The Korean Folk Village

On Saturday, we decided to go to the Korean Folk Village near Suwon/Yongin. We'd been hearing great things about the folk village since the last time we lived in Korea. I really can't believe that we lived in Suwon for a whole year and never traveled to the place, considering how close it was and how much we love our touristy activities!

The first thing we did was travel from our Friday night base at the Lucy to Suwon Station. From there, we immediately hopped onto bus number 37 and traveled in the wrong direction for more than 30 minutes before realizing our mistake! We got off the bus at Hwaseo Station, returned to Suwon Station and tried this whole thing again.

At the tourist information center outside Suwon Station we signed up for a free shuttle bus to the folk village. It left at 2:30 (last one of the day!) so we had a little time to grab a coffee before leaving.

25 minutes later we were at the folk village. We were a little shocked by the 15,000 Won price tag, especially since the Andong Folk Village had only been 2,000 Won last month, but after being raped of our Won by admissions we entered to find ourselves at a scenic, and quite sizable park.

Unlike the folk village in Andong, no one actually lives here. It's built for tourists, and being near Seoul rather than in little Andong, it was pretty busy.

Much of the village is made up of straw-topped houses like this. Some of them are set up so you can look inside to see how the houses would have been used way back when. Some of the buildings have artisans working in them inside making old timey things. Tourists are free to watch the process, or if you can speak Korean, it looks like they give a little presentation about how the things are made too.

A typical building in the folk village.

Unlike the folk village in Andong, a great deal of the park is devoted to other attractions beside straw houses. There were museums, backdrops for Korean dramas, a temple, lots of different bridges and boats, and an amusement park. There were also many small gardens growing various things, like lettuce, ginger and radish. This garden was growing rape. Beware.

We stumbled upon an exhibit called the World Folk Museum. How diverse! This happy fellow is the first thing you see in the "Africa" building.

Behind the World Folk Museum was a small statue park, which unfortunately involved stairs and a hill.

2 Nipples rubbing together= best statue of the day.

There was also a small amusement park with a few rides for little kids. Also embracing the theme of culture was this humongous arcade (yeah, kids still go to arcades in Korea).

There were a few performances scheduled while we were at the folk village, and the first one we saw was this adjoshi doing acrobatics on a tightrope. He had a mic on and kept making noises that sounded like he really needed to hawk up a loogie while he performed. He also fell on his crotch numerous times for a cheap laugh, which is always a crowd pleaser.

This kind cow was all by himself in a very small, round pen in the middle of the village. There were some goats, donkeys, jindo dogs, horses and a bunch of chickens in various places around the village, too.

This old guy was making shoes out of rope.

There were a lot of Korean restaurants and souvenir shops, this place specialized in traditional masks. No word on where the horse head masks are produced.

A colorful tree outside the wedding ceremony area.

At 4:00 there was a re-enactment of a traditional Korean wedding. I asked Mel to briefly sum up what she thought of it, and she came up with "boring". Yeah, it was pretty boring. They just slowly took turns drinking tea while dude in the black hat read from a script.

We bought some pork belly kebabs to snack on, and some makgeolli to wash it down with. Let me tell you, those kebabs were absolutely amazing.

Mel and her makgeolli (the liquor is traditionally drank from a bowl).

We ate in a pagoda and watched old foreigners jump rope.

One of the old houses had a traditional toilet on display. I am very familiar with this type of washroom from a childhood of camping in Dalhousie. This one looks less spidery than the one I used to use.

Here I am holding a pair of urine containers. From the posted signage: "An urine of people was used as an important manure in the past. Why don't you carry an urine container over your back. Make sure to put it back for the next people waiting their turns after experiencing and photographing it."

By this time, we'd been at the folk village for two hours and the last shuttle bus back to Suwon was about to leave. Although there were some things we didn't have the chance to see, we had to catch that bus. The bus back was super busy and the traffic was a lot worse, so it took almost twice as long to get back into the city as it had to leave it earlier in the day.

We decided to get something to eat around Suwon Station before heading back to Seoul for the night. We weren't really feeling like Korean food, but that's pretty much all there is to choose from in the area, so we went to a BBQ place up the road opposite the station. It was so delicious! I never realized how cheap that street of restaurants is. The orders of meat were all less than 6,000 Won- half of the usual price in Seoul, and the noodle/eggy sides were only a few dollars too. It was a very, very good meal!

If you're interested in an urine container, skipping rope or petting cows I would strongly recommend a trip to the Korean Folk Village. It may not be fit for a queen like the one in Andong, but it's a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.