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Seoul recommendations

    Hotels
We stayed in a couple of tripadvisor reviewed hotels that got good ratings, both in the Myeong Dong area.
    (a) Prince Hotel: this is located on the southern edge of the main Myeong Dong shopping area. It's a newer hotel. Rooms are small-ish, but top floor rooms can have nice views through large windows. Beds are queens (as opposed to double/fulls at other hotels) and are pretty comfortable. Hardwood floors. Small bathroom. Small pot to boil water provided, as is wifi.
    (b) Metro Hotel: this is in the heart of Myeong Dong, and as such, being slightly less expensive than the Prince Hotel, a better deal. On the other hand, their beds are double/fulls. We chose to get a "deluxe", which was 2 separate full beds. Slightly better amenities at this hotel, compared to the Prince -- with two bottles of water provided daily, and included breakfast on the top floor, which is decent. Downside is that, at least for our room, we looked out through a small window to a narrow alley, so not much light in the room. But not a deal killer, and most rooms' windows face the street for more light.
What to do in Myeong Dong
(a) Shop. There are many lively streets through the area, mostly all pedestrian streets, with lots and lots of shops and, at night, people. (b) Eat. Lots of restaurants, and we went to a very good dumpling place. Also, lots of street food vendors, which are also reasonable, but if you want really good street food, you should head to Dongdaemun market (Euljiro 5 subway stop) and their food court. But back to Myeong Dong eats -- you should also try the Lotte Department store's food floor. There, you can find, all on one floor (the basement), places to eat cooked food (lots of variety), places that sell various other food, e.g. really good cakes, and a supermarket. You can get by with English, though most staff don't speak much. Pointing and holding up some number of fingers, with a smile, does the job. Insadong (a) More shopping. This is another shopping district. It has a different feel than Myeong Dong. More arty, a bit more laid back, and in its alleyways, much more interesting, with older buildings, little restaurants tucked away. We accidently ran into one that is probably in all the guidebooks, a place called "Sanchon", which cooks temple style vegetarian, while exploring a random alleyway. Gyeongbokgung Palace This is one of the two main palace attractions in the city. The emperor lived in this one, but and it's quite pretty and impressive looking, but much of it has been rebuilt relatively recently, and it looks it (i.e. it doesn't have the resonance of age), plus it's really many similar buildings, so it can be done with a quick visit. The highlights are the pavilion on the lake, and the changing of the guard ceremony. We have not yet been to Changdeokgung. The Lantern Festival on Cheonggyecheon We were lucky enough to be in Seoul during the period of the lantern festival. This is a relatively recent happening (especially since the Cheonggyecheon stream wasn't uncovered until 2006 in any case). The lanterns are lanterns only in the sense that they are made as old-style lanterns are made, with wire and a translucent covering (in this case, not paper, so they are ok in the rain), but really, are more like statues that are lit up from the inside. Thus, the best time to view them is at night. A long section of the stream is filled with these creations, which are all wonderful. November 1-17. More restaurants: For cheap eats in nice surroundings: Lotte food court For dumplings: Myeongdong Kyoja, with a 2 branches in Myeongdong, relatively close to each other. See www.hdkj.co.kr/en/ For "palace" food, we went to Yongsusan in the Seoul Financial Center, just north of City Hall, which serves food of the Kaesong cuisine of the Koryo dynasty For bbq, we went to a recommendation from our Knopf Mapguide book, which proved a handy reference. There, we had some good bbq, assisted by one of the staff who took pity on us and showed us what to do and how to eat, and who also had pretty good english. For curry katsu: Koreans eat quite a bit of japanese style curry dishes. We had a good curry katsu udon at the Lotte food court, and also had good curry katsu at a nearby place called cocoIchibanya (which has branches in many places, including Honolulu, though not in the mainland US)

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