Seoul Adventures

Me at the changing of the guards (notice my inappropriate dress)

I got out of the airport!

11 hours in an airport – even a lounge – just doesn’t seem like a good idea.  I followed a number of blog entry posts and decided to go to see Gyeongbokgung Palace.   Actually, perhaps I decided to see the Changdeokgung Palace  – which is on the UNESCO world heritage list.  However, the really helpful person at the information booth sent me right out to a bus to go to Gyeongbokgung.  Not right out. First she sent me to the stores on the third floor, where I procured a fleece.  I’m dressed in shortsleeves and shorts – and this morning it was -2 degrees Centigrade here (about 29 degrees Fahrenheit.)  Now I could have figured that out and left my fleece out of the checked luggage.  Oh well.

One other piece of unhappy news.   Early reports suggested that North Korea apparently sunk a South Korean naval vessel last night.   Later reports suggest that the vessel might have had an explosion not related to the tension between the two Koreas.  Seoul is perched diretly on the border – so although it’s a capital city it is also a potential frontier town if there is any broader conflict.   Let’s hope not.

Everyone is hugely helpful here – there were red-shirted transportation employees who knew I needed a helping hand as soon as they saw me, and whether at immigration, customs, or driving a bus – everyone wants to help. (Not everyone speaks English of course, but anyone’s English is better than my Korean!)

The roads leaving the airport are massive – imagine the Jersey Turnpike with almost no cars on it – going through a wasteland of landfill surrounding the new airport.  The ride on the airport  bus was uneventful (though a bit cold even in my newly-purchased extra fleece).  The driver spoke no  English, but made sure I knew when the stop came. As I got out of the bus, it was clear this was the right stop, but it was totally inapparent where the palace and the National Museum are!  Luckily, it was crystal clear where the police were (all over the place), and the pointed me in the right direction where the old royal buildings are just 2 blocks away form the heavily commercial district of the bus stop.

For placental burial (for the royalty only)

I wandered through the Museum – which has English translation for perhaps 1/3 of its exhibits – many of the rest of these are self-explanatory.   However, this trip has helped me see what a disadvantage it is to not understand the language where I’m traveling.  I had no idea that the Koreans revere their royal family – which brought Korea into the community of nations in the late 19^th century and pioneered improving relations with the rest of the world. I  also would not have guessed how much trouble they took to appropriate bury the placentas of royals - and early childhood education for the prince started in the womb!  

Korea's royal rule came to a dramatic end in 1910, when Japan annexed Korea – where it would plunder the peninsular nation’s resources and people until the end of World War II.   The last survivor of the royal family line died in 1950.

The Palace itself reminds me of the Forbidden City in Peking – but it’s not quite as big, and it is swarming with kids on field trips.  It’s also been restored lovingly, but there are big skyscrapers virtually touching the Palace grounds, and fighting against development here seems like a lost cause.  One more Asian incongruity is LED billboards and lights flashing upon the ancient palace grounds. The palace had ceremonial changing of the guard, and one of the staff shot my photo after asking “You cold?”  You can get a sense of this by looking at everyone else’s dress.

I had a nice hot chocolate (accompanied by Goldongbon – the royal version of bimbimbop -- at the museum coffee shop after freezing on the palace grounds.  I picked up a quick Korea travelog for the plane at the museum gift shop (Peep into at Korea, Kevin Hayes, 2005).  I was a bit disturbed to read of gastroenteritis from Korean food just as I was finishing some myself.  I skipped the Kim Chi this time – since I’m on the way home and trying to avoid a garlic dose.

Then I hoped to return to Incheon International Airport via subway –  anything to avoid standing outside in my thin fleece waiting for the bus. I found a very helpful employee who explained carefully the two transfers I’d have to make and suggested it would take two hours.  I thanked him (Come sah me don)  and went directly to the bus stop, where the same driver who dropped me off arrived quickly doing the return run. 

Next I’ll be boarding Asiana 202 to LAX – and it’s a daylight flight but I need to figure out how to sleep during that 12 hours otherwise I won’t be able to function at all when I get to the States.  I inadvertently left my zolpidem (generic Ambien) in my checked luggage, so I went to a pharmacy here where they suggested a very high dose of Benadryl.  I bought it just in case.