It's Still All About Seoul

Far away from home

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Keren was in Seoul and we met her at the cable car (actually a gondola) for the Seoul Tower.  The ride up was, um, interesting.  The subway ethos seemed to be applied here as well - W5,500 pp got you packed into the car like a sardine.  Obviously it was ok because we're writing about it now.  The tower cost W7,000 pp to get a great view of smog.  Actually the view was pretty good, and although it was hazy, we got a good feel for the city.

Independence Day was in full swing and we were given flags to wave around in support of South Korea's independence from Japan.  Clasping these in our hands we headed to a traditional village (Namsangol) but we didn't stay long - we thought it was interesting but our stomachs wanted sustenance and disagreed with us.

Seoul

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Like normal, we went on a search for street vendor food with plenty of success.  Tapgol Park had plenty of vendors to choose from and there was an independence ceremony.  Nearby was Wongaksaji - a 10 tier pagoda, which was built in the 1400's.  Unfortunately the building that protects the pagoda is pretty damn ugly and gets in the way of a good view.

We headed to the Jongmyo Royal Shrine.  It was a bit of a score because Independence Day meant free entry.  We didn't hang around too long: things to do, palaces to see.  We walked through to Changgyeonggung Palace and then headed to the UNESCO heritage site that is Changdeokgung Palace.  W7000 pp got us on an English tour, plus it was the only way to get entry to Biwon, the Secret Garden.  It was a good tour but we had been on our feet all day and were getting rather tired.  Biwon a great garden and we even got to walk under an arch, which meant we would be granted eternal youth.  Not sure about that one...

Happy Independence Day!

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You probably think that all we do is eat because the next thing we did was raid the street vendors again for fried chicken and waffles.  Don't worry, we aren't like Augustus Gloop, yet.  We did buy a print of a cool flower in Insadong, so we are partially cultured.

There is a mint wee area in Seoul called Cheonggyecheon.  It's setup so that Seoulites and us could get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, which meant that there were tonnes of people there but no cars or insane scooter drivers.  We were heading to Manila early the next morning and keen to have a sleep.  We wished Keren well with her travels in China and headed off.  We hope that we can meet up again along the way!