As we wake up warm and rested, we start with a slightly more positive outlook on this new country - and it’s reinforced by a shining sun and lovely blue skies as we exit our still cramped room. With all of our layers, we’re not even too cold in the sun despite the announced temperature of 5”C - perfect! We grab a pastry and get on our way: today we’re planning to explore the Gyeongbokgung Royal Palace - a similar complex to the chinese Forbidden City.
We have a bit of a walk through Seoul before getting there - and Ollie has planned it around a few local sights. First, a quick jaunt through the Myeongdong shopping district around our hotel: busy and colourful, all modern stores and tall buildings, there’s plenty to explore for later. Then, down a few steps and along the lovely Cheonggyecheon river that runs through the city - an unexpected touch of nature amongst the skyscrapers. It’s perfectly landscaped, with undulating banks and regular small waterfalls, and even a few stepping stones crossings which we delight in trying out.
At the end of the canal, we resurface in another skyscraper-full district, this time with a slew of puzzling modern art pieces scattered in the public space: a giant sea-shell, odd copper robots… Crossing a wide plaza, we’re soon on Sejong-daero, one of Seoul’s main avenues, leading directly to the palace. There’s a few shrines as we walk along, incongruous at the feet of giant buildings, and a proud warrior’s statue stands in the middle of a stream of traffic. Halfway down the boulevard, another large statue, a golden one of 15th-century king Sejong, sits in front of the Korean Centre for Performing Arts, a series of beautiful modern buildings.
As we walk through Seoul, especially on this Monday morning, we’re struck with how homogenous the crowds of Koreans going about their day look. Everyone is in smart work clothes, mostly in shades of black, navy or beige. Hardly a colour to be seen! Part of this is probably the contrast with the vivid shades and varied styles we’ve seen in the first leg of our trip - but as we explore the shops over the next few days we notice a marked tendency to only stock sepia-coloured clothes.
After navigating a slew of roadworks, we finally get to the palace. The immense entrance gate features brightly painted woodwork, and as we walk through, we’re just in time to catch two guards in vibrant silk robes marching around with colourful flags. Maybe all the colours are reserved for royals and their entourage?
Inside the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung, the “Korean uniform” is entirely different: over 50% of the visitors are wearing what looks to us like shiny ballgowns (men and women alike). It’s actually modern interpretations of the traditional hanbok, with lots of sparkly gauze, satin and wide ribbons - to our western eyes it seems like the palace is being overrun by an army of Disney princesses. We get the explanation for that craze as we buy our tickets: free entry if you dress the part.
Ollie’s not a fan, but I have to admit that after the initial surprise the costumes add a rather cute touch to our visit, as we wander further through the extensive palace grounds. The buildings are spread out around wide sandy courtyards and sparsely landscaped grounds - and having most of the crowd in traditional dress really helps setting the scene.
After stepping through a series of barren courtyards and impressive wooden gates, the main Geunjeongjeon hall stands in majestic isolation, its size dwarfing the visitors trooping up to view it. The facade is beautiful, green wooden lattices over red planks, intricately painted and joined roof supports, bright tiles and sculpted ridge lines. Peeking inside (the building is cordoned off), a similar explosion of colours adorn the walls and ceilings, with a large, in keeping dais standing in the middle of the room.
Everything looks in very good condition though, and as we search our information booklet it’s soon obvious why: the entire complex stood in ruins until recently, and has basically been rebuilt anew within the last few decades, with quite a few buildings even dating from this century. On the scale of the monuments we’ve seen so far in our trip it means this palace was basically built yesterday, which does somehow take away a bit of its historic value. To get into the spirit of our visit to Japan and Korea, we downloaded the popular Pokémon Go phone game - and today, some of our pocket monsters are actually the oldest thing here, which is certainly unexpected.
Still, the result of the reconstruction is impressive and as we wander round one stunning building after another it’s hard not to appreciate the wonderful intricacy of the woodwork. Some of the pavilions are painted in bright greens and reds, some are left a natural wood colour - and every single one is stunning. There’s quite a few of the hanbok-wearing couples taking photoshoots with those ornate backgrounds and frankly, I wish I’d dressed better so I could do the same!
We loop around the grounds to see most of the pavilions - including a pretty one in the middle of a lake. But frustratingly, the tall pagoda tower I could see from the entrance turns out not to be part of the palace, but of the National Folk Museum of Korea - which requires a completely separate entrance. Never mind then, it’s well past lunchtime anyway and we’re getting hungry.
We’re not allowed out straight away however as we (again) stumble by accident onto another changing of the guards ceremony. This one is a lot more impressive than what we saw at the Chiang Kai Shek memorial: there’s a marching band and a full couple of squads here, rank upon rank of red-robed soldiers filing past, and a slew of brightly-coloured flag-bearers with gigantic fanions blowing in the breeze. Some of the soldiers are sporting ornate shields, curved swords and even full-length spears! After much banging of drums and circling around the main entrance gates, they file out in procession, and we can escape for lunch.
Finally out of the gigantic complex, we’re short on time to find somewhere before it becomes too late, and so we just walk into a tiny local restaurant round the corner. The very friendly owner helps us translate the menu and is delighted to practice her English on us - and the bibimbap is delicious! Very pleased with our last-minute pick, we stroll back into town, going through another route to check out some more sights: the classically-styled city hall, overlooked by much more modern buildings, a roman church, one of the old city gates, and a lively market.
We’re feeling much more positive about Seoul than our first impression yesterday as we head to the night market just down the street from our hotel for dinner. It’s a less impressive affair than Shilin in Taipei, but there’s a nice variety of stands and we pick up a few local delicacies - although the “cheese” skewer is a complete flop, with white tasteless chewy blocks that I daren’t even compare to mozzarella. We get some lovely pork meatballs and a stodgy kimchi pancake though, and by the time we finish scarfing those down in the tiny hostel lounge we’re full. Here’s hoping the rest of our stay continues on an upwards trajectory!
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