Seoul, S. Korea Day 2: Palaces & Towers

Greetings from seoul once again! The temperature is still at absolute zero outside (ok I exaggerate somewhat, but this morning around 7:00 am the temperature was 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius). I can only imagine what the wind chill was like - definitely below 0 Fahrenheit! I still can't get over just how freggin cold it is here - but somehow, I braved it today and did some outdoorsy things...

So as I said, I woke up around 7:00 am and realized that I've already missed the window for the yoga practice, but thankfully they also offer an afternoon session (usually -- more on that later). No worries, I'll just take my time and go eat my free breakfast again in the executive lounge. Even though the food is so-so, I honestly really like going up there and eating as much as I want. I think I'll have breakfast there for the rest of my time in Seoul - no need to brave sub-artic temperatures if I don't have to, right? :-) What's more, the receptionist now remembers my name (just needs to remember my room number). "Good morning Mr. Welch - may I have your room number please?" "Mr. welch is everything satisfactory?" "Thank you Mr. Welch - have a pleasant day!" The staff here at the Millenium Seoul Hilton are amazing - everyone greets you, everyone seems to remember my name!! Am I a celebrity? Because this hotel is enormous (22 floors), Lord knows how many rooms, like 10 restaurants, a casino, upscale shopping. Yes I do enjoy my Hiltons :-)

I head back to my room after breakfast, and figure out what I really want to do for the day. I had written down a list of things I want to see, but half of them are outside, and I was hesitant to spend a lot of time out there because it's so miserably cold. Wait a second Jeff - stop being a pussy and get out there and see the city! (This one's for my friend Jaime at work - GAP and STFU, we'll see if he's really reading this). Geese my inner dialogue can be so harsh - what's my problem anyway?

So I really would like to see one of the palaces - there are at least 5, maybe more I don't know. I choose the palace that seems to give the most bang for the buck and decide on Changdeokgung ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changdeokgung ), which itself isn't that far from the Seoul metro. It seems to be a HUGE complex, maybe even 2 palaces combined together, and something called a Secret Garden. I walk out of the hotel, and realize now I can start taking pictures - I have to find a way to do it and not have my hands fall off, because you good people wanna see PICS! I know I know :-) So here are some - the first few just outside my hotel:




And a few shots along the street to the closest metro stop, just to give you an idea of what things look like:





And a few shots of the Seoul Metro






I should detail a little more about the Seoul Metro and how utterly fabulous it is! Every entrance and exit has its own number, just as every line has its own number (and color), and there are maps everywhere to tell you which exit ends up where. So there's no confusion as to what side of the street you're on, the direction you will be facing, etc. Don't let the names fool you - they're not that bad, and all the announcements are in Korean first, then English, and it's very clear. This time, I enter at Line # 4 (Hoehyeon stop), Entrance/Exit # 4, travel east to Chungmuro where I transfer to Line # 3 going northbound to Anguk station. This is the station closest to my chosen Palace complex...

I exit, walk about 10 minutes east along the road and voila, there's the palace gate! Here are pics of the palace gate:





You can see the complex is surrounded by lots of urban development, modern concrete, honking horns of cars, etc. That's kind of what happens to any historical site it seems - true in India, true in the U.S. too (i.e. The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas is the perfect example - this is something similar to that case). You'll also notice how my scarf is covered around my face, exposing just my eyes. If I didn't have this, I would probably die...

In order to pass through the gate, you have to buy a ticket at the adjacent ticket office. I figured it would be like 8,000 to 10,000 Won, but honestly it was only 2,000 Won - no big deal at all. Secondly, they announced over loudspeakers that an English language tour was about to start and to meet in front of the gate. On any other day I would have done this, but A) There was no one else there and B) I was on a trial basis with seeing how long I could survive outside, so I didn't want to be stuck and not be able to leave when I wanted. So I decided to wander around on my own like I normally do...

The entrance is nice, very wide open spaces, lots of ornate decorations and ornaments along the buildings. I am not familiar with architecture in eastern Asia, so if I wasn't actually in Korea, I couldn't tell you whether I was looking at Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or any other architectural style. Interestingly enough, the characters that were written on the buildings look Chinese to me - Korean writing always seems to have the circles (0) in it. Oh well...

Here are some pics around the compound:


















I walked around for about an hour (ironically enough!!), and decided I had enough and wanted to move on to the next item on my list - a visit to the N. Namsung Seoul Tower ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_Seoul_Tower ). This tower is very famous in Seoul and identifiable around the world as a landmark for the city. My hotel is right near it and I see it clearly out of my window. I hop back on the subway and get out at the correct stop, walk up some steep terrain to an interesting outdoor elevator that takes you up the mountain side to a cable car station that whisks you all the way up to the base of the tower (as the entire complex sits at the top of a big hill). Here are some pics of the outdoor elevator:







Once there, you enter into the cable car ticket office and buy your ticket for the trip up to the top. Alternatively you can walk it, but honestly that's not happening today :-) Besides cable cars are cool. Here are some pics of the ride up the cable car:







Once at the top you arrive at a platform that gives you even more shots of the city (I'll omit those from the blog because they ended up being lesser quality than what you can see from the top of the tower). Guess what? Yup it's another ticket to buy to go to the top of the tower - none of this is very expensive though - no more than 8,000 Won for anything (i.e. similar to $8 USD). Before I head up the elevator to the top, I take a pit stop to the restroom and find something interesting that's posted just above the urinal:



So.... this is the fastest elevator in the world eh? Why is it called "Shocking" though? Is there more to this elevator's purpose than to just take you to the top? Are you electrocuted along the way? Actually, when you're inside, they ask you to look at the top of the elevator while you go up, because there are LCD screens that show you blasting off into space. I guess combine that with the actual speed of the elevator and it makes you think you're really going fast. I didn't think so though - I don't know. That whole "Shocking" thing wasn't that shocking and kind of cheesy, IMO...

Anyway, the observation deck (fully enclosed and heated!) is really cool. They play loud Korean pop music (known as K-pop...think Backstreet Boys or N'Sync but in Korean, at least that's what it sounds like to me). The views are spectacular and show you just how large and sprawling of a city Seoul is. It seems to go on forever!!! I felt similar when I was in Bangkok, but I get a better perspective here (if you look closely, one of the pics is of the Hilton, where I am currently staying :-) ):












Oh look - another "shocking" item. These are steps to.... the window.... do they drop? No, maybe creak a little but I don't think that's intentional. Can someone please explain this whole "shocking" thing???

Another cool thing - since you walk 360 degrees around the observation deck, they show you the direction that other cities will be in, and how far away they are from this very point:




I'm there for about 30 minutes and decide to leave if I want to make it to yoga on time. So I head down the elevator, down the steps, down the cable car, and then down the other steps adjacent to the first outdoor elevator (yes it was a process to get down!), and walk back to my hotel since it was already within walking distance. Cool I can cut through Shinsegae department store again (mentioned in the previous blog entry) which directly connects to the metro, which I can use to go underneath the street and avoid all the crazy traffic above...

I get back to the hotel, grab my yoga gear, and raelize I've got about 1 hour to get to the Yoga Shala. From my research online, it seems the shala is all the way on the southeastern part of town, not too far from the Olympic Village (remember Seoul is an Olympic city, hosting it during 1988). Do you know how long it took me to get there? 3 subway lines later, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Geese that was farther than I realized! Yet it still seems like a big city with huge skyscraper apartments, traffic, pedestrians, etc...

Anyway, the directions they gave on their website were pretty good and helped me to easily find the building - though it was tucked away from the street. I went in the building and up the stairs to the floor that has the studio. I walk in, and 2 nice girls are sitting at the desk, and they smile at me. "Am I too late for Mysore practice?" "Oh sorry - today Moon Day - cannot practice..."

Umm.... no it's not, yesterday was a moon day. Oh wait - yesterday was a moon day on the eastern time zone in the United States... Today is the moon day for this part of Asia. Really?? So what I thought was a moon day yesterday was actually not?? UGH!!! I didn't plan that one right, did I? And I came all this way. But the owner (Li I think?) asked me to sit down and warm up a bit. She offered a space on one of the steps inside, brought over a heater and sat down next to me. We talked about yoga, about my travels, about Ashtanga Vinyasa, about Mysore, about The Practice, about Guruji - she was so sweet and warm! Then she brought me into the studio so I could see what it looks like. A really nice space for sure! Hopefully I can practice before I leave Seoul - this time though, I'll need to reserve at least 1 1/2 hours for transit time, just to be conservative...

So after our small chat, I pack up and head back the metro. About 1 hour later I arrive back in my hotel room, and decide to do my own practice in the room. It felt REALLY good because it has been a few days since I've practice, given everything that's been happening, the way I've been feeling, etc. After the practice I've really not done much - just sitting here and typing all this out for you fine folks...

Tomorrow - I go check out the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ)! You know, the 38th parallel? The dividing border between North and south Korea? A tour is offered on this and, upon my request, was arranged by the hotel concierge. This is probably the closest I will ever get to seeing North Korea. I need to be downstairs at 8:10am tomorrow, so I better get some sleep...

Good night, Namaste & Love from Seoul!