Surfing the Korean Wave: Days 1 & 2 - being a 서울 man

Getting my bearings in the Bukchon Hanok Village area

We're back...minus one. After five weeks on R&R the wife and I have returned "home" to an emptier abode. If you've read the previous post, you will recall that we had spent about three weeks in the U.S., spending time at my sister's and dropping off our daughter at college. Mission sadly accomplished, Shu-E and I then delayed the onset of empty nest syndrome by spending nearly all of the past fortnight visiting South Korea. Below is the photo we sent to Amber just prior to take off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on a Korean Air plane:

After nearly a twelve-hour flight, we finally landed at Incheon International Airport and made our way via train and subway into Seoul. It was evening when we finally checked into the Orakai Insadong Suites, following which we ventured out into the immediate neighborhood in search of something to eat:

What we eventually brought back to the room to consume:

It didn't take long switching channels to find some K-Pop on TV:

Our room. At the time of check-in we were upgraded to a suite, which was larger than some apartments I've rented. The room included a large kitchen and a washer/dryer. The presence of the latter eliminated any need to search for a laundromat later on in our journey (though we did make use of the laundry facilities at the hotel where we stayed in Busan):

The next morning (our first) we ventured out into the capital. This was my second time in Seoul, with the first coming more than a quarter-century ago. At that time I was living and working in Tōkyō 東京, and made the trip during the Golden Week vacation period, staying in the tourist black hole of Myeong-dong. It was a short jaunt across the Sea of Japan (oops, sorry, I mean the "East Sea"). With the exception of a day trip to the Korean Folk Village in nearby Suwon, I never left the bustling capital city, an oversight which I intended to rectify this time. For my wife this would be her first visit to the ROK:

Our first destination that morning was Bukchon, an area home to around 900 hanok, traditional Korean homes. Once there we dropped in at the Bukchon Traditional Culture Center, which itself was housed in a hanok:

After getting some background information at the center, we then spent the rest of the morning wandering around the village. Though I'd recently read the area has become a tourist magnet in recent years, this particular Wednesday morning was relatively quiet (still busy but not overrun with hordes of foreign travelers). An indication, however, of the village's popularity was the many signs asking visitors to keep their voices down:

Posing for photos outside the Simsimheon, a modern reconstruction erected using traditional methods on the site of two older hanok. Alas, it didn't appear to be open that morning (either that, or I needed to have made reservations in advance), but we would get to experience some semblance of hanok life later on during our trip:

Looking toward the N Seoul Tower, which I visited back in 1999:

After leaving the village it was time to find something to eat. Our first lunch in country ironically was a Korean take on that Japanese comfort favorite, donburi:

A common sight everywhere we went in South Korea (an indication of the well-trodden tourist path we were traveling on) was the shops renting out hanbok, traditional Korean clothing:

Seoul is home to four royal palaces, the most famous being the largest, Gyeongbokgung. I had visited this palace during that long-ago Golden Week holiday, at a time when the National Palace Museum of Korea was still housed in the former Government-General Building dating from when Korea was under Japanese rule (the building was subsequently demolished and replaced with a modern structure; by contrast, the former Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan currently serves as the Presidential Office Building, an example of the different historical attitudes relating to Japanese colonialism in South Korea and Taiwan). For this trip, however, we decided to instead check out the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Changdeokgung, arguably the most beautiful of the four palaces (at least according to my guidebook):

The highlight of this palace is the Secret Garden (Huwon), which can be seen only on a timed entry or with a guided tour. We opted for the former as there was a shorter wait:

Having a look around the rest of the palace grounds following the Huwon:

One of the later additions to the palace shows Western influences. Even though the Joseon Dynasty (Korea's last) was abolished in 1910 parts of the palace still served as a royal residence up until the end of the 1980's:

The main hall sits in a large plaza modeled after Beijing's Forbidden City, but the building is clearly Korean in design:

Markers indicated where officials lined up according by rank:

The interior of the main hall. Changdeokgung served as the main royal palace until the Gyeongbukgung was rebuilt in 1868:

Bridge ornamentation:

The day turned out to be a warm one. It was also the first of several days involving a lot of walking, which would take its toll on Shu-E's legs and feet. Somehow, despite all those thousands of steps, I still managed to return to Beijing 3.9 kilograms/8.6 pounds heavier:

After resting a bit back at the hotel, that evening we went out to what my guidebook described as Seoul's largest traditional market, Namdaemun. Which turned out to be hard to believe - at least the section we visited (using the suggested subway station and exit mentioned in the guide) was very quiet, devoid of any crowds, and hardly the bustling marketplace we were expecting. We still ended up having dinner there:

The atmosphere was much livelier back in Insadong, on the approach leading to our hotel:

We would explore a much more vibrant market the following day, so stay tuned for that report coming soon. In the meantime, enjoy some K-Pop: