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.
Before I headed off to Dongdaemun, I found myself at Seoul station.
Tomorrow is the start of the 5 day harvest moon holiday called Chuseok, so people were already fleeing in droves, its traditional to return to your ancestral village for the holiday. Wherever I go I seem to be there when its the big holiday season, I was in Japan for all of golden week.
I hear nothing shuts though, and public buildings like museums are all open longer than normal.
As you can see below, the tv news networks have set up for live crosses to the train station to see people leaving for their holiday.
Dongdaemun is the new shopping mecca for teenage culture in Seoul. The name is as close to DONG DEMON as you will ever get, so I was on alert, because I think I have seen that japanese cartoon.
Theres 2 distinct areas, the traditional wholesale shopping areas, and the new fashion malls. Mainly this is an excuse to set up stages out the front and let people put on their 5 minute talent shows, as you will see below.
Oh yeah, I had some Korean food...
Korea and Japan have a lot in common, including cat cafes. I havent been (yet), because I will feel stupid being the only single person, and the only person older than 20 in the place. I will save that for a special occasion.
I decided to try a coffee chain that might be Korean, or maybe its American? Angel-in-us. Whatever it is, it was absolutely terrible, so my rule still stands, when in asia, starbucks makes the best coffee, when in Australia, they make the worst!
The interesting thing though is they give you this buzzer thing whilst they take 10 minutes to make your cup of tepid brown water, which is actually a video player showing ads for nearby stores. I had never seen that before.
Looking down on the bullet trains at Seoul station.
As I walked past, these people started bowing at me for no reason other than how awesome I am.
As mentioned above, these are the tv news stations setting up to show people leaving for their ancestral villages with moon cakes and spam.
Heres the scene at dongdaemun, the newer buildings are very new, most are not completely open yet.
This ride was pretty violent, it doesnt just spin it shakes up and down and throws people out of their seats, and then spins some more before they can sit back down.
Each store has an impressive and very loud stage setup. Some had an American idol thing going, others had a line up of people who got 30 seconds to dance to whatever song the dj chose, and then some had groups of girls with routines. I decided to photograph only the girls, to throw everyone off the gay trail.
They werent very good dancers, in Sydney you can see lots of groups practicing out the front of big buildings at night, using the windows as a mirror.
Heres where I had my dinner, it was a traditional, cheap looking place with no English.
I had to take the lady out the front and point to a picture on a sign, its Mandoo dumplings with various vegetables. I am not sure whats in the dumplings exactly, I would like to thing its dog, but they were nice. I got fried ones even though I showed her steamed ones. The noodles were cold, but I expected them to be. A huge meal for $4.