Korean Adventure: 2 Seoul: Day 1

 Gyeongbokgung Palace

BWP, Best Western Premier was in one of the poshest areas of Seoul, Gangnam. Room was  specious for one person and had bath tub and Japanese toilet in the bathroom.

After a sound sleep, as I was damn tired after spending entire 1^st Nov in travelling, I got up for morning ablutions bit late. And let me assure you nothing pampers your bums more than the Japanese toilet. I was using it for the first time and the experience was more than pleasant. Water jet gives you nice clean enema like washing and following it, is warm breeze of air that caresses your bums to dry them in most gentle way! Almost a feather touch! I got so used to it, that when one of the hotels in the journey next, did not have it, I felt like missing the most joyous ordeal in the early morning!

Before venturing out for my first day in Seoul, it’s pronounced as ‘Soul’ by the way, I had sumptuous breakfast of everything made in Korean style. There was porridge of sea food and rice cooked in soupy style, some fish fried with Korean batter, Pilaf like rice, cooked with some vegetables and pieces of pork, chicken, and may be some other meat I could not recognize. There was Kimchi soup, surprisingly it was not sour and tested very good. Kimchi is fermented Chinese cabbage in rice paste over months and/or years and normally tastes too sour,[ I had it before] All in all rice is the main grain in every meal with meat of everything and anything thrown in to auger the food value. Just to be on safer side I had Jeju mandarins’ juice also.

First things first. To get T Money Card. I was not able get it previous night on the airport so that was the first thing on the agenda. It’s normally available in any convenience store like 7-11 or Nice to CU and you can charge it with whatever amount you want. One travel on any mode normally costs K-won 1150/- You have to swipe it at the entry and exit of metro station and according to distance you travel money is cut, showing you the balance. On day one I put Kwon 10,000/- on the card.

Seoul as everybody knows is capital city of South Korea but intriguing fact is staggering 50% of S Korea’s population stays in Seoul alone.  Naturally it’s very crowded. Hardly 10-20% population stays in rural areas if you consider other very urbane cities like Busan, Daegu and Ulsan. To start with Korea [Both North and South] was agrarian society, mainly thriving on farming and associated industries, like dairy products and meat. Today S Korea is most developed industrial conglomerate having brands like LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Fila and Kia ruling the world. So you hardly see any Korean in plebeian attire or shabbily dressed. Everyone  dresses smartly and is smartly behaved, unfortunately for us, score zero on English Language front.

I had map of Seoul metro, fortunately it had names of the stations in English. After studying the Lonely Planet’s book on Korea, local available pamphlets, and Google maps [I worked for me in Korea excellently with few mistakes here and there. But the experience is otherwise] I decided to visit, Gyeongbokgung palace. I never myself tried to utter it, as it is obvious tongue twister [ all the names in Korean for that matter] never did I ask any blue blooded Korean for its pronunciation because what they say, goes well above your head. As Korean like Chinese has different meanings to words depending on their pronunciations., it has that many ups and downs in tone. Pronunciation of languages in their own flavor is not a dish for someone, whose mother tongue is different!

Gyeongbokgung is very old palace built by Joseon Dynasty in 1395 [Not my own knowledge, from pamphlets and Wikipedia, because I hate to remember historical details, even of our own history, Joseon, what’s that?]. It was destroyed by invaders mainly Japanese many times in the past and is being restored to its majestic self. Korean govt. is leaving no stone unturned.

It’s the largest and the most beautiful of five palaces in Seoul and I would whole heatedly agree with it. Mammoth, magnificent, well spread out and reasonably well restored. It had more than 7700 rooms and some 500 buildings over 40 acres of land. Now at places only relics are seen.

It has many gates, the main gate known as Gwangwamun gate was at the center of capital city of Seoul once but now the city has much expanded beyond that. Gates to inner sanctum are 1. Heungnyemun gate and 2. Geunjeongmun gate. Try pronunciations at your own risk, I guarantee they would definitely be wrong!

From the main gate runs Sejongno Street to Gwanghwamun plaza, at the end of which there are statues of King Sejong and his associate Admiral Yi Sun Si. Unfortunately as the square is undergoing some construction I could see only barricades and barriers and could not appreciate the full grandeur of the plaza.The changing of the guard ceremony is still carried out even in that cramped space with full regalia ,well almost.

Main Throne hall: Geunjeongeon Hall. The royal chair is still in its original regalia, and sits magnificently at the center of the hall.

 

After entering the palace you walk, walk and walk. There are numerous buildings which are still intact[?After restoration] and stand with full magnificence. Important ones are Sajeongjeon, first on the right was used as main executive office by king.  while the one below is Gangonjeonnye where king and his family used to live. It has king's bed chamber too.

The Gyeonghoen, banquet hall in the picture on the right is built surrounded by serene  cesspool of water that reflects the image of the hall in almost picturesque post card fashion. There are many other buildings used for different purposes for want of space it is not possible to describe each one.

The atmosphere is so charged that visiting tourists whether Koreans or others, dress up in historic Korean attires known as Hanboks and parade through the premises grandiosely. Imagine boys/men   attired in Mawala dress and 

girls/women draped in Nine yard saris, parading on the forts in Maharashtra in typical Maratha fashion!, I too did not want to lag behind so here I am in Joseon warrior Hanbok!

Whatever, age started telling and feet were too sore after prancing around on the palace premises for more than four hours so it was backward journey to hotel.

Gangnam itself has its share of posh buildings,malls, multiplexes and restaurants. Had a stroll on the main road which was quite near to my hotel and found a good looking restaurant for dinner.

It was 'Sushi Sangamu'. A Japanese sushi bistro. 

The dishes were mixes, Korean ans Japanese so I too decided to try my hand at both. Ordered Salmon and Shrimp Sushi along with some bowl of Korean Soup,Jan chi Guksu !
When the order was spread on the table there were 4-5 more dishes which I had not asked for. They are known as side dishes and are not charged for. To give it company there was Japanese beer,Kirin Ichiban,which turned out to be premium beer.The side dishes consisted of pickled onions,radishes and jack fruit marinated in cinnamon, it's known as Umami. The taste though totally alien for my Indian tongue was absolute yummy. They also served some brownish black noodles, probably made with whole buck wheat flour.I tried to ask what the dishes were,but  only one person, the chef girl, knew bit of English.What she was babbling I could not understand and vice a versa.In the end we both gave up. The food was really tasty and sumptuous but I could not finish as the portion was too big for me. With beer the bill was around Kwon 16000/- around Rs,.900/- not much!

On that sweet note my first day in Seoul ended!

PS: As i did not get correct angle and certain spots were not available I have taken one or two snaps from the archives ,rest have been shot by me!