Seoul - Day 4

Same routine as yesterday this morning except we headed directly to the Seoul via the train in Yangju to meet up with Scottie's friends from U of M, Sung Hun and Dae Sung at Starbucks. It's about time I tried some Korean Starbucks. It seemed a little weaker and more expensive.

After walking through Insa-dong again, we headed to lunch at Chaiyagi, some restaurant they knew about in the back alleys of Seoul. I would learn that most places are not found using addresses, road signs, etc. It's just word of mouth since these places are small and tucked away. Again, we indulged in some Korean BBQ that included both kalbi and pork. This restaurant is famous for rice cooked in a hollow bamboo stick. When we were done with the rice, they suggested that we fill the hollow bamboo stick with some hot dunggeulle tea to eat the remaining rice. It was their version of dessert!

I discovered today that Koreans do not linger at meal times. They are served quickly, eat quickly, and depart quickly. However, they do like to linger at coffee, tea, and other drinking establishments. So we left for a  a traditional Korean teahouse, or chatjip, called Dawon, which I noticed is repeatedly recommended as one of the top Korean teahouses.  While the outside was enticing, we sat inside on the floor (in what I presume is a heated floor in the winter) to enjoy our tea (I ordered maeshil cha, a sweet and tasty plum tea while Scottie ordered daechu cha, a jujube tea) served with a sweet ricecake-like cracker.

The last palace we would tour was Changdeok-gung ("Palace of Illustrious Virtue"), the best-preserved palace in the city, constructed in 1405 as a secondary palace to Gyeongbok-gung. It gave balance to the capital as Gyeongbok-gung was to the west and this one was to the east. A unique feature of this palace was that it was laid out in harmony with the area's natural topography. It originally served as the seat of the government and royal residence. It was later used by King Sunjong, Korea's last king, until he was removed from power by the Japanese; however, he continued to live her until his death. The last crown prince of Korea died here in 1970 and the last royal family member lived here until her death in 1989!

We waited around for the English-speaking tour guide for this palace, which was a treat for me. She was an interesting lady with a bit of an attitude to her, but it made the tour all the more fun. We peaked into the King's throne, the residences with some Western-style furniture, and the Seonjeong-jeon, "Hall of Disseminating Government", used by the king for everyday government affairs. Our tour guide pointed out that an unusual feature for this building was the blue tile roof. Only structures used by the king could have this feature.

Post-tour, Dae Sung departed, but Sung Hun stuck around with us waiting out an hour or so before the next tour of the Secret Garden, Biwon, a 78-acre woodland area within the palace grounds. Unfortunately, this tour was only in Korean, so I read the plaques and Scottie and Sung Hun filled me in on the rest of the details. This secluded area had multiple purposes: a place for composition of poems, a setting for contemplation, a venue for banquets, and an archery range. It was within these gardens that I learned that the Korean men often carried the purses for their girlfriends. You see this all over Seoul. Plus many of the men have their own man bags.

After the Secret Garden, we hopped in a taxi to the Namdaemun Market. It was an array of separate and interconnected buildings and alleys with retailers selling clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, luggage, bags, kitchenware, tourist gifts, and food. Apparently, the wholesalers drop off goods in the "wee" morning hours for the retailers to sell off to the general public during the day and evening.

From there, we walked over to Myeong-dong Market, which is where a lot of tourists and younger folks flock to at night. It is a concentrated area of narrow walkways surrounded by restaurants, clothing shops, coffee houses, and boutiques. It has more commercial offerings than the Namdaemun with less street vendor types and more established shops like Nike, Gap, North Face, etc.

We walked through a few streets before we stopped at Yoogane for a dinner of Dak Galbi, tangy chicken with scallions, cabbage, mushrooms, rice cakes, and potatoes stir-fried in flat pan in front of us. This dish contained a lot of the red pepper paste as our noses started to feel it and luckily they told us to put on aprons so the spices and smoke wouldn't get on our clothes.

We complimented the meal with a drink Sung Hun claimed was popular, beer and Sprite. It was about a quarter Sprite and three-quarters Hite beer. We couldn't believe that this would be anything close to tasty, but it actually was quite refreshing with the meal.

Once the meal was done, they came back out with an order of rice, some vegetables, and more red pepper paste to stir fry in the same pan as the left-over from the chicken. This creates bokkeumbap. Yummy!

After dinner, we strolled along Cheonggye Plaza/Stream, which contains a fountain, an artificial waterfall, and a miniature replica of Cheonggyecheon Stream, as well as a walking path. The area commemorates the Cheonggyecheon Stream Restoration Project, and also symbolizes gathering, harmony, peace, and unity.

Top Cloud Bar, located on top of the Jongro Tower Building. It is a tower with three "legs", and Top Cloud sits a top these three "legs", looking as if it is almost floating in the air. We saw some spectacular views of Seoul by night while sipping on a few beers and nibbling on some more fruit!

More pictures located here.  A map of our trip located here.