Night 1 (21 Nov): Grand Arrival!
By the time we landed and arrived into Seoul proper, it was about 10pm, not much to do really but find that bibimbap we were all badly craving and could only visualise in our heads the entire journey from Taipei city to Seoul. The hotel receptionist @ the Sofitel Grand Ambassador Hotel was not the most helpful guide when it came to our food recommendation. He actually informed us that most eating places close around 10pm. OK, maybe for family diners, but Hello, we are in Seoul!!! We just came from Taipei, not Australia or Sweden as indicated by our passports! AS IF any Asian city with a population greater than 10 million people shuts their doors at exactly 10pm!! We persisted to ask and were finally told that Itaewon has food for ‘foreigners’, like a 24 hour McDonalds. We were not happy with that answer, but OK, since none of us had actually done any research for this trip, we took the cab to Itaewon in search for that glorious bimbimbap we KNEW we were going to have, and HAD to have.
Once we arrived at Itaewon, it was quite clear to us that this was the place that ‘foreigners’ hung out. Instead of feeling like we were walking down the main street of modern Seoul as depicted by MTV Asia video clips or Korean Idol dramas, it felt like we were in downtown Chicago (as Tien pointed out, I’ve never been to Chicago so couldn’t come to that conclusion) or at least some part of the USA. People on the streets were speaking American English, the cars on the road were revelling the latest American hip-hop tunes, not Korean pop! It was quite a surreal experience, especially for hungry travellers like us. We walked up and down the main road, to the side streets only to find ‘foreign’ food everywhere. Mind you, there really was quite a selection of foreign cuisines besides KFC or Maccas – German, Czech, French...some very nice restaurants but not what we were looking for. About 15 or 20 minutes of searching later, we found a Korean joint at a basement!! At last, local Korean food! There was the initial fear that it may have shut for the evening, but no, they did let us in! Did the menu have bibimbap? Yes it did!! Saved for the evening!
Korean food had never tasted this good! Despite craving the bibimbap all night, i actually chose to have the hot spicy soup noodles which suited the Korean cold weather perfectly. It was fantastic! Now I just need to get my hands on a copy of us eating this fabulous midnight meal (hello Sue & Tien...waiting for photos in Sydney!) The smiles on our faces should depict how happy and satisfied we were...Seoul, we love you!
Since Itaewon seems to be a hip and happening foreigners area, we tried searching for a bar to chill at before going back to the hotel. Again we stumbled into a bar that had a PJ’s party theme going on. We were not dressed for the occasion, but the girl at the front let us in so why not? So far our Seoul experience was going exceedingly well. We excitedly found a little corner to place ourselves and ordered some fancy sounding cocktails, predominantly with a chocolate theme! The cocktails came but it did not quite live up to our expectation. The bar was set so high having consumed that fabulous Korean meal earlier, we were bound to be disappointed, except, we were actually very disappointed with the cocktails, so much so it was torture to finish drinking it. We didn’t, so eventually left the bar and wondered around small streets and alleys of Itaewon. At some points it looked slightly dangerous when the police were trying to arrest a drunken Korean guy outside a club, but other than that, it was nice to explore a foreign area, in a foreign country, in the cold around midnight! We also discovered more Korean eateries in other side streets, but convinced ourselves that the meal we found was the best!
Colourful Seoul by Night
Day 2 (22 Nov): Day out with my local Korean guide!
We kick-started the day 2 by heading out to Myeongdong – a vibrant, colourful, fun place to just hangout and watch the latest young Korean fashion trends go by. It’s a shopping mecca for all things Korean as well as International. There are more labels on display here than what you will find in a regular Australian Westfield shopping mall. It reminded me of our Pitt St Mall area in the CBD, only exceedingly better! Our doubts about whether we actually arrived at the right city from the night before were soon cast away as we found ourselves bopping along to the catchy K-pop tunes, adding rhythm and bounce to our strides. Yes, we definitely DID make it to Seoul!
Welcome to Myeongdong!
Myeongdong looked familiar to me as I do remember aimlessly roaming around this area 2 years ago whilst getting lost in the sea of shops and crowds. But just like the pace and rate of change of any other Asian city, this time I noticed an explosion of American and European brands taking up big spaces on the streets. Since we were hungry (as travellers always are) we decided to try out the street snack food. Our first try was a hit. I have no idea what it is called, but we soon started calling it the ‘green pancake’. And each time we were around Myeongdong, we just had to buy one to satisfy our forever hungry stomachs! (It was cold in Korea, needed to keep the body warm!)
Some street food snacks - No pics of our favourite green pancake though. (It's on someone else's camera!)
My brunch....look at all the side dishes and how red does it look? YEAH!
Lucky for us, I actually knew of someone in Seoul to meet up with! My friend Soo was kind enough to take us out on a walking tour of Seoul. It’s been a while since I’ve visited anyone in a foreign country and the benefits of having a local guide you around is just fantastic! (Thank You Soo!)
Soo commenced our private tour by taking us to a fancy tea place in Myeongdong which I don't know the name of. (maybe I will google and find out what it's called) It was clearly a very popular place as it was packed with trendy young Seoul-ites enjoying a Sunday afternoon tea. Soo said it's now famous because it was in a Korean drama, but she had no idea which one! (can't blame her since she's been working South Korean hours for the last 2 yrs!) One thing I do love about Asia is the abundance of nice tea places with an extensive tea menu, something clearly lacking in the coffee-obsessed-Sydney! (Although Seoul is a bit coffee obsessed itself. That will be blogged maybe Day 3 or 4)
There’s no time to waste whilst in a foreign city so soon after we were on our feet again absorbing, observing, smelling, listening to Seoul. I’ve visited East Asia several times over the last few years and somehow I just don’t tire of it. Having just spent the last 3 months in Taipei, you can’t help but draw comparisons between the two cities. They are similar yet so different. Seoul is of course on a larger scale with cleaner buildings, more structure and organised roads, yet it has that homely feeling that Taipei also offers. Here are some images of the places we walked past.
An interesting display around Cheonggyecheon...Soo wasn't sure why they were on display either...
But its all good when you see Kangaroos in Seoul!
And there's a water feature around the area too
Towards the end of the day and we settled at Insadong. I also remember coming here 2 years ago and unlike Myeongdong, Insadong not much has changed. Perhaps unsurprising given Insadong is a district known for traditional antiques as well as some contemporary arts and craft! However, this time round I definitely noticed the presence of more locals too, I guess due to the time and day of week (Sunday afternoon). Unfortunately for us our exploration couldn’t continue anymore due to the presence of rain, so off we went to another tea place for a break and to warm up. This time we went to a more traditional tea place where we sat on heated floors and drank traditional Korean medicinal teas. Thank goodness for Soo, our local guide who could translate the menu. Each tea served a purpose for healing a certain aspect of our health, whether its headaches, back pain or whatever the case may be. I simply chose one that suited my mood and flavour of the day. It was such a cosy place, and the tea was unique, something I’ve never tried before and I liked it! We had some light tea snacks too, not too dissimilar to tea houses in Taiwan in that respect. We all felt so warm and comfortable sipping teas and sitting on heated floors that none of us really felt the need to move out of this tea place. (Until of course it was yet another meal time!) At least this was a new experience for me in the Insadong district.
As dinner time approached, some of us were craving a real Korean BBQ experience. So we hopped out of the cosy tea place and went to a traditional Korean BBQ restaurant across the street. Again I am so thankful for having Soo around as she had us seated in a traditional manner on the floor again, ordered a typical Korean BBQ set menu and did the cooking for us. (What lucky travellers we were!) All I had to focus on was eating, and eating and more of it all night long. The presence of the colourful side dishes and sheer variety made my mouth water and my eyes lit up! There was definitely an abundance of food that night, so much so that we couldn’t fit it all on our table for four that it spilled over to the next table. I was also taught the ‘Korean’ way to eat BBQ.
- Take a fresh piece of cabbage leaf
- Smother some chilli paste onto the leaf (It’s completely up to the individual how spicy you want it to be, perhaps smother is not the right word...spread?!)
- Take a piece of BBQ meat and dip it into some dipping sauce if you want and place it on your cabbage leaf
- Add some picked vegies if you want
- Wrap it up
- Shove it in your mouth and chew!
As we finished dinner and parted ways with our awesome guide and friend Soo, we were recommended to go to Dongdaemun if we wanted to at least walk off dinner and attempt some shopping at the same time. Our visit to Dongdaemun was quite short, given the rain interfering and none of us really in the mood to make any purchases, so later it was back to the hotel for some more hot tea and in my case coffee (a huge mistake...who would want to drink coffee at midnight? Yours truly)
Random Seoul street by night
Street food Korean style! Who doesn't want to eat in a tent? That's so awesome!
Dongdaemun Area by Night
Day 3 (23 Nov): Holidays are only fun when you get the heart pumping!
A trip to Seoul cannot be complete without a stopover to at least one of their many amusement parks. For the sake of convenience and time, we chose Lotte World – a Disney-like Theme Park without the Disney characters. The skies were blue and the brilliant sun was out and kind to us travellers therefore it seemed like a good day to spend it outdoors. After a fabulous waffles breakfast (and I just love the excuses we give ourselves for eating whatever we fancy whilst on holidays) at (name of cafe) located at our daily starting point Myeongdong, we familiarised ourselves (some would argue just me!) with the Seoul subway system and trekked out to Lotte World. After living in Taipei anything longer than a 20 min journey is defined as a trek :)
The best waffles in Seoul!!
So here is Lotte World!!
Our hearts first started pumping on the Pirate ship – Sue wasn’t too keen but gave into peer pressure! I think she secretly enjoyed it :)
Ride 1 tick! And it was all GO from then on to give the heart a good workout!
I even broke through my fear of heights and any ride consisting of a heart thumping drop. See the ride below - Gyrodrop. Tien & Sue assured me it was not as scary as the roller-coaster ride, and as I am quite the gullible person, I believed them so went along for the ride. It was a slow decent up around 10 storey high. Fantastic view, not such a fantastic drop! But oh well, one must push ourselves out of comfort zones. Justified I suppose.
Up on the Gyrodrop...its HIGH!
Gyrodrop on the rapid decent!
My all time favourite ride was the roller-coaster, but they always end too quickly! Sue and I were screaming our heads off, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it!
Unfortunately you can't tell how exciting it was from this photo!
And we queued an entire hour on this ride - Gyro Swing.
It swings and twists!
The more we looked at it, the more scared Sue & I became. But there was no turning back. You don’t queue for nothing! Tien was just impatient and wanted to go on the ride, I think out of all of us, he loved it the best.
Sue and Tien went on more height defying rides (Bungee Drop), I chose to sit out on it and take photos of them hehe
My final ride of the day was something more kiddish - but hey it was fun...felt a bit dizzy after the ride though!
Before the ride started (This time Sue chose to sit out)
Great photo Sue! Action shot!
Our stay at Lotte World was far longer than anticipated. A combination of – late start, queuing for rides despite it being a Monday, having too much fun ‘riding’ all day, and being on true holiday mode meant that it was quite a rush back into town. Soo recommended a comedic-martial arts performance, so all of a sudden we had to feed ourselves prior to dinner.
Christmas Time @ Lotte World Ice Skating rink
Food can often be a hit and miss whilst you’re travelling. I’m not a great food hunter whilst travelling only because it is not my priority so I generally only search for food when I’m about to collapse. By that stage, anything goes! Today was one of those cases, where we left the food hunt a bit too late and ended up eating something not so brilliant. It was a Korean healthy-wholesome-organic restaurant that was popular with the locals, but not so appetising for us! (Truth be told: I thought the food was OK just because I was starving. Tien’s face didn’t quite light up like it did from the night before and Sue being a vegetarian hardly ate anything.)
But life goes on.
We eventually found our way to the performance venue and being the silly people we were, we hurriedly followed a big group of tourists up about 5 or so flight of stairs, assuming they were going to attend the same performance as us. It was the same performance, just in a different theatre! The usher never realised we had tickets for the theatre on the Lower Ground floor and actually seated us in what we all thought were our seats. The performance had actually started until some Japanese girls told us we were sitting in their seats. We rushed out of the theatre again and ran down the 5 flight of stairs we walked up. Thank goodness we didn’t miss the show! It was brilliant! I highly recommend that people go see the show Jump! if you’re going to visit Seoul. It will make you LOL, come out smiling and wishing you were some kung-fu master.
And our Heart pumping day ended...all round good fun!
Day 4 (24 Nov) : Exploring Modern Seoul
It’s almost a requirement of any modern city to have a tower (or a famous building) that gives one a glance of our urban concrete jungle. My hometown Sydney has the Centre Point tower, Tokyo – Tokyo Tower, Paris – Eiffel Tower, New York City – Empire State Building, Taipei – Taipei 101, and the list goes on. Seoul is of course no different. So off we went to visit “N Seoul Tower” as the weather looked good enough to enjoy a panoramic view of the city.
N Seoul Tower , where N stands for Namsan (South Mountain) is located on the peak of Namsan, and stands at 479.7m above Sea level, although the structure is only 236.7m tall. Compare that to Sydney’s Centre Point Tower – 305m tall, and Taipei 101 – 509.2m tall. To get to the Tower, there is this modern cable car ride that takes you all the way up, or if you are feeling energetic, it’s a very nice hike up the mountain. Guess which method we chose?
We took this just to get to the cable car! (No, not lazy at all!)
View from the cable car ride up!
Once you are up at the top of the mountain, you can get a good glimpse of Seoul without actually going up the tower. It’s a lovely park, the air is fresher and I can imagine local families taking their young families up here to enjoy a bit of greenery and escape the busy-ness of Seoul.
The 'N' @ N Seoul Tower
The tower itself
Seoul - another concrete jungle
Besides the lovely scenery and parkland, there is also the “Teddy Bear Museum N Seoul Tower”! Yay shouts all the touristy Asians that adore fluffy soft toys :P In Korean folk stories, they actually believe they are the descendents of bears, so it’s only natural to document history through stuffed teddy bears. I know Tien wasn’t so keen on this museum experience, but I am pretty certain he enjoyed it more than Sue and I did! (The wonders of the internet and blogging, I can still pay my friends out even when we are all thousands of miles apart :))
Teddy bears in tradtional Korean attire...cute!
The path down to cable car station...energetic people can climb up and down this! Saw quite a few fit old folks getting some exercise done on this path!
in Hanja &압구정동 in Hangul) district, so I figured we should go there to find food! The thinking was - check out this trendy district whilst eating a nice meal Fantastic idea when you actually know where you are going, not so great when you are starving and have no idea where to go!! (Yes, again, we did this again!) When we finally got to Apgujeong, it was more a shopping district (duh, as all the guidebooks say it’s the Beverley Hills of Seoul, silly me!) And that 24-hour Korean BBQ place opened by a popular Korean celebrity that was in Sue’s guidebook, didn’t look as close to where we were on the map. SO, after much walking around, and realising we didn’t want to eat fancy western food or expensive Japanese food which this district is probably more known for, we finally found our lunch spot. It was the most firey red lunch you could ever find! It was a place that specialised in chicken BBQ, it looked Korean and there were locals eating inside. Yep, let’s all head in!
We finally sat down for lunch at almost 3pm – the food looked so good and promising when the waitress was cooking our chicken pieces on a massive hot plate. Next came some fresh ramen noodles that looked so good too and everything was getting a good frying in the hot plate. Then the red chilli sauce of death arrived. Never in any of our lives had we seen that much red chilli sauce get poured into a dish. And that just happened to be our lunch.
In my positive spirit, I said well maybe it just looks red, and is not actually that spicy?! Incorrect theory, it tasted just as spicy as it looked, if not worse! Luckily for me, the Malaysian taste buds kicked in and didn’t disappoint me, despite the runny nose effect that happens when I eat extremely spicy food. Tien couldn’t quite handle the fiery stir fried red chicken ramen noodles we were eating, so the ingenious Sue suggested they dip the food into cold water to try and dilute the effects of the spicy sauce so at least their lunch could still be eaten. (Sue must have been a smart science student is what came to mind) My friends tried their very best to eat what they could, but I think I actually ate half of that huge pot of stir fried chicken noodles. It was over to the Chinese genes, the ‘I-must-not-waste-my-food’ genes that helped in my effort to try and eat as much of the spicy spicy hot food despite the chemical reaction that was probably taking place in my body. The photos speak wonders of how the food tasted for once!
My coffee observations:
And the great thing about free-planning holidays, when you’re not sure what to do after a big spicy feed, you can always count on the many coffee shops that now populate Seoul to sit and relax. As mentioned in the Day 1 Entry, there seems to be a coffee boom in Seoul. Everywhere you go there are coffee shops. They are not the Parisian style cafes where seats open up to the grand boulevard, or the ones we have back here in Sydney where the theme is simple and causal, they are mega coffee stores that take up expensive real estate over several floors. Most of the ones in Korea are probably American chains (Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Tea Leaf...is Angels Coffee a local variety?), but they have done such a good job with the interior fit outs and branding that all you want to do is sit there for a whole day – to simply read a book, sip a latte or have a casual catch up with friends over a coffee, cake and/or muffin. So with that temptation luring us, we went to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffee shop for another pit-stop (and it’s a handy place to escape the cold. Reminds me of Boston 2007) I enjoyed my nice hot chai latte, it tasted great, plus the ever generous Sue bought a muffin for us to all share. Although I hardly needed it after that huge spicy lunch!
Our tour of modern Seoul included another stop I had carefully chosen from the numerous brochures supplied by the hotel – Dongdaemon Design Plaza. However, due to my lack of attention to detail, I didn’t realise until we got to Dongdaemon, that the ultra cool, urban, modernist building and public space we were supposed to be wow-ed at, is still under construction. I should have read the fine print. Then again, they shouldn’t have included it in the brochure given its only due to be completed in 2010! Anyways, we managed to read about this amazing design plaza and look at 3D rendered sketches on the construction panels that surround the building site. I guess that is the second best solution. I did learn a few things though, as Sue the architect pointed out that Zaha Hadid, the head architect of the Dongdaemon Design Plaza is an amazing female Iraqi born UK educated architect that just keeps pushing the boundaries in the world of architecture. (and coincidentally, on the Cathay flight back to Taipei there was a huge feature article about Hadid in the inflight magazine!) The opening of the Plaza is supposed to coincide with Seoul being the ‘World Design Capital' for 2010. I had no idea that such a cool concept existed!
Below are some images of the soon to be open Dongdaemun Design Plaza:
Oh and what is the purpose of the plaza? According to e-architect:
“The new Dongdaemun Park creates a place for leisure, relaxation, and refuge. The design integrates the Park and Plaza seamlessly as one landscape element, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature. Informed by the Korean painting traditions depicting grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature, the Park reinterprets elements of traditional Korean garden design: reflecting pools, lotus ponds, pebble beds and bamboo groves, with no single feature dominating the perspective.”
As it started to rain and get cold, we retreated to the indoors again, this time to the Dongdaemun shopping malls. We eventually split into girls & 1 guy group, as to be more efficient in the shopping process. Sue & I said we’d only ‘browse’ for half an hour and quick browsing we did. In that short half an hour we managed to accumulate scarves, winter tops and jackets. Imagine the damage that would have been done if it was only the two of us girls on this holiday! (Perhaps Seoul 2007 all over again!) Let’s just say we took a bit longer than the agreed half an hour. (Not our fault when we couldn’t see a certain person waiting indoors rather than outdoors in the cold!) It turned out Tien got intimidated and scared off by the pushy Korean sales people, so he finished browsing in about 15 minutes. Feeling just a bit guilty, we helped Tien out with the jacket shopping he was planning to do. Turns out the male sale assistants are nicer to customers when girls are helping the guys out with shopping. Point to note: Up until Day 4 Seoul, Tien was relying on a flimsy blazer jacket which didn’t do much to protect him from the Korean elements. So much for that Swedish winter training Tien! (Aussies are still smart when it comes to the cold, you can never have a jacket too thick to battle the elements!)
Doota! Department Stores @ Dongdaemun...It's Xmas
I could go on about what happened but my memory is starting to get fuzzy. I’m pretty sure there was another BBQ dinner meal at some local joint, somewhere again (with no spice!). We figured BBQ-ing Korean style was one way to not go wrong with our food. It was great! Perhaps my memory is fuzzy cuz we finished the night by drinking some Soju? Maybe :P
Day 5 (25 Nov): Palaces + Donuts anyone?
The last time I came to Korea I was disappointed that we didn’t visit any of the five grand palaces that still exist in Seoul. Naturally, this time I really really wanted to check out at least one before hopping on the plane again. Two of the main palaces are located close to each other, so we decided to target these palaces in one hit. Gyeongbukgong 경복궁 (景福宮) & Changdeokgung (昌德宮) are both located on the Northern End of Seoul, ‘next’ to each other, and were both built during the Joseon Dynasty. Changdeokgung is even a World UNESCO Heritage Site, renowned for its landscape garden design.
Unfortunately for us, we were not blessed with the best weather to visit these palaces, let alone take stunning photos. It was a cold, windy, cloudy, rainy day. (Yes, the worst possible mix, at least there was no snow though) Despite weather conditions, we went along with the plan!! As it was our last day in Seoul and we really needed to get some ‘cultural’ stuff done.
Gyeongbukgong (경복궁, 景福宮) :
Originally constructed in 1394 during the Joseon Dynasty, and reconstructed in 1867, it is the largest of the Five Grand Palaces. The Palace was mostly destroyed during Japanese invasion, so the Palace is currently undergoing massive restorations, and this was apparent during our visit. Whilst some buildings look to be freshly painted, others have only been half completed, and you actually do see workers on the palace grounds working away.
Interesting stone sculptures in the Palace grounds
The palace buildings are all getting a fresh coat of paint!
More interesting corners within the Palace grounds
Main Palace gate where a changing of the guard type ceremony takes place
King's throne
The most impressive structure was Gyeonghoeru Pavilion, even though my pathetic photos don’t seem to show how magnificent it was. It’s easy to imagine royal banquets and festivities being held here; picturing royalty welcoming foreign diplomats with people dressed in the colourful korean hanboks parading around the pavilion. We spent some time here trying very hard to take good photos!
I guess what struck me about the Palace grounds is that, the Koreans have lived a relatively simple way of life, even for royalty. The living quarters are highly minimalistic, much like the Japanese with no elaborate decorations, just simple furniture and living quarters. It made me think about the living quarters of ordinary Koreans in those olden times. How did they live? What is a typical Korean home? Maybe being Royalty just meant you had a larger place, and housed servants, but the interiors were largely the same? I question because of my Chinese background, and knowing that aristocrats or people from the imperial family always had elaborate homes that were fully decorated with Chinese paintings, porcelain, anything of artistic value. Similar cultures, yet different I suppose.
Next was a visit to the National Folk Museum located just on the Eastern side of Gyeongbukgong. The museum was a great way to escape the cold, and an even better way to stay dry. It is a relatively compact museum, which means spending one hour in there is sufficient to get a good overview of the Korean way of life from ancient times through to the Japanese occupation period. There are the usual relics, artefacts and replica’s to add the visual effect – farming equipment, replica of a typical Korean house, even all the different kinds of kimchi in plastic display. I did manage to tag along to a huge Chinese tourist contingent where I was listening onto a guide explaining the origins of the Korean written language, however, I already knew that from my trip in 2007. So I moved on!
The National Folk Museum is housed under this beautiful ancient structure
Besides housing a permanent collection, there is also the Jungang Hall which showcases a changing exhibition. I was delighted to see a Hanbok exhibition “Forever Fabulous” – Reinvented Hanbok works from Lee Rheeza. The Visit Korea website details more info:
Considered the most revered Hanbok craftsperson in the country, it`s no overstatement to say that Ms. Lee’s work has changed the way Hanbok is worn forever. In more than one hundred fashion shows over a career spanning almost half a century, she has been introducing inspiring designs that contain both a traditional touch and modern elegance. She also has been active in promoting Hanbok in the international fashion community as a national brand of Korea.
Entrance to Forever Fabulous exhibition
Gorgeous Hanboks...how pretty are they?
Until visiting this exhibition, my idea of Hanbok’s are only from Korean dramas (and my Korea 2007 Hanbok experience!) I had no idea that a renowned designer was creating such beautiful pieces and transforming a whole nations hanbok experience. The exhibition design and display was also stunning. I really enjoyed this part of the museum!
We were planning to visit Bukchon Hanok Village, which is located between the two palaces we were targeting. I’m quite disappointed that we didn’t get to fit this into our itinerary, as I love anything related to history and the old way of life. However, given the rain, it was going to be a futile effort. So we took a cab and went to the next palace - Changdeokgung (昌德宮). Initially we thought it was within walking distance from where we were, not quite! Luckily cabs are cheap in Seoul!
Images of Bukchon Hanok Village that I missed out on! (I love the internet!)
Changdeokgung
Changdeokgung is located on a far larger ground and it is more aesthetically beautiful. Again, if we didn’t have the rain, I think it would have been lovely just walking around the palace gardens and grounds. We walked around the grounds anyway, with our umbrella, hoods, gloves, scarves, beanies and every other winter accessory on. We tried so hard!
The handy Visit Seoul website informs me that:
the back garden, along with numerous pavilions, tens of thousands of trees and flowering plants attest to the Korean design tradition that harmonizes the structure with its natural surroundings.
Do I love autumn or what? (I think it is my favourite season) The rain didn't put me off from the snapping!
Trying to capture the tree reflections on the water. I think it worked out quite well myself hehe
Most of my 'building' photos from Cheongdeokgung look rather dull, this is the most interesting one. I like the lattice pattern on the doors.
Given our day was kinda a wash out day, and having no other ideas of where to go (I’m not sure why another museum did not come to mind? We could have stayed dry again and been productive!). But food was calling us. Instead of trawling through unknown joints again, it was back on the cab to Myeongdong, our favourite place in the entire Seoul for an afternoon tea and donuts. Yes, I know, but the spices were getting to us from time to time!
My donut observation:
As well as coffee, the donut business is booming. Who would have thought right? I guess they need to add something else to their taste buds besides ‘spice’. Well a certain person in our group of 3, had the constant need to eat donuts over the many days. Apparently his home country does not sell anything but the plain cinnamon donuts (oops, I gave it away!). Throughout our five days, not only did we accomplish kim-chi sampling, we also managed to sample donuts from – Krispy Kreme, Mister Donut, Dunkin’ Donuts. The donut places in Korea look so high class too. It’s a colourful donut world with all the different icings to choose from. They pack the donuts so nicely in a box too if you are game enough to consume half a dozen or so. (how do they eat so many donuts here and not put on weight? It has to be the kimchi!) They are a glorious place where you can eat your donut, indulge in another coffee or chai latte and read a magazine in a very comfortable setting. (The more I write the more I miss Asia!) Well given the cold and rainy day, we all indulged in a donut or two. It was divine. Argh. Even after all those years of making donuts at Woolworths in my youth, I still cannot resist the temptation of a calorie-filled Krispy Kreme. They do taste so delicious don’t they? There is even an article from the Korea Times detailing Donut Wars in Myeongdong, just to prove how big the donut business is in Seoul!
As we killed time in the luxurious setting of Myeongdong Krispy Kreme, with more chatting and hanging out - coffee, tea, donuts plus more. It was finally time to meet up with Soo, being it was our last evening here and she was going to take us out for more authentic Korean food. (YAY!!!!)
Authentic it was! We had the most typical Korean street food you can find in those little tent-like huts we had been seeing for the past many evenings, but just had no idea how to order or figure out what people were eating. Soo invited her friend Elyssa out to join us too, another English speaker! It was all good fun eating things like Korean-sushi, spicy sticky rice cakes and other things I cannot remember or name. My favourite would have to be the spicy sticky rice cakes and I indulged once more! It’s going to be a very long time until I have to face the Korean spice again. And this was just as spicy as the chicken dish from the previous day. Luckily we had other non-spicy dishes to balance it out.
The tent like food vendors. This is not where we ate that night, but you get what it looks like.
The non-spicy sushi from dinner! I love how Asian people are so practical. Place on a plastic wrapped plastic plate! I failed to take photos of anything else. I was embarassed to be carrying my big fat SLR at a street food vendor. I hope my friends took photos of the food? Esp the spicy sticky rice cakes!
Next was dessert time, and since Soo was taking us around, I have no idea where we went, but again, a very nice dessert place. The décor was old-style American, filled with Christmas decorations and it all felt very posh without being too stuck up. It was a nice change from all the hip modern places that surround Seoul. Again, a welcome change and I just love visiting countries where locals take you around. You would think after all the donuts we consumed previously that we had our sugar-fix for the day, alas, the presence of cakes means that I(we) simply cannot resist. It was over to more eating, at least this time we all shared the waffles and cheesecake. Once again divine.
So that is how the Seoul Searching adventure ended. All round a fun and relaxing holiday. I like Seoul. And it’s a destination I can keep coming back to, but perhaps give it a few years before my return again. An-nyeong Hi-gye-se-yo!!
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