Wandering Fel

Gyeongbokgung Palace was built on 1395 and it is the largest palace amongst the 5 palaces in Seoul. It was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion but later on restored to its original beauty. A lot of visitors to Gyeongbokgung Palace are wearing the traditional Korean costume, hanbok. The hanbok is available for rental at the entrance of the palace and they have both men and women's hanbok. 

Jenny, our local tour guide, informed us that if you are willing to wear hanbok while exploring Gyeongbokgung Palace, the admission fee to the palace will be waived. The hanbok seriously looks so pretty but too bad if you are joining a tour group, most likely you will not have the time to rent the hanbok and explore the palace at your own leisure. Oh right, I have not talked about the house behind these people who were taking picture wearing hanbok at all yet, right? Apologise for my easily distracted trait. Hahaha. 

Gyeongbokgung Palace has so many courthouses like the house behind these two lovely ladies. These courthouses are basically used as office and meeting hall back in those days. If you look closely at the corner of the rooftop of every courthouses, there is a row of monkey statues. The statues are influenced from the story "Journey to the West" (remember the Monkey King?) and it shows the influence of Buddhism teaching back in those day. 

Even though the weather is burning us to the ground, we have to embrace the sun and make our way to admire Geunjeongjeon Hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Geunjeongjeon Hall is the main hall of the palace and this is where the throne is located. You can see the inside of the main hall from near distance however visitors are not allowed to enter the hall. If you would like to explore all these places in detail with guided explanation, you may want to join the free guided tour (which is available in various languages like English, Japanese and Chinese) which starts from the entrance of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The tour guide will explain to you all the main halls of the Gyeongbokgung Palace while wearing hanbok. And the best part is, the guided tour is free. 

Despite the hot weather, Gyeongbokgung Palace is swarmed by so many visitors. Oh right, if I recalled correctly (from my previous visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace), this courtyard is where all the officials and generals are usually standing up in line according to their ranks for important sessions/ ceremonies/ rituals. Do you see the stone statue lining up one after another? Those stones statues are where the generals are standing with the highest rank standing nearer to the King (which I suppose stand in front of Geunjeongjeon Hall) while the lowest, well, standing the furthert from the King of course. I think it is already a great honor for those people who can stand in the presence of the King back in those days. 

After getting our picture taken together as a group, we are done with our exploration (albeit short) of Gyeongbokgung Palace and ready to make our way to a restaurant for lunch. Woohoo. Jenny said we are going to have something different today and it is definitely not another seafood jjigae like what we kept eating in Jeju. Okay, let's start with the side dish juseyoo. 

The bulgogi stew looks like this after cooked. Do you know what makes the bulgogi broth so yummy? It's because of the layer of fats which are initially attached to the meat melts while cooked in a hot pan and seep through the broth. Hahaha yeahh I know it's probably not the healthiest meal in the world but it tastes so good and you can feel both the savoury and a tinge of sweetness of the beef in your mouth. It taste even better when eaten together with white rice and kimchi. Massiseoyo jjinja! 

Gyeongbokgung Palace's admission fee: 

Individual: Adult (19-64 y.o.) 3,000 KRW/ Children (7-18 y.o.) 1,500 KRW

Group (10 pax or more): Adult 2,400 KRW/ Children 1,200 KRW

Integrated palace ticket* is available for 10,000 KRW and valid for 3 months

*Allow visitors access to Changdeokgung Palace (including Huwon, Secret Garden), Changgyeonggung Palace, Deoksugung Palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Jongmyo Shrine

Opening hours:

November to February: 9AM - 5PM

March to May: 9AM - 6PM

June to August: 9AM - 6.30PM

September to October: 9AM - 6PM

Closed on Tuesdays

The hanbok which are worn by Korean people has a lot of layers and accessories. Popular accessories which are used often are tassels and ribbons in many different colors. Looking at the colors, it seems that these are the accessories which are worn by the Koeran ladies. Those ribbons and tassels look very pretty. 

Meanwhile, the men are usually spotted walking around the streets with their hanbok and traditional hat which is called "gat". Hat and gat, oh well they do sound pretty similar to each other. Gat is made from horsehair with bamboo frame and is partly transparent in black color. In those days, only married and middle class men could wear gat because it represented their social status and protected their topknots. 

At the next display next to the gat, we can see a collection of Korean traditional footwear, Hwahyejang. The shoes are classified in Hwa (shoes that go over the ankle) and Hye (shoes that do not cover the ankle). Similar to the gat, at this time, shoes were an important indicator of a person's profession or social status. Each shoes' design, colour and style depend on social caste or occupation of the wearer. The shoes are typically made from leather obtained from cows, pigs and sheeps. One pair of shoes usually takes one week to make. 

The next display is so pretty. It is a hanbok for children, completes with the pouch and socks. Must be for those childrens born in the rich family though. The children of commoners depicted in Korean dramas do not wear such fancy clothes. 

The next installation show us a procession of receiving the bride in Korea. While the procession looks like it's one of those happy occasions, the reality of wedding procession during Joseon era usually full of fear and sadness. This is because the married couple was usually quite young, even children. Their weddings were arranged for mostly political or financial reason. Kinda sad, really. 

Once the bride has arrived, the wedding ceremony begins with a lot of bowing practices involved. It is also quite normal for the royals/ rich men to have concubines in those days. So while the concubines may have the man's attention, the official wife is still the ruler of the house. Ahh, no wonder Joseon dramas end in tragedy mostly. Where is the love?

One fact stays true until this day though, the cost for these wedding ceremonies is high. Omaigat, why can't we have a simple wedding where everyone can enjoy the festivity without incurring so much cost? Oh simple things, where have you gone? Did you ever exist in the first place?

The next section of the exhibit still shows us a lot of food but judging from the way the food stacked, this does not seem to relate to wedding ceremony anymore, doesn't it? The tower of food shown here is for rituals to worship gods and deities which is usually to commemorate the dead. Shudder. 

The Korean also has their own procession to honor the dead. Especially for the deceased royals. A lot of rituals for exorcism (since medicine study was not advanced enough back then, people thought that incurable diseases are caused by evil spirit) were also performed back then to cure away sickness, etc. 

Within one hour of guided-tour, we have learnt and seen so many artifacts from the ancient days of South Korea. I personally feel that it was quite a fun experience and the artifacts shown in National Folk Museum of Korea really have good quality and informative enough for visitors to understand and see the way Korean people live in those days. 

Admission fee:

Free but it's included as part of admission fee paid to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace

Opening hours: 

March - May, September - October: 9AM - 6PM

June - August: 9AM - 6.30PM

November - February: 9AM - 5PM

Weekends and public holidays (May - August): 9AM - 7PM

The airport in the morning was rather quiet although it is most likely because it was an early flight that Golden Rama booked for us. Since we still have time to explore the airport and its lovely convenience stores, we bought some stuff to entertain ourselves with. And this is where I can finally buy the famous banana milk. It has been a while since the last time I drank this milk but I don't remember it being so...sweet. I wonder if my sweet tolerance has gone down quite a fair bit since then. One thing that I am sure is that this banana milk (despite its yumminess albeit a tad too sweet) packs a lot of calories. Definitely not what those skinny Kpop idols drink. Oops, better drink this fast because it seems that our flight is now ready for boarding. 

Anyeong Seoul! Another bright and hot day I see. Our first place to visit in Seoul is the National Folk Museum of Korea which is located inside the complex of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the biggest palace in South Korea. As you can see from the map, the museum is pretty huge and you will need an approximately 1 - 1.5 hours to explore the museum. If you are the studious type who love to read all the information cards on each display, you will probably need at least 2 hours. 

I kinda like checking out those stuff at museum sometimes especially when the weather outside is hot and the museum is equipped with air-conditioner. Museum is one of the perfect places to cool yourself down on a hot summer day or to warm yourself up on a cold winter day. At the same time, it will enhance your knowledge about the place that you visit. Win-win situation?

Welcome to National Folk Museum of Korea. The museum exhibits historical artifacts and tools which were used in the daily lives of Korean people in the past. You can learn about the traditional Korean customs, cultures and how they made a living back in the Goryeo/ Joseon dynasty. We started from the agricultural section where we can see the tools used by the Korean people to draw and carry water. Living life was practically a back-breaking job because the people need to carry the water by using mostly the strength from their back. If you have a lot of family member to feed, you may have to make a few trips to the well. 

The next display shows us the tools that the Korean people used for farming together with their cattles. Their life greatly depended on the harvest time so farming is really important skill to have back then. 

The more advanced tool that they have for agricultural work. Woods seems to be most used material for the tool making in those days. 

Remember the traditional houses that we saw back in Seongeup Folk Village on Jeju Island? National Folk Museum of Korea also have a display of traditional Korean house although it seems that the model that they have belongs to a nobility because the house looks so nice and proper with all the furnitures that are usually used by nobles in those Joseon Korean drama that I watched before. This is how the study room/ home office looks like back then. 

The bedroom looks so comfy and grand too. Do you realise that noble back then like to do bedtime reading before they go to bed? I've read it somewhere that this seems to be one of the habits of successful people but with the advance technology and mobile games, the last thing that I seem to be doing most often before going to bed is...playing phone. #darntsumtsum

Oh the house that I saw in Jeju is available on display here in mini scale. The house looks so cute, the model house even has a dog on the yard. Woof woof~

National Folk Museum of Korea provides guided tour in various languages if you'd like to have a tour guide explaining to you in details on some of the major exhibits. But since we are on a privated guided tour with Golden Rama Tour, our own local tour guide, Jenny, was the one who do all the explanation. In a way, I think our tour moves slightly faster because we need to follow the timeline accurately so that we have time to finish our itinerary for the day. Jenny did a good job in the explanation. Although I suppose if you visit this museum on a weekly basis, you will be more or less remembering all the important details that you need to share with your tour members. Daebak! Hahaha.