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Don't know wha t is is, but today I feel quite lousy. Hopefully it is simply dehydration caused by the flights of yesterday. However it did affect my stamina toda, which we did not get to do as much sight seeing as planned.

Amelie made some friends waiting to meet our tour guide

We walked over towards Gyeonbokung Palace to meet our tour guide to take us through the Bukcheon village area of Seoul. Bukcheon largely lies between two royal palaces in Seoul. As you can imagine this IKAS an are that high ranking government would gather to be close to the throne. Back beyond the 1800's, these would have been quite large estates. The confusion of cute little lane way mazes bordered by high walled gardens and traditional houses largely extend from the times following the Japanese colonisation of Korea.

Art installation at Contemporary Art Museum. this one is trying to recreate the mysticism of the Gods. All I could think of was the TV series 'Monkey.'

Larger estates were gradually sold off to maintain the lifestyle of officials allowing this suburban representation of traditional buildings. This high density traditional buildings means housed almost abut each other and many have compromised to fit into the land available, but it does maintain a quaint romantic feel

Our guide, Robert, is an expat New Yorker, strongly bonded to Seoul. He very much gave the impression that this is his home now despite having family "back-home". His commentary displayed a good understanding of Korean culture and history relaxed by that of an outsider. By this I mean that he was never disrespectful, but could make observations that perhaps a local may not feel free to do so.

Bukcheon is largely residential. I kinda feel for the owners as the pedestrian traffic can be quite immense and loud. Signs abound requesting respect but there always seems to be a group making up for the rest of us with their boisterous behaviour. It largely has a refined romantic feel to the are, much like the Sydney rocks area with meandering lane ways and much like The Rocks is becoming increasingly tainted by tourism with art-houses, tea rooms, upmarket fashion shops and the ubiquitous coffee shop.

Inside a Traditional Hanok. Tranqulity of nature in the heart of Seoul.

Still it stands in marked contrast to the moden Korea a few hundred metres away with concrete towers, high density apartment complexes and vast corporate buildings and shopping malls.a view from many a traditional walled headmen takes in the view of the outside world to confirm the tranquility of the private space. One would treasure such a location.

I'm afraid the rest of the afternoon proved to be a bit of a loss. Muvva, Amelie and I were feeling much the worse for wear, probably to very little sleep getting here. I even felt a little feverish over lunch. All this meant we made our way wearily back to the apartment where I proceeded to crash for four hours, leaving Liz much to her own devices. Upon waking I found three out of four had slept at least 3 hours and Liz had used the time to explore the local neighbourhood including supermarkets etc.

After a groggy recovery we went out about 7pm to explore down town Seoul on a Saturday night. Dinner was Korean barbecue, we have to ease mother into Korean food as even good old Kim-chi is hot to her ancient meat and two veg palate.

Pleasantly sated we enjoyed an evening still down to Cheonggye Plaza intercepted by political campaigning ( at least that is what I thought blow up dinosaurs and relentless music, cos that had that distinct political feel). A colourful protest against the recent Sewon ferry disaster. It seems that there is public concern that the "truth" of the disaster has not been fully disclosed.

fountain at the top of Cheonggyecheon Stream

Now Amelie is a little older, we enjoy the opportunity to take in some of the excitement and bright lights of night time Seoul. People of all ages, mainly families abounded and it was fun to see wide eyed reactions to light shows along the stream.

Such a warm pleasant evening was completed by perambulation along Gwanghwamun Plaza past the spectacular Sejong theatre complex to the Gwanghwamun Gate, the entrance to Gyeongbokgung palace. Luckily on the way back to our apartment an open convenience store allowed us to buy a pleasant bottle of chilled plum wine, which proved a most enjoyable night cap.

Gate to Gyeongbokgung Palace

 

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