Seoul, South Korea

Seoul surprised us. We chose it primarily because it was the connecting point for our flight to Palau. But it turned out to be quite interesting. Big, really big, and modern, full of bustling street markets, covered markets and new buildings; especially a very impressive National Museum and the completely unexpected design center by Zaha Hadid which opened just a month before our visit and had, among other things, a show of Enzo Mari's designs. Fine subway system and reasonable taxis. The meter drops at $3 but stays there a long time. The people are noticeably more relaxed and informal than the Japanese. Ordinary food is on the expensive side. A bagel and coffee can be $10 and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice $6. Like Japan, lots of cutesy kitsch for sale everywhere. Comparable to Singapore.

View  from our hotel window. Even though we were there for only four days they had time to honor me by renaming the shopping center seen in the lower right.

Here and below, portions of Zaha Hadid's enormous Design Plaza done in the latest architectural fashion of biomorphic shaping of metals, producing pleasing, if not entirely functional, shapes.

 

  

The National Museum was impressive, inside and out.

Inside museum. Special Post-impressionist show from the D'Orsay in a separate building and full collection of Asian art in this one.

Modern subway system, very much like Singapore.

A big "forbidden-city-style" palace. Restored nicely after two destructions by the Japanese, one in the Fifteenth Century and one in the Twentieth.

Palace ceiling detail.

One of the old city gates

Big market complexes everywhere

Sensational, gigantic fish market where you can buy your fish and have it cooked in restaurants on the second floor as shown below

Hairy crab

Sea urchins. We also had abalone and big scallops.

I had time to open an art gallery