Looking for something closer to home, and offering one-stop fun, we went a few km down the road to Korea's golden landmark, which for about a year after it was finished (1985) was the tallest building in Asia. Technically, it has 60 storeys above ground and 3 below, which is where some of the main attractions are. For about $27 Cdn per adult (kids under 4 free), you can go to the top floor observation deck, watch an Imax movie, and visit the aquarium. Plus free parking. (We skipped the wax museum.) The top also hosts travelling art exhibitions, and thus bills itself as the world's highest art gallery. The views are pretty good in all directions, and it makes a nice complement to Namsan Tower on the other side of the river. The Han River is crossed by something like 20 (actually more) bridges, which makes for one of the major aesthetic elements in the Seoul panorama; tall buildings and craggy hills in all directions round out the picture.
The aquarium was the kids' favourite, of course. It's not as large as the one across town at COEX, but kept us busy for the better part of two hours. Zoos and aquaria in Korea, while usually not alarming, do not have the rigid "pure science" ethic that the most serious institutions abroad do. There is generally an entertainment element that doesn't have much to do with wildlife conservation. (We've also noted a tendency to amp up the visitor experience by cramming enclosures full with as many animals as will fit. No more peering hopefully for the lone specimen in the back corner, as often happens in zoos at home.) Anyway, the main tank here at 63 Building features a nearly-continuous dancing mermaid show (video below), as well as some spunky floor performers (not shown) in fairy godmother and ballgown attire, whose thespian antics were sadly on lost on us. Yet another of those occasions where it would have been nice to have had really any idea as to what was going on.
In today's final installment, you'll hear me promising Jamie ice cream if he'll let a tiny fish nibble on his finger. (This "Dr. Fish" skin reinvigoration is a big spa thing here.) He consented, briefly; unfortunately, the creatures seemed little interested in his diminutive digit. That's my finger in the shot. I got a few bites. I really wanted that ice cream.
