My trip to Korea-Soul of Asia (Day 2-Seoul & Jeju)

The thing about waking up and stepping on cold floor really irks me but in Korea, I don’t have to worry about it. The floor is toasty warm. :3 Breakfast was in the hotel where I’m not too surprised to find Kimchi being offered with porridge. For day two, I would be going to Jeju Island in the afternoon so we spend half the day touring Seoul.

First activity for the day was to knock on the doors of Kyongbok Palace. It wasn’t open when we arrived there. So we just stand outside and watch the morning traffic. I was eager to visit this place because it was the place that most of the Korean dramas were filmed including my favourite “Queen In Hyun’s Man”. It is the biggest royal palace built by the most successful dynasty of Joseon. My new tour guide (A Korean) reminded us to stick close to him because we can get lost. He wasn’t joking. The palace has many doors and gates that lead to other buildings in the whole palace. It is a labyrinth in there. 

The walkway leading to the royal court was once only allowed to be walked on by the Emperor himself. No other people can grace this stone path. I can’t really remember what the tour guide said but I remember him bringing us into the royal court to see the dragons engraved on the ceiling of the court.

“An interesting fact: Korean dragons have 7 toes because only China is allowed to have dragons with five toes. Plus, the Emperor of China is the only one that can wear yellow so the Emperor of Korea wears red instead. This shows how influential and powerful China was.”

We proceeded inside the palace to look at the Emperor’s office, chamber(bedroom) and his guard’s chamber. The room of guards surrounds the Emperor’s chamber to protect him. The Empress’s chamber is behind the Emperor’s and no men can enter the place. Behind the Empress’s chamber is a small garden, it used to be pretty and well kept not like the messy state it is in now. The Empress is forbidden to leave the palace grounds so the Emperor had a garden built behind her chamber so she won’t feel bored. But well, to modern day women like us, I can understand why the Empress and consorts tend to have secret lovers and sneaking out of the palace (or is it just in movies?). It must be awfully bored and lonely just staring at a small garden with no one to interact with but servant girls that fear you.

  We finished touring the palace but it’s not the end yet. The palace ground is huge.

They rebuilt the palace after the Japanese took over and destroyed part of the palace. Now there is an extra new wing behind the palace, the National Folk Museum. Inside is a whole exhibition full of Korean cultural display from clothes, historical house, medicines, cutleries, pots, musical instruments, traditional marriages, deaths and other important phase of life. You get the picture. It’s the perfect place to learn about Korean Culture. Everything you need to know is there. I spent too long inside to notice the autumn drizzle outside. I don’t remember the significance of this pagoda in the middle of a pond. It seemed important that the tour guide needed to mentioned it and encourage us to snap some pictures. Probably the Emperor loves to take a break and sip tea there with his Empress and consorts?

The palace ground as I mentioned is so vast and you can see small paths that leads to different parts of the palace. I can imagine the palace guards riding on their horses while patrolling the grounds, or the Crown Prince practicing sword skill and archery in the within the palace. It was nice to let my imagination run wild for a while. That’s the essence of visiting historical places, it gives me such joy. We end the tour of Kyongbok Palace by taking pictures of the Blue house (Looks green to me). It is where the prime minister stays (same function as the White House in USA). We can only see and take pictures but we can’t enter. However we did visited this exhibition centre or the Blue House museum (I think)? I took picture with the prime minister (She’s a lady) or a computer version of her, I can email the picture to my mail but so far I haven’t receive any mail from the “Blue House”.

Visiting the palace and Blue house took so much of our time, that it was lunch time. Let’s try the most classic dish- Bibimbap (Mixed rice). I had bibimbap many times before so I was a bit disappointed that I don’t get to eat bbq pork or beef instead. But we have bbq pork and broth too. The broth was a bit similar to the dinner I had the first night. It was also delicious, nothing can go wrong with meat!! Nothing. So here it is…..

After lunch we visited a more traditional street- Insadong. Less fashion shops and more traditional galleries, shops, tea houses and café. It is an art lover’s retreat because you can find paintings, sculptures and other fine arts being sold. As for me, I prefer to still visit the beauty product shops and souvenir shops. 

 I wanted to walk longer in Insadong but the time allocated to us was short and I was suddenly in need to use the washroom. I really hate my stomach at times, it always choose the wrong time to go wrong. Luckily, Korea public toilets are much clean and convenient to find. Thank the heavens. I thought I was going to die was pain. Again, I missed out on the street food. Then we left for Gimpo airport to board the plane to Jeju. Gimpo airport is a domestic flight airport while Incheon airport is an international airport.

While waiting for the flight to Jeju, my sister thought that the litter bins are cute so she snapped some pictures. It’s in the form of luggage bags. The plane we used to Jeju was Jin Air. Their service as okay, I guess it is Korean policy to smile 24 hours at guest. But the plane taking off and landing was a bit rough. Again, upon landing we had to fight our way to stick in a group because of the sea of China tourist arriving around the same time at Jeju International airport. 

They're litter bins!

Jeju Int' Airport

It was around 7pm when we check into the hotel and were whisk straight into the restaurant for dinner. Jeju was unbelievably hot compared to Seoul weather because they do not have seasons. The tour guide lied! He told us to wear warmly. Liar!!! It felt like home to me but I didn’t like the weather at home so I was actually begging to go back to the chilly air Seoul.

Since Jeju is a hot spot for seafood and famous black pig pork, our first dinner there was seafood stew with a varieties of shellfish and tones of beansprouts. I don’t know what’s the deal between Koreans and bean sprouts, they always have them and it’s not in small quantities (I don’t like bean sprouts) like KimChi to them. The way of eating this stew is to finish all the ingredients in the stew and leaving the broth last, throw in a piece of instant noodles and finish it like that. On the menu was also some mackerel like fish on the house (At least it tasted like mackerel). It was filling.

Seafood stew anyone?

Night came and there was nowhere else to go so we decided to return to the hotel but not before stopping by the convenient store to pick up some snacks. I predicted that I will get hungry soon. Funny thing about my eating schedules in Korea, I get hungry fast. Like I just had dinner at 7pm, I will be hungry before midnight again. Meh~~ My sister developed an obsession for their Banana milk and I don’t blame her, it’s addictive. You can’t get enough from just one bottle per day so we bought some back. We stayed in Jeju Palace Hotel, it’s near the waterfront. After refreshing, we took a walk along the seaside. The night wind was cooler so walking there was relaxing. I see plenty of youths still playing basketballs and cycling, while cute kids with tricycles passed by us with their poor parents chasing after them.

At the end of the path were rows and rows of seafood restaurants with all their fresh live sea catch in aquariums outside the shop. The restaurants were so brightly lit with neon lights that I can see it from a mile away. Some old men were fishing at the rocks, casting their lines in the dark waters with just a tiny LED light attached to the bobber. It’s interesting to see their activities at night. So unlike mine. Then again, their food source are majority from the sea, it is their job and their life. In Jeju, you must try their seafood, it is really as fresh as it looks.

Cool off by taking a walk.

 Some McDonalds ice-cream to gratify my itchy mouth. We saw a street called “Black Pig Street”, it is a small street full of restaurants serving black pig of course. From barbequed to sautéed, all types of black pork were served and you usually drink Soju while eating them. I was tempted to go in and try, I really do but no one wants to eat it with me. How sad~~ I had them the next day anyway. We saw many drunkards walking down the streets. Boy do they really live their life to the fullest. Envy? Not so. I am amazed at how everything is so real as in the movies and dramas. Before that it felt surreal, now it finally hit me. I’m in KOREA!!! Proceeding to another street selling apparels and accessories, I managed to get myself some street food!

Do you fancy some blood sausage and liver?

 Soondae is pork blood sausage and it is stuffed with noodles and rice mixed with pork blood, served with a side of pork liver and pickled radish. I like it although it can sound disgusting to some like my sis who refuses to eat more than two. I had to finish the whole thing- not that I mind. :D After that, retire for the night.