It was another cold day, even snowed a bit today. I went to one of the many palaces in town today (Royal Palace, Changdeakgung) for the 11:30 am English, guided tour for 3000 won, $3 Cdn. It was neat. It covers about 250 acres and has nice gardens and lots of neat buildings. It is hard to believe one king would have all of this property when they are tripping over each other on the other side of the street. There are so many little, little alley ways everywhere. At home or in the States, I would question walking down them, but here it is the norm and I feel very safe. There is also a lot of police presence.
On the tour I met a man from Virginia in his late 30's here on business. He is origanally from Korea but moved away 30 years ago. This is his first time back to Korea in 30 years. I could not even tell he was Korean, he looked American. So we did the tour together and then he mentioned he wanted to go to the markets and shopping. I too wanted to do that so we did lunch and then toured. It was great we eat at a very traditional Korea restarant, sitting on the floor (which has radiant heat). It was great because he can read and speak Korean. I had a great meal of beef, rice and lots of side dishes. I also had water and it was rice water. They cook the rice in it and then serve it to you to drink. Interesting. It tasted like rice had been cooked in it, but I was thirsty. So we went and toured a touristy shopping area (Insa-dong). He got things for his kids and wife and I looked for birthday cards and little souveniers. It was a nice part of town, not so busy and close to where I am staying. When I was coming back I got stopped and asked by these British girls if I spoke English. I said yes and I actually gave them directions. That is pretty good as it is really easy to get toured around and lost here. Especially with all the numerous little alleyways that jut off of one another. Their transit system is very extensive and they say it is not complicated, but I would beg to differ. I have been able to figure out where I need to go, but not much more. It is really hard to remember the names of areas, even when they are in English. I am not sure if the Amazing Race has been to Seoul, if they haven't it will be coming, I am sure it would be interesting to navigate in that situation.
I did not tell you about the bathroom in my room. It is an all in one room. It is all tile and there is a toilet, sink and shower head in the small room, with no curtin. You adjust the tap on the sink to work the shower head and it drains to a drain in the middle of the floor. It is a neat, space saving idea but leaves the floor very wet for a long time after a shower. At least there has been lots of good hot water as the bathroom is freezing, it has no heat.
Off to Hanoi Vietnam tomorrow.
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