South Korea and Taiwan 2025 - Traveling with Jim and Ina

We are off for another adventure! As travel to some countries is getting more difficult...we took this opportunity to return to the East.

Saturday June 7, 2025

Delta pass awards scores for another big trip. FLL to MSP to ICN. We had an uneventful flight in Comfort Plus and arrived into MSP on time. Unfortunately, our flight to ICN is delayed 3 hours. We decided to spend our long wait in the Am Express Escape Lounge. Photo bombed by the Flight Attendants!

We were upgraded to Delta One! Korean food was on the menu.

Sundary June 8, 2025

We arrived ICN and greeted by our driver. We didn't realize it would take over an hour to get to our hotel. We finally did arrive at the Ibis Ambassador hotel. It felt like we were on a cruise ship due to the size of our room.

Monday June 9, 2025

Our room was on the 30th floor. We had breakfast on the 31st floor and where a cutout of the floor looked all the way to the street.

I have circled our room. the section in between the 2 buildings is where we had breakfast. This is actually a picture from our room. Have to work on the hotel pix.

Our Tour Guide, Jake from Here Korea Tours picked us up this morning. We had a private tour and started with Gyeongbokgung Palace which is the 3rd Palace of the Joseon Dynasty. There were 26 Kings that ruled from 1392 until 1910 which ended due to the annexation of Korea by the Japanese. The last princess died in 1989 ending the royal monarchy.

We watched the Ceremonial changing of the guard. This reenactment is played by actors wearing royal uniforms, carrying traditional weapons and playing traditional instruments. This reenactment is done up to 4 times per day depicting the changing of the guard during the Joseon Dynasty. During their reign, they replaced Buddhism which had become corrupt with the Confucian ethical system.

The 4th king of the Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great, is known as the greatest ruler in Korean history. He was the inventor of Hangul, the native alphabet of Korea. He took the thousands of Chinese characters and simplified it. Korea now has a 98% literacy rate. Originally, the alphabet consisted of 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels.

The Korean traditional clothing has been inspired and popularized to Koreans and foreigners due to K-dramas and K-pop. The period dramas include Kingdom and The Moon Embracing the Sun and K-pop idols like BTS performing in reinterpreted Hanbok outfits. The outfits have vibrant colors, and each piece has symbolic meaning.

Seoul Tower was our next stop. The tower is a communication and Observation tower on an 860ft summit built in 1971. It is the second highest point in Seoul and was the first general radio wave tower. It now broadcasts signals for Korean media outlets such as KBS, MBC and SBS.

Notice the "Locks of Love". There must have been millions all over the area. The tower is behind us!

We had lunch at located in the side of the mountain. The Seoul Tower BaBang Restuarant (ba means rice and bang means mixing). We had traditional meal that consisted of rice with a bowel full of fresh vegetables that we mixed together and drank Korean sweet rice punch.

We walked the streets of Bukchon Hanock Village. This is a residential neighborhood with restored traditional Korean houses call Hanok. The houses date back to the 19th and 20 centuries.

You can see this is also a popular place for people to dress in traditional Hanbok and take photos to upload to Instagram.

We went to Gwangjang Market. We bought JJ a T-shirt that we think Master Kim will appreciate. Our guide, Jake, gave me his credit card for us to have dinner! I was so jetlagged that I fell asleep about 5pm to take a nap and we never made it to dinner!

Tuesday June 10, 2025

Apparently, Jake wanted his credit card back! LOL

First stop was Gamaksan Chulleong Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in South Korea. It was quite the hike up the mountain, but we made it. The bridge is over 220 meters long and 10 meters high. The bridge is dedicated to the Gloucester regiment of the British Army who fought in the Korean War and was instrumental in changing the course of the war.

The scenery was stunning of the mountain and lake. We could see the monks sanctuary further up on the next mountain. They were driven deep into the mountain when they were replaced by the Confucian system during the Joseon Dynasty

Jake says it is supposed to be able hold 900 people. I am sure that is 900 Koreans not Americans!

Lunch

Tree water

DMZ the 3rd Tunnel

We went into the tunnel and to the observatory. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the North or in the tunnel.

Gaeseong Traditional Dumpling House. This restaurant is owned by a North Korean family. The restaurant has a Michelin distinction Bib Gourmand.

Kabojung restaurant is one of the most popular Korean BBQ.

Waiting for Jake and cooling off!

Starfield Library

Jake drove us to ICN

Wednesday June 11, 2025

Today we flew from ICN to TPE on Korean Airlines. It was a 2hour and 5 minute flight. We took the hotel shuttle to the Hyatt Regency Taoyuan International Airport. We had concierge level so we enjoyed our dinner and drinks for the night.

While we were in the lounge, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky and soon a second one appeared.

Friday June 13, 2025

We met our Supera Tour guide in the hotel lobby. There are only 8 of us today and another joining tomorrow. Apparently, they had cancellations. The other 6 are a 3 generation family who are from Taiwan that immigrated to the United States many years ago.

Today is a wet day so our itinerary changed a bit. We went to the Nanmen traditional market that first opened in 1895.

Taiwanese birthday cakes in the shape of a peach. The large ones hold 12 smaller ones inside.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Chiang Kai Shek was the ruler in China who was overthrown by Mao. He left China and established the ROC/Taiwan in 1911. He died at the age of 89 and his son had the memorial hall created in his honor.

These bronze doors open up to 89 marble steps leading down to the ground floor.

The changing of the guard occurs every 1 hour

The memorial is surrounded by a beautifully designed garden.

Taipei 101 was once the tallest building in the world at 90+ floors. It is still the tallest building in Taiwan. We went to the 89th floor for a magnificent view of Taipei.

We had coffee at the 89th floor coffee shop that was a World Coffee champion and Ina had the signature drink "Sola". Supposedly, you can taste 2 different coffees using the same cup by drinking out of the green side or the white side.

We then went to lunch! We followed Ollie the robot to our table. We had a traditional Taiwanese lunch sharing all sorts of dished.

We stayed at Wellspring by Silks Beitou, a hot springs hotel. This has to be the largest bed in the world. The room was huge and had a Japanese hot springs tub in the bathroom. Jim enjoyed the public bath while I enjoyed the one in our room.

Dinner at the hotel was amazing! 9 courses.

The sashimi boat!

Check out the fish boat!

The fruit boat!

Saturday 6/14/25

We had a nice breakfast then set out for our next adventure to Chiayi.

We took he MRT to transfer to the high-speed rail. A man approached me on the metro and told me his life story...of course. The trip took about 2 hours and the train reached speeds of 250KPH.