Seoul Day 3

Started our day with a visit to the palaces. Given that we've had a long day the day before, we slept in and had a quick breakfast before heading out to the world famous Gyeong Bok Gung Palace.

At Gyeong Bok Gung Palace Station

head towards exit 5

Built in 1935, the palace means Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven. It served as the main palace for more than 500 years and is surrounded by 5 metre high walls and has 4 very large gates, which are to the 4 directions (East, South, West and North). The main door is the Gwanghwamun which has 3 entrances.

The palace is open every day except Tuesdays and there are free English guided tours at 11, 1330 and 1530 on those days. 

There is a change of guards every hour (think it's from 10 am to 3 pm) and that lasts for about 10 minutes and starts off in the square between Gwanghwamun and Heungnyemun. Quite interesting, accompanied by music. Somehow, the guards all appear very tall.... hhmm.. interesting..

Change of guards procession

We attended the 10am change of guards and spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the palace before joining the guided tour at 11. The group meets just outside the information centre after the 2nd gate. The lady we had was pretty good and we had a really large group but there was just so many different vicinities to the palace that I got a little distracted by the end.

With one of the animal deities

In one of the areas, there is a 2 tier terrace that surrounded by figures of 4 guardians - Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Blue Dragon and Vermilion Phoenix, which is then further surrounded by the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion

This pavilion had served many formal banquets for the king and his guests and was expanded in 1412 by King Taejong. The first level of the pavilion has no walls but instead has 48 stone coloumns. The pavilion is surrounded by almost like a moat thing, but it was more for the view rather than a army/war strategy (in my opinion anyway). Very pretty indeed.

Gangnyeongjeon?

Gangnyeongjon served as the king's living quarters and is named after the third of five blessings (longevity, wealth, health, love of virtu, peaceful death). The building has 2 sides and each room are divided into 9 areas. The king stays in the centre room, and the court ladies stays at night in the rooms surrounding the centre room.

The guided tour took up to about an hour and by now, as we only had coffee in the morning, we were famished from the walking and the freezing weather so we headed on to the famous Tosokchon!

Check out the queue!

Although an intimidating line to get in, we didn't take that long - possibly less than 30 minutes. And it is so so so worth the wait!

Prices were reasonable as well

Oh so good samgyetang

We had 2 bowls of the samgyetang and a seafood pancake. Tasted oh-so-good. Definitely a must try for anyone heading to Seoul. The soup was so flavoursome, so rich and the rice was just nice. It was just so so so good!!

Changdeokgung Palace

Headed to the Changdeokgung Palace after lunch and off to join another guided tour. There are English guided tours here at 1030 and 1430.

Changdeokgung is a named UNESCO Heritage Site in 1997. There was quite an extensive information from our tour guide but as usual, I got distracted by the architecture, the colours and taking way too many photographs, I didn't really get too much information.

Anyway, after the palace visit, we went on to explore Bukchon Village on our own. Went into a couple of little shops and oh, there's one a store that sells small wall decorations that are so cute and pretty! Perfect for someone looking for things to decorate a child's rooms with. Or a themed wedding/party/event.

Hello there!

Loving the little steps

In these alleys, there are several hanoks, whick can serve as guest houses. A little like ryokans in Japan I suppose. Maybe we should stay in one next time :)

We did go into a cultural centre in the area which did do some fabric paintings and runs little sessions for tourist or locals. There was a Korean family with 2 young children in the place who were doing a session while we were there. While we didn't do any of that, we spent some time taking pictures and sitting on the 'decks' of this house just to breath in the experience

Off to the famous Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant next!

Okay, let's get this straight. It was quite an adventure getting to the restaurant. There were too many alleys in the area plus wrong directions from the Korea Tourist Organization online - we so did not enjoy the process. Anyway, met a young fabulously kind couple - thank you so much! - who used their phones as GPS, asked around and then personally walking us all the way to the restaurant. Talk about good hospitality! Go Koreans!!

Pretty lights

I've read so much about Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant that I had such high expectations. However, we didn't enjoy the food as much as we were expecting to. Not sure if it was just too much greens or the spices. Overall, I think maybe it just wasn't our type of food.

But anyway , picture galore as usual :

Dining area

Sanchon serves a traditional temple food that uses all kind of vegetables from the yards, mountains and seas of Korea. There isn't a menu of choices of food available, but rather just a set menu. A lunch menu goes up to 33,000 won and dinner for 45,000 won. 

There's about 19 dishes that were served and a bottle of wine. I quite enjoyed the drink, but I doubt mum and A did - they kept making fun of me!! Hahaha

This would be the bit that we enjoyed most

There is also a traditional performance organized by the restaurant which starts at about 8 pm. I was expecting the restaurant to be quite packed and was therefore quite worried when the restaurant didn't confirm my reservations initially and reading how popular the place was. However, when we were there.. it was quite empty for a weekend.

But I quite liked this display at the shop. Made of folded papers. Quite cool isn't it?

After dinner, it was still too early to head home for the night, so off we went to .. yes! Myeong Dong again!!! Hahaha

Available at every train station

I suppose maybe I should be worried if I see this at every train station.. it's a box for emergency situations like bombs/war etc. But then again, if you live that close to North Korea and know that they have missiles or things aimed at Seoul, your government is only being safe by placing this. Well.. that's the good part. And I suppose the negative side of this is - well, we could be bombed at any time! Food for thought.

More street food at Myeong Dong

DMZ & Noryanjin Market

Having read lots and lots of it, and loving the historical bits of Berlin- finding the cold war interesting, visiting the DMZ was a must-do for me in this trip. As I didn't travel alone, I had to make sure I didn't make a trip that was too boring for the others. So, I decided to do a half day trip to the JSA/DMZ and made a booking with USO/Kooridor. I had initially thought of booking with Seoul City Tours, but they are a lot more expensive compared to Kooridor (₩ 96,000 each)  and lots of other travellers to the DMZ had recommended Kooridor. 

The trip departs from Yongsan, an US army site near Samgakji Station which is on Line 6. The USO is only about 5-10 mins walk from the station (from exit 10)

In the USO

Our group was a pretty big one, the bus was full! And do book early if you intend to go. Not only do you need at least 48-72 hours before departure day to make a reservation, they book up quite quickly! I tried to make our reservations about almost a week prior to intended date, and they have 3 trips a day - the other 2 was already full. They do need at least 48-72 hours prior to departure bookings as security checks need to be done. 

Visitor tag for the day

The trip starts off quite early at about 0730, with the first stop being at Dorasan Station - "Not the last station from the South, but the first towards the North". Simple but so hopeful for the future.

Dorasan Train Station

In 2000, North and South Korea made a joint declaration to connect the Gyeongul railroad line. Built in 2002, it is located in the civilian restoration line. It is not just a train station, but an aspiration for reunification of the Korean Peninsula.  It is about 56km from Seoul Station in South Korea, 17km from Gaesong Station and about 205km from Pyeongyong in North Korea. 

There has been several peace events including one in 2002 when President Bush visited the site.

The next stop was Camp Bonifas where our ID checks are done on the bus before entering the area for debriefing prior to entering the Panmunjeom Area, which is also known as the Joint Security Area (JSA). 

The officer that took us around the trip was pretty good and quite entertaining. Yes, there are quite a few rules regarding security around here and yes, you can feel the tension in the area. Despite appearing very peaceful, there's a slight fear that builds in you when you're here. Not only that, we could actually seen that we were being watched by the Northern side while we were there. 

Panmunjeom

This area is only small, measuring up to about 800 square metres and we were there as guests of the United States Army - hence the regulations etc. We are not to point any things, not to take pictures of certain areas. No pictures to the left or right of the above, and if there's any concerns, we have to show them the pictures we've taken and if they're not allowed, they would be confiscated/deleted. I didn't really mind it - standing there after several minutes has made me quite paranoid about things. 

The white building behind belongs to the North and the blue buildings are the offices that are divided between the North and South. Since the axe incident in 1976 in the area, the guards from the either side are not allowed to step over to the other side. "Sides" are defined by a row of 'bricks' lined at about the mid-ways in the building. No gates or wires, just this 2-3 inches tall of 'stones/bricks'. But no one dares cross it. 

From there then we have to get back on the bus and are taken around the area in the bus. We didn't have a particularly long time in an area so everything was in a bit of a rush due to some security issues.

There is also an memorial plaque for the axe murder incident victims which happened in 1976. It started with the trimming of a poplar tree that was obstructing certain views for the military. However, it turned into a confrontation that led to the death of several officers. 

The memorial plaque 

The rounded base is the diameter of the original poplar tree trunk

This bridge could only be viewed by us from the bus, and was no longer in use. Named Bridge of No Return as once you've crossed to the other side, in the 1950s, you could no longer come back to the other side. I believe that at that time, prisoners of war were allowed to choose which side they would like to be in and that choice is permanent. Hence, the No Return in the name.

Bridge of No Return

The whole trip was quite overwhelming for me. There was no incident or anything to suggest that we were in danger or threatened, but yet just knowing that every move we make would be watched, and towards the end when we were leaving the JSA, seeing the presence of additional Northern guards, although just watching from afar, sent shivers up my spine.

After that, we proceeded to the DMZ Tunnel which was the 3rd tunnel discovered that was made by North Korea with intentions of entering the South. The amount of work, thoughts and trying to hide the motive of digging the tunnel is amazing. They covered the tunnel with a coating of coal and stated that the tunnel was made as they were digging for coal when it was discovered. Hhmmm..... Anyway, a bit of a work out getting into and out of the tunnel. And definitely not for the claustrophobic. Before going on the trip, I did think that the tunnel was the most amazing thing - but really, it was just a tunnel. Nowhere comparable to the JSA/Panmunjeom. 

It was an amazing experience nevertheless and I would encourage anyone going to Seoul to make time for a half day trip. 

Lunch time! 

USO/Kooridor tours goes to a little restaurant in the area and you have  choice of a meal - either bulgogi or bibimbap. I vote for the bibimbap. 

And then it was back to Seoul and we just wanted something to sooth the tum tum before heading to the fish market.

Drinks menu @ Beans Bin

 (there's a drink called ade.. LOL)

The recommended strawberry waffle at Beans Cafe was the absolute delight! There's something about strawberries in Seoul - they're superrrrr sweet and yummy! We bought a box a day and finished it everytime! But only from the stall in MyeongDong, outside the station on the main street. Oh so amazing! The other brands just weren't as good.

Made our way to the famous Noryanjin Fish Market for some early dinner. 

Ticket machine

Quite easy to use and we did end up getting the Tmoney Card just because we were going on quite a few train rides during the day and of course, it was slightly cheaper than buying a ticket each time. 

First stop exchange - Seoul Station, to 

change lines to get to Noryanjin Station

Heaps of shellfish at the market

Massive crabs!!

It was quite a big market and there was plenty of seafood that I haven't seen before but communication was a problem.. They do speak some Mandarin which was great for us but still a little difficult with most of the vendors. Certain things look so interesting - but because we didn't know what it was, we didn't get them.

I was hoping for a market like the Sydney Fish Market, but this was quite different and honestly, I prefer the Sydney FM anytime. 

So off we went to the Hwangje Restaurant located on the 1st floor of the fish market building (was recommended by trip advisor). It was jam-packed but they made exceptions for us tourist - which made us a little dubious of what's going on.  Maybe we were going to be charged a bomb? Till today, who knows what the normal charges are, and what we were charged. 

We had an abalone, some prawns and seasnail/scallop thing. Taste was just so-so, nothing exceptional. But then again, we didn't get the recommended steamed crabs and fried rice with crab roe. But the butter grilled abalone - also just alright. The only thing was that our clothes smelled so bad after the dinner that we had to air dry it at night. 

Check out all the buses!! 

@ Noryanjin Station

Massive UNIQLO x2 in MyeongDong

Somehow, we always end up at MyeongDong every night. Whether it's for more facial supplies shopping, or Beans Bin cafe or Starbucks.. we always end up here. And I love it!!

*MUST STAY IN MYEONG DONG NEXT TIME!!*

Fried potato chips

Favourite hang out spot