cricket, so this is fun for him. Obviously, it’s baseball, but it’s a bit different. It’s edged through the slips. All the courts are designed for people who are right-handed, however, I am left-handed. So I’m not sure how that would work, because I can’t hit it the other way, because that’s going to give me no chance. You just get hit in the body. Definitely recommend giving that a go. It’s only 2,000, like a pound, to do that baseball activity. And it’s Korean culture, because obviously they like a lot of baseball here, and none of the matches are on, so we weren’t able to go to a match, but good fun giving that a go instead. We’ve just come into this cute little restaurant, and we’ve got like a booth overlooking this street. It’s ordered on iPad, which is always easier in a way, because then I don’t have to try and pronounce the dishes. It looks like kind of Korean food, doesn’t it? I think so, yeah. We have our first dish. We ordered some dumplings, and then I think this is like a spicy salad. I actually have no idea what’s inside them, because they didn’t even say. Vegetables or meat? Meat. I think pork, I would have seen. We’ve got our second dish, and also our final dish. Look at this Korean fried chicken. So we went for half and half. I think we’ve got like a spicy chilli sauce here and then the plain chicken here. We’ve also got a lot of mayo from Sam Ketchup. Amelia doesn’t like mayo, so she probably isn’t going to be touching that. But this looks really good. I’m excited to try it. Do you use chopsticks? Let’s give this a go. I think the difference between Korean chicken and other fried chicken is that you have like a crispier layer on the outside. And it is very tasty. It’s like a bubble. I’m not sure they use chopsticks. They might just use the hands in this situation. No, this one’s too sticky. I can’t use my hands on that. That’s good. Good morning guys from another beautiful day here in Seoul. The weather is amazing once again and we’re heading to breakfast. Now this place, we went the other day and it is so aesthetic. So I’m quite excited to show you this because you should probably come here if you’re coming to Seoul. And it’s so good because not many places are actually open for breakfast in Seoul we’ve realised so this is a good spot. It opens 8am so get here, you can get there early rather than like 10. This is the place. Thanks soak, yoghurt and granola. That’s so nice. Should we sit over there? Yeah. Thank you. Wow. How good does this look? So good. I’ve got an acai bowl. But it’s so covered in stuff. And I’ve got peanut, peanut butter and granola and banana. I’ve also just ordered a flat white. Look how amazing this is. Must be a good barista. And I’ll show you the menu on screen because this place, very much our kind of place. I don’t know if it’s yours, but highly recommend it. Give it a try. That was a great breakfast. About 20 pounds for two meals and two coffees. We’re now going to jump on the metro because we have to make the most of this beautiful day. We’ve literally just stepped off the metro and today we’re going to be going on a hike in probably one of the most famous mountains here around the Seoul area. Now right in front of me you can see kind of like the mountains we’re going to be heading up today and they look… They’re quite insane, aren’t they? One of the greatest things about Seoul is there’s so many different mountains to climb in the region. Seoul is kind of surrounded by four of the mountains. Obviously, we did one the other day and then we’re doing one today as well. But also, you can just literally step right off the metro and you’re into the trails and the paths, which just makes it ideal if you’re a hiker and want a cool city break. As you saw, we just stopped off at the Seoul Hiking Tourism Center, and it’s basically similar to the other one. I think there’s about three in the city, and they are so useful and free. And we just got some information about what hikes are actually in this area. And I think one of them is the most popular one, but there is a few different ones around this beautiful national park. It’s so beautiful. This is such a good time to come to Seoul. Look at these reds. Bukahansan National Park is the most popular national park in all of South Korea. So it’s probably going to be a little bit busy, but again, it is not the weekend. So it’s going to be a little less crowds, which is nice. That’s what we like. We are off the main path and we’re officially in the national park. As you probably know, we’ve not chosen to take the most obvious route and we’re trying to go on a route which is not as busy. But this choice so far seems brilliant because look at all this beautiful fall colours or autumn colours we’ve got around us. It’s actually beautiful. The trail is starting to get a little bit steeper now. But the great thing about here, especially in Seoul and Korea itself, is the paths are always so well maintained and there’s a lot of like help. So here we’ve got like this high end rod which kind of helps you up the steeper paths. Because we’re going up quite steep now, aren’t we? Yeah, I’m getting tired now. I’m also like, I can’t decide whether I’m hot or cold because it’s actually really cold, the temperature, but the sun makes it hot and I’m walking so far up that I’m my rule. We have reached this beautiful gate. I think we’re now on more of a main route, but it still doesn’t seem to be anyone around as of yet. One of the most common ways people go is Baeungee Peak. We’ve chosen not to do that, as we kind of said. But yeah, we’re going to just try and find a way now. We’re starting to get an incredible view now of the mountain area. Look at these rocks. They’re just so impressive. And they also feel really unique to like South Korea. Haven’t really seen that type of cool rocks out of the forest before. That was so lovely. This Korean man just came up to us and was like, oh, do you want a photo? And he was so lovely. He got so many different angles. And apparently here in Seoul and South Korea, there’s such a big hiking culture. It’s also a big thing for the older generation to do hiking, and apparently they have lots of hiking groups organised. And there’s also ones like younger people can join as well, but it’s really nice. It’s part of a community to do hiking here in Seoul. It does amaze me that you can find empty trails like this with just a few people dotted around. And the city is only just down there, just through these trees. Amazing, really. Feels good to sit down. Let’s have a snack. Would you like a wet wipe? Wash your hands. Yes, please. We’ve got some of these. What are they? I’m not sure. I’ll give them a go. This thing is good. We’ve just come across this other viewpoint and again, like the other day, you just get such incredible views of the city. And it just seems to go on forever and ever. I feel like you can really tell that it is a mega city from up here. Like, it’s hard to get a perspective when you’re walking around, but there’s just like, it’s all the way over there and all the way here. Just wraps around this national park. Let’s see here. Okay. I think we’ll begin our descent down. Off we go. We’ve nearly finished the hike now. We’re about 300 metres from the end. It’s been really nice, so peaceful and a much quieter route than I think some of the others can be in this park. It’s so quiet. It’s been so nice. I think we’ve made it back to civilisation. High 5! Back in the city. Back in the city. Construction work everywhere. Yeah. We’ll hop straight on a bus and we’ll be back. in the city centre in like 20, 30 minutes time. Coming back to Seoul has completely changed our perspective. A city surrounded by mountains and beautiful trails. It’s one of the few cities where nature is so integrated into city life. Maybe that’s what makes Seoul so special, because this might just be the world’s best city for hiking, and most people don’t even realise it.

We explore the side of Seoul, a lot of people miss and show just how amazing this city is for hiking, with beautiful trails and city views minutes from the metro, Seoul is a world class hiking city, yet few people know about it, in this video we show you why you can’t miss the hikes whilst in Seoul!

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