Our third day in Korea was spent touring Seoul. Again, just like our Tokyo city tour last year my family opted not to join a huge tour group, so it was just us and our tour guide Henry.
We stayed at the less-than-a-year-old Loisir Hotel in Myeongdong, and the location is absolutely perfect! We were literally just steps away from all the shopping and dining in the area (there was a Greenhills-style tiangge place right at the ground floor and a huge Uniqlo store across our hotel), so we did spend some time each night to explore. If you're planning a trip to Seoul soon, I highly recommend that you get a hotel in Myeongdong.
Moving on, our first stop for the day was the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest and grandest of the Five Grand Palaces.
The Gyeonghoeru Pavilion was used to hold special banquets and entertain visitors from neighboring countries during the Joseon Dynasty. It's not difficult to see why banquets were held here--guests have an unobstructed view of the mountains right behind it, as well as the city in front of it.
While we were there, we also got to witness the first changing of the guards ceremony for the day. You can can catch this at intervals throughout the day.
The ceremony lasted for about 20 minutes, and it was quite fun to watch. Of course back then this ceremony had a real purpose since they actually had an emperor to defend, but now it's really just a "show" they put on for the tourists.
These jars were used to store fermented soybean paste and kimchi, which are staples in Korean cuisine. During the Joseon dynasty, they actually employed women to just make kimchi and soybean paste for the royal family and other palace residents.
The National Folk Museum of Korea is located right within the palace premises. The museum houses an interesting collection of artifacts collected through the years (including actual small Korean flags that were used by fans when Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988) and also features an interesting exhibit depicting the evolution of the South Korean people's lifestyles.
Right behind the palace grounds is the Blue House, the official residence and executive office of the South Korean president. As expected, the area is heavily guarded, though visitors can take photos from a safe distance.
Our next stop was a cultural center to experience firsthand an important aspect of Korean culture: kimchi-making!
For those who might not be aware, kimchi is a fermented side dish made of vegetables (usually cabbage) and different kinds of seasonings. It is considered as Korea's national dish, and is present in almost every meal (we were served kimchi in all the Korean restaurants we went to). I personally LOVE kimchi--luckily, I can easily buy bottles of it in almost any supermarket here in the Philippines.
Sampling some kimchi. The ones we tried were a lot spicier than what I'm used to, though.
Before leaving, we also got to pose for a photo while wearing traditional Hanbok (yes, we're typical tourists, I know).
Before moving to the next part of our tour, Henry brought us to a nearby Chinese-run restaurant that serves a mixture of Korean, Chinese and Japanese food. The place was packed with Chinese tour groups when we were there.
Bibimpap: a Korean dish which is a bowl of white rice topped with sauteed and seasoned vegetables, beef, egg and chili pepper paste. We also had some shabu-shabu to go along with this (but I wasn't able to take a photo).
Our next two destinations were actually "shopping tours" that are somewhat expected when you arrange your tours through a travel agency.
I wasn't able to take much photos since photography wasn't allowed. Here, an employee gave us a brief introduction about Korean ginseng and its many health benefits before we were ushered into a room where they presented to us all sorts of ginseng products that were all for sale. The employee who toured us around was a Filipino, which made it easier for them to sales talk us into buying all sorts of products (which weren't exactly cheap--Korean ginseng is ridiculously expensive!). They also had a Chinese employee who did the same thing to a large group of Chinese tourists who arrived at the same time that we did.
We were given "shopping cards" for our next stop, where we were offered all sorts of Korean cosmetics. The cosmetics industry is HUGE in Korea, and Koreans seem to be very obsessed with their physical appearance (more so than the Japanese, it seems). I did notice a lot of ads selling cosmetics and even plastic surgery in Seoul. In Myeongdong there were so many cosmetics stores (like Etude House and Skin Food) within a small radius!
The cosmetics store that Henry brought us to had a similar tactic as the ginseng store. Chinese employees were assigned to handle Chinese tourists, though in our case the store didn't have a Filipino employee so it was a Malaysian (errr...close enough, I guess?) employee who explained and demonstrated the products to us instead.
Just like in many places that we visited in Korea, this store was packed with Chinese tourists. They are everywhere! Just like in many other countries, Chinese tourists also have a bad reputation in Korea as they are commonly described as noisy, unruly or undisciplined by the locals. I'm pretty sure not all Chinese tourists are like this, but those who are easily overshadow those who aren't. But hey, they do have money (and lots of it!) to spend--I noticed that a lot of the Chinese tourists each had baskets full of beauty products to take back home.
Our final stop for the day was the N Seoul Tower, which is also known as the Seoul Tower or the Namsan Tower since it is located on top of the Namsan Mountain in central Seoul. From here we were able to admire Seoul from a different perspective. The city looked so beautiful all lit up at night!
Here's a photo I took of the Myeongdong District. From the tower I also saw how congested Seoul's streets tend to be! It took us about an hour (or perhaps more) to reach the N Seoul Tower from the cosmetics shop because of the traffic--and it was a Saturday, too!
The final installment of our Korea adventure is coming up next!
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