I Picked WORST Day To Do Seoul City Sightseeing Tour- Changing Of Guard In Storm / South Korea Tower
Transcript
0:04
Today's adventure begins from my hotel
0:04
room here in Seoul, South Korea as the
0:07
recording of this. It is
0:09
Sunday, April 13th,
0:12
2025. It's about 8:00 a.m. I'm going to
0:16
be heading downstairs. I'll be meeting
0:18
up with a tour
0:19
group and going to a number of places
0:23
including a palace, a village, and a
0:27
tower. And I believe the tower that I'm
0:30
going to be going to is this one right
0:32
up
0:34
there among other places. Cost of this
0:38
tour was $80 US
0:41
price. I got to get going. They're pick
0:43
me up at 8:30. Head down to street
0:50
level. Get the day
0:50
started. Welcome everyone out of the woo
0:53
here. It's a little chillier today than
0:54
it was yesterday. I think the rain
0:57
yesterday afternoon. Bought a little bit
0:58
of a cold front in. Wearing pants today.
1:02
If I can find a light hoodie somewhere,
1:04
I'll purchase that. Did not bring one
1:06
with me. But I'm doubling up the
1:07
t-shirts. So, got a little more warmth
1:09
up here, but also have the pants on.
1:12
Trying to mix up guided tours along with
1:15
days where I'm just kind of on my own.
1:18
And today's going to be a guided tour.
1:20
Bringing the umbrella also because even
1:23
though it is sunny out now, there is
1:25
forecasted rain a little bit later.
1:27
Gonna do a lot of walking today, too.
1:29
The guy when I got the message said,
1:31
"Make sure you bring your walking shoes.
1:33
I'm inviting you, yes you, to join me.
1:36
It's tour time around Soul, South
1:39
Korea." All right, officially picked up.
1:41
A few more people to pick up along the
1:42
way. I guess the bus had to reroute
1:44
because there's a marathon going through
1:46
downtown Soul today.
1:48
Well, the issue that's happened in Korea
1:50
is like these companies come to
2:04
domin our
2:04
itinerary. Especially we are heading to
2:06
the first temple. We are heading to the
2:09
first stop Chesa Temple and then we are
2:13
heading there. Usually it would take a
2:15
five minutes but yeah so but it's is
2:19
about 45 minutes from pickup to
2:22
here. This is really popular spot. Soul
2:26
city tour is the tour I'm
2:28
doing. Japanese religion also came to
2:31
Korea penis but sadly their religion was
2:34
mixed with the
2:35
mil. So because of the religion here in
2:37
Korea we accept the Buddhism earlier
2:40
than Japan.
3:10
here because it's in the city. It's a
3:10
first. So we put the modernized
3:12
guardians here modernized garden and
3:16
also you can see the colorful lantern we
3:18
celebrate the Buddha's birthday and also
3:21
Buddha's birthday is also holiday in
3:25
Korea like Christmas we are taking a
3:28
rest yeah that's our day off and also
3:32
that will be on main so we cover the
3:35
this temple with a colorful lantern
3:37
here.
4:01
even think
4:01
only have about seven or eight minutes
4:02
here. Then we got to get over to the
4:05
palace, I believe.
4:07
She was saying because there's a
4:08
changing of the guard at 10:00 and
4:10
because the traffic kind of slowed us
4:11
down a little bit, we're in a little bit
4:12
of a rush at this spot.
4:47
Put my shoes back on. There was a sign
4:47
out front that said, "Beware of shoe
4:49
thieves." Evidently, people take their
4:52
shoes off to go in there. People steal
4:54
the shoes. So, I got imagine going in
4:57
there to say a prayer.
5:00
to worship and you come back out and
5:02
your shoes are
5:04
gone. Would not be a good way to start
5:06
the
5:54
Yeah. So now Yeah. Now we are heading to
5:54
the our second stop. Second stop,
5:57
Tongokong Palace. Tong Tongbok Palace.
6:00
Rebuilt that palace in 1395. So it's
6:04
only Jon Dynasty. We built that palace.
6:06
All right. Due to parking regulations,
6:09
can I get dropped off in front of the
6:11
palace? So we have about 7 6 7 minutes
6:13
to get over to the
6:15
10 a.m. changing of the guard, which is
6:18
located over here.
6:44
Ana gate. This gate is
6:44
64. It's a one of the last mark in
6:47
Korea. So many people take a picture in
6:49
front of the first gate. Even during the
6:51
Josan dynasty did this gay to work as a
6:54
place of the palace because commoners
6:57
they can't enter to the
7:07
palace and also can you hear the sound?
7:07
Yeah that's from the bell on the panga.
7:11
So they also celebrating the Buddha's
7:13
birthday
7:20
and also if you're at the tempo palace
7:20
you can see the one statue that seems
7:22
like
8:10
Foreign protecting the palace and city
8:10
gates. Constant vigilance was essential
8:13
for safety and
8:14
security. Changing of the royal palace
9:03
Ladies and gentlemen, changing of the
9:03
royal palace guard ceremony will now
9:05
begin. During the Chosan dynasty, the
9:09
beating of a giant drum signaled the
9:11
beginning of royal
9:13
ceremonies. First, there will be drum
9:16
beats to signal the entrance of the gate
9:18
guards and the military band.
9:56
Someone
9:56
good. Oh,
10:37
The gate guards are now checking their
10:39
identification with passwords and ID
10:41
tags and exchanging salutes.
11:16
Hey heych.
11:37
Changing salutes. The new commander on
11:37
duty will be stationed at Kongamoon Gate
11:40
for inspection and the offduty gate
11:42
guards will be heading back to the
11:44
square.
11:55
Yeah. So, we are arrived here in the
11:55
first palace
12:01
and the first palace. Oh,
12:01
sorry. First palace has a three gate.
12:14
You know what I mean? Yeah. Please come
12:14
here, team. Please come here. There's a
12:15
boy scene. And then also there's a
12:18
fence. You can lean on the fence.
12:21
Yeah. Yeah. Now it's raining. Yeah. And
12:24
also we are here in front of the throne.
12:27
As I said, we passed the three gate now.
12:30
And then all the gate they are giving a
12:33
message to king. Work hard. Working hard
12:37
is one of the side of the we experienced
12:45
corrupt 44.
12:46
After that we use our letter but
12:48
officially in the documentary we think
12:51
if you're well educated person you need
12:54
to write it down Chinese letter it's
12:56
like a Latin language.
12:59
Yeah mother of four languages
13:09
please follow me
13:09
snowing for like 3 minutes. So because
13:11
of that history we used to borrowing the
13:13
writing system from China. So each a
13:16
East Asia country they have a different
13:18
spectrum about the Chinese influence the
13:21
colors from the pine red. So that's why
13:25
it's red and then on the top of the roof
13:41
what a massive difference in the last
13:41
couple days. It is freezing today.
13:45
Definitely need to purchase a jacket as
13:46
soon as I find one somewhere.
13:59
Wow. This is like a horror movie. Oh my
13:59
go.
14:20
You can see that burn mark and white
14:20
spot in the field. Yeah, that's the star
14:23
that we got because of Korea War. Wow.
14:27
And the white spot used to be a flood
14:29
pores and then during the dictator
14:31
period we tried to recover quickly. So
14:34
we filled with the cement. And over
14:37
there still there is a little Yeah. You
14:40
can you can see the
14:42
little Yeah. There. Are you ready to
14:47
move? Yeah.
14:55
Yeah. You can see the third mark of the
14:55
pillar. Still see the burn marks in the
14:57
pillars. She said we're going to go
14:59
inside a building now. The National Folk
15:02
Museum of
15:04
Korea. Got some of the cherry blossoms
15:07
out. Be nice to get
15:10
inside. If you have a gift shop and have
15:13
a hoodie or a
15:15
sweatshirt, we'll be purchasing one. If
15:17
not, just tough it out like I have
15:20
been. Like the little windstorm is come
15:22
and gone, so that's kind of nice.
15:25
It was quite the uh quite the windstorm
15:28
there for a moment. Yeah, with the
15:30
terrible and building definitely a
15:33
little warmer in here.
15:36
These are two of the oldest wooden
15:39
carved
15:42
sculptures that are left.
15:54
This boy's climbing up on the thing.
15:54
wooden guard post which stand at the
15:55
entrance of the temple until 1966. The
15:59
oldest of the existing wooden guard
16:00
posts in
16:09
Korea. All right. They didn't have a
16:09
hoodie or anything, but they did have a
16:10
vanilla latte here at this little cafe
16:14
called Full of
16:15
Beans. Warm up a little bit with that.
16:18
And then check out the museum a little
16:20
bit while I sip on this.
16:22
When we many people work as a rice farm
16:27
is supposed to symbolize the beauty of
16:29
birthia he was not too easy to cultivate
16:32
the rice we our weather is colder than
16:35
Southeast Asia and we don't have so many
16:38
much rain so when we plant the rice we
16:41
need to drain the water before so that's
16:43
why
16:45
we in the same time we want to make the
16:49
sustainability because we have a new
16:51
labor
16:52
is you can see the one video the first
16:55
video now we have some trick everybody
16:59
want to money becomes
17:03
more focused on warriors and if another
17:06
side if there is a culture more focus on
17:09
scholar here in Josan dynasty is more
17:12
close to scholarship culture Japan is
17:15
more close to the warriors culture I
17:17
think with the samurai but we are not so
17:20
especially Kinko tree is a symbol of the
17:23
scholarship under the confusion isn't
17:26
because kung fu he teach the student
17:28
under the
17:45
ceremony the confusion you know what's
17:45
the important thing
17:47
is you got your life and body from your
17:50
parents So you need to keep your body as
17:53
well. So maybe you if you watch the
17:55
Korean drama, you're going to see to
17:57
head. Yeah.
17:58
Torehead. If you see inside there is a
18:02
hair. Why? If you're well educated a
18:05
scholarship under the confines culture,
18:08
you need you shouldn't cut the hair and
18:10
nails too. You know what I mean? Even
18:13
though you cut the nails, you need to
18:15
collect it. collected and then you need
18:17
to keep it because you got your life
18:19
from your parents. It's really a
18:21
precious one. You need to keep it. So we
18:24
use this these gear and also you can see
18:28
the barrier method of the Joseph
18:30
dynasty. Here we covered with the cover
18:33
the dead body with the clothes that they
18:37
like traditional.
18:44
All right, going back to the bus now.
18:44
Okay. So now we are heading to the our
18:47
bus. We are heading to the bus.
18:57
We already took a picture with the
18:57
National Folk Museum building. So we
18:59
will pass quickly. We will pass quickly.
20:07
We need to walk. So I will let you know
20:07
when we need to carry the
20:09
umbrellas. Yeah, it mixed with the snow
20:11
and rain. Yeah, that means outside will
20:14
be very cold. Yeah. So yeah basic but so
20:20
many South Korean people with the ginsen
20:22
through the ginsen we can get a lot of
20:24
health benefit so that's why we still
20:26
eating consume it especially
20:37
That's funny.
20:48
Look at that. It's crazy.
21:10
this. It's warm in here. Goodness
21:10
gracious. The heat is definitely on.
21:12
Nice.
21:14
This is the one that all the metals. And
21:16
we make the ginhen wine. So do you know
21:18
soulju? Yeah. Soju that was our
21:21
traditional art. Pour the soju in the
21:23
empty bottle and then put the fresh ging
21:26
in it and then let it be the
21:29
aren one bottle and then do
21:33
each really expensive. So pretty
21:36
interesting museum. In the museum
21:37
itself, they didn't allow filming or
21:39
anything, but basically is a big sales
21:42
pitch to sell you some six-year gensing,
21:46
which is the strongest gensing. So, I
21:47
got a six-mon dose of gensing pills that
21:51
I can take one a day. They said just
21:53
make sure you wait at least a half hour
21:54
to an hour after you drink coffee to
21:56
take it. that it's the strongest health
21:58
benefits according to
21:59
them is three or four times I'm
22:03
paraphrasing but much stronger than the
22:05
gensing you can get in the US.
22:08
Let's see how I feel after 6 months
22:10
taking Jensen. Six-year-old Jens Singh.
22:13
Korean Jensen.
22:18
Yeah, I bought into it. Why
22:18
not? Can't be bad for me, right? About
22:21
to go get some food now. Bus is going to
22:23
pick us up. So, this is the box that I
22:25
ended up
22:26
purchasing right here. And the guide
22:30
recommended was telling her kind of what
22:32
I like. She said at the place I should
22:34
get this. So, this is what I'm going to
22:35
have.
22:38
full of goggy.
22:40
Very soybased meal.
22:44
This is the box. I got 180 capsules. Six
22:47
month
22:48
dose. Going to get some food now. And I
22:51
think this restaurant is located in a
22:53
shopping district. So maybe after I eat,
22:55
I can work on getting a jacket cuz I
22:57
think tomorrow is supposed to be about
22:58
the same temperature weather. Nothing
22:59
supposed to warm up. I think tomorrow is
23:01
supposed to be nice and chilly, too.
23:03
Even though right now with the wind
23:04
blowing, not blowing, it's not too bad.
23:26
From
23:26
1913. Yeah. And also last priest, he was
23:30
the patron of the store too of the Josan
23:34
dynasty. Last priest of the Joan
23:36
dynasty. Oldest store 1913 antique
23:49
store. I think that's where we're
23:49
eating.
24:05
to Patrick. Let me give
24:06
I see clothing. Oh, I see clothing.
24:18
So, we are on the main street of the
24:18
Inong. So, you can enjoy
24:32
I guess you dump the rice right in
24:32
there.
24:38
I'm just assuming you dump all the rice
24:38
in there. Tofu as
24:46
All right, finished the meal. They had
24:46
the food pretty much prepared because of
24:47
the tour group. I think most of the tour
24:49
groups go in there. You just show them
24:50
the car and they bring you the food. So,
24:52
I had a little time to go get myself an
24:56
Adidas beanie and this coat from a
25:00
vintage store. So, now I have a coat and
25:02
a beanie if I so choose. Warm up a
25:05
little
25:11
bit. Got to love vintage chores. All
25:13
right, that makes all the difference in
25:14
the world. I feel a million times warmer
25:18
than I did earlier. Just having a light
25:20
jacket on in this big big difference.
25:23
Would have purchased a jacket earlier,
25:25
but the tour started before any of the
25:26
stores opened up and it was so warm
25:28
yesterday. I didn't think I was going to
25:29
need a jacket this week, but I do.
25:31
Another gusty storm just came
25:33
through. Blew all that stuff over there
25:36
down. The vintage shore I was just in
25:38
blew that
25:46
down. Crazy. Like it like comes out of
25:46
nowhere and then it lightens up. This is
25:49
like snow falling right there. It's not
25:52
sticking, but that's
25:54
snow. Gonna meet back up with the group.
25:57
I got myself a magnet right here. And I
25:59
got whatever these are. Go to the bus if
26:01
you walk.
26:03
Not sure who he's talking to.
26:10
Yeah. So maybe now we are heading to the
26:10
Yeah. I think everybody enjoy the view,
26:12
right? Yeah. Now we are heading to the
26:14
store tower area. It is our tower area.
26:17
Tower tower is top of the mount. On the
26:20
top of the mountain. Switching buses
26:21
now. Supposed to take a gondola to the
26:24
top of the tower, but because of the
26:25
high winds, the gond is not working. So,
26:27
we're taking a city
27:00
Yeah. So we are arrive at top of the
27:00
mountain but we left few step.
27:09
So we take a five minutes to the top of
27:09
the mountain. Then we will go to the
27:12
observ observation deck. Yeah. Just just
27:15
follow. So please follow me. We're going
27:17
to move to the tower. I think weather is
27:21
move to your right. At least it's not
27:23
raining
27:25
and it's sunny.
27:31
Pretty good view from the top. In fact,
27:31
I'm kind of surprised with as bad as the
27:34
weather has
27:35
been that it is was as clear. here. I
27:38
mean, it was overcast, but it seems as
27:41
if some of the clouds have lifted just a
27:43
little bit in order to kind of show just
27:45
a good view from a 360 from up there.
27:49
Trying to get some perspective at the
27:51
top of the the Soul North Soul Tower in
27:56
Soul Tower, which I'm assuming is North
27:58
Soul
28:03
Tower here in South Korea.
28:03
really amazing view from up top. After I
28:08
kind of perused around a little bit,
28:10
notice they also have a bunch of love
28:13
locks on all the the fences around. I
28:16
mean, just thousands upon thousands upon
28:18
thousands upon thousands of love
28:21
locks. Pretty incredible. And they even
28:23
have a little vending machine that sells
28:25
the love
28:26
locks. I mean, I've seen locks on
28:28
bridges and things. I've never seen this
28:30
many locks before. Must be like 10,000
28:32
love
28:34
locks.
28:36
Incredible. This is turning into a
28:38
pretty lengthy day. We're hitting a lot
28:39
lot more spots than I thought we were
28:40
going to be
28:45
hitting. And now we're heading back to
28:45
the city bus and take a 15-minute ride
28:48
down the mountain and connect back with
28:51
the tour driver. And then from there, I
28:54
think we're going to go over to a
29:01
village like an old timey village.
29:01
classic Korean
29:04
architecture. After that, I think we're
29:06
going to call it a day. It's We've seen
29:07
a lot. This be a This is going to be a
29:10
long episode.
29:40
cramped in here. Goodness.
29:44
Oh my gosh.
29:47
Like sardines or nothing. All right,
29:50
getting back on the actual tour bus now.
29:53
This is probably the most crammed city
29:54
bus I've ever been on.
29:57
a never ending tour.
30:07
I feel like this is a personal attack
30:07
tonight. Traditional houses. So actually
30:10
people call that park as a village
30:13
but actually we think that's a park and
30:17
also you not that's really large site
30:20
but it is small and then actually we
30:23
made that park in
30:34
1996 with the traditional building you
30:34
can take a picture with the tall tower.
30:37
So in a one in one picture you can
30:40
capture the tower tower and traditional
30:42
building too. So in the in the one
30:44
picture modernity and tradition is in a
30:47
picture. So that's why we busy here and
30:50
then please follow
30:57
me. Let's enter the village enters the
30:57
sun house. He used to work in the first
31:00
palace especially he also attend the
31:02
restoration of the first palaceo palace
31:06
that we visit in the morning time. So
31:08
this house we going to take a picture.
31:11
Uh we I will let you know
31:27
which
31:27
houses you can sit on that wooden floor
31:30
over there. Actually you can't enter but
31:32
sitting fine. And also we will take a
31:35
good photo here in front of us. Can you
31:38
see the view? There's a tower tower with
31:41
the cherry blossom and traditional loops
31:43
are there. Yeah. So here we will take a
31:46
good photo especially palace building
31:48
and temple we usually cover the surface
31:51
over surface of the building with the
31:54
painting. But here noble classes house
31:57
are exceptional. They don't allow to put
32:00
the painting on the surface of the
32:02
building for the
32:12
So, it's really calm here, right?
32:12
Especially, you can see the
32:14
one one core. Here's the fireplace.
32:18
Especially Korea is really cold, pretty
32:21
cold in the winter season as you feel
32:23
that. So, here's the fireplace to heat
32:25
up the corner. So, we put the fire here
32:29
and then this fireplace is connected
32:31
with the stone tunnel. And then over
32:34
above the stone toddler there's a stone
32:36
floor and then over the stone floor we
32:39
put the clay floor and then we put the
32:42
traditional paper. Yeah. So that's why
32:45
uh we try to distinguish the outside and
32:50
inside when you when you enter to the
32:52
room here in South Korea, you need to
32:55
you need
33:26
to the we will we will go back to the
33:26
car. I know it's really cold,
33:29
but we shouldn't miss anybody here.
33:34
Come here.
33:41
I feel like people are really small.
33:41
Number of the people are
33:54
realizing. Let's go.
33:54
All right. Just got dropped
33:56
off Soul City tour. Lengthy lengthy
34:00
tour. It's about to about 5:30 p.m.
34:04
right
34:05
now. They picked me up at
34:07
8:30. Long day. Saw a lot.
34:16
Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the
34:16
next video. The
34:17
vlog is over.