After a delicious breakfast our first day in Seoul (and Asia), Vinny and I ran back to the hotel where our tour van was waiting for us. We boarded the van and then proceeded to pick up a few other passengers from their respective hotels/meeting points. The morning tour group consisted of: Hannah (our Korean tour guide), a very nice Korean American couple (both young professionals) from L.A. who were in Seoul visiting the husband's family for the holidays, a Canadian couple (both high school teachers: music and English) from a small town outside of Winnepeg, Canada, and a student from Singapore who was visiting Korea during her school winter break and who was staying with a Korean host family for the week. For my fellow travelers, there is a homestay program in Korea where you can get matched to stay with a Korean families for any duration of time. I wish Vinny and I had known about this program prior to arriving in Seoul... ahhh next time...
Our morning tour began with the Jogyesa Buddhist temple. I've been to Asia before but the beautiful lanterns hanging in the temple and outside the temple were very different than anything I've ever seen. From what I know, most Koreans are religiously affiliated with Christianity due to the Japanese occupation and their intent to favorably receive help from allies from predominantly Christian countris, so I was surprised to see a Buddhist temple. There were white lanterns outside the area for the dead and then brightly colored ones intended for the living. Once I figure out how to post pictures to my blog, I'll try to get a few up.
Afterwards, we drove past the Blue House (which is the Korean equivalent of the White House in the US). Our tour guide explained to us that in Korean culture, blue represented the dragon (aka the king) so that was why the roof of the house is blue. The Blue House is the official government residence so we were not able to stop in front of it because of security reasons but I have a shot of half of the Blue House as we quickly drove past.
After the Blue House, we went to the Gyeongbok Palace, which is similar to the China's Forbidden City in Beijing and Viet Nam's Forbidden City in Hue. One thing that I haven't mentioned yet is how COLD, Seoul is. I haven't felt my toes, fingers, and face freeze up and the tingly needle pricking feeling since my U of M days trekking across the Diag going from class to class. Vinny and I tried bundling up but we decided that no matter how many layers you wore, there was just no way to adjust to the cold. We also decided New York City hasn't been that cold and 5 days in the Bahamas back in mid December didn't really prep us for the bitter cold either.
In anticipation of the cold weather in Seoul and Beijing, I had purchased HeatTech gear from Uniqlo which was made specifically to be lightweight and keep my body heat in. It's a great purchase, and I recommend anyone who has to do activities outside or who lives in cold climates to buy the gear. It's not very expensive either, Uniqlo was having a sale on HeatTech gear and I was able to purchase my HeatTech shirts for only $7.90 USD (and in NYC, there's no sales tax either).
We roamed the palace and observed little details such as the wide walkway leading into the various areas (The king's, the queen's, the king's mother, etc.). My favorite facts I learned while roaming the palace (which was very cold, I don't know how the royal family lived back before heaters were invented)
1) The wide walkway was divided into 3 lanes, the center one being reserved for the king. If you looked carefully, there were no stairs in the center lane because the king never had to climb stairs, he was always carried.
2) The king's main bedroom was surrounded by 100 rooms for security purposes because he changed bedroom locations now and then to thwart any invaders who were trying to attack and then staffed the other bedrooms with his guards.
After the palace, we went to a Ginseng Center and learned that among the 4 types of ginseng available (Korean, US, Chinese, and I forgot the 4th country)... Korean Ginseng was the most valued supposely because it was the most complex in its properties. I tried some honeyed ginseng which was really good bu had to woefully put the box back once I found out that the retail price was $229 USD. Our new friends, the Korean American couple from L.A. joked that the Ginseng center was really more appealing to Japanese and Chinese tourists, not young professionals from the US who had no money.
Afterwards, our morning tour ended and Vinny and I were dropped off in Itaewon (a shopping are for tourists). At this point, we were starving so we made our way to a Korean restaurant and ordered bulgogi (my favorite Korean dish, it's marinated beef in a sweet sauce). Sometime during the meal, my body realized that although it was 1 pm Korean time, it was 11 pm US time and it wanted to sleep. Afterwards, Vinny and I took a taxi back to the hotel, and promptly took a much needed 6 hour long nap. We thought it would only be 1-2 hours but neither one of us woke up until 8 pm that evening...
Next post: New Year's Eve in Seoul
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