Hello all
Again sorry for the delay in posting. My guests left today after a very full week of activities and I have a lot to blog about, but it will take me a while to catch up. I also have a ton of photos to add, but they don't upload easily, so I'll work on that over the week.
Last Monday we awoke early (5 AM) to leave enough time to get to Yongsan Train Station in Seoul. It was a beautiful day, as predicted, and we had no trouble riding the subway into the station. Since we had already picked up our tickets the day before, we just had to wait a few minutes before boarding the bullet train. We were excited about the trip because we were riding in First Class down to Jeongu. As it turns out, First Class isn't that much different than coach other than larger seats, charging plugs, and a woman pushing a snack cart. This woman moved so fast that she passed you before you even got a chance to raise your hand to indicate you wanted something. Still, the extra large seats and the quiet comfort of First Class were a nice way to ease us into our journey.
Trains make me sleepy, so I didn't see too much of the landscape. Martha and Vicki watched the mountains and the farms as we traveled at 182 miles per hour. South Korea, though not as mountainous as the north, still has a lot of mountains, so we went through a series of very long tunnels. We made it halfway down the country in under two hours.
We arrived to the station and quickly found a taxi. Unfortunately, the taxi driver didn't really know where to go. Our hosts at the hanok (traditional Korean structure) told us to call when we arrived. We both kept trying to call as we drove, but the phone wouldn't connect. Fortunately, our taxi driver figured out where it was as he drove and before we knew it, we had arrived.
The Hanok Village in Jeonju is a small enclave of traditional houses surrounded by a modern city. It felt a bit like visiting Williamsburg, VA in that the streets and houses all seemed a bit too quaint and perfect because they are replications. Still, the village was charming as was the hanok in which we were staying.
When we arrived to this big wooden door, we didn't know how to enter. Eventually someone suggested knocking, duh, and the gate opened. The giant door actually had a door within a door. The smaller door required that you duck down and crawl through like a Hobbit door. We were greeted by the family who owned the hanok. The son spoke good English and he helped orientate us to our surroundings. The hanok was built by his great grandfather in 1908. It was composed of one main building and several surrounding buildings. They were all constructed in traditional Korean architecture.
Our rooms were adjoined, and you accessed them through sliding shoji screens. The rooms were unadorned (almost stark). There was nothing on the walls. Guest slept on mats with a small pillow for your head and neck and a comforter for warmth. There was a tiny box with a mirror, and some of the rooms had a TV and refrigerator (mine didn't!). Fortunately, each room had its own A/C unit. Behind each room was a small bathroom. The bathrooms were very nice considering how rustic the front part of the room looked. Given the small size of the bathrooms, the whole room turned into a shower. A floor drain took away the water as you showered.
We explored briefly, but then headed out for lunch. Our host recommended a good restaurant for bibimbap. Joengu is supposedly the best place in Korea to have bibimbap. The restaurant turned out to be a couple of blocks away and was in a beautiful Korean replica. The menu only had four items on it. Each item was a different type of bibimbap. They had one type that had raw beef in it. Since I love steak tartare I figured I'd try it, though echoes of Martin's voice telling me not to eat raw beef at an unknown restaurants floated through my thoughts. The rest of the table ordered the more traditional bibimbap. All of the them were delicious, as was the local drink called moju. Moju tasted like mulled apple cider, but more intense. It was a bit too cloying for me, but since we ordered a full pitcher of it, I figured I couldn't let it go to waste, so I drank most of it.
We then left to explore and shop. The streets of Hanok Village are beautiful. There is a man-made stream that zig zags its way down the length for the main street. Each corner is adorned with a large fountain that continues to pump the water down the stream. The shops offered up many types of items, but mostly sold fabric and paper products. Jeongu is famous for paper production. Paul, Vicki, and Martha bought many beautiful items. I restrained myself, still thinking about all the crap I just got rid of when I moved here. After a quick coffee/ice cream break and contributing to the Korean economy, we went back to the hanok for a quick nap before our scheduled tea ceremony that we had booked. It was also a nice break from the increasingly warm day.
I fell fast asleep and woke up with only ten minutes to spare. The tea ceremony was held in the main hanok, the first building built in 1908. It was a beautiful space with two large rooms separated by hanging screens. The table was set up for four guests with all the cups and saucers arranged precisely. We sat on the provided cushions and tried our best to get comfortable. Sitting at those small tables on the floor is never easy for big, gawky Americans. Soon the mother of the guy who spoke English came out and introduced herself. She didn't speak much English, so her son had to translate much of the ceremony. I had learned and studied about the Japanese tea ceremony, so I knew what to expect, but for Paul, Vicki and Martha it was a new experience. There are many steps to making, serving, and presenting the tea, and each step is meant to be simple and elegant. I got a chuckle out of watching my friends try to follow the steps. I was please that the host complimented my technique, but as I said, I had an unfair advantage.
After the tea ceremony the son showed us around the building we were in. This was a big honour because this building is part of their home. He took us up into the attic where many of the family possessions were stored. He even showed us the view from a window that overlooked the city. He told us that he proposed to his wife at this window. They had only gotten married three months earlier.
With the tour complete, we headed back out into the village in search of dinner and more shopping. The temperature had dropped with the setting sun, so it was more pleasant to stroll around. We had trouble finding a restaurant. With didn't want bibimbap again, so we needed to find something that didn't have gluten. We eventually settled on a place that seemed to have the most people in it. It was a traditional Korean restaurant in which you sit on cushions on the floor. After crouching painfully in the team ceremony for 45-minutes, seating like this again wasn't ideal.
The menu wasn't easily translated, so we weren't quite sure what we were ordering, but everyone was pleased when it arrived. We had a traditional kimchee stew and other dishes that we had not tried before. As always the food was delicious and cheap! We left the restaurant happy and full and headed back to the hanok.
The next morning Paul, Vicki and I awoke early and went for a walk. We tried to see if Martha was awake, but there was no answer when we knocked. The three of us went for a nice walk around the village. We visited places we hadn't seen before, including the site of a 500-year-old ginkgo tree. It was a cool morning and the walk was a great way to work up an appetite for breakfast.
Breakfast was served by the hosts at the hanok. We we entered, the tabled was covered with many small Korean dishes. Breakfast in Korea isn't much different than lunch and dinner. You still eat kimchee and broccoli and various forms of vegetables pickled and spiced. There was a ton of food, and the host even made us eggs. At the end of the meal, she provided us with a just picked apple and sliced it for us. It was a wonderful experience to eat there. Unfortunately we had to quickly pack up and leave the hanok for the train station. Onto Yeosu in the next entry.