Seoul

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29^th November - 3^rd December 2012

Sitting here writing this several days after leaving Seoul in the warmth of my parents house, I am glad we are not in Seoul at the moment. The temps, according to the Telegraph, are highs of about -8C and lows 10C less than that. We thought it was cold enough when we were there with temps around freezing. But at least it was sunny and the humidity very low. We knew it was cold when the iced over puddles didn't even melt after a day in the sun! There was no frost or icy, slippery pavements, but no snow either (which there now is!)

Getting into Seoul was easy enough but getting to the guest house was harder, we must have picked the only taxi driver in the city that couldn’t follow the directions, in Korean, from the guest house or use hisGPS. He had to call the GH twice to ask where he was going! Admittedly it was tucked down a side street, but when the directions include references to the biggest palace in the city and the Polish Embassy, you'd think he'd have some idea! And of course his boot was also filled with other stuff and couldn’t fit our bags in. I know we are travelling with more gear than usual, but it was a little ridiculous.

The guest house wasn't quite what we expected, but then neither was the hanok (traditional) village it was on the edge of. Sure it was an old style building, but 1970's monstrosities had been built butting right up to it. Our room was meant to be a triple, but anywhere else it wouldn't have passed as a single! We could fit the two mattresses (thin) on the ground and our bags next to them, but that was all the floor space we had. The underfloor heating was fine when sitting down, but it didn't quite heat the air nearer the top of the room. (Another reason to be glad we are not there now, it would have been freezing in that room, and moving across the courtyard to the bathroom!) Still, we'd chosen to stay in a more traditional place rather than a hostel, motel or hotel, and it was a nice place really. It was also the only place to charge us for Samara.

We went back out again that afternoon for a walk round the hanok village (Bukchon area). As I said earlier, it wasn't as we'd expected. We thought it would be more like the area we stayed near in Jeonju, but although there are meant to be about 900 traditional style houses/buildings, they are so interspersed with modern rubbish that the effect is lost. Admittedly we only followed the self guided tour, but we seemed to walk in and out of pockets of old buildings. We also needed far more time to really explore the area and wander down some of the alley ways and roads not part of the guided walk. (We can say the same for almost everywhere we visited – (if only we had more time”!) It was while walking round the hanok village that we discovered another of Koreas sweet street foods. They were little ground rice pancake type things filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and sometimes chopped nuts, and were called 'hoddeok'. These are nicer than the sweet fried and steamed treats we've found elsewhere.

Two of the main palaces were within an easy walk of our guest house, one was only a few minutes away and the other was the other side of the hanok village. It was the latter we visited first, on that first afternoon after walking round the old houses. Changdeokgung was originally built as a secondary palace to Gyeongbokgung, but served as the residence for many kings and became the main palace after the Japanese invasion (1592-1598). All of Seoul's palaces were destroyed and while Gyeongbokgung was left in ruins, Changdeokgung was rebuilt in 1610 and served as the main palace for about 270 years when Gyeongbokgung was rebuilt. Changdeokgung is the only one of Seouls palaces to be on the UNESCO World Heritage list, apparently because of the way that its buildings are integrated and harmonised with its natural setting rather than being arranged along a main axis.

We got a lovely little guide book (which we didn't read at the time as it was far too cold to stand in front of each building with our hands out our pockets!) that gives a brief background to the establishment of Changdeokgung. “Why did King Taejong, the third Joseon monarch, establish an additional royal palace when Gyeongbokgung had already been built? Taejong explained that the second palace was needed because the topography of Gyeongbokgung was not auspicious enough, according to the principles of geomancy. It is likely, however, that the king had ulterior motives. Taejong seized the throne after having assassinated his half brothers and Jeong Do-jeon, the powerful Merit Subject. Afterwards, he was very reluctant to live in Gyeongbokgung, the scene of the bloodbath.”

Despite, or because of, this harmonious layout, the palace was easy to wander round. We entered through the main gate and wandered round throne rooms, ladies chambers and all the rooms expected in a royal palace. I thought it was the coldest we'd been since arriving, but Colin thought Seoraksan was colder. It was also one of the busiest places we had been so far, with tour groups and smaller groups of tourists. To us, the architecture was similar all through the palace, apart from one group of buildings off to one side. Here it was more natural in some way, less painting and more plain wood.

The next day we took a tour out to the DMZ (demilitarised zone). It is the only way to see the “sights”. With kids under 11, we couldn’t include the JSA – Joint Security Area or Panmunjeom. We were picked up from the guest house at the early hour of 7.25am and driven round Seoul collecting a few more people in the minibus before being transferred to a full size bus. There was some confusion here as the tour guide wanted to charge for both girls but when we booked we were told that they would be free as they are so young. The tour guide wanted to charge 50% for Samara and graciously told us he wouldn't charge us for Katrina. After some discussion and a call to their booking office, he decided that both girls were free.

The first stop was at a giant bus park where apparently the guide had to register all the passport numbers of those on the tour, and we had 15 minutes to get out and walk round. We discovered that this was the only place we could stop and see the Freedom Bridge across the river between North and South Korea. Many on the bus missed this as we weren't told about it. It was named after the 12,773 prisoners of war that crossed to freedom from North Korea in 1953. (The whole tour was very pro-South obviously.)

Next was one of the tunnels dug by the North Koreans under the DMZ. The third tunnel was discovered in 1978 and is 1635m long. It got to within 52km from downtown Seoul. Supposedly 30,000 heavily armed troops per hour can move through it. We entered it down a recently added concrete tunnel then donned hard hats to walk a couple of hundred metres of it. Interesting, but not real exciting as its only a tunnel! You cant see “the other side”, or even the neutral middle. I guess its about what it means rather than what it is.

From there we went to the Dora Observatory. This is South Koreas northern-most observatory for checking out what those in the North are up to. You are only allowed to take photos from behind a yellow line some way back from the edge, but you can get right up to the edge and peer northwards through binoculars. You can gaze out across the DMZ to North Korean villages, the JSA and one South Korean village within the DMZ. Of course, the N Korean village in the DMZ is called Propaganda Village by the south, and the S Korean village is called Freedom Village.

The last stop was at a railway station. Slightly less exciting than a tunnel, this railway station is basically just South Korean propaganda. It was built to further their dream of being able to travel by rail from Seoul (or further south) all the way to London (and beyond within each country it travels through). The line is there but obviously politics etc dictates that no one can travel along it just yet. The station has signs up stating which platforms for Seoul and which for Pyeongyang, the xray equipment is there for crossing an international border, the ticket office is even open, not that you can buy tickets yet.

I lied, there was one extra last stop, but as both girls were asleep, we didn't actually get off the bus. It was at a ginseng showroom/shop where we would have been given the opportunity to buy genuine Korean ginseng rather than the imported ginseng sold in markets as Korean. From the comments of others getting back on the bus, we didn't miss a lot, and no one bought any.

We were dropped off in the centre of Seoul, by City Hall, just after lunch, and so took the opportunity to walk down to Namdaemum Market. It is a mix of street stalls, shops and indoor stalls (many stalls all selling related items in big warehouses). It was originally established in 1414 during the Joseon dynasty. We walked round looking at everything from clothes (different areas for men, ladies and children), home wares (again different areas for fabrics, pots, pans etc) and food. For somewhere listed as one of the top tourist places to visit, it was really ordinary, but ordinary in a nice way. Sure there were some stalls selling souvenir type items, but it was mainly a place where ordinary people shopped for ordinary things. We got ourselves more of those yummy sugar and cinnamon filled pancakes and spent a pleasant hour or so wandering around in the crush.

We also visited the main palace of Gyeongbokgung. It is the most popular tourist site in the city and was very busy when we were there. It was a glorious day, clear and sunny, but freezing! Puddles didn't even melt after a day in the sun! It was lovely just strolling around Gyeongbokgung, seeing what was around each corner. We tended to stay in patches of sunlight as much as we could! The palace was begun in 1392 when the Joseon dynasty transferred their capital. The palace complex has seen repeated destruction, fires, a royal assassination, but has been carefully reconstructed to retain that atmosphere of old. Looking one way you can see the skyscrapers and buildings of modern Seoul, and the other way the craggy peaks of Bugaksan.

We arrived and left with the changing of the guard, a colourful and noisy ceremony worth braving the crowds for. Once you are away from the main parts of the complex, the crowds thin right out and we could wander in peace. And it is a peaceful place, the din of traffic fades right away. I can only imagine it isn't so much like this in summer when there are more tourists.

Right at the back of the complex are some buildings not built until 1888 during the reign of King Gojong. These were designed in the Chinese style that was fashionable at the time, and held his collection of art and books.

Within the palace complex is the National Folk Museum, an interesting collection of objects and dioramas of life in the past. Frustratingly, the only change table was in the ladies toilets, and as I had Katrina strapped to my front fast asleep, it made it hard changing Samara (completely irrelevant for most of you!)

Our last day in Seoul was quite relaxing, though we walked miles. We started by wandering the shops and stalls of Insadonggil. It is closed to traffic so makes a nice, easy walk with kids. We'd read that on Sundays there are street performers (dance and music), but perhaps we were too early or it was too cold. We then aimed our feet towards the other big market in town, Dongdaemun. This is meant to be bigger than Namdaemun, but as it seemed to be shut, we couldn’t tell. Each section has its own opening and closing times, but some part was meant to be open at any time. OK, so a few food stalls were opening and serving lunch, but everything else we went past was very much shut. Again, its a mix of shops, stalls and market warehouses selling everything you could possibly want and more. It covers many city blocks.

And that was Seoul for us. As we keep saying, we needed more time. There were more museums we wanted to visit, N Seoul tower to go up, places like Suwon to visit on day trips. Two weeks was never going to be enough time, kids or not, to see all we wanted. But we feel that we got a reasonable introduction to the country, even with its slant towards the older cultures.

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Photos

Gyeongbokgung palace
Changing the guards

Changdeokgung Palace
Looking towards the throne room

Changdeokgung Palace
Inside the throne room

Changdeokgung Palace
We loved this gutter!

Dora Observatory
North Korea is out in the haze somewhere