Renting Hanbok and taking pictures at the palace was probably one of the things that these girls wanted to checked off their bucket list for this trip. So before their trip was ending, we did just that. The weather was pretty warm when we made our way to the hanbok rental place called 경복궁한복대여 (near Gyeongbokgung Station exit 4. See where the location is on the vlog) that Christina’s friend suggested.
Stepping down the wooden stairs, we arrived at the basement of the rental place in the late afternoon. After taking off our shoes, we entered the shop and quickly browse through the selections after being informed about the rental price. Since it was almost the end of the day, I assume most of the good hanboks were already rented out. Either that, or maybe the hanboks available at this place were just not exactly my style. Not sure. But either way, I’m the photographer for this excursion and the girls were the ones who were going to wear the traditional outfit, not me, so I’m not complaining. After minutes of contemplating on which of these colorful long outfits they should pick, they each finally found a hanbok that they like that compliment each other’s and quickly changed into them before heading to the palace and trying to get there before the sun set.
We made our way to Gyeongbokgung palace on foot since it’s not far from the rental place. As soon as we arrived at the palace complex, I quickly bought my ticket and then we headed for the entrance. Since the three of them were wearing hanbok, they can enter the palace for free, using their outfit as their entrance tickets.
The cherry blossom wasn’t really in full bloom just yet that day, but we spotted some trees that have some that bloomed early. Since there were only a couple of trees, we had to lined up and wait for our turns to take pictures in front of the tree since there were a lot of people who had the same idea as us. People was pretty good at taking turns so the waiting time wasn’t so bad.
After we got our shot, I took them around the palace and tried to find good spots where there weren’t too many people around. Since Gyeongbokgung Palace is one of the most well-known attractions in the city—both amongst tourists and locals—taking pictures around the complex can be tricky if you arrived at the same time as large tourist or school excursion groups because it can get really crowded. But fortunately, it wasn’t too crowded when we arrived plus the palace is big enough for us to just switch spot if that happened. I’ve been here so many times so I pretty much know where we should go.
The wind was blowing quite frequently that afternoon and the girls were busy following me while trying to keep the hair that they styled earlier from being blown off by the wind. It was difficult to say the least since, as the afternoon progressed, so did the frequency of the wind. Nevertheless, we still had fun and I took multiple frames of them for good measure.
After they were tired of walking around the vast palace complex and it was nearing the return time of their hanbok, we decided to head back to the rental place as the sun was setting in front of us. It was definitely a fun afternoon at the palace.
