Korea Day 6 - Sightseeing and Shopping

By Day 6 in Korea we were a little tired from our activities from the days before and decided to have a low key outing with a couple sights and then some shopping for souveniers. We got a late start and headed to one of Seoul's model villages called Hanook. There are a few of these around the city where ancient architecture and art forms are displayed in a gated garden kind of way. We paid our entry fee and started our journey around the property. We started with a stop at the basket weaving station. Two gentlemen worked on creating crafts of Korea's elder days sitting inside newly built covered platforms with their wares displayed all around.






After, we walked around the green space, which seemed to have a large amount of concrete about, but I digress. We then went over to the main set of model houses and took a wander around. The houses we unfortunately more models of the richest folks' homes from Korea's past than the homes of the everyman, but still nice to see some traditional building, furniture, artwork and games.





After our wander, we walked out through a gaggle of what appeared to be important businessmen from the Middle East being shown around. One venturesome gentleman stuck his face into the opening of a traditionally dressed lady. We has to bite our tongues to supress the smirking. A humorous way of ending our village life simulation.





We moved from here to one of our favorite authentic Korean establishments - "Paris Baquette" for a coffee and a breakdown of the rest of the day. We decided that trinkets for the home and loved ones were needed and we headed over to the largest outdoor market in Seoul. This proved to be interesting, but not quite the fruitful handicraft fair we were looking for. This market could use its name as a synonym for chaotic... it was crowded to say the least and the variety of the goods was at an immeasurable amount. In our slightly weary state on this particular day, this market quickly became overwhelming and we decided to move on to a market mentioned in our book with a bit more of an artistic, smaller feel.

It took us a bit to find this area and it doesn't help that vendors set up business on the out skirts which confuse tourists into thinking they've reached their destination only to let out a bit of an exhasperated sigh when you turn a corner and see what the guide book was really talking about. We explored these little shops for a while buying some bits and pieces, some that were repeat items seen in several shops, others that were more unique art pieces being sold in tiny galleries. All items felt like we were finally going to be bringing some tangible memories back home with us.


At this point, we were officially tuckered out. We thought about going to a restaurant, but even that seemed a fair amount of effort. We thought it better to utilize that 50 inch telly and English channels and grab a couple of food items and head off back to our Hobbit Hotel aka Hotel Mare (accent on the "e"). Tomorrow we travel to Hanoi via China. We have also discovered that Korea's international airport is on a psuedo-island, so getting there might be interesting.