Sarah in Korea & Cambodia (Sarah Altier) : 기억은 잊어도 심장은 기억한다 - (Though memories are gone, the heart remembers)

I spent my free day with Leslie, touring the Gyeongbok Palace and its surroundings. We first went to the Admiral Yi monument. The Admiral stands tall in front of the King Sejong statue and there is an interactive museum below which chronicles both heroes' lives.

Little girl playing in the fountains in front of Admiral Yi

Replica of the Admiral's ironclad turtle-shaped ships

One of the displays at the museum

Admiral Yi

After we strolled around Gyenongbok and its grounds we returned to the hanok village of Bukchon that we'd had a glimpse of on our first day. This beautifully quaint neighborhood also has a number of craft shops where you can experience little bits of Korean culture. We went to a shop that specializes in knotted silk (sort of like macrame) and a lovely old woman described to us as "a national treasure" taught us how to make a knotted silk bracelet. She spoke no English but was a good teacher and was patient with us so we successfully knotted our bracelets and wore them proudly as we explored the rest of Bukchon.

We ate at a local restaurant that only had four items on the menu and it was one of the best meals I've had in Korea. Leslie had bouillabaisse with all sorts of seafood in it, including crabs still in the shell, and I had braised pork.

We took a cab to the bustling market area of Myeongdong to attend a theater performance called NANTA. It's hard to describe.... sort of a cross of Blue Man Group, Stomp, and martial arts. Some talented performers play four chefs scrambling to get a wedding banquet ready. The knives flash and the cabbage flies and it was thoroughly enjoyable. About 95% of the audience was Asian, and they seemed to love the show even more than we did (there was a lot of slapstick silliness that was met with high approval from the Asian audience).