[seoul] day 2: bukchon, palaces, korean folk museum & namsan tower

23/03/2014 (sunday)

on our second day in seoul, we visited quite a lof of places. we started at bukchon hanok village. bukchon is actually the name of the place and hanok is the korean traditional house. we arrived there around 9am. there were not so many people around yet. as usual, the first thing that we did everytime was to find a tourist information booth. we took the map and started the tour. there are eight specified photo spots in bukchon. i think we went to all eight but couldn't be sure, hehe.. because to our untrained and inartistic eyes, they all looked quite the same..

there are a lot of small but interesting museums and culture centers around this area. entrance is usually free but if you want to engage in the traditional crafts making, you have to pay a little. as for us, we went to the bukchon tradtional culture center. the workshop provided are different each days. since, we were here on sunday, we got a choice of either making traditional shoes or dyeing handkerchief naturally. we chose the second one since it's faster and cheaper, KRW7500/pax. and the results were as shown below:

we finished our tour around bukchon around 11am. we planned to go to watch the 'changing guard ceremony' at gyeongbokgung at 1pm. the ceremony is three times per day; 10am,1pm and 3pm. oh,gyeongbokgung is actuall one of the palaces in seoul. there are quite a numbers of them. the famous one are, gyeongbokgung, changdeokgung, changgyeonggung and deoksugung. since, we got a couple of hours to spare (the palace is a walking distance from bukchon), we explore the cute and charming stores along the way. we found one etude shop that got a sale and bought a few of things..

we arrived at gyeongbokgung around 12.30pm. so, we took the time to explore a little bit on front of the palace. the entrance fee is KRW3000. the guard changing ceremony is in front of the castle, so it's free to watch. some of the guards are already in front of the gate (gwaghwamun), standing guard. we took the chance to take photo with them. they are really tall, so we look quite petite standing next to them. while waiting, an elderly korean couple approach us with a camera. so, we assumed that they wanted us to help them taking photo. surprisingly, they want to take photo with us! we were quite shocked, huhu.. maybe they found us unique because of our hijab. but then, there were quite a lot of people wearing hijab around. so, we just vainly made the conclusion that we are just so much cuter compared to others, hahaha.. ok, back to the guard changing ceremony.. it was for 20 minutes and very interesting to watch.

after the ceremony, we entered the palace.. it was quite big. the architecture was amazing, again an opinion based on my untrained eyes.. we took several pictures and moved on to the korean folk museum. there are a lot of amazing inside. i loved the row of antique stores most of all.. i really don't know how to describe this experience in details. all i could say that visiting the palaces, not all, maybe one or two like us is recommended. you'll learn a little bit about korea culture and history.

around gyeongbokgung

korean folk museum

we went to changdeokgung to catch the huwon (secret garden) tour. we walked and we got a little bit lost, hehe.. we stumbled at this small palace, unhyeongung, thinking it was changdeokgung.. so, we were wondering together, why is the palace so small.. according to the map, the area should be quite huge. while we were pondering upon the map, this nice ahjuma approached us. in english, she asked where we were from. and she personally gave us a free tour around this small humble palace herself (seemed she worked there). when the tour finished, she showed us the way to the real changdeokgung. don't underestimate the power of two cute malay girls with hijab has on the elderly ajussi and ahjuma, haha...

we finally arrived at our intended place and just is time for the tour. the tour costs KRW5000/pax and was around 90 minutes. the tour brought us the the secret garden that are only used by the royal family back in the old days. the garden was very beautiful but i bet it would look much more beautiful in late spring, when the trees got more leaves and more flowers.. still, it was worth the time and money. our tour guide this time us a very beautiful and graceful korea lady wearing hanbok. our tour finish around 5pm.

our last destination for the day is the famous namsan tower. we went there by train until myeongdong and then cable car. maybe, it was sunday, there are a lot of people around. we had to queue for about one and a half hour. the fees for rounddtrip cable car is KRW8500. previously,there was a teddy bear museum there. but, now it was changed into a sort of trickeye museum. the fee for going up the tower is KRW9000. up at observatory, there are a post office. me and hawa posted a few postcards for our beloved family and friends back home. when we got back down, we looked at the famous love padlocks. we even bought padlocks for ourselves and put it there...

we went back to myeongdong and walked along the streets. they were many stalls that sold different sorts of things, from accessories to foods. we found a halal kebab store managed by a muslim korean man. and that kebab became our dinner with a few of other things like dried squid, corn and twisted potato sticks. oh, and for lunch, we ate a lot of fish cakes.. okay, i admit, we don't eat much here.. we made do of what we saw, hehe.. done was the 2nd day entry, hoping to write the 3rd entry soon..