Quick Trip to South Korea

Korean BBQ and local booze. Hard to beat.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to make my first trip to Seoul.  I had not been to South Korea and considering I live in SE Asia I didn't really have many winter clothes.  I checked the weather before I left, bought one extra sweater in Phuket, of all places, and off I went.  

Although I only had a few days and most were busy with work I did spend one whole day exploring.  I made it to Bukchon, the Korean War Memorial, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jogyesa Temple, and Insadong.   Not bad!  As always, if you want to see the photos, click on the title of this post so you can open a browser- otherwise you will miss the slide shows!!

Getting around in Seoul required some thinking ahead.  I knew I wanted to get to the War Memorial and Buckchon so I had the hotel front desk staff write those locations in Korean on my hotel key jacket.  Of course, the name of the hotel is always in the local language so you can use it to get home.  Which I did!  I also used GoogleMaps and my iPhone to get to a few extra places by foot.  I  really do love being able to do that. 

Here we go!  
First stop, the Korean War Memorial.   I always learn a lot from visiting war memorials/museums.  As when I went to the Aussie War Memorial and found out about the brave nurses and doctors captured during WWII, the visit to the Korean War Memorial/Museum taught me a few more interesting facts.  When North Korea invaded South Korea,  it was the UN and the countries currently involved that jumped in to help drive back another communist invasion.  South Korea honors the UN and praises the idea behind it.  Not to get on a soapbox but they made some very good points that Americans currently should keep in mind about like-minded brotherhood and pulling together towards a common goal.  The other interesting factoid from the memorial was the numbers (again) of smaller countries such as NZ, Turkey, Australia, etc that went above and beyond to help the Koreans and have also assisted the Americans.  In return the South Koreans sent an extremely large number (300,000, second only to the USA)  of troops to fight in Vietnam.  Again, party because of the UN alliance.   Enough said.

From the War Memorial, I took a cab to Buckchon Hanok Village.  It is a historic part of Seoul with original architecture.  A hanok is a traditional Korean house.  This neighborhood is comprised of many alleyways, each turn holds another wonderful grouping of historic homes with curved tile roofs and carved wooden doors.  I really loved this part of Seoul.  

I was able to find my way on foot (thanks to Google Maps) from Buckchon to the Palace.  I was lucky enough to witness their re-enactment of the changing of the guard.  I loved that one soldier blew a conch shell.  Here are a few pics from Gyeongbokgung Palace.   Getting in to watch the guard change was free, I didn't enter the interior grounds.

After the palace I walked to a nearby Jogyesa Buddhist Temple.  I admired the similar, yet different architecture of these temples compared to other Asian countries as well as the blue-green color scheme.  It was quite busy that day as there were some invited monks and a special ceremony.  I stepped inside to join for awhile and took some pics in the courtyard.  The locust tree in front is over 500 years old.  Lovely spot to escape the hustle and bustle of Seoul.

My last stop was Insadong.  It is a shopping area, fairly tourist oriented.  I wouldn't go there again but since it was easy to access by foot from my other locations I made the effort.  I did go into some shops to warm up as evening was coming on and it was getting quite cold.
Seoul was chilly (it was winter) for this tropical chick but I really enjoyed the slightly different view of Asia.  I hope to go back someday and explore further afield than just Seoul.  
Here are a few last random pics.  Please do click on the title of the blog to ensure you have this open in a brower, otherwise you are missing lots of fun pics!  Cheers!!  Safe Travels everyone out there.