All Around Seoul: Gyeongbokgung, N Seoul Tower, Teddy Bear Museum

The day was set for more Korean escapades. 

First stop, back to the Joseon Dynasty glory days at the Gyeongbok Palace (Gyeongbokgung). Located in Jongno-gu, it's the largest among other palaces such as the Changgyeonggung or the Changdeokgung. The admission fee was 3,000 won. The palace is closed on Tuesdays.  

Recalling that day, the "palace feeling" had started to seep through the atmosphere as we stepped off the train into the Gyeongbokgung station. The design of the hallway towards the exit and the decorations placed alongside the wall indicated that we've arrived at the correct destination. 

Right away we came across the National Palace Museum of Korea. We didn't go visit this place. I thought we might do it later, but we didn't. The admission is free for this museum.     

 

It was about 9:00 a.m. We were just in time to witness the procession of the guards. Lovely! 

  

   

Mind you, all the procession and the guards patrolling was at the palace gate area. We haven't got into the palace yet. I honestly did not expect to catch the guards upclose and personal hehe... After much excitement, we got onto the palace ground (where the 3,000 won ticket was required) and explored more of the area.  

 

Such nice weather at such a pretty photography location. We then saw the free offer of costume tryout! This was great! Not an opportunity to miss out, yea :) Too bad there weren't enough hanbok, therefore some of us had to resort to becoming the officers/guards. Err...I shall refrain from sharing too much and just put here a nice guarded pose of us. 

Note on kdrama: reminds us of Sungkyungkwan Scandal or other period drama, right? ;-)

Gyeongbokgung can be reached by Seoul Metro Line 3 (orange colour): Gyeongbokgung station. 

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Next stop, Namsan Park. Namsan (loosely translated as South Hill) is Seoul's main peak and once marked the farthest southern extent of old royal Seoul. The N Seoul Tower stands tall at 236m, and with the location being on top of the hill it reaches up to 483m above sea level. Another point not to forget, this is the location of many kdrama scenes :) 

From lunch at Itaewon, we took a bus that brought us halfway up the hill. Aside from the bus, you can also take a taxi or a cable car. From the drop-off point, it's all walk and climb for about 10-15 minutes to the Seoul Tower entrance. 
Note on kdrama: the cable car station was seen in Boys Over Flowers


Gosh there were so many people around! I forgot to mention that the day of our visit was on Children's Day, a public holiday in South Korea. Naturally, parents would bring their kids out for play, sightseeing, etc. Namsan Park was obviously one of the popular choices. 

At the roof terrace on one side of tower there were thousands of padlocks attached to the fence and some tree-like features. It was believed that whoever attaches his/her padlock here will find unfailing love, all this based on a scene from some tv show I didn't know of. What I do know is that our own drama Awan Dania also incorporated this padlock scene in one of its episodes. Love knows no cheesiness :P

On its own, the tower observation deck and the Teddy Bear Museum cost 9,000 and 8,000 won respectively. We opted for a package of both at 14,000 won. There's a screen displaying the range of ticket numbers that could go up the deck at that time. We had to wait for our turn since there's still many people up there.

While waiting, we went into the Teddy Bear Museums. There were two of that, actually. One told the story of how Korea came into existence and the ancient Korean dynasty, while the other revealed the modern Korea as it is today. It's a creative and veryyyy cute way of telling history. Did I say cute? Yeah, very cute! 

The ancient Korea.... 

The modern Korea...

In the modern display, the popular culture and trend were also mentioned. Just to point a few, actor Bae Yong Joon has got his own spot and teddy. He was one of the earlier ones that made an international breakthrough during the hallyu wave. 

Another one was the Nanta Cooking show. It's an internationally known stage act by actors making sounds and music from kitchen utensils while cooking. I missed this show when it came to Malaysia, and I didn't go watch it while I was at Jeju. Sigh..suddenly feel like a loser. Oh, crap! 

Alas, it was time for the observation deck. After getting on the superfast Shocking Elevator, the view was....not so much. I dunno, maybe it's just me or maybe it was in the afternoon and the hot sun didn't help my vision. Perhaps it's better after sundown. The place was open until 11.30 p.m. 

Namsan can be reached by many ways. Our way was to take the local bus no. 02 from Itaewon that took us directly to Namsan Park. For alternative ways from various subways and bus stops click here. 

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