National Folk Museum
Morning comes, and breakfast is at the hotel’s ground floor. This would be the last meal we have involving kimchi. The food in this hotel is okay, I’d rate it second after Daemyung Resort in Gyeongju. I liked the kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap), which is the standout from my meal. Beware, it is spicy. James tries the coffee any chance he gets during breakfast in all our stays. Oh, and we got our order of kim (or nori aka dried seaweed). This kim is reputedly homemade and nowhere as oily as some of the sacheted stuff we had. It cost quite an amount, but we will enjoy it after we go back home.
Our tourmate, Ryneth mentions about Dongdaemun and describes about it since she went there with her bf last night. She’s not satisfied with some of the itinerary I think. Anyway, slight grumblings, although overall, James and I liked our experience. Some of us have a chance to review the city map provided by the hotel. Andrew Ong, asks if the itinerary can be changed or detoured so that after the Gyeongbuk Palace, we go to an oceanarium. Irene explains it’s not possible because the oceanarium is located somewhat far and is south of the Han River (漢江)﹐ taking a detour would not give us much time to get to the airport. So, everybody sticks to the original itinerary designed by Imelda and Irene.
Myeongdong by day, certainly looks and feels different from nighttime. Aside from the obvious, the ambience is different. Our first itinerary of the day, the rotunda of Seoul City Hall plaza. There is one perfect photo point allowed. The plaza is conveniently located where you can view all three mountains that surround Seoul. Just a few meters from where were having our photos taken, there’s an old guy with carrying signs and banners protesting something. We were wondering what he was protesting about. Irene explains something about he wants down with the government or something. Anyway, James takes a photo of the guy and we are on our way.
Next itinerary, the National Folk Museum. while our guide buys tickets for everyone to go inside, there’s a circle of Chinese Zodiac as guardians guarding a tri-partitioned Taegukgi circle. Another excellent photopoint.
Anyway, everybody goes inside the museum. Since time is rather of the essence, I think Irene figured how long it will take to look around inside the museum in an hour or two of touring. The museum is divided into 3 aspects. The first is about ancient Korean life. From the time when Koreans lived in strawhuts to when they have kings. There’s lots of interesting and intricately detailed dioramas. Included in the dioramas is how Koreans prepared their kimchi.
There’s also displays how the royalties of the three kingdoms are dressed. There’s even a display of the different kimchis available. It’s more than just the spiced pickled cabbage everyone is familiar with.
Another section is the life and death cycle of Koreans. Korean babies who reach one year of age, are given various stuff which are supposed to give you an idea of what they will be. Some of the stuffs I saw include money, scissors, and thread. Nowadays, the computer mouse is also included. Maybe pro-gamer?
Also, becoming 60 is a milestone in the old days. Remember, life expectancy used to be short due to disease and wars. Also 60 represents completion of living through all the various permutations of the Chinese Zodiac. So, if one becomes 60, theres a very big festivity going on. Lots of food stacked. Some of them are fruits stacked in a way that you have to wonder how they could do it. Some displays have alarms that go off if you plan to touch them. We kept tripping them to the annoyance of a couple nearby local tourists. Sorry!
There’s lots of text on every scene or specimen but there’s no way you can read all of them. We finish all three rooms, and just outside the room is a souvenir shop. It’s got souvenirs and even books. The Korean books I saw are designed to be read left to right, top to bottom like English, though I imagine you can also do the Chinese way of top to bottom, right to left. There’s another exhibit not part of the itinerary. While everyone is still in the souvenir shop or taking a leak, Ryneth and I go sneak to the special exhibit. I can’t recall what it was about, but it was worth it. It’s too bad that we only had one camera brought along and James was holding it.
Time’s up, and it’s time to move to the next, Gyeongbuk Palace…
