Of course we laugh about it now, but......

We've been vewy, vewy norty and did our best to ruin relations between Australia and Korea.

In our defence it wasn't our fault entirely.

It has in part to do with the cultural differences between Australians and Koreans. We wanted to visit Changdeok Palace as it is in Amelie's Seoul book and in particular see what is known as “The Secret Garden”.

The guide books suggested there was an English guided tour starting at 2:30pm. As with our last visit we expected the tour to include both palace grounds and the secret garden. At the ticket office however, things have changed in the last three years. The Secret Garden is now a separate tour and we buy tickets inside. Great, but where inside?

Given the grounds cover hundreds of acres one little box office isn't easy to find without directions and no-one could or wouldn't tell us which way to go. After a few minutes faffing about at the main entrance we ventured forth and eventually found the office around the other side of the main palace at least 500m away.

Suffice it to say we missed the English Tour.Luckily, and this is a very loose term..... read on, the Trescari family had some Korean born friends, expats from Melbourne, and they enquired at the ticket office if we could join the next tour. They also found out we could join the next Korean speaking tour, but wander through the gardens at our own pace. So we paid the entrance fee.

This is where trouble began and rules ended. Soon after joining the party, the guide settled down in what can be described as an alley way to spend some 10 minutes describing the gardens. It seems the first rule of guiding here is not to show the subject of the tour, but to talk about it. Guiding often consists more of lecturing than actually introducing the subject in a manner to make it special to clients.

Naturally such high brow stationary lecturing does little to grab the attention of kids and soon our children began to show the strains of boredom. Their noisy chatter and play gradually increased in volume till a member of the crowd shushed at them. Later we discovered he was a security guard accompanying the tour for reasons that become apparent soon.

Worried that they may be making too much noise for the guides talk, we, Dennis' and Reddick Families, decided it was prudent to take the children away from the tour and explore the gardens ourselves. The Trescari family chose to bail out and headed off to the ticket office gate. There they were castigated by the guards for leaving the group, but after some discussion negotiated a refund.We were resoundingly called back to the group by the guide telling us in no uncertain terms that this is not a free tour and we must stay with the group. Of course the children loved being forced to remain in a confined path for further 10 minutes of talk, so we were the subject of several more requests to shush...... We Parents did our best, but the first of many rules had now been broken.

Finally the tour moved down to a landscaped pond area. The guide droned on again for some considerable time whilst our children began to fidget and begin exploring their environment. How were we to know a rectangular stone is a national monument and mustn't be touched? There weren't any signs in any language to confirm this, so another rule was broken when the kids thought is a seat placed by the pond for contemplation...... what rules can be axed next.

To make use of the time Liz thought it a good idea to take some portrait photos of the girls, Lily and Amelie and family shots for the Dennis'. As soon as we had an entertainment plan, our guide chose to move.

As the Dennis juniors were particularly uncooperative, a family portrait with all four family members at least looking towards the camera took some time to compose. This meant we were dragging our feet and gained further admonishment from the guide for being slow and holding up the tour.The tour continued to deteriorate for us as we followed reluctantly, not permitted by the security guard to make a dash for the exit to relieve the kids of this boredom. We did our best to find the balance of fidgetting, noisy children wanting to play amongst the garden buildings and clutching them close to us as if bound but quite able of a rukus in protest to such bondage. Luckily a nearby toilet gave parents a reason to leave the group to offer them some momentary peace to the tour group.

At this point the guide chose to give the main group a little time to explore a courtyard area and tried to call over the foreigners to explain that section of the garden in English. Because all but myself were attending to bodily functions, I was again admonished for joining her tour when the English tour was earlier.

Hmm.... that wasn't entirely fair I thought so I explained we had been treated badly by the staff and been given little or incorrect and often contradictory information by staff. We were doing our best to keep the children quiet, but confining any child to endless talk was not conducive to good beaviour. I pointd to the Korean families whose children were experiencing the same confinement without any effort to include them in the tour. I myself am a tour guide of several years experience and even I found the delivery bland.

Matters worsened when one of the kids returned munching a biscuit given to him by the souvenir store keeper. Apparently food is not allowed in the gardens either. It seems that we are aiming for the Grand-slam of broken rules. I think we were about to have the book thrown at us, but being Australians, we picked it up, thinking it was an appeal for our autograph, signed it and returned it graciously.

When asked where the other family was, remember the Trscari's had left, I told the guide that they had left upset and had to prepare for a meeting with the Australian Prime Minister tomorrow and they planned to mention how badly we were treated today. Of course this is a little white lie. The Trescari family are attending a function that Jewwwwwlia Geeelllllard is also attending, but I doubt they will have any audience with her.

I took great delight in watching the blood drain from the guides and security guards faces. After some phone calls and radio messages, it was mutually agreed that we not participate in the further one hour more left of the tour and could make our way freely to the exit unaccompanied as we were keen to unburden the tour of bored children. However as we walked out, I noted security cameras panning to follow our every move. Diplomatic immunity only gets you so far.

We would really like to apologise for all the confusion of the day. Poor communication meant that mistakes were made on both sides that could have been prevented. We visited the garden three years ago and wanted to show them to Amelie as their design, history and simple elegance hold a place in our memories of Korea.

The tour has changed considerably too. Three years ago the Secret Garden was included in the main palace tour and included a cafe in the gardens, One could luncheon a while before moving unassisted to the main gate. There must have been some major event that has brought this change on access to this palace. It works only to alienate one from what should be a peaceful, contemplative garden.Earlier in the day we went to Insadong. During the weekends, roads are closed to cars allowing street stalls amongst the shops. The atmosphere takes on and exciting mood as street performers take to opportunity to entertain tourists.We tried unsuccessfully to buy Korean drums to send home, but did find a great print shop that we plan to purchase some splendid framed works from before we leave Seoul. We plan a return to Insadong to remedy both.On the whole not the greatest of days due, in part to the Foster Mother visit tomorrow weighing on our minds. Will it go well? Will Amelie respond in kind? Only time will tell.