Korea Holiday 2013 - Day Twelve

After brekkie The Boy and I headed for Deoksugung which was almost the only palace open today. It was raining but not too heavily so we stuck with one small umbrella. Off to a great start as we alighted at the wrong station - my fault. Short walk around the area and I realised what had happened. Actually walked in the same area yesterday so I knew where we had to go.

Sweet potato yogurt - are you out of your mind?

Sungnyemun (South Gate) was open so we had a look. Carried on down to the palace in time to catch the last of the changing of the guards. Lucky. This palace is pretty basic and not so grand. There was an anti-nukes protest outside the gates so lots of police were in the vicinity.

Got to go and have a closer inspection of Sungnyemun

Changing of the guard

Love the period costumes

Very colourful display

The drum is quite well looked after

Bit difficult to capture them all in one shot

Time to go

Spot the tourist

Panorama of Deoksugung grounds

Fairly basic structures

The Boy showed a bit of interest

Love the eaves

I do. And the creatures on the roof are interesting too.

Gate before entering the main hall

Inside the main hall

I think one of the kings was born in this building

State-of-the-art, at the time

Now there is some wall-top decoration for you

Walked to Gwanghwamun for Yi Sun-shin's statue, past a monument for the 40th anniversary of Gojong's enthronement, Bosingak Belfry and Tapgol Park before having lunch at a Hong Kong restaurant - tangsuyuk (pork) and gun-mandoo. They gave us a seafood kimchi soup, perhaps because it had one piece of pork in it, for free. That food is much better in Perth but the fried noodles were great.

School kids about to do a video dancing to Gangnam Style - they stank

Admiral Yi Sun-Shin

The 40th Anniversary Monument of Gojong's Enthronement (1902)

Bosingak Belfry (from 1396)

Inside Tapgol Park

Tapgol Park's pagoda

Tangsuyuk and gun-mandoo

Couple of hours to kill so walked back to National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. I think it had only opened in the previous December. Some protest going on over the road and plenty of police buses and riot shields were nearby. Quite an interesting museum as the upheavals in Korea in the last 150 years that the people have had to deal with are nothing short of amazing. Didn't quite have time to see everything as we had to meet at the Myeongdong NANTA Theatre at 4:30 to collect the tickets. Beat the missus there by about one minute.

Riot shields

Taegeukgi - Korean National Flag

Lots of war memorabilia on display

Replica presidential office

The office overlooks another palace

Falun Gong protesting organ harvesting in China

Grabbed some Pocky and Pringles from 7 Eleven. Gave the guy W5,000, I'm sure, and he gave me change for W50,000. I tried to take only W500 change but he insisted that I take the full W44,500. Not sure what happened there.

NANTA Theatre show started at 5pm. Fabulous. Hugely entertaining. Worth every won of our discounted tickets. Very funny and entertaining.

NANTA Theatre in the Unesco Building in Myeongdong

A couple of the, ahem, stars of the show

After the show we walked along Cheonggyecheon which was very nice. It's a cleaned up stream with digital waterfalls, crossing stones, lights, etc. Used to be an eyesore neighbourhood but they've done a bang-up job improving it and making it a feature for locals and tourists alike to enjoy.

Crossing stones

It's like a park

Almost takes you away from the big city

Complete with waterfall

In the Gangnam backstreets

Did some shopping at Kyobo Bookstore, underground at Gwanghwamun, before heading home. Had a wonderful Japanese diner at Saboten (next to Burger Hunter). Only W3,500 - fantastic value. Back to the apartment to make plans for tomorrow. Then a late night walk around Gangnam - so many hairdressers and bars open.

Meal at Saboten - Japanese restaurant

Katsu

Can't go past a prawn tempura

Korea Holiday 2013 - Day Eleven

Up reasonably early for breakfast. Quite a few whiteys but they all spoke Russian. Not much planned for today, many attractions are closed on a Monday, so we walked around some of Gangnam to look at the clothing shops (not open at this time either) and bumped into some tourist info people. They said to take the subway rather than the bus to Myeongdong. Bit of a trek but quite manageable.

Wandered around Myeongdong, had a very nice kalgooksoo lunch (W8,000) and bought lots of little items at the markets. The missus had to go shopping without us or they tried to charge more.

Visited COEX at Samseong station and found it a bit disappointing. Lotte Duty Free shopping wasn't great, nothing much at Megabox (cinema) to see, except for a couple of Korean movies that wouldn't have had subtitles, and not much else interested us.

After Myeongdong we went through Namdaemun markets where when buying a doggie coat the woman tried to charge us too much until I decided to walk away and then she grabbed my missus and dropped the price immediately. The missus was a little taken aback by the manner in which she was treated.

Doggie clothing articles in Namdaemun markets

Reasonably busy

Walked to Sungnyemun (South Gate) and took some photos. It was actually closed but there was still a news crew set up for some reason. Bit more market shopping then back to the apartment for a rest.

Sungnyemun - National Treasure No. 1

Serious seflie

Notice the skill at capturing the moment with no traffic in site

Beautiful work

TV Crew seemingly in residence

Panorama of Sungnyemun

Back in the markets

외국인 - wegookin (foreigner)

That evening we went to Burger Hunter for a wonderful meal of burgers - Burger Hunter, Burger Hunter Cheese and an Angry Burger. Have to be close to the best burgers I've ever tasted.

Angry Burger - hot and tasty

Needed a walk after dinner and the missus decided to purchase some new prescription glasses. The guy tried to charger her W50,000 when they were only W30,000 in Busan. She got him down to W30k but was furious with his attitude. Took her a long time to cool off and he took an hour to finish the work. Bought lots of house decorative items from Daiso.

Gangnam at night - that's when it is busy

Pass (on) the pigs

Just before going to bed the missus remembered that I needed to book the NANTA Theatre. Went online for the booking and found only seven tickets left upstairs for the performance for tomorrow night. For some reason it wouldn't let me book using the 20% discount for "16th anniversary" special for Tuesdays. So I booked the youth tickets as they were the same price.

Korea Holiday 2013 - Day Ten

I ventured to Jalgalchi Fish Market by myself this morning. Anything and everything you could imagine was available. Heaps of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Nobody appeared bothered by me taking photos, one guy, not a stall holder, even waved to me. An amazing array of creatures available - not sure about the ones that looked like penises though.

Molluscs overflow

Beautiful seafood

Neatly presented

Rays for sale - the stall holder got up early this morning by the looks of it

No sure about these penis-shaped creatures

Stare down with an octopus

Yummy baby octopi

You can keep your sea urchins

Even normal looking fish for sale

Eclectic collection

Wouldn't have minded taking this bowl of goodies

Not enough to spike my appetite

Returned to the hotel by 10am so that we could go out for breakfast and it had already begun to rain. Found a cheap, local restaurant that sold dried radish leaf soup for W3,500. The Korean miso soup was only W5,000. Very nice kimchi side dishes. Rain was fairly heavy at this time - good day to be travelling.

Checked out when MJ arrived. The additional charge for our upgraded room was to be handled by booking.com. MJ took us to a Chinese restaurant for tang soo yook, jjapagetti and mandoo. Only the mandoo was better than we have in Perth at the Chinese Dumpling King (now Chao). Was good eating though. Then went to Cafe Pascucci for drinks before going back to collect our bags from the hotel.

One taxi driver refused to take us to Busan Station as the fare wasn't enough for him - his customers were big-spending Japanese. He ordered another driver to take us. This guy drove like a madman - it turns out that he had a pre-arranged appointment to take people to the airport and took us first. No wonder.

Radish leaf soup - apparently good for a hangover

Not worried about viewing the landscape with his head buried in a book

One of the few half decent landscapes shot from the train

Welcome to Seoul

MJ had ordered the KTX tickets to Seoul on the Internet therefore didn't have a printout so I took photos of the ticket details. As it was Sunday at the end of the Busan Film Festival the train was quite booked. We had to sit in different carriages. No-one spoke to me or checked my ticket for the entire journey. Managed to read quite a bit of my book.

Once we had arrived in Seoul, a couple of minutes late, we grabbed a quite bit. The it was fun of the subway with our big luggage. Bit of a struggle.

Arrived in Gangnam and searched for our apartment. Very frustrating. Asked a taxi driver who was passing by and he was very helpful but didn't know. Asked a shopkeeper who said that it was nearby but didn't know where. The missus finally located it. No prob to check-in - just copied my passport. Nice apartment but had to ring reception for operating instructions for the gas, Internet, hot water, etc. Had a walk later and bought something to eat.