Lulu 到此一游: Day 2

Due to the oily BBQ food we took last nite, my father suffered from sore-throat today. We dropped by a pharmacy to buy some medicine and herbal sweets. There're many people buying medicine in the pharmacy. All of them brought along presciption letters from the doctors.

From a small alley, we walked, walked, walked. We came to the main road. We walked, walked, walked. Then, we turned into streets and kept on walking. We enjoyed the stroll. It's something you can't enjoy in M'sia coz you'll sweat like a cow if you do so.

There's a clean recreation park by the main road. With benches, with water dispenser and with a clean public toilet too.

All taxis on the road are Hyundai Sonata, the latest model. We had our lunch at a petrol station. We bought sandwiches, milk and instant noodles from the store at a petrol station and enjoyed our simple lunch at the table provided, under a big umbrella. A petrol station is called an "Oil Bank". Look at the following photos, observe the 2 pipes hanging from the ceiling.

This is something interesting. The petrol nozzles are hanging in the air. When you wanna pump petrol, you pull down the nozzle. It's like performing a type of gymnastic in the Olympic. In fact, a TV commercial boasts the skill of a petrol station attendant by showing the attendant performing gymnastic with the pipes!

We're taking a subway to our destination of the day. Huh... there're 8 subway lines. Kepala pusing tengok the subway map. The fare starts from KRW 900. As we didn't venture far, no matter how we took the subway, it's always KRW 900. You can hop off at the interchange station and hop on to another line conveniently. Unlike in KL, here in Seoul, you don't have to pay a single cent for hopping off and hopping on. The KRW 900 journey is counted from the start point to the end point. Cukup fun. My father said we're like tikus tanah, travelling down the intertwined lubang-lubang tanah. Hm... good logic. Human beings are imitating the animals.

This is the biggest palace in South Korea. Hah...hah... my mom was yawning. If you've visited the Forbidded City in Beijing, China, this is "peanuts". "Nothing to see". So, don't compare the palaces in Korea with the ones in China. Like usual, I tumpang tour guides of tourist groups to get valuable explanation of the tourist spots. I mingled myself amongst a group of Taiwanese tourists. The tour guide showed her frustration about comments made by tourists from mainland China. According to her, some tourists from mainland China criticized palaces in Korea, saying there's "nothing to see" in Korea as the palaces were so negligibly small, compared to China. On the moment she finished her sentence, she was shock to find an outsider among the group, i.e. me! She asked me in Mandarin, "你是大陆来的吗"? I just made a hand gesture, implying no. Aiyoh, by right, I should have sung the 1st sentence of 齐豫's song: 不要问我从哪里来. Hah...hah...

My mom took this shot. It looks like I had a PhD hat on my head.

Everyday, there are a few sessions of guard-changing ceremony. We were at the right time to catch this moment. The guards are very tall. In fact, I find the Korean people are tall.

The Geongbokgung Palace is situated right in the middle of the busy city. Big TVs scatter around the city. I guess, in the near future, there'll be no TV but projections of lights up to the sky to create virtual images.

The traditional culture of Korea is quite similar to the Chinese. First of all, they used the Chinese Han characters until they invented their own + - O alphabets. They also have 12 animals in their calendar years.