Seoul, South Korea, has been blasted from obscurity to notoriety in just a few months, largely on the back of singer PSY and his fun, viral hit 'Gangnam Style'.

Meanwhile, Lonely Planet has just nominated South Korea as one of the world's Top 10 countries to visit in 2013. So I was really excited to visit Seoul recently but didn't know what to expect.

I had asked a friend who used to regularly travel there what it was like and he said: "There's lots of concrete". I had also anticipated haze or pollution in the way of many large Asian cities but found neither expectation was met. Seoul was a surprise to me. The air was clear as a Sydney spring day, while the city was clean and well-designed, a mix of  new office towers and older admin building, stone and glass.

In the central city area the eye is forever drawn to the surrounding hills, which encircle, frame and define Seoul. Lots of concrete? Yes, but nature is very much, and surprisingly so, in evidence. Here are a few notes and images from my time there.

People: healthy, well-fed and dressed – happy and polite. Some stunning women, stylish… One man spent 20 or 30 minutes with me the night I arrived helping me locate the hotel I'd booked, which was new and, while centrally located, somewhat off the beaten track. Without him I was lost, literally. The kids are the cutest you've ever seen, especially when they are 5/6 years old and holding hands, male/female, double file as they tour the palace complex as part of a a school excursion.

Palace: The palace complex is Seoul's main tourist attraction. Close to the City Hall, the area I stayed, it is worth seeing. Protected by a couple of high wooded hills, and reached via a broad, impressive boulevard, there are colourfully clothed guards outside, and sprawling grounds inside. There are many buildings inside and it's worth spending some time there but the palaces are not the stuff of western fairytales. They are uniquely Asian and quite different – wooden and bare inside.

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