Today, we took a big trip to the city of Asan. Remember how I mentioned in my last blog post that each city in South Korea has an adjective describing the city? Well, Asan is called Smart Asan. My mom, grandma, brother, and I took a bus to get there.
The bus rides have scenic views.
There are Korean flags hung up all over the country because July 17 marks the national holiday Constitution Day. I remember walking the neighborhood streets of Seosan with my grandpa as a young girl as he explained why Korean flags were hung up everywhere. The Korean flag is known as taegeukgi.
We took the Asan city bus to wueam Village. The bus tickets cost a total of ₩5000 for the four of us. Luckily, we visited on a day where admission was free. The village is a beautiful representation of the villages back in Korea’s folk days.
The flowers in the picture above are called bongsunhwa ggot. Ggot means flower. These flowers are crushed and then placed on girls’ fingernails. The fingernail is then wrapped and left on for hours to a day. This process leaves an orange stain on the fingernails. This is a traditional way to do manicures. My grandpa used to collect these flowers and do the process on my nails when I was younger. The result is beautiful. There is a belief that if you stain your nails with these flowers and the stain lasts until the next winter, you will receive a lot of luck and love.
We ate inside this small restaurant located inside the village.
Mak gooksu is a cold noodle dish with cucumbers, octopus, sesame seeds, seaweed, and crushed ice. optional horseradish and vinegar can be added to enhance flavor. We were also given a plate of kimchi as well.
We also ordered saewoo tuigim, which is shrimp tempura. Eating this right after being fried makes for a crunchy texture and satisfying taste. The saewoo tuigim also came with a dipping sauce.
I ordered kimchi Wang mandu as well. This translates into kimchi king dumplings. The restaurant lady was kind enough to give us a free dumpling because one of them broke, so we got five dumplings instead of the usual four.
We bought three bowls of mak gooksu, one Plate of saewoo tuigim, and one plate of kimchi Wang mandu. The total was ₩33,000.
After finishing our satisfying lunch, we explored the village some more. We saw a traditional Korean kite and paper lanterns.
The previous five pictures contain things that are made of hanji, or traditional Korean paper. There were even drawers and pots made of hanji.
Next, we visited the village gift shop. All the things inside the shop are handmade.
Handmade owl pens
I bought a Handmade traditional Korean fan with a hand-drawn design. It cost ₩10,000. Pop quiz: if you read my previous blog post, you know my quick tip on how to convert KRW into USD. About how much is ₩10,000 in USD?
Answer: you got it! $10!
Then, we proceeded to the other side, where minsok Village was located.
The weather was not humid, but since we were walking around a lot, we stopped for some ice cream.
One of my favorite Korean ice creams is called sullaeim. There are different flavors such as coffee, cookies and cream, and milk shake. It has tiny icy particles and a smooth, creamy consistency. Usually ice cream makes me thirsty, but this ice cream does not. It’s very tasty and refreshing. Cost ₩2000.
Minsok Village had houses with thatched roofs, which made me very happy. Always exciting to see thatched roofs.
These are carvings made on trees. The faces may be a little creepy but cool nonetheless.
Grape vines!
A huge bug jumped out from a tree onto my mom’s bag. This bug has some crazy colors and patterns.
Aren’t the buildings so beautiful? Centuries back, buildings were made without the use of nails. The wood was cut to fit each other perfectly. That’s why even though the buildings are centuries old, they are still standing strong.
Beautiful scenic views as well.
Even the inside of the houses have things that represent life in ancient Korea.
Hangari pots were used to store food and sauces. They were buried underground back In old times as a refrigerator system.
Hello cow!
Some of the games that we played included tightrope walking and ring toss. There were also other games that were played during olden times thst we could try out. Tightrope walking was the hardest. My brother got the furthest.
This is a representation of crime punishment during folk days.
“Mom, don’t get too excited” I said as a joke.
This is what a kitchen looked like back in the day.
My grandma demonstrated how clothes used to be ironed back in the day. Two wooden sticks were used to beat the cloth. This process would be done by one or two people.
Chicken coop filled with roosters, hens, baby chicks, and rabbits!
Swings!
Don’t the flowers in the picture above look like eggs? By mom used to tell me that when she used to play house as a little girl with other small kids, they would pretend that these flowers were eggs.
Huge Lotus flowers are always pretty.
Nothing wrong with occasionally treating yourself to two ice creams in a day. Thanks grandma! This cost ₩1000.
After enjoying the folk villages of Asan, we went back to the bus terminal to head to Seosan. The bus terminal had small cafe shops and clothing stores.
after arriving in Seosan, we stopped by the grocery store to buy some fruits. We bought a box of grapes and a pack of apricots. The store owner gave us a free bunch of baby bananas (so cute!). I took a long nap when we got home. My grandma woke me up for dinner. We had a delicious meal of kimchi noodles, Korean pancakes, kimchi, and bean sprout soup. Yum!
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