Korea 2024 - Seoul Bukchon Hanok Village

 

I've heard about Bukchon Hanok Village before and have always wanted to visit it. But for some reason, I've always been too lazy to research how to get here. So I was quite delighted to know that we'll be spending some time here. Best was, it was going to be free and easy for us until we meet up for lunch. So without hesitation, and after grabbing my royal rice cake mochi, me and my husband went off on our own to explore!

Hanok Village means a village of traditional houses. And I love old houses, and imagining how people live and how their life was life in these villages. But in this modern days, most of the houses has been turned into shops and homestay....The more inner houses were still residential area, and there are signs to ask tourist to be respectful when visiting, and to keep their volume down. Above is a tea shop that I wanted to visit, but it was closed when we reached there. 

Here is a photo of some of the side alley from the main road. Many people like to dress up in their Korean hanbok and take photos here. I have dressed up in a hanbok before when I went for my last trip with the Korean Teacher.... it was something I would normally won't do, but she insisted everyone dress up (including the guys). It was fun actually. And guess what, when a friend said she would like to do a kimono dress up in our upcoming Japan trip, I told her that I will join her and have booked us a tea and kimono dressing for our trip! So excited and looking forward to it!

Here is the sign I was telling you about. There are also local guides walking around with sign and ensuring people behave themselves in the area. I guess there were some rowdy tourist in the past? 

I love that some of the roads were actually coloured and had some simple designs. It was just such a nice place to take photos.

Although we didn't went inside any of the houses, for those with doors opened, we did peep inside. It was like another secret world inside. I think that's what I like about these places. Like in France, where the apartment doors opened up into a inner compound, or in Japan where you slide open a restaurant door to see a beautiful shop inside. It's just such a wonder to be part of that inside world....

I love those little touches like the kimchi pots, the beautiful flowers, the raised up flooring of the houses.

At the top of one of the slope we went to, we could see traditional roof when we looked down from there. Here is a view of it. From here, it looked like an old town.

I also saw a wooden church among the houses, and this wooden carving of a Korean priest with a cross. It reminded me of the k-drama Demon that I've watched. There was a similar scene in the series, so I took this photo to remember it by.