August 12, 2010
10:29 PM
Korea Day 3, Thurs Aug 12 2010
Out on a trip! The tour group contained a total of 11 people, a whole lot more than I expected. First stop was the Jogyesa Buddhist temple. Pretty standard for a Buddhist temple. The architecture was that of traditional Korean.. kept simple. None of the wood was carved. Rather, it was painted on directly. The end result was a largely intricate look from afar, but doesn't look as good close-up. I wouldn't consider their work as slipshort, but instead, maybe the Koreans are a practical bunch?
Next stop was the Gyeongbok palace, one of the five palaces around Seoul. The tour guide says it's the most important palace of the five. The place was big alright. One of the more interesting notes.. a building has a number of gargoyles placed on the roof, the number of them corresponding to the importance of the building. The more important it was, the more gargoyles there were. The king's lodgings had 6 or 7. The party hall had 10. Hmm...
Next up was the National Folklore Museum. Just learning history. Seems like Korea was pretty high class, even in the olden days. Afterward was the Ginseng Center. No one bought anything, seeing as the price of a box of three bottles cost US$238. One of the promoters looked like Mark Lee. I swear, except for a bit of minor difference, he was the splitting image. Even the actions and mannerisms. Oh well, at least it wasn't a wasted stop.
Lunch was at a Korean restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not really 'nowhere', but you get the idea. Lunch was beef, Korean style. They cook it in front of you using the bunsen burner.. and tada its ready! Even though it was a 'nowhere' restaurant, the beef was delicious. Tasted closest to the type of beef Yoshinoya serves in it's beef bowls.
After lunch, the tour group split into three. Although the morning itinerary was the same, we took varying packages so everyone was heading somewhere else after lunch. I left my tour guide Wendy and joined another group. This group had roughly the same number of people too.
The afternoon tour kicked off with... another palace! They look exactly the same -.- . The concept was essentially the same, but at least this one had a few extra, such as the palace's "secret garden" which we didn't get to enter, as well as the king and queen's chamber which amused me somewhat. Wait for the pics.
Following the palace stop was the amethyst factory. Price were high as expected, so its needless to say that a purchase was out of the question. The factory was just opposite the Insadong market, the next stop on the itinerary, so off we went!
This is a long stretch of shops, mostly selling traditional goods such as masks, fans and mini statues. Great for souvenirs. I didn't buy any of those though.. I don't seem to have an interest for Korean culture and history. What I did get was a pair of stone-carved white owls. To keep me company though the nights :) .
One really interesting building for me was the 'Ssamziegil' building. Practically an artist/designer heaven. Most of the shops sold unique accessories and clothing. A group of two artists was doing on-the-spot caricatures. They had quite an audience going. The way they're able to spontaneously draw out something and have it look good still amazes me. I pity one of them though. He had a request from a group of 5. The other girl artist was laughing at him.
Another of the shops inside was selling miniatures. Mini-cafe? Mini-food? Mini-3D-scene-in-a-picture-frame? They've got it all. The quality of the craftwork was simply amazing. I would have gotten one of the larger pieces if not for the price.. around the S$200 range for one. The price is more than reasonable for the effort and quality. Too bad its out of my budget.
What I did get, was a hand painted t-shirt. Even got to customize the words on it. For 25,000 won (S$30), I was more than happy to get it. Check out their website if you will:
http://www.bongs.kr/ .
The last stop was Namdaemun market. Essentially a huge market for food. All kinds, every kind. Not really a place for shopping, but used a lot by the locals to restock their fridges. Walked around for a bit, and that was the end of the tour. The tour guide was really great. Unfortunately I never got her name :( . I opted to stay around instead of heading back to the hotel. Went back to Insadong to collect my t-shirt (it took time to paint and dry), then went off to Myeong-Dong.
That was where the crowd was. No wonder Gasan was deserted. This place, you could say that it had the weekday crowd of Harajuku (The Harajuku weekend crowd meant that I couldn't even squeeze my way through. If I can't squeeze through, I don't think you could either.) and the maze layout comparable to Shinjuku or Taipei's Ximending. So much stuff I couldn't really decide what to buy. I'll probably come back again, maybe tomorrow or the day after.
Dinner was at Burger King. The only one I've seen since I came to Korea. The number of food outlets was intimidating. Too many to choose from, so I just settled with something I was familiar with. Shocking.. my order was ready within 10 seconds. No kidding.
Too tired to walk anymore after that. Tired legs, painful shoulder thanks to my freaking heavy slingbag (remember the stone owls I bought?). Went back to the hotel.
Tried out the sauna at the hotel. The style is much like the onsen in Japan. The onsen still wins hands down though. Can't beat the experience.
And that's it for today! Quite a lot of stuff. Next day will be shopping on my own. And hopefully... Jubeat Knit!
(Wtf that was 1000 words long..)