Day 15: Seoul Sightseeing

You would think after 2 weeks of sightseeing trips in China, we would be fed up of tours.....not at all; plus it`s the best way to get your bearings!

We went to breakfast at 8am but unfortunately the food options were pretty limited; the coffee options, however, were ridiculous! There was 3 different machines with various different coffees. Coffee, we have learned, is huge in Korea. I had a latte to be boring! 

A driver picked us and another couple up at 8.50am and took us to meet up with the bus; it was only a small group of 10, a few Aussies, a few Americans and four Vietnamese! Our guide was called Grace and our first stop was Jogyesa Temple, the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The temple has an ancient white pine tree as well as a mulberry tree, which apparently gives you happy vibes if you touch it! We did, but i`m unconvinced!

After the temple, we drove 5 minutes to Gyeongbokgung; this is usually known to westerners as Gyeongbokgung Palace but “gung” means palace so no need to say Gyeongbok Palace Palace! We arrived at 10am, just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was a 10 minute ceremony with a parade and music; all very colourful!

We then went into the palace, originally built in 1395. Unfortunately, almost the whole of Seoul was destroyed during the Japanese occupation and then the impending civil war with North Korea. The palace was destroyed by the Japanese in 1910 but rebuilt and opened to the public in the 1980`s; it has been rebuilt exactly as before and is one of 5 grand palaces. We walked from the south to north entrance, before exiting out. One fun story was of the wife of one of the last emperors, she basically was the emperor in all but name. She disrespected Japan by forming close ties with Russia so they sent ninjas to kill her, and they did! Pretty mental, especially thinking of how they had to climb the walls, avoid guards and then get out. We saw a few people dressed in traditional costume, Hanbok, in the pictures below. People can rent them for about £20 and they can get into the palace for free (it only costs £3 to get in though!)

The “Blue House” is situated just behind the palace; it is just like the White House in America and is home to the President. We took a few photos then got back on the bus to visit a Ginseng factory, out last stop of the day as it was just a morning tour. We got told about Ginseng and its properties; it was extortionate to buy so we didn’t bother! 

Most of the bus were on a full day tour so she gave us the option to upgrade, which meant we would have lunch, visit another palace, Insa-dong market and Namdaemun market. We had nothing else planned until 7pm so decided to go ahead. Lunch was served in a little restaurant near to our hotel; we had a beef soup with rice and other side dishes like kimchi and onion.

After lunch, we went to Changdeokgung; this is considered the most beautiful palace and has much more Korean influence (a curved roof with many different colours) than the other palace which uses a lot of Chinese architecture. It was also damaged during the Japanese occupation with only 30% of the original remaining. The bridge within the palace is the oldest in Seoul, built in 1411. After the reconstruction in 1917, wooden floorboards, curtains, chandeliers and glass windows were installed. There is also a 38 acre garden which was built for the women of the royal family but they were only allowed to enter it with the kings permission!

After the palace, we went to Insa-dong market, once the largest market for antiques and artworks in Korea. There are still a number of shops and stalls which sell arts and crafts but it is primarily a tourist spot now. We did spot a Marilyn Manson lookalike filming a music video though, so we will definitely be in it! 

After this market, we went to Namdaemun market, a large traditional market and the oldest in Seoul. It is next to the “Great South Gate;” the city had 4 gates and a wall surrounding it, a bit like Xi`an in China. The gates used to be closed at night so if you missed it, you were stuck outside. This gate used to be a national treasure as it was the only remaining original one and had withstood Japanese occupation and the civil war. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago, a mad drunk Korean set fire to it and it was destroyed; he was subsequently jailed but our tour guide was quite distraught telling us about it. After an hour of walking about, we headed back to the hotel for a bit of respite.  

There is a rooftop garden at our hotel so we went for a “Kloud” beer before going on a pub crawl. We had to get the metro again so ended up buying a T-Money card; a rechargeable smart card which can be used to pay for public transport as well as other purchases. The metro is reasonably easy as every sign has the English beside it.

We met our guide, Heeyoung, outside exit 5 of Hapjeong station. We discovered she was a sophomore and had 2 exams the following day; one of which was PowerPoint construction! We booked through a company called Seoul Hunters as we were due to visit 3 diffferent places, experience 3 different food and drink pairings and learn some Korean drinking games! So our first stop was a Korean BBQ restaurant where we got to have Jeju Pork with all the sides! We had a seaweed soup to start with; it was very salty but tasty and we were told you normally eat it at your birthday, the lunar new year when everyone (yup, everyone!) gets a year older! The table in the restaurant basically has a mini BBQ in it and the pork is put on in a huge lump as well as the kimchi and garlic cloves. Once the pork starts cooking, you take scissors to cut it into bite size pieces and ontinue to cook until ready. Once the pork and kimchi is ready, you take a huge lettuce leaf, add a bit of pork, some red bean chilli, kimchi, garlic and salad before folding the lettuce leaf up; then the trick is to fit it in your mouth in one go! Soju, the Korean vodka as they call it, is drunk with it. We had a few shots of the original on its own but they tend to mix a shot with beer; very tasty! I had to pour Iains; it is tradition that each person uses two hands when serving or being served a drink. 

We had 4 pork fillets, all eaten with a lettuce leaf and still had another two places to visit! Heeyoung also explained two Korean drinking games. The first game uses the bottle top from the Soju bottle; you take the buckled seal and twirl it so it is sticking up from the bottle top. Then each person takes it in turn to flick it until it breaks off! If it breaks within 2 rounds, the person who made it has to drink a shot of Soju. If it breaks after, everyone else has to have a shot! We both lost, so we had a shot. The second game used the same lid; there is a number on the inside between 1 and 50 so you take it in turns to guess it, same rules apply! This time it was between Iain and I, I won so Iain had to have a shot! He seemed happy to lose though... We think the Soju was only around 14% so we were still ok! 

After the drinking games and food, we wandered through Hongdae, the university district. Our next stop was a traditional pub where we had rice wine and a kimchi pancake with radish, edamame and crackers on the side; another specialty! Everything, especially the radish, was delicious but really filling; this time the wine was only around 6% and had to be drunk out of a bowl; we had chestnut flavour! It was yellow  and fizzy but not unpleasant. We told the guide she didn’t have to drink as she had exams the next day. She happily obliged. More for us, ha ha! We stayed there for about 30 minutes before walking further through the area, seeing lots of different people performing as we went; there were singers and dancers everywhere! It is a very hip and cool area to hang out in, so we are told! 

Our last stop was a local pub, which had the steepest stairs in the world,  where we tried a fish stew; it had mussels, squid, rice cakes and vegetable in a chilli sauce. We also had apple soju which was very drinkable! We were stuffed by this point and couldn’t eat anymore!

After dinner, we went for a walk around the area with the guide. She showed us the best noodles to eat as well as explaining the phenomenon of the karaoke booth. K-Pop (Korean Pop music) is huge and there are booths all over the place where people can go in and pretend they are in a music video; she asked if we wanted to do it but we politely declined!

The place was really busy with people sitting on the grass; eating, drinking and socialising. After a 3 hour tour, our guide left us and we decided to go to a craft beer pub called Craft Hans. We had the tasting flight and enjoyed people watching. The district we are staying in is great for shopping but there are no bars, only food places; we now realise that you have to go to the university district or ex-pat district to get that!

At about 11.30pm, we decided to get the metro back to the hotel as we were shattered, 22,000 steps today!