Seoul: Day 5/6 - More sightseeing, a little shopping and heading home

Our last full day in Seoul was a beautiful sunny day! We were headed for Changdeokgung Palace...or at least that was the plan. We arrived (and bought tickets) for what we thought was the Palace, but it turned out we were actually at Jongmyo Shrine. Since it wasn't in our original plan it was a nice sightseeing bonus.

The Jongmyo Shrine is where royal ancestors are enshrined and memorial services are preformed for deceased kings and queens. When a king or a queen died mourning at continue at the palace for three years. After the three year mourning period the memorial tablet of the deceased would be moved to Jongmyo and enshrined. The Jongmyo Shrine has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1995 because it is the only Confucian state in all of Asia that has preserved its royal shrine and continues to preform royal ancestral rites.

This is one of the buildings where the tablets are enshrined.

We did make it to Changdeokgung Palace, it was just a little further down the road. This palace was built in 1405, a secondary palace to Gyeongbokgung. The entire palace was destroyed in a fire in the Japanese invasion of 1592. It was restored in 1610 and served as the main palace for 270 years. There is a secret garden that is only accessed with a guided tour of the facilities. We decided to just wonder on our own and skip the garden (I had read mixed reviews so I didn't feel that we were missing much).

 

As we were exiting form the metro for our next stop, I tripped and fell on the escalator (it was not running at the time). It made a loud noise, I had Baby O in the carrier, there was a large crowd also exiting and it was embarrassing! A nice man ran over to make sure I was ok and help me up. I had bruised/cut knees like a little kid.  Thankfully it was just my knees that were hurt and not Baby O.  Our next stop was to Cheonggyecheon Stream (I forgot to take pictures here). It was not as exciting as I thought it was going to be, but I did read that going at night is better because there are many colorful lights. After walking along the stream for a little bit we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a snack.

Before heading back to the hotel I had one other thing to do, I was in search of some shoes that I had seen at a store in the metro station. We retraced our path from the previous day (when I had seen the shoes) but couldn't find the shop.  We had just given up when J was looking for a restroom and their they were! And they had my size! Hooray!

Dinner on our last night in Seoul was delicious! I believe that it is called dak galbi, it was a spicy tomato based sauce with chicken, cabbage, potato, onions, carrots and tteok (a rice cake that looked like giant noodle).  All of this was cooked on a round cast iron skillet in the middle of our table. (Thankfully no one asked to hold Baby O, he actually fell asleep while our food was cooking.)

The next day was a long one but uneventful day. We spent pretty much all day at airports (in VERY long lines at Incheon). It was a great trip but we were ready to be home.

Seoul: Day 4 - A Palace, a Caprisun and a Temple, oh my!

On the forth day we headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was orgininally built in 1395, just after the Joseon Dynasty was founded. Gyeongbokgung means "the palace greatly blessed by heaven". The palace was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of 1592-'98. A secondary palace, Changdeokgung, was constructed and served as the main palace. Gyeongbokgung was left deserted  until 1867 when it was reconstructed by the Prince Regent. This rebuild was mostly torn down during the Japanese occupation of Korea. In 1990 a restoration effort began, starting with the Heungnyemun Gate.

 

Baby O was a rockstar in Korea! J could hardly walk through the crowd. He got stopped often for pictures, and people oohing/aahing over Baby O. Baby O is usually a good sport about it and smiles at everyone. It is fun (but also a little annoying) to see how excited people get about Baby O.

 

The Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds also houses the Korean Fold Museum. It was not a very big museum, but it was fun to see some historical objects, traditional clothing and traditional daily life of the Korean people.

1981 the year of the rooster

As we were leaving Gyeongbokgung Palace we were able to see the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards ceremony is only done for tourist. It was fun to see the traditional clothing.

 

Next we headed to Insa-dong which is a neighborhood in Seoul to get a quick bite to eat. There is a walking street in Insa-dong with many shops, cafes, small street vendors and street food. After our snack we wanted to find the cocktail vendor that a friend had told me about. She called them adult caprisun's. We got a mojito to share, it was very tasty. After our drink we headed to Jogyesa Temple. There was a pretty building housing a big gold Buddha and some people praying. (There were signs no picture sign up, so I don't have any of this part of our day.)

 

 

After the temple we headed back to our hotel to rest a bit before dinner. Getting back to the hotel took a little longer than it should have because we accidentally got on the wrong train. Thankfully we only went two stops out of our way and there was a nice man that pointed us in the correct direction and told us where we needed to transfer.

 

Before dinner we stopped at a little (and I do mean little) bar that had some of its seating pretty much on the road. After our beers we went to dinner, it was kind of like a teppanyaki restaurant with a flat cooktop in the center of our table. I am not sure what it is called. They had a set menu option that we tried. It was good and there was a ton of food,  a pork chop, steak, a few shrimp a hamburger patty and some vegetables.

Seoul: Day 3 - War Memorial of Korea

On our third day in Seoul we planned to do some indoor activities because there was rain in the forecast. We headed to the War Memorial of Korea, we ended up spending the entire day there. Both J and I found the museum to be very interesting. There are six indoor exhibition rooms and also an outdoor exhibition displaying military equipment. We didn't get to enjoy the outdoor area much, because of the rain.

There were many weapons and vehicles on display.  Below is a picture of a Hwacha, which is a mobile firearms launcher used during the Joseon Dynasty, one of the many weapons we saw. It was used to kill and injure large groups of people with one shot.

The majority of the memorial was devoted to the Korean War. I did not know much about this time in Korean history. This section started with June 25, 1950 and worked its way through the war. There was a interesting section on the UN countries that helped South Korea.



We didn't leave the museum until about 5pm. We decided to just head back to the hotel to rest before dinner.  For dinner we walked about a block away to a BBQ restaurant. The menu was only in Korean, thankfully our waitress spoke some English. 

We had beef and some soju (Korean rice wine). There were also some side dishes of pickled vegetables, kimchee and scrambled egg with green onions. It was all very tasty. There was an older woman who worked for the restaurant that offered to hold Baby O while we were eating. This happens often in China as well, I have never taken anyone up on the offer, but I looked at J and we both said sure why not. I was thinking that she would just stay by our table, but I should have known that wasn't going to be the case. She took Baby O on a tour of the restaurant showing him to everyone and into the kitchen too. There was another patron that wanted to have his picture taken with Baby O, she passed him to the man and Baby O looked up at him and started to cry.

The gentlemen in the middle of this photo is the one who wanted a picture with Baby O.

 

Seoul: Day 2 - The great hike to the N Seoul Tower

N Seoul Tower

Our second day in Seoul had a slow start, we all slept later than usual since we were up so late. We tried to leave our hotel a couple of times, but we had to go back to get forgotten items. At about 11:30 we were finally heading to the metro station. The closest station to our hotel was approximately half a mile away.

We started our walk in the wrong direction so we took a little short cut through an alley, this alley happened to be part of the open air meat market. (I meant to get a picture but I forgot because I was too busy holding my breath every time we walked by.) J said it didn't smell that bad, but I think there is something wrong with his nose. Each day to and from the metro we walked past people sawing frozen meat on the sidewalk, pig faces, cow heads, pig/cow trotters, innards, etc. It was interesting to see but at the same time I wish I hadn't seen it.

The Seoul metro was pretty easy to use. The ticketing stations had an English option, the signs were in Korean and English, and the announcements were made in both Korean and English. Each ride was just over $1.00 (USD). For the one way tickets you pay a deposit on the card, when you return it you get $0.50 back.  We were on the south west side of the city and most of the tourist attractions were on the north side, this mean for long metro rides, about 45 minutes each way. On this particular day we had to make a transfer which wasn't hard, there were many signs pointing us in the right direction. We were headed for the N Seoul Tower.

The Seoul Tower is located at the highest point in the center of the city on Namsan Mountain. Building of the 777 foot tower was completed in 1971. We didn't have exact directions to the tower, I figured that there would be signs, and that it would be hard to miss since it is a giant tower on top of a hill. We started walking toward it after getting off the metro. We went in the wrong direction for a little bit, but we eventually found the correct stairs and started climbing and then we continued climbing FOREVER! There were SO.MANY.STAIRS!

 

We decided that the view of the city was good enough from the top of Namsan Mountain and did not pay to take the elevator up the observatory level of the tower. Tickets for an adult were 9,000 Won and children 3-12 were 5,000 Won (about $9 and $5 USD). It wasn't a completely clear day, but the view was still nice. We also got to see the "locks of love". There are many other cities that have similar places were couples leave their locks, most cities consider it vandalism and have the locks removed. This does not happen in Seoul, I believe they even had some metal trees and hearts built so more there would be more space for locks.

As we were heading to the gondola (we did things backwards, we should have ridden the gondola UP the hill and walked down!) we noticed a crowd forming around some people in traditional Korean outfits. We stopped to watch as they were getting ready for a performance. There were men with large swords cutting bamboo and bundles of straw and drummers. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Baby O was only interested for a short time. It was also time for us to get a late lunch (it was about 3pm at this point).

We got some spicy fried chicken for lunch. It was very good, kind of a sweet and sour and spicy tasting. The waitress gave us some gloves to keep our hands from getting messy.

After lunch we headed to Namdaemun Market. We got off the metro at Hoehyeon Station. This is a large and busy market. It seemed like you could buy just about anything here, from clothes to shoes, jackets, purses, underwear, slippers, fruit, toys, fish, belts, scarves, fabric, Seoul souvenirs and I'm sure more. We walked around for a little bit, but didn't buy anything. I'm sure if you were in the mood for some bargain shopping this would be the place to go. After the market we headed back to the hotel. Baby O was ready to out of his carrier and our feet were ready for a rest.

Seoul: Day 1 - Getting There

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We took our first (hopefully of many) vacations here in Asia. October 1st is National Day in China and to celebrate J's office was closed from Oct. 1st to Oct. 7th.  We took advantage of the time off and headed to Seoul, South Korea.

Our first day was a Very.Long.Day! We left our apartment at 9:30am and we got to our hotel at about 1:30am. We were thinking that the airport was going to be busy because of the Chinese holiday, we were wrong. We had plenty of time to get some thing to eat and relax a little before our flight to Qingdao, China where we had a three hour layover. Our next flight was a quick one and got us to Incheon Airport around 9:30pm.

After waiting in the long customs lines and then getting our bags we got to our bus stop a little before the last bus left the airport at 11:00pm.  The hotel website had instructions of which exit to take to get to the correct bus stop for our hotel. The ride from Incheon to Seoul took about 45 minutes. We arrived at the hotel and tried checking in, but it turned out that our reservation was at a different location! We were at the Novotel Ambassador in the Gangnam neighborhood, but we were supposed to be in the Doksan neighborhood! Ick! I was very upset with myself for not checking the itinerary closer, it didn't help that it was past midnight and I had a cranky six month old. It was the first time I had booked a flight/hotel combo through Expedia. (I don't know that I will do it again.) The Gangnam hotel helped us get a taxi, which took about 30 minutes to arrive then we had to drive to the other side of town! We didn't get checked in to the correct hotel until about 1:30 am.  Baby O had a quick diaper change, a bottle and then it was finally bedtime for everyone.

Before leaving for Seoul I got a tip from a friend that we should stop at the Olleh counter in the airport.  This was a great idea!  We picked up an Olleh wireless router that we used throughout our trip. It worked out to be approximately $8.50/day and it was worth every penny. There were many counters, although not a lot of the counters were open past 10pm. It is important to remember which counter you rented the router from as you will need to return it to the same counter.

I will be breaking up our trip by day so each post isn't overwhelmingly long. Also, I promise there are more pictures in your future!

About our new city

Suzhou, China was founded in 514BC. The city is located approximately an hour and half (50 miles) west of Shanghai. As of 2010 there were 10 million people who called Suzhou home. 

A (not so great) map of where we are

Our new home town is often called the 'Venice of the east' for the many canals that are found throughout the city. In addition to the canals Suzhou has many gardens, about 150, which bring many tourists to the area. Tourism is not Suzhou's only industry, there is also a lot of silk production and in the 1980's many factories were built to produce machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and processed foods. 

So far we have seen: the Humble Administrators Garden, part of Old Town, Tiger Hill and the North Temple Pagoda. There is so much more of Suzhou for us to explore!

 

On the Move

Well it only took me two weeks (and many failed attempts) but I finally got a good video of Baby O crawling!

Here he is pulling himself up on the couch.

The first day he crawled (Sept. 16th) it was a short distance, this lasted for a few days. Now, he is on the move! Crawling everywhere, on everything and even pulling himself up on the couch, coffee table, my legs, what ever he can get to. It is fun to watch him explore!

Here he is, crawling: (If you have any trouble viewing the video let me know and I will try fixing it.)
Crawling from Erin on Vimeo.


Now, I'm off to baby proof this apartment!  :)

30 Day Check-in

Before leaving Seattle J and I were in a PEPS group. Each week at our meetings we would say our highs and lows for the week. Since today marks the 30th day in China for Baby O and me,  I thought that I would do the same for our time in China.  I'll start with my lows and end on a high note.

The Lows

1. Missing family & friends - This comes as no surprise. I knew this was going to be the hardest part for me. My first week was particularly hard and lonely (Baby O isn't much of a conversationalist and J is gone from 7AM to 7PM). Just before leaving Seattle I had been on my maternity leave and I had something planned almost every day. There were baby groups, paly dates, dog park outings, lunches/dinners/happy hour with friends, breakfast out with my parents and walks around Greenlake. I am slowly finding more to keep me busy, and my mind off what I am missing back in the USA. I've go coffee meet ups, a baby group, Skyping with family and I am taking Mandarin lessons twice a week.

2. Language barrier - Simple tasks like ordering lunch or dinner are no longer simple. A lot of restaurants have pictures menus or English menus which helps, but they aren't perfect you, could end up mistakenly ordering cows stomach! Grocery shopping is now a daunting task, not only do I not know what ingredients I can get, I have no idea where to find them or how to ask a store clerk for help. As I said above I just started taking Mandarin lessons twice a week which is hard, but will definitely be helpful in the long run.

3. And a couple other things that come to mind: the heat/humidity, not being able to find a decent glass of wine, the ease of having a car and the food.


The Highs

1. My time with Baby O - I feel very blessed to be able to have this time with Baby O. If we were still in Seattle I would have been back at work (which I do actually miss) for about two months now. I can't imagine being away from him all day. I got to see him sit up on his own and crawl for the first time (I'll post a video of this, as soon as I can actually get him to crawl when I have the camera). There are many more milestones that I probably would have missed if I weren't here right now. I am incredibly happy to have this special time with Baby O when he is growing and learning and changing so quickly.

2. Meeting new people - It took me a couple of weeks, but I started meeting some other expats. The people I have met are a very welcoming group of people from all over the world: Germany, USA, Brazil, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Scotland, England. Everyone I have met has offered to show me around Suzhou and given me their phone number in case I need anything. Some have even offered to watch Baby O.

3. And a coupe other highs: big city living, the food (I know this is in the lows too, some food is great, so I wouldn't make for myself) and the smiles of the Chinese people when they see Baby O.

The Leaning Pagoda of Suzhou

Last weekend we saw some of the sites of Suzhou. First we headed to Tiger Hill.  According to legend this is the burial site of King He Lu of the Wu Kingdom. King He Lu is regarded as the founder of Suzhou.  At the top Tiger Hill is the Yunyansi Temple, built in 961 A.D.  This temple is made entirely of brick and it is leaning about 3 degrees because two of its support columns are cracked. This temple is often called the leaning tower of China.

Here are a few pictures from our time at Tiger Hill.

The grounds of Tiger Hill were very pretty. There was a bonsai garden and a bamboo forest as well as some other out buildings before getting up to the temple.  There was also an option to ride a horse drawn carriage or a large golf cart up the hill for an extra fee.

 

Chinese people get rather excited when they see Baby O. It is not uncommon to be stared at or stopped so people can take pictures of him.  Our time at Tiger Hill was no different.  We saw this couple on the other side of the temple just before J took the picture of Baby O and I with the temple above.  They decided to follow us a little bit and then gestured that they wanted to take a picture with Baby O and I. What you can't see in this picture is that the Chinese baby doesn't have any pants on (this is a normal thing here). 

After Tiger Hill we headed to North Temple Pagoda (Beisi Pagoda).  This is a nine story pagoda that you are able to go in. There is a pretty good view, it would have been better if it had been a clearer day. The current pagoda was build during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it is on a historical site dating back 1,700 years. The pagoda was originally eleven stories tall, but had to be shortened because of damage to the top floors.

Here are a few pictures from our time at North Temple Pagoda.

(Our place is near the building above that looks like a pair of pants.)

(The leaning pagoda of Suzhou is in the center of this picture.)