In the same complex as the Grand Intercontinental Hotel and the shopping mall is the Korea Trade Centre building – another building with unique architecture.

On and off during the afternoon and evening this trio would turn up in the lounge bar at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel and play for a while. This shot was captured without the flash which has left the beautiful lounge area in sharp focus, and the two musicians close to the camera ever so slightly blurred as they moved with the music they were playing.

By the way, I swear that there was a green tea on the bar menu that was more expensive than the long island iced tea – guess which one I was ordering!

In addition to lining the streets with lanterns, there was a lot of work going on at the Bonguen-sa Temple just behind the COEX complex where the Grand Intercontinental Hotel was located. The red objects in the photo were being suspended over a large courtyard area to form an artificial ceiling. There were also some white versions of them in one area.

No idea what this building is, but its unusual architecture pretty much guaranteed I’d take a photo of it. As it happened, it was a night shot. You can also see it reflected in the Reflections on Seoul, II posting.

In retrospect, cleaning the large silver globe would have been a good idea, but I didn’t really have anything on me to do that with (I was heading back from the shopping mall with some souvenirs and Korean Tiger and Mac Mini leaflets – will post those once I’ve scanned them!).

Gyeongbokgung, historic site 117, was the primary palace of the Joseon Dynasty. This building is Gyeonghoeru and is where official banquets were held and foreign envoys entertained. The guide flyer I have says this:

There was a small pavillion when Gyeongbokgung was built. King Taejong dug the pond and rebuilt this pavilion to its grandeur in 1412. It was burnt down during the Japanese Invasion of 1592 and restored in the 4th year of King Gojong (1867). This is the best example of Joseon time’s pavillion which has 48 granite pillars. It shows [the] highly advanced architecture of [the] Joseon period.

There was some kind of cleaning work going on in the pond, so getting shots of the pavillion without plastic fences in the water was a little challenging.

Taken from my hotel room (through the somewhat dirty glass). I have several different shots of the reflections in this building, but this was the one that I liked the most. As with all the photos from my recent Asia trip, this was taken using my girlfriend’s Canon S500 (thanks for the loan).

Some great photos from Japan over on rion.nu including the one to the right that I think captures the cameraphone phenomenon perfectly. The cherry blossom shots are great too.