Thursday, September 18, 2014

Korea Folk Village - Suwon

I will definitely recommend Korea folk village as one of the must-visit in Korea. It is such a beautiful place, full with performances to let us understand the Korean culture better.

To get there from Seoul, you need to take subway line 1 to Suwon station. It will take you about an hour. Once reached Suwon, get out from the subway station and walk towards the tourist information centre and check for the timing of free shuttle bus to go to the Korea Folk Village.

On the other note, Suwon is where famous Korean actor - Joo Won and soccer player, Park Ji Sung came from. :)

So there are a series of performance throughout the day in Korea Folk Village. Be sure to check the timetable and identify the performances that you want to watch. In my case, we didn't manage to watch all the performance as we are busy taking pictures around the villages.

These are some of the performances that we managed to catch up:


Acrobatics on a tightrope
Equestrian Feats
The scenery inside the village is just breathtaking

Traditional Korea architecture

Beautiful lake inside the village

I'm with the rooftop prince!!!

You can dress up Korean traditional costumes for free~~ thanks the theater performers who took photo with us, we are wearing the costume of the King and Queen~ ipeudda

Ma ma~

With the performers :)


There are traditional costumes hanging in the villages, we can just take it and try it for free

It's amazing that I can fit into this little carriage

It will take you a day to go around the whole village, if you're hungry, don't worry, there's a big food court for you to enjoy your lunch
Yum yum :)
If you plan to take the shuttle bus to Suwon subway station, do be reminded that the last free shuttle bus is at 4pm.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Korea - Winter Sonata

I always admire the chinese idiom "It is better to walk a thousand miles than to read a thousand books". Well, I'm practicing it. Travelling has been part of my life and my most favourite thing to do.

So, I got to visit the place I had been dreaming of going since I watched the Korean drama Winter Sonata, Nami Island. I only managed to visit it during spring season though I thought the place will be most beautiful in winter.

It took around 2-3 hours to reach Nami Island from Seoul. We departed from Hongik University station. Proceed to Sangbong Station (line no.7) and take Gyeongchun Line. It takes about 45 minutes to reach Gapyeong Station. Please prepare to stand throughout the 45 minutes of the ride if you are taking the train. Based on my experience, the train is crowded with the elderly. From what I noticed, it seems like they are all prepared to go for a hike or something. 

It is a nice experience taking Korean subway, there are salesman who actually walking from coach to coach selling their products but my legs do get really painful standing throughout the train ride.

Once you get to Gapyeong station, take a taxi to Namiseom parking lot and take the ferry from Namiseom Dock to Namiseom Island.


On the ferry to Nami Island

 

And we're finally here



Can't wait to start taking photos




The place where yu-jin and jun-sang had their first kiss, the table is no longer there, they placed it with this instead :(


Still remember the scene? I'm quite disappointed with the vandalisme act by the tourists


Vandalisme everywhere, sigh~
These photos remind me of the old times
the power of a drama~ they even have a bronze statue


Best activity on the island~ rent a bike and cycle around the island


Beautiful view around the island


Visiting the winter sonata museum
The highlight of the trip, the beautiful ginkgo trees


Remembering Park-Young ha T_T

Overall, for those who will be having a short trip to Korea, I will not recommend Nami island as a must visit place. It is too much hassle, and from what you can see from the photos, most of the scenic spots were ruined due to vandalisme and it is over crowded with tourists.

But it is still a beautiful island, do drop by when you have extra time :)