Namsangol Hanok Village

Alright. Two more posts about Korea and I will start blogging about all the other backdated stuff! My goal is to finish all of them by today, so here's to... what, 4-5 hours of straight writing?

Yes. I'm kind of free today, but we'll talk about that later. 

One of the things that my mom had wanted to do in Seoul was to go to Namsangol Hanok Village. Being a fan of periodic dramas, my mom's wish was to see for herself what the Joseon era Korean life looked like.

So in the late afternoon, we left the boys in the hotel and made our way to this tourist attraction.

The entrance was practically swarming with Chinese tourists when we got there. 

My mom reluctantly got behind this poster after much prodding. I think she totally looks the part of a typical Joseon era woman.

A little exhibit of farming tools used back then.

Namsangol Hanok Village has really beautiful grounds. The whole place was constructed fairly recently, with traditional houses of high-ranking government officials being brought here for preservation. 

Here's a nice wooden pavilion by the entrance.

Too many tourists though... It was a little suffocating.

The insides of each house had been furnished to the best extent with real household items from the era.

You're permitted to walk into certain rooms if you take your shoes off. 

I was too lazy to do that, so I stayed outside and used my zoom function instead. Go camera!

Came upon the fermenting pots in the back. 

How many a drama scene have we watched where a court lady is checking up on her fermenting bean paste? How controversial. How lovely. 

My mom snapping away furiously.

Me being slightly bored.

Imagining that I'm a little kid playing hide and seek while my mom checks the fermenting bean paste.

I noticed scrolled straw mats outside some walls. Wonder if they were used as extra insulation during winter?

Out in the yard, some kids were playing a traditional top-spinning game. It involves whipping the top repeatedly with...... a whip. 

The shadows were beginning to lengthen as the day wore on.

As we moved further into the grounds, the crowds started dwindling.

We finally popped out some back door and found ourselves in a tranquil part of the Hanok village.

Beautiful place for photography, especially wedding photography, I'd imagine. Wish the flowers had already bloomed for spring.

During my time in Korea, I was trying my best to learn Korean. If I saw anything which caught my interest, I'd immediately look up the word for it in Korean, or ask my friend how to say it. 

Yeseul told me that pigeons are called 비둘기 (bidulgi). But since pigeons are viewed more as an urban pest than cute fat birds, a street name for them is 닭둘기 (dakdulgi) where 닭 (dak) means "chicken". 

So, I kid you not, each time I saw a pigeon on the street, I'd start muttering the words "비둘기" & "닭둘기" under my breath. It just felt fun to know what they're called.

What a contrast between the modern and the old. 

It made me sad to think that there was once a time when the traditional tiled roofs were the only roofs you could see before the blue sky.

Spotted the beginnings of spring among the straw.

Green life springing forth.

I miss pines. Just want to make a bed of pine leaves and sleep in it all day.

Spotted a cute old man from far away and sneaked a photo of him. 

Notice his shoes?

:D

Anxious tourist behaviour alert: 

When my mom and I spotted these first blooms from across the stream, we practically scrambled on over, well, okay, I practically scrambled across the bank and hopped the "Do Not Enter" line just to snap a few cheesy photos of the purples. 

They were a little disappointing up close. 

As we were leaving the Hanok village, I asked this Korean lady if I could take a photo of her dog. She said yes, then asked the dog to pose for me. To my surprise, the dog did just that. She stopped wagging, panting and moving until the photo was taken. 

The dog is a genius!