After yesterday’s miserable weather, the sun came out again today. Henry picked us up and we set off for the DDP, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. There’s lot of information about the DDP on the internet, but it was designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and replaced a stadium built by the Japanese. From the outside it looks like three gigantic mushrooms, but the inside is all swirls, angles and concrete.
Dongdaemun is the centre of Seoul’s fashion district and DDP contains all sorts of fashion and design exhibitions. We particularly liked the twirling chairs in the rainforest.
From there we set out for Gangnam, which translates as South of the River. As you cross the river Han, the first thing you notice is the huge 70s apartment blocks. Then the ultra modern towers and malls and the road leading to the Olympic Park.
Our first stop was the Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in Seoul. It looks like a cross between the Shard and the Gherkin, and at 555m is taller than both of them put together. Below is the Lotte World Mall, and somewhere nearby the Lotteworld itself, Seoul’s answer to Disneyworld.
From there we went off to the Coex convention and exhibition centre and yet another huge mall. We were here to see two shrines. The first is a huge, golden Gangnam-style hand pose. For some reason, it was surrounded by Italians.
The second was Bonguensa, Korea’s oldest Buddhist temple, which dates back to 794. It was totally packed with devotees. As always, there are five gates leading up to the main temple building, behind which is a 75-foot tall statue of Buddha that looks out across the city. I doubt if he thought he’d eventually be sited in one of the richest and materialistic places in the world.
Just outside the first gate there was a huge queue of people waiting for rice cake which was being made right in front of them. A guy with a rather large mallet was pounding the rice in front of the steps.
We went back to the mall and had Bibimbap instead.
Our final visit of the day was to Namsan, or Southern, mountain. We had to leave the car parked at the foot of the mountain. There is a path that winds up through a dense forest of maple and pine, which looks spectacular in the autumn. We took the shuttle bus!
We were aiming to get there for three o’clock to see a cultural and martial arts exhibition. As we arrived, a quartet of drummers were starting their performance. This was followed by a bunch of tough-looking guys waving swords and pikes around in a way reminiscent of a bad Hollywood film. I half expected Indiana Jones to turn up and shoot them!
But the main event up here was the Seoul Tower, Seoul’s first radio tower and the second highest point in the city. We’re were able – on payment of a small fee – to take a very disorienting lift up to the observation deck. From there you get a great view of the city and some of the places we’d visited.
Then we discovered that the shuttle bus doesn’t go back to where we started! It is a circular route with a start/end point where you have to change buses. Diane and I went down on the bus, Henry walked back to the car and met us.
For our final night in Seoul, we were going to stay in a Hanok, one of Seoul’s traditional houses. Henry drove us there and we said goodbye as we went through the gate and stepped back in time. The Hanok is several small buildings grouped around a winding path. As you can see from the photo, it is very basic, apart from the bathroom, sauna, underfloor heating and free wi-if.
They served us pumpkin tea while they told us about the place, which was once a resistance hideout from the Japanese, and took our order for breakfast.
There are numerous restaurants nearby; the first one we came across was a Thai place, so we had a green curry and fell into our very low bed.
Steve and Diane on Tour 