9 September 2011
Gyeonbok Palace
Gyeonbok Palace is a giant compound very near central Seoul. Once you are inside the grounds its hard to believe you are in the middle of the city, there is a mountain backdrop which has no buildings on it, the gardens are huge and the walls are high and numerous.
This is the biggest palace in Seoul, and it has been rebuilt countless times because Japan keeps destroying it. I think it was last rebuilt some time last week.
There are a few remaining stones from the version around 1400 from what I could work out.
Interestingly, since Japan keeps destroying it, the place was full of Japanese tour groups, complete with loud speaker guides, matching hats, whistles, flags etc.
In addition to the palace there is also a palace museum, which explains all the ways its been destroyed (fire, flood, meteorite, spontaneous disintegration, slug infestation), and the Korean Folk Museum, which had a disappointing lack of swords. The Folk museum did however have a visiting Indian exhibition of all the various gods. I rank Kali the best, followed by Vishnu.
The palace, there will me numerous palace pics, get your scroll wheel / pinch to scroll feature on your whatever pad at the ready!
The gate is guarded by the guy out of Big Trouble in Little China, I really like the hats.
More Palace, no individual building seems more impressive than the others, theres a lot of very similar structures.
Inside one of the buildings, seems pretty drafty.
Random courtyard, the gravel made way for lawns as you got further into the compound.
This is my part of the palace, I have taken over and anyone entering will face severe consequences.
Some sort of satanic circle of rodent warriors.
Inside the Korean folk museums section on Indian folk gods.
A Lake area.
Building built in a lake.
Would you eat Vietnamese food in Korea? What if you were on the roof of the Lotte store and everywhere else seemed to have a dress code? Then of course you would.
Admittedly, I have Pho for lunch in Sydney often, but this is what sets Korea apart from Japan, when they have food from other countries here, be it Vietnamese, Thai, American, Chinese, Indian, it is actually quite authentic. I am sure if there was a Pho place in tokyo, the broth would be Miso.
At the 711, I was highly amused by this gift wrapped box of spam. Now my lunch at Din Tai Fung cost about $15 yesterday, including 2 drinks. This box of cans of spam costs $50.
My snack today, the excellent Japanese iced coffee mocha from Doutor, its not like iced coffee in Australia, its actual real espresso. Also some kind of 'soft chocolate', I havent tried one yet so dont know what that means, possibly like melty kiss.