Seoul, Korea

First things first:  I had to learn how to spell Seoul.  It still doesn't look right!  That being said, we had a wonderful time in Soul, Souel, Sole, Seoul during the October 1st long weekend (China National Day and Mid-Autumn festival).  South Korea also celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival, and everywhere we went children and adults were bedecked in native dress.  The government decreed that people wearing traditional clothes were given free admission to museums!
As soon as we stepped off the plane on Friday night, the crisp cool air felt wonderful.  Just like autumn in Canada.  Jeff had once again done his homework - he figured out which airport bus would deliver us to our hotel.  Easy!
We stayed at the Sheraton D Cube Hotel - excellent reviews on Tripadvisor.  The only problem was that it was quite a long subway ride to downtown and all the attractions.  The hotel is located on the top floors of an new office building.  The reception is on the 41st floor, and our room was on the 36th, offering interesting views of this sprawling city.  The population of South Korea (Republic of Korea) is almost 50 million; half of the population lives within an hour of Seoul - you can imagine the traffic jams!
Months ago it suddenly dawned on us that we didn't have to see EVERYTHING in the places we visited.  However, we forgot that new mantra, and had a typical Dale-and-Jeff walk-your-feet-off and take-it-all-in day.  We were so energized by the exceptional weather, and also by the friendliness of the people, and the ease of using the subway system.  Speaking of the subway, the lines are numbered, and the stations are numbered (the stations also have names), so we plotted our routes easily - e.g. take the number 2 line from 204 to 210, switch to the number 4 line from 403 to 409.  So logical (a cataloguer's dream)!

Saturday began with a visit to the Jongmyo Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (tick another one off the list).  Walking through the park leading up to the gates, we passed a lot of old geezers (my father's word) playing board games and hanging out.  Many of them were wearing caps, just like my dad and his cronies!  There's a huge statue of Lee Sang-Jae near the entrance.  Mr. Lee was a patriot who was heavily involved in the resistance to Japanese colonial rule.

The entrance fees to Seoul's Palaces and Museums are very reasonable (see my comments about this in my previous blog about Taipei), and we were able to buy a book of tickets for the major sites (all of which we visited in one day).  Each site has printed English information that includes maps and detailed historical information.  Jongmyo is a 14th century Confucian shrine dedicated to the memorial services for the deceased kings and queens of the Josean dynasty (14th to 20th centuries - same time period as the Ming and Qing dynasties in China).  Jeff is standing under a persimmon tree - they are found everywhere in Seoul.

After walking all the way around Jongmyo (because we couldn't find the exit), we finally found our way out and walked to Insa-dong, a pedestrian-friendly street filled with art shops, antiques, and crafts. A wonderful drum band was playing in the main square!  We bought a woodblock print depicting an old map of Seoul.  The woodblock was carved by the master in the photo.  He bowed when he presented it to us.  In fact, the Koreans bow as much as the Japanese.

Seoul is a very tourist-friendly city.  There are tourist information booths all over the place, and all of the staff spoke excellent English.  It seemed that whenever we were reaching a level of frustration reading the guide maps, lo and behold there was another information kiosk.

A short walk from  Insa-dong led us to Bukchon Hanok Village, a traditional residential area that has been very well kept.  Besides artists' studios, there were many gentrified houses.  Very high rent district!  I kept thinking about Beijing's hutongs - run-down, overcrowded alleyways with the odd refurbished house - quite a contrast from beautiful Bukchon.

It was finally time for lunch, and I wasn't looking forward to it.  We found a typical busy local restaurant near Bukchon and ventured in.  Jeff's mouth was watering.  I was in one of my "moods" (where's the Cantonese food?).  I stuck to safe fried rice with whatever (pork? shrimp? chicken? mystery meat?).  Jeff pointed to something more exotic on the picture menu.  Each table had its own pot of kimchi, which Jeff tried to get me to eat (been there once, done that, never again!).  Personally, I'd rather use ketchup or dijon mustard as my condiment of choice.  Koreans eat kimchi with everything, morning, noon and night.  Reminds me of my cousin, Janis (who will be in HK in two weeks), who put ketchup on everything when she was little, including scrambled eggs.

Well, half a day was done, we had walked our feet off, and we still hadn't visited the three palaces!

Next on our agenda was Gyeongbokgung Palace (no, I don't know how to pronounce it).  We crossed the grounds of the National Folk Museum to get there, and laughed at the odd statues decorating the lawn.  There was even a water wheel like the ones we saw in L'Isle-sur -la-Sorgue in Provence!

The G Palace (as we called it) is the grandest palace in Seoul.  The Josean Korean architecture reminded us of Chinese temples, but less ornate, and beautifully landscaped like Japanese temples.  I'm not sure which culture originated the North Asian styles, but I do know that Koreans are very sensitive with respect to Japan, and they claim to have been the innovators.  A traditional Korean orchestra entertained us.  There was music everywhere all weekend in honour of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Looking at our watches, we realized that we had 15 minutes to get to Deoksugung (D) Palace in time for the 3:30 changing of the guards.  This was quite a spectacle!  Wizard of Oz meets Buckingham Palace.  Please note the Dunkin Donuts sign behind the yellow-robed marchers with the Puritan hats.

After a quick walk around D Palace, we hopped on the subway to Changdeokgung (C) Palace.  By this time we were palaced-out, and couldn't tell one from the other ... oops, maybe next vacation we will take things slowly so that we can really absorb the culture, but I doubt it.  I took this photo of Jeff holding up the guide book so that I could identify where we were.  The highlight of the C Palace is the Secret Garden.  Visitors are only allowed into the Garden with Palace guides.  Unfortunately, the English guided tour had taken place hours before, so we had to follow a Korean guide who wouldn't let us veer off the path or go ahead at our own pace.  She told us that this was a 90-minute tour.  After half an hour we left the grounds and took the subway back to the hotel to freshen up.  We were pooped!

The best part of the day was yet to come.  One of the reasons we were so keen to visit Seoul was that our friends, Ursula and Steve, had moved there (from HK) last winter, and we were looking forward to having them show us around their new home town.

Our destination that evening was the fish market.  Before we drove out of the hotel parking lot, Steve and Ursula talked things over with their GPS!  All of the information is written in Korean, and we were so impressed at how proficient they were in deciphering the directions.  Once we got going, a posh female British voice expertly directed Steve to the market.

We've been to wet markets before (duh, we live in Wan Chai!), but this fish market is incredible.  It was still busy at 8 p.m.  We bought our snapper, and then the fish monger brought it to one of the "restaurants" behind the fish vendors.  What a treat to eat freshly grilled fish, drink rice wine, and lots of beer with all of the locals.  We were the only Western people in the entire market.  Such fun!

Our hosts proved to be terrific guides.  The next morning, we walked through Mt. Namsan Park to reach the N Seoul Tower.  Ursula and I used to climb up Old Peak Road to the Peak every Thursday morning, so it was lovely to resume our walking and catch up on all of our news.  The autumn colours were just beginning to peek through - made us homesick.  Speaking of homesick, Jeff wanted to buy this cute stuffed raccoon for Ursula (did I just use the word "cute" to refer to those horrid critters?), but she opted for a lamb instead.

Silly pictures of Steve and me balancing in the park.

More silly pictures of us sitting on a lovers' bench (it slopes towards the middle) with lovers' trinkets hung on the bushes behind us.

We enjoyed the view from the top of the Tower, and then walked back down through the park.  After a delightful cup of tea/coffee at our friends' flat, we drove off to a more serious venue - the War Memorial.  Once again, I was proud to be a Canadian.  Our military helped defend Hong Kong in 1941, and then played a big part in the Korean War.  The flags of all the nations that aided South Korea are displayed in front of the museum (The Canadian flag is hanging limply on the far right).  We didn't go into the museum, but chose instead to walk around the grounds and look at the statues and monuments.

Our last stop with our friends was the King Sejong Museum on the main street.  When we got there, I had an "AHA" moment.  At the top of the street was the G Palace.  A broad boulevard separated the wide road.  Farther down the road, but within walking distance was the D Palace.  Across the street was City Hall - all sites within easy walking distance of each other.  Too bad we wasted so much time taking the subway the day before!

King Sejong, seated proudly in the middle of the boulevard, was the Josean ruler (15th century) who developed and directed the creation of Hangul, the simplified Korean alphabet.  The museum is dedicated to his achievements.  We had a lot of fun learning how to write our names in Korean - something else to add to our scrapbook (yes, Marion, we failed calligraphy 101).

And then it was time for lunch ...  I had a Korean version of bouillabaisse; the others oohed and aahed over their dishes.  More kimchi.  NML as our son Andrew used to say - "no me like".

The main street was closed to traffic.  There were dancers and street performers along the boulevard.  So colourful!

We bade farewell to our friends and continued walking down the road.  There was a large display of photographs from the Korean War (note the Canadian flag - there are more Canadian flags in Seoul than Quebec).  We stopped to admire the new City Hall.  It reminded me of the ROM in Toronto - an old, nondescript building dwarfed by a modern glass structure.

And then we came upon the most incredible sight - a band of drummers suspended by a crane hundreds of feet in the air!  Inspired by Cirque du Soleil?  After they landed, we heard them speaking French!

That evening, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant in the huge shopping mall attached to our hotel.  I couldn't face another Korean meal, so I'm embarrassed to say that we ate at T.G.I.Friday!  Can't go wrong with broccoli/cheese soup and a hamburger!

The next day was a public holiday in Korea.  All shops and businesses were closed.  Our destination was the Cheonggyecheon Stream (herein known as the C Stream) in downtown Seoul.  In the 1950s, there was a massive wave of migration into Seoul.  A shantytown grew on the banks of C Stream.  Conditions were deplorable.  In 1958 the stream was covered in concrete, and an elevated road was built above - picture the Decarie expressway with the elevated Decarie Boulevard above.  In 2003, an ambitious project was undertaken to remove the concrete covering the stream, and turning this area into an eco-friendly park.  We were very impressed!  Here are some of our photos taken on our 3 km walk:

The beginning of the stream.  Beautiful waterfall.  Steps leading down from the elevated road.

One of the twenty-two bridges across the stream.  Map of old Seoul (our woodblock print looks like this).

World's largest ceramic wall painting, "Banchado".  Banchado is an illustration that shows a grand royal procession and the order of the participants, including Josean King Jungjo.  The wall painting is made up of over 5,000 ceramic tiles.  The total length of the painting is almost 200 meters, and it depicts 1,700 people and 800 horses.

After stopping briefly to look at one of the old gates of the city, we once again took the subway back to our hotel (doggy in a basket on the subway), and then on to the airport and home to Hong Kong.




Jeff and I always read the Sunday New York Times section called "36 hours in ...".  I've got a thick file of them on my bookshelf.  We've just come to the realization that we are not the target audience for this column.  For example, 36 hours in Seoul (November 11, 2010) directs visitors to upscale modern art galleries (we missed the Leeum Museum because it was closed for the holiday), kimchi (at very high-priced restaurants), trendy clubs after dark (we're in bed by 10), shopping meccas, and bathhouses.  I suppose there's something in Seoul for everyone.