After we got back & freshened up, Wamore's "agent" was meeting us and taking us to dinner and a supposedly short little tour of the city. You have to have an agent to do business in Korea. They manage the relationship between your company and the government or Korean businesses. And take their fee! Mr Kwon (I think that is how you spell it) is our agent. So, he is taking us to dinner tonight and around to see the town. We started out to see the Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was the palace and home of the last reigning dynasty of South Korea. The country only became a republic in 1948, and the palace was the home to the relatives of the royal family until around this time. The government eventually bought the property and restored it and turned it into a historical place. It was beautiful!!
After we walked around the front of the palace grounds, we took a tour around the little area that surrounded the palace walls. There were a ton of cute old smaller homes in the same style as the palace. These homes were for the relatives of the royal family, as well as some of the workers. It was really cool to see the differences in homes, and how beautifully they have been preserved. There has been a huge gentrification project going on in this area. Many of these homes are now owned by wealthy middle class families that have modernized them, but kept their original exteriors. The doors of each of the homes just amazed me! They are so unique and intricate.
After our palace area tour we found a cute little spot for dinner. It was nice talking to Mr. Kwon about growing up and living in South Korea. He speaks very fast and jumps rom one subject to another, but was soooo interesting! He also walks VERY fast. It was like running a marathon chasing him through the streets. Exhausting!
After dinner, we continued our walking tour. We went to some bell that is only rung once a year. It was a big bell in the middle of a park. By now it was getting dark, so our tour was speeding up. Next we went to the Buddhist Temple. It was HUGE. And beautiful!!! It is open all night & people come & go praying in it. Truly gorgeous. The grounds were just as amazing as the temple itself. It sounded like about 50% of population are Buddhist, and 50%-ish are Christian. There were many aspects to the temple and its property. They most interesting was seeing all the monks walking around. All around the streets near the temple, there were tons of monks.
After the temple, we were seriously exhausted. Everything was "5mins" away...but was really like 5 miles. We were easily walking a 8min-mile pace....and Mr. Kwon would just abruptly stop in the middle of sidewalk to tell us some random story. I don't know how many times one of us ran right into him as he just stopped abruptly. It was funny, but not so much, as we were all so tired! We had no idea!!
Just "5 mins away" was a tourist shopping area. It was closing time, so most of the places weren't open...and others were about to close. So, we rushed into one, and Mr Kwon bought us all gifts. It was really nice of him & we decided we really needed to come back here to check out stuff for souvenirs.
After the walking tour of the city, we told him we need to call it quits. We begged to take a taxi back, as it was way too far of a walk. As we were sitting in traffic to get back to the hotel, Mark said he had to go to the bathroom. We weren't moving fast, so him & Vince jumped out in the middle of the crazy busy street to run into a McDonalds to use the restroom. Mr Kwon & I continued on to the hotel. The guys weren't too far behind us, but it was a VERY hilarious experience and night!! Perfect end to a perfect first day.
 |
| Gyeongbokgung Palace built in 1395 |
 |
| Unique original doors on these old homes |
 |
| Grounds of the Buddhist temple |
 |
| One of the rivers that runs thru town. Walking trails on both sides & they have "parades" down the river most nights |
 |
| Touristy shopping areas |
No comments:
Post a Comment