Palaces, palaces and more palaces in Seoul

I had a deal with my friend... I agreed to visit one palace. Then we were supposed to shop. After I bought something, we could do another palace again. You get the drift, it was a deal that we were going to take turns and all that.

However, for some reason, we ended up visiting one palace after another (and by default because I pointed the wrong palace to the cab driver) another.

As a tourist who does not speak the language, getting around is not that easy in Korea. But if you're armed with good advice from the concierge, and a good map, you can normally just hop in taxi (they are very cheap in Korea compared to Singapore if you jump into any other color except for the black cabs which cost double) and point to the place on the map that you want to go to. The subway is also pretty easy to navigate. It's just hard to walk with the freezing wind so it becomes easier to just take a cab since it's not expensive.

Korea is also one of the places where entrance fees to the palaces are very cheap.
Our first stop was Gyeongbokgung Palace because it's on a lot of Top Things to Do in Seoul lists. Admission Fee is KRW3,000 (SG$3.50 or Php120). Train stop: Gyeongbokgung. My friend wanted to go on a palace tour and we agreed to come along because the tours were free. The one we took with the English speaking guide was at 11:00am. We just sort of walked with the crowd, took our own pictures, then ran after them until we gave up halfway through the tour and decided it was time to move on to the next palace.

Here are some of my pictures of Gyeongbokgung Palace:

Entrance to the Palace

It's right beside the mountains. It was freezing!

I love the detail on the roof

We came too early for spring... Booo!

They were practicing for some event.

The beautiful lake.

This is the tour group we joined and abandoned.

Almost too tall for this door way.

More under the roof shots.

They were still practicing after our tour.

This guy has the cushy job.
Check out how strong the wind is. The umbrella is being blown away.

Our next stop was Changdeokgung Palace which includes the famous Secret Garden. The lady at the information booth discouraged us from taking a taxi and gave us instructions to take the bus instead, but I guess that got lost in translation because we could not find the bus stop, and when we asked the police where we could take a cab, he told us to just stick our hands out. Hahaha.

We ended up at Changgyeonggung Palace instead because I pointed to the wrong place on the map. It looked all the same to me. Hahaha... yes, both in the map and the actual palaces. Entrance to the Changgyeonggung Palace was even cheaper, it was only KRW1,000 (just a little over SG$1 or around Php40).

This palace was not as well preserved as the first one.

Too early for Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

You can really see the difference of the rooms that were not restored.

This is a room from the first palace for comparison.

You can walk through Changgyeonggung Palace to get to Changdeokgung Palace. Entrance fee: another KRW3,000. Train Stop: Anguk. Entrance to the secret garden is another KRW5,000 but you're required to join a tour and we did not want to wait two hours to join one so I happily gave it up. We were concerned more about getting a group picture since this was the last palace we were visiting this trip. 

This was the peg.

This is what we got.
Photo credit: stranger in the temple

My camera's self timer was so much better.

I think this was where the coronation used to happen.

The post on palaces in Seoul ends here, but Insadong, the traditonal market with Souvenir stores, Art Galleries and Antique Stores is probably a 10min walk away. Abangan and Susunod na Kabata. (wait for the next chapter)

I am so sleepy again. If you are travelling to Seoul and you want more details, just drop me a line. :)