My Mum has been asking me forever if she can go on a trip that I plan and this was to be it. High expectations called for lots of planning and I am very happy with how it turned out. It was relatively busy and we saw almost all of the UNESCO sites, Hillman Wonders, Michelin 3-star tourist attractions etc. In case you're planning a trip, I'll outline what we did. The general plan was
- Seoul 3 days
- Jeju 1.5 days
- Haeinsa Temple 1 night
- Gyeongju 2 days
Here's the major stuff we saw in and around Seoul.
Changdeokgung Palace
One of the better palaces (similar enough to the others that you could be happy just coming here) with the bonus of the Secret Garden. Unfortunately we were there in late March when Spring hadn't really started so a lot of it was dead, but the pavilions surrounding pools were still pretty and the tour was interesting. Note that the secret garden can only be visited by joining a free tour and it may need to be reserved in advance. We went on the last tour of the day which finishes after the closing time for the palace. I thought they'd kick us out straight away but they actually let us wonder around the palace for another 30 minutes with no other tourists which was nice.
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| Main palace building - deserted! |
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| Secret Garden |
Gyeongbokgung Palace
Apparently the best palace. Quite large - lots of buildings and a few museums too.
Jongmyo Shrine
This is where shrines of most of the kings of the Korean Joseon Dynasty are. It is usually only accessible on a guided tour but the tour was very interesting, explaining both about the dynasty and their beliefs in spirits. Outside was a park where many people were playing Go (and it was a weekday). I also saw some Go games on TV.
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| Jongmyo Shrine |
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| Playing Go |
Hwaseong Fortress
About 90 minutes on the train from Seoul, this is a pretty large now built up area surround by walls. We skipped the palace in the centre (in favour of other palaces) but did check out the martial arts demonstration.
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| Fortress walls from outside |
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| One of the 24 types of martial arts they demonstrated |
Mt Namsan
It's in the middle of the city with pretty good views (good enough that I didn't bother going up the tower). There are some "trees" and fences where couples can leave a lock, in the same way that couples do in Paris except here they don't mess around with trying to pack as many locks in as possible. We took the bus up for sunset which was easy and cheap.
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Nanta show
It's a comedy / drumming / knife wielding show with a cooking theme. I went because of the good ratings on TripAdvisor. I have to agree that it's probably enjoyable for almost everyone.
DMZ
Not in Seoul, but done as a one day trip out of Seoul, the Demilitarized Zone is the approximately 4km wide strip of land separating North and South Korea. I have become really fascinated with North Korea and spent most of the day being contrarian (maybe they really are the ones who are happy and everything South Korea tells us is wrong), which actually wasn't particularly difficult since the tour includes about as much propaganda and rules as they accuse North Korea of.
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My first site of North Korea was confusing - what are all those trucks
doing coming from the North? I thought the border was closed?!
Well, those were trucks coming from the Kaesong Industrial Complex
in North Korea where many North Koreans work (for low wages)
manufacturing parts for South Korean companies such as Samsung and
LG. Those trucks are bringing back the goods. The Complex was
shutdown just after we were there.
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This is the desk where talks between the
two sides occurs. It is in the middle of the
building which is half in each country.
North sits on the right, South on the left.
At the end is a South Korean soldier. He's
only there temporarily to protect us in
case any North Koreans should show up!
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A South Korean soldier in the foreground
stands half behind a building (to make the
target smaller). The white building in the
background is the North Korean building -
you can see a North Korean soldier on the
lowest floor above and to the left of the
South Korean soldier. The raised concrete
half way along the blue building is the
border. We were not allowed to take photos
towards the south i.e. of the South Korean
building. Don't worry - I'll take one when I
visit the north :)
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Close up of the North Korean soldier after he went and got some
binoculars to check us out. |
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Our US Army guides in the JSA. For some reason they did
not seem amused when they said "Don't point at the North
Koreans" while they were pointing themselves and
everyone laughed :) Here, North Korea is on three sides of
us. Between the guides at shoulder height is the southern end of the Bridge of No Return (made famous in the movies Die Another Day and Salt - well, a replica of it anyway). |
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This is "Propaganda Village", the village in North Korea
within the DMZ. We were told it is so named because
North Korea used to broadcast propaganda across the
border. We were not told about the propaganda South
Korea used to broadcast across the border. Note that the
village on the South Korean side is called "Freedom
Village". The flagpole is one of the largest in the world
and was built to beat one built earlier in the South. The
flag weighs 270 kg (595 lb)!
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I highly recommend going on a tour that visits the Joint Security Area (actually inside the DMZ) if you are planning a DMZ tour. It must be booked at least 3 or 4 days in advance. We went with the recommended USO/Koridoor but I wouldn't go with them again*.
Stay tuned for my South Korea Part 2 post and my North Korea post where I try and convince you to join me on a trip there in a few months.
* For those who want the rant about USO/Koridoor: Both the internet and guide books recommended going with USO/Koridoor for the tour of the DMZ. The actual visit to the JSA/Panmunjom is entirely run by the US military with their guides on their buses so that part of the tour will be the same no matter which tour company you go with. As for the rest of the tour, our guide wasn't very good, the tour is more expensive than the others (with a terrible KRW/USD exchange rate) and we were taken to a pretty bad restaurant for a long time after being rushed at various other places (although we weren't taken to the Amethyst Shop that Koridoor goes to on the non JSA tour). My opinion of them isn't helped by the fact that they changed our tour time the day before which meant I had to rebook hotels, car hire and flights to Jeju (though apparently this wasn't their fault). This is probably the most inconvenient thing that's happened to me on a trip :)
