let's travel!

I check my itineraries plan on hand and the surrounding, trying to figure out any remarkable building or signage, but nothing come close. The sun rises at its peak, should be past lunch time by now. All my clothes have been drying out because of the heat, leaving no traces that this morning the rain just pours really hard. I put the sunglasses on track, adjust my bag strap and once again focus on my itineraries for the umpteenth time. I look back to see the Palace already far behind.

“What do you guys think?”

I give up. I did write all the itineraries on my own, research all the places and check the facts before I come here and it all come down to one conclusion, Bukchon Hanok Village is in walking distance from Gyeongbokgung Palace. It said, after the guard changing ceremony is over, head to the left direction from the main gate of the palace, oppose the direction to the nearest Metro station, and walk over for 30 minutes to the main street of the village. The village should be easy to find since the main streets are all made of stone and you can identify the entire Hanok house lining around the streets. Not a single tip from any website stated that actually all the streets in the Palace area are all made of stone and whoever told 30 minutes walk is short, please try walking under heated sun and lost.
I shift the attention from the itineraries to my friends, who also have the same lost face, if not worst. Both shake their head and suggest finding a nearby police station to ask for direction or if we’re lucky, tourist information booth that usually scatter around the city. Unfortunately, luck not on our side. We quickly change plan to our last option we’re not dare to try, asking the local. We’re really afraid on doing this for two reasons; how do we ask if they don’t speak English and what do we ask since the entire place – to – go information that we have is in English.

The first guy we meet to ask the direction, greet us with a warm smile. He has small figure with height just above us by a mere inch, his hair in light color and pale skin. As expected, he did not understand our question. We expect him to say sorry and leave us, but no, he asks us to repeat the question several times until he finally nods. He then takes out his phone and type something to show us the info, all the directions to Bukchon, in English. In that time, I say to myself, coming to the city where they didn’t speak my language is a first, but able to converse with them is major.