culture | The Hidden Thimble

If you’re a traveler like me who is fascinated and loves to absorb themselves into another country’s culture, then this is a post for you! Believe it or not some of my friends hate sightseeing and think its boring! Why go to another country then!!??!

Anyways, in Korea a great way to have fun and learn about the culture is at the Korean Folk Village (KFV)! This time was my second time going to the KFV and after the enriching experience I had the first time round, I knew I had to take Siree this time!

The KFV is made up of the actual folk village itself, two museums and an amusement park. I’ve only been to the Folk Village and the museums, as the theme park ticket costs extra. At the KFV you can experience over 260 traditional houses from different parts of Korea, revived from the Joseon Dynasty, a traditional Bazaar with souvenir shops stocking traditional art products as well as traditional Korean foods cooked the authentic Korean way, and engage in traditional performances and activities. The Korean Folk Museum offers in depth knowledge into Korean folk culture and the World Folk Museum offers a glimpse into the folk culture of many countries – though I’m not sure how accurate it is considering what they said about Australia was completely wrong! haha.

DSCN2979 — The entrance of the Folk Village ~ Looks so traditional

Nice traditional Korean style architecture. Look how detailed the roof painting is!

DSCN3068 — Soo pretty!! This would look so beautiful in Autumn. I can imagine a backdrop of red/purple/orange leaves.

DSCN3063 — Kimchi Pots!! These were everywhere in the village!! I wonder if they had any kimchi in them. Kimchi pots are the traditional way Koreans stored and fermented their kimchi!

DSCN3040 — Cute figurines and more kimchi pots!

DSCN3052 — Buddhist Temple – I love this photo!

DSCN3053 — Buddhist Temple – We could actually here monks chanting from inside these traditional temple buildings.

DSCN3049 — Buddhist Temple – These huge statues were at the front of the Buddhist temple gates. They must be some kind of gods or something…but I never thought Buddhists believed in gods…hmm

DSCN2998 — Traditional Performances – Farmer’s music and Dance

DSCN2988 — Traditional Performances – Equestrian Feats. They do pretty amazing tricks with those horses!

Traditional Performances – Acrobatics on a Tightrope! The guy who does it is no joke like 80 years old or something!! I worry every time he jumps and lands on the tightrope that he will collapse and fall!

The image on the right is actually thousands of paper wishes tied up into the string. The picture of the left shows how bloody cold it was!! Even flowing water has frozen!!!

DSCN3012 — Traditional Korean methods of torture

DSCN3009 — Koreans joining in with torture methods haha!

The guy on the right is making traditional Korean Masks

World Folk Museum – Apparently this is Australian Cuisine!? I have never had or seen this dish in Australia in my entire life!? Sayyy whaaa??

DSCN3037 — Siree and I couldn’t handle the cold anymore so we went into a traditional tea house to warm up. We indulged in traditional teas, although mine was a little sweet! Still the tea cups and saucers were so pretty!

Map:

Transportation

From anywhere in Seoul, you can either catch a train to Gangnam Station (line 2) or to Suwon Station (Line 1)

From Gangnam, you want to catch bus 5001 – 1 from the main bus bay area. It can be little tricky to find the correct bus stand, so if any problems, ask someone. DO NOT trust the transportation directions on the Visit Korea site!!! They have the wrong bus number!! Half our day was gone trying to find bus 5000 – 1 which does not exist!!! (I believe the bus number has since been corrected.)

From Suwon catch bus 37 or 10-5.

Opening Times

Winter: 9AM – 5PM

Summer: 9AM – 6:30PM

Cost

Ticket entry: 15,000 won includes the Folk Village and the museums. That’s less than $15. Entry to the amusement park costs extra.

Performances

Farmer’s Music and Dance: 11AM and 3PM (MAR – OCT) 2:30PM (NOV – FEB)

Tightrope Acrobatics: 11:30AM and 3:30PM (MAR – OCT) 3PM (NOV – FEB)

Traditional Wedding: 12PM and 4:30PM (MAR -OCT) 4PM (NOV)

Equestrian Feats: 1PM and 4PM (MAR – OCT) 3:30PM (NOV – FEB)

Activities

Pottery making
Playing with traditional Korean games and punishment methods
Haunted House
Dress in a traditional Hanbok and take photos
Horseback riding

Lunar New Year (LNY for short here) was in the month of February this year. So we decided to do something touristy and take a well rested break from shopping! Mind you, it took a great feat of effort to take photos in the cold since my fingers were being frozen inside my gloves. :(

Since usually three days leading up to LNY most things are closed, we were a bit worried when planning that we probably won’t be able to do anything since all the preparations will be for spending time with family and eating lots of yummy food.

DSCN2973 — What a typical LNY feast looks like. Delicious!

What will we doooo?! But lucky for us, there are some traditional places in Seoul that are opened all year round (even for free!) and during special times like this, all the folk cultural activities were being held. Fantastic! We spent our day visiting Namsangol Hanok Village and Korea House, both located conveniently close to each other.

DSCN2785 — Just making it on time for the performances at Namsangol Hanok Village, the performances included traditional fan dancing as well as drumming.

DSCN2814 — The main courtyard of the Hanok Village had the most activities where visitors can play traditional games, giant Jenga and do arts and craft workshops.

DSCN2824 — For a small fee, the arts and craft activities let’s you make traditional themed projects with an instructor. We made these paper outfit cards.

Namsangol also has a small art museum filled with beautiful Korean folk art which I appreciated since I really enjoy asian art. But NOTHING excited me more than when I saw this:

I don’t know why this was so special to me when I saw it!! I see this all the time in dramas where the couple makes a wish on a piece of paper and ties it to a tree. Even in some high school dramas/animes they have these scenes where they write something significant on paper that they wish will come true. And now I get to do it! 8 years of waiting!! LOL But I won’t tell you what it was! teehee ;)