Day 8 (part 2) - Wesak Day Lantern Festival and dinner at Gwangjang Market
After some shopping at Gangnam Underground Shopping Center (Express Bus Terminal), we take subway back to our guesthouse. It still early so we take about an hour rest at the guesthouse and watch some local channel airing some Korean variety show. Then we are thinking maybe want to walk to Dongdaemun for shopping and food since it is still early. When we are walking to Dongdaemun, we saw some parade happening at 2 streets away which is Jongno street.
We quickly walk over to the street to see what is happening. It was the Wesak Day Lantern parade. I was shock. I did actually plan to visit the Lotus Lantern Festival which was schedule on Sunday (the next following day). After that I only realize that the Lotus Lantern festival continue for 3 days but the Lantern parade only happens today. We were so lucky. This festival also happen once a year. So it is a good time to actually come to Seoul around this time as we can see Jongmyodaeje (Royal Ancestral Memorial Rite of Joseon) and Lotus Lantern Festival which once in a year.
Lotus Lantern Festival (연등회 연등축제)
The festival took place from 7PM-9:30PM which also heard that it stretch up to 7KM length. We reach here around 8:30PM so we actually miss the 1st 1.5 hour of parade. After the parade, it actually move towards to Jogyesa Temple for post celebration but we are so hungry and tired. We didn't follow the crowd as at that moment, we are not really sure too.
After the parade ends, we continue our journey to Dongdaemun. While we are walking, we saw a street which leads us to a market. There are lots of people there. We do not know where we are so we just went into the market. On the next day, we only realize that we was at Gwangjang Market when we went back to the place.
Here popular of "bindaetteok". A fried type of pancake made of grinded soy bean with vege or pork. It is very delicious and a must try if happens to stop by Seoul especially Gwangjang Market. We saw the ahjumma as in the picture below in a very good business. People are lining up in a very long queue to eat this. So we do not know what happen and we also queue up together. Usually if a lot local people queue for the food, it should means the food is delicious.
We bought each of the bindaetteok back to our guesthouse and ate. It was seriously delicious. We have chopstick left from the ramen bowl we bought from GS25 convenience store so we just ate the bindaetteok using it. After we are done with it, we decided to just cancel our trip to Dongdaemun. We just stay in the guesthouse to take a rest and watch some local channel. Tomorrow we have a long journey for palace tour.
Next: Day 9 (part 1) - Breakfast at Gwangjang Market and Jongmyo Shrine Tour
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