This 12 metre high stone pagoda was built in 1465. Its a Korean national treasure. Its located in Tapgol Park in Seoul's Insadong area.
The Insadong area is one of the main tourist destination in Seoul. Its main street has a ton of little art stores and gift shops, restaurants and cafes. We really loved it there and will go back a few times I'm sure.
The street is "walking only" on some weekends but on this day there were cars. Its so jam-packed with people that the cars have to go at a crawling pace which makes one wonder why they would choose to go down this street at all. But they do . . . the sea of people parts and the cars squeeze through.
The next photo is just for Nick . . .
We found the Suh - Tah - Buk - Suh - Koh - Pi !!!!! (The girls are asking Shawna to take their photo in front of the Starbucks not realizing they're in my picture.) This is an old area and they wanted to keep the Korean language intact so Starbucks was required to make their sign in Korean lettering. Its the only Starbucks in Korea that has a sign like this.
We thought this was funny . . . when we went to the hospital we noticed that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, was hooked up to an I.V. People were walking through the halls carrying their own IV bags, kids were riding the IV racks like skateboards. When we were in Seoul we saw this sickly tree and noticed they had it hooked up to its own I.V. so we had to take a picture -- Looks like an art project
After the I.V. drip, I believe the trees will look like this one . . .
After Insadong, we walked to the Cheonggyecheon river. It runs right through the middle of downtown Seoul. Up until 3 or 4 years ago it was covered up with a massive highway. The government decided, in order to beautify Seoul's downtown they should knock down the highway and reopen the hidden river. Now that its open, the Korean people really cherish it. Its super clean and provides a wonderful walking path through the city.
Shawna thought I was taking a photograph but I was really taking a video. That should explain the slow motion poses.
When we came up from the river, we found ourselves back in the Dongdaemun area. We took a few snaps of the 'positively electric' lighting district and then hit the market again to see what it was like at night time.
This fellow posed for our camera and yelled 'action!' so I believe he deserves a spot in the blog.
That's all for now - next update will feature our day at Silleuksa Temple
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