By Looks Only

Ugh! I only slept for two hours last night! This is after getting no sleep at all during my long-haul flight. I turned off the lights at about 10pm and I woke up at 12am, hoping that it was already close to 6am, but no luck. I ended up catching on all the latest CFs and music videos (finally saw Big Bang's Hite commercial) as I tossed and turned until my 7am wake-up call.

Instead of taking the KAL bus to Seoul like I did in 2007, I took the more economical Airport Limosine Bus into the city which was a great idea because it allowed me to see all the different neighborhoods in this metropolis. However, this didn't help me orient myself. When the bus dropped me off at my stop, I knew where I was in reference to where I need to be, but I didn't know where I was in reference to everything else (this is why I always prefer walking whenever I'm on travel rather than taking a taxi or a bus).

After finding out that I couldn't check in early, I decided to kill time at Insadong before my 11:30am English tour of Changdeuk Palace. Ahh, Insadong. It looked quite different from what I remembered the last time I was there since traffic is allowed on the weekdays. It was still quite early at 10am so most of the stores haven't gotten their goods set up yet. After going up and down the street, I walked over to Tapgol Park where harabeojis were chillin', dressed up in their coat and dress pants, similar to how I found them in 2007. There were no school kids this time around, but a bus load of tourists arrived shortly after me. They were all ajummas and halmeonis without a camera so I didn't have to wait long before I could get some shots.

Still too early for Changdeukgung, I checked out a Skin Food store. Ahh, this was the start of my "No, I'm not Korean" escapades. Okay, it actually started at the Paris Baguette Cafe in the airport (their cream cheese danish was delish!) when the cashier asked me something (I'm guessing if I wanted a drink to go with it), but ended up just taking my money after she realized I'm not Korean by my confused look.

The Skin Food store just opened so I found one of the sales girls mopping the floor. When she got around to my side of the store, I tried to tell her to go ahead and don't mind me, but she stopped and started asking me questions to which I started shaking my hand at her while smiling. Not wanting to look like I was having an epileptic shock, I asked, "Yong-o haseyo (Do you know English)?" and she said something like, "No, blah blah blah"...at least that's how I interpreted her answer. Perhaps my pronunciation was perfect because she kept uttering more phrases in Korean. I didn't want to pull out my Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook so I ended up just saying "I don't understand. Byane" a couple of times until she left me alone.

When I was paying, I tried to practice what little Korean I knew and said "Odi...Changdeukgung (Where...Changdeuk Palace)?" Unfortunately, she and her co-worker didn't know. I think they knew, but just didn't know how to make it easy for me because the Tourist Information Center told me the longest way to get there (I had to backtrack to the other end of Insadong where I was just at some thirty minutes ago). After leaving the underpass at Angguk station, I didn't find any more Changdeukgung directional signs and was worried that I was going to be late for the tour. Luckily, I found two teenagers who didn't ignore me and pointed me further down the street. By the time I got to the ticket booth, I was almost sweaty (almost because it's hard to be sweaty in the Northern Hemisphere during spring), but right on time for the tour. Woot!

Changdeukgung is huge and pretty. Awesome stuff. Unfortunately, the trees and most of the flowers weren't in bloom yet so the shots were less than picture-perfect. Even Biwon, the Secret Garden, wasn't as picturesque as I hoped it would be.

Going for an authentic eating experience (and since I passed by it a gazillion times just today alone), I ate at a Korean restaurant, which resembled like a hanok, in Insadong. I had a nakji (octupus) dolsot bibimbap for W6,000. Even though I only put two spoonfuls of the sauce in the huge pot, my tongue was flaming and I had to keep on wiping my nose from all the snot that was generated (yummy picture, I know). The kimchi, part of the banchan, actually cooled the temperature down, in addition to the delish anchovies (or delish dilis, if you will) and the full jug of water I chugged down.

After a quick stop to buy a Starbucks mug at the uber-familiar store with the hangul-ized sign, I went back to my hotel to finally check in. In the process, I had to walk up and down Insadong again because I couldn't remember which alley in Insadong I came from earlier (darn those skinny streets). I eventually had to ask the Tourist Information Center to give me a hand.

The highlight of my day? Watching JUMP at the Cinecore Theatre, which was just a stone's throw away from my digs; I love being able to walk to these places! Two of the male actors were cute and there were a couple of parts in the show where they didn't have their shirts on. God is seriously not giving me a reason not to like this city. HaHa! One of the guys even looked like a spitting image of BaeYongJoon, a former flame. If this actor had plastic surgery, I wouldn't be surprised if he told his surgeon to make him look like BYJ because he seriously does. With a nice toned body that only martial arts can bring, I couldn't help but smile throughout the whole show. Yes, I felt guilty for having dirtythoughts since this was a family-friendly show. ;P The show itself was quite entertaining and I highly recommend it, with or without the hot actors.

With the sun still up, I decided to finally orient myself because I totally felt lost by not knowing where everything was. I followed Cheonggye Stream which brought me to the city center-the area that I was familiar with-thanks to Cathy's walking tour in 2007. In the process, I found a Rotiboy Bakeshoppe and started thinking that Seoul might be a like Manila in terms of the abundance of restaurants from around the world. With a rotiboy in hand, I still wanted to find more sugary sweetness (who needs dinner when your tongue is still flaming from the bibimbap from some three hours ago) so I headed back to Insadong to find a hotteok stall. After rows of every street food available in Seoul, I didn't see one that resembled a hotteok (or maybe I just didn't recognize it?). Hmm, tomorrow is another day and I'm not leaving Seoul until I eat one!