Bob and I are together again for our first house sit (and actually first trip) in Asia. Our house sit is in Songdo, a suburb of Seoul, so we flew into Seoul and spent a day in the city center before starting our house sit.
We weren’t sure what to expect as we haven’t learned Korean but while we haven’t met a lot of people that speak English the signage does tend to be in both Korean and English which has been very helpful. Since we wanted to make the most of our first day not knowing how often we’d be coming into the city from our house sit, we arranged for a private walking tour with a local. This was a great way to see some of Seoul, get some good info on what we were seeing as well as learn some pointers for our visit.
We were to meet our guide at 10 am on Friday having arrived at our hotel about 8:00 pm on Thursday. Luckily, our room came with breakfast, so we had a very atypical breakfast (scrambled eggs but also kimchi, dumplings, salads, boiled rice) before heading off for our tour.
First, a couple of photos from our walk to the tour.
We met our guide just inside the entrance to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the oldest of Seoul’s five palaces. She had informed us she would be in “blue padding” which apparently means a long blue (though really gray) padded jacket. She won us over by purchasing us each a hot pack (hand warmer) that they sell all over here. It was still in the 30s and our tour was mostly all outside, so they came in handy.
The palace and grounds were impressive, but truth in advertising, the buildings that we saw were built after WWII as the originals (already destroyed and rebuilt after a fire) were then destroyed again during the Japanese occupation during the war. Had they been original they would have dated back to the 1300s.
Other things of note: the grounds were used by the king but also by the government who dictated much of the king (and his family’s) behavior including determining when the king and queen could sleep together. Apparently this was to optimize chances for healthy offspring. For her part, the Queen was lucky enough to “get” to care for the household, including the 10-15 concubines typically kept by the king.
Small structure on the grounds of the palace
From the palace we walked to Bukchon Hanok Village, an area with traditional Korean houses, but on the way we saw this…
The Hanok Village was lovely and people live in the traditional-style homes that are obviously renovated and now have modern conveniences. (Interesting note: heating here is typically done through heating floors). Unfortunately, the people living here must deal with the groups of tourists that descend upon them to see their homes. Locals from the city walk around in yellow vests that read “quiet please.” Our guide said this was mostly for the Chinese tourists who tend to be quite loud. We have not seen many US, Canadian, nor European tourists.
Our guide walked us through the popular shopping area of Insadong.
In the Insadong district is Jogyesa, Seoul’s most prominent Buddhist temple.
A 400 year old tree with lanterns
We ended our tour with a trip to the market.
Drying whole fish
Stay tuned for scenes from our post tour outing on Friday.
Peckish Travels 