Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - Deoksugung Palace (德寿宫）

Since we had free time on hand it was decided that we catch the guard changing parade at Deoksugung which is located at City Hall station (Line 1,2) exit 2.

Had not planned to come here initially and therefore was a bit unfamiliar with the palace but since this is located on the same line as our accommodation, I figured that it would be great to come here and would not have to change to other subway line to get back to accommodation.

High rise buildings facing the entrance

This is the only palace that sits along side with other western style buildings at its surrounding. The East-West fusion is unique to this palace.

Big drum outside the palace

Entrance fee is KRW 1,000. Guard changong parade is scheduled at 11:00, 14:00 and 15:30. The palace is closed on every mon.

Main entrance -Daehanmum

With the guard

The palace orginally belonged to brother of King Seongjong of the Joseon Dynasty and it only became a proper palace when Gwanghaegun ascended to the throne. Since I am watching The King's face, Gwanghaegun rings a bell. Muhaha. Learnt history through TV serials.

Chunmyong-dang

The 1st impression of this palace is, it is huge! Perhaps because we live the ever compact Singapore, any place of such vast area is unseen in our country.

Actually I was pretty envy over countries who have such deep history. Always love checking these out when I am in the country. This is also why I would prefer Beijing to Shanghai since the former had more historic sites while Shanghai is a very well developed city.

The thing about the palace various halls are all empty. No furniture were inside the halls. No tables, no chairs, no cupboards, no tables, nothing.

Funny isn't it. I wonder where had all the artifacts went to.

Throne

There was only a throne left in 1 of the hall where the king hold audience with his subjects or visitors.

Ceiling decorations

Without the furnishings, the palace look kinda sad. It like big empty houses standing on vast land and nothing much to see except for the architectures which we were not very good at admiring. But since we had tons of time to kill before the guard changing parade, we toured the whole palace.

There was this parade square outside the audience hall where stone plates of different ranks of the officials are engraved on it and officials got to line up as per their rank. The smaller the rank, the further they are from the main hall.

Ranking stones

There are some display of olden time weapons at one of the gate. One of it that caught our attention is it was able to fire a whole lot of arrows( if I am not wrong) at one go on a cart like vehicle.

 

 

The we came across a hall which looks too modern to be in Joseon era. The decoration reminds us a bit like Malay architecture.

But in actual fact this hall which Emperor Gojong use to enjoy coffee with foreign diplomats is built by a Russian architect.

Jeonggwanheon

Random birds in the palace

We roamed around the palace to wait for time to pass for the guard changing parade. Went out to the main gate to stand a place for a good view of the parade.

View of City hall from the palace

Announcing the start of parade

The parade starts exactly at 2pm with a announcement in Korea, Chinese, English and Japanese language.

The Royal Guard changing ceremony here reenacts exactly as what it used to be held in the olden Joseon days with guards wearing traditional clothes and carrying traditional weapons and playing traditional instruments.

Official holding keys of the palace

It was a grand ceremony and no details were spared as there was an instructor there to guide the performers even as they stood there at ease during part of the ceremony.

Change of duty in charge

Adjusting position of the flag pole

At least we managed to catch one guard changing ceremony today which was our initial plan. It was great to have spend some time here to check Korean history but be warned about the lack of furnishing.

If you are interested in look at artifacts of Joseon Dynasty, you will get to see more at the National Museum than the palaces.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken (土俗村参鸡汤）

Mr Love totally fell in love with Samgyetang when we had it in Busan on 1st day of our trip. So much so that when I suggested to visit another famous samgyetang restaurant in Seoul, he was up to it.

The reason we plan a visit to Gyeongbokgong in the morning is to come here for lunch.

Direction are as follow:

1). From Gyeongbokgong station (Line 3), take exit 2.
2). Walk straight out of the exit till you hit the 1st intersection where there is a convenience store.
3). Turn left and you can see a traditional looking house. This is the restaurant.

View once you turn left

My guide book states to come here early at 10-11am to avoid the long queue and we reached at 11.30am where there was a crowd in the restaurant but no queue outside.

Was ushered in to our seats pretty quickly.

Roasting chicken

Main entrance

Street along the restaurant

 There are 2 kinds of seating. Tables with chairs and those without where you will sit on the cushion on the heated flooring.

We had no preference but sensing that we are tourists, the ushers tried finding those with chairs for us. It was full and we went ahead with the one without chairs.

Interior

Free flow side dishes

 There will be a blue card menu on each table and you can check out what to order on it. It will serves as the bill at the end since there is a number on the card and the waiteress will record your order per your table no.

We had wanted to try both the samgyetang an roasted chicken but was told that roasted chicken will not be ready till an hour later due to machine breaking down this morning.

Oh well, so we ordered 1 samgyetang and 1 seafood pancake to share.

Menu/bill

Excited to be sitting the traditional way

 Service here was prompt since I think they will have pre cooked alot of Ginseng chicken stew since it is the main dish of this restaurant.

It was piping hot when served and as usual, a small bottle of Ginseng wine came with it.

Ginseng chicken stew

 The samgyetang is really good, even better than the one we had in Busan. I couldn't pinpoint where exactly the difference is, but this is the better one if I were to choose. That being said, the one we had in Busan was good too.

Mr Love was so impressed with it that he kept drinking the soup, something that was not the norm for him since he dislike soup.

Super big pancake

 Pancake came next and we were impressed by the size. It was huge! Luckily for us, the ajumma who took our orders did not listen to my instructions properly. We had initially ordered 1 samgyetang, 1 roasted chicken and 1 pancake. I had told her specifically that if roasted chicken is not available then she can changed the order to 2 samgyetang and 1 pancake. She didn't and we had 1 less item in the end.

But since the serving here is so big, it was just nice for us.

Back to the pancake, it was generously filled with seafood and spring onion and pan fried to perfection. Mr Love was missing this ever since we came back from Korea.

Napkins

 We took the card to pay the bill after lunch and saw a crowd forming outside the restaurant.

Happy us after lunch

Queue forming

 While walking back to the station, we stopped by Etude house and Innisfree along the street to shop. While people had been raving about going to Myeongdong, I find the shops here having more promotions than Myeongdong branch. And the cool thing is, it was pretty empty and I had the whole shop to myself while picking out items for friends. Hehe.

 2 days later we came back again to Tosokchon as we went watching guard changing parade at Gyeongbokgong. Was even very hungry but Mr Love was pretty insistent about trying the roasted chicken that the guide book had recommended.

The funny thing is, we are the only table that didn't order Samgyetang and shared 1 roasted chicken only. The ajumma who took our order was a bit surprised by our order but didn't say much and left us alone.

Truth to be told, there is nothing special about the roasted chicken. In fact can be described as disappointing as the chicken was too dry for our liking.

Roasted chicken

Side dish

Am still missing the samgyetang as I typed this post :)