Seoul Day 4: Suwon!

 Our 4th day in Seoul was longer; longer than we anticipated. 

Dan had expressed interest in going to, like, a traditional or folk village. There was nothing near Tokyo that we could find, but there is the Folk Village in Suwon, just south of Seoul. I took my dad when he came to visit and it was really cool. Only problem is that it is a bit of a trek out there. 

As I was trying to find a way out to Suwon, I came across a tour that would not only take us straight to the Folk Village in an air conditioned bus, but would also take us to the Hwaesong Fortress and a traditional market. All for less than $20 more than the cost to get into the Folk Village. Good price! 

So we got up on Wednesday and took the subway a couple stops down to Dongdaemun History and Culture park to wait our bus. You could see the cool metal building thing from our waiting point.

The bus arrived right on time and we got a nice, clean, air conditioned bus to drive us about an hour out to Suwon.

Now, I had figured that, for the price we paid, this tour would be more along the lines of "here is the place... we'll meet you here with the bus in a couple hours," but it was a full on guided tour. We maybe would have liked less of a guided tour so we could stop and look at what we wanted or whatever, but, it was fine. 

The first stop was a little building that talked about traditional pottery, called onggi. I thought it was really cool seeing all of the different things that pottery was used for. I liked how they showed that a kimchi pot buried in the ground served the same function as a kimchi fridge (you can see it right next to the pot with the slice out of. 

A lot of families in Korea will have at least two fridges, one specifically for kimchi. That's cool. We'll talk more about kimchi when we talk about our cooking class later in the week.

More pottery!

We walked around some more, seeing a more traditional, peasant house as well as one for a noble family.

Obviously, the cool deer mosaic was on the fancier home.

There were a lot of pretty pagodas around. The ones by the little river had a nice cool breeze blowing through them. 

We did not get to enjoy the nice breezy pagodas. We continued walking. In the sun. And the 90 degree heat. And humidity. I copied the Chinese tourists and took out my umbrella for some personal shade and discovered I had bought a UV protected umbrella. I was very happy with this discovery. I would like to bring this trend to the U.S., please. Personal portable shade. On a stick. I love it.

We continued on to a tree with little stacked rocks in front of it of for wishes. The four colored streamers on the tree represent the four cardinal directions (blue is east and the other colors... are the other directions. You figure it out.)

Some cool guys to keep away bad spirits.

Then we got to sit for a bit and watch a cool dance and drum performance. I love how when they would spin, the skirts made, like, a perfect bell. I also wanted one of the fans. They were not for sale.

Some drumming and... tooting on a cool instrument that I don't know the name of. I'd ask Mandy, but she is watching her Dungeons and Dragons show right now and I don't want to interrupt her. I guess I could look it up. It's called a taepyeongso. A double reed instrument in the oboe family. Cool.

After the show, we went to a something like a municipal building that talked a lot about traditional torture methods. A choice.

The tour guide pointed out little pipes under the chairs and said those were to collect the blood. That's cool. Cool. Also, no one laid out on the paddling cross. I encouraged Maddie, but she just gave me a dirty look.

Some more walking, saw some more pretty buildings, a random cute flower moon. It was lovely. Just hot.

After a while, we were set free for the final hour or so to grab lunch and do some solo walking. We got bibimbap and Dan got oxtail soup and a pancake. Being so hot, I could not finish my food. 

We started a slow walk back towards the entrance and Mandy saw a drum that was bigger than her.

More open air cool things.

There was an area with some traditional games like yut, swings, and arrow tossing.

At the front, Mandy and I got some fresh fruit juice. I got watermelon and it was just delicious, cold, blended watermelon. Very happy. I was a little worried I wouldn't finish it before I had to get on the bus, but I didn't need to worry because I sucked it down in record time.

There was also a cat! He did not allow pets, but we were happy to see him anyways.

Dan split off from us to go to the adventure land portion of the park. It was rides and stuff I guess. He wanted to see the haunted house. Maddie warned him not to buy a ghost, but he made no promises.

We were very relieved to get on the air conditioned bus afterwards. We were rather tired at this point from the walking and the heat. 

It was as we approached the fortress wall that we started to realize that we might have signed up for something a little outside of our realm of comfort, activity-wise. There was no shade. And the wall was very long. This was going to be a lot of hot walking.

Oh no.

But we got out, got watered, and prepared for our hike with our big group.

We started at the east gate (see the blue flag? Like on the tree from the village? Oh yeah... Mandy got ginseng candy for remembering that).

There was a really cool blue dragon mosaic inside.

We hiked up some stairs... and then some more stairs. Then started to trek along the wall. 

There were some very cool things to see. I love the painted beams. Reminds me of the palace.

A cool door in a tower.

Further out along the wall, you could see a tethered gas balloon doing rides. It was neat looking. We did not go out there. We walked enough. 

At this point, some of us (me) were a little tired (dying; more sweat than human). There was zero shade and it was a lovely, sunny, hot day. We kept on keeping on and made our way across the wall. The view was rather lovely.

I love how in this picture Maddie is, like, "Look! The blue means east!" and I'm outside the frame, like, "If I stop, I will die. Take pictures as you move."

When we got to the bottom, we sat in some shade, bought some water, and then Mandy got us some ice cream. While Mandy and I slowly became more human, Maddie and Dan decided to try their hand at Korean archery.

They did pretty good! Maddie explained how these bows were easier to pull than the ones in the states. Something about single vs double and how this would have been important for horseback. Cool, cool, cool. I was now a regular human temperature.

The cool down did not last for long. We got on the bus, drove for five minutes, and then pulled into the Suwon Young-Dong Traditional Market. 

We started over by this gate and walked a little ways to the main food area.

The market was pretty cool (interest-wise; not temperature). It was lined with vendors with fresh meat, produce, traditional treats, and street food. However, we were hot, tired, and a little overwhelmed so we were not much interested in getting food. I did want the little kimbaps, but you had to buy a pile and I couldn't eat an entire flat by myself *sigh.* 

Maddie needed a bathroom, so we headed back to the meet-up point (back by the gate) and found the bathrooms by this guy. I think he represents all of the different things you can find at this market (food, jewelry, etc.), but I am just kind of impressed by the fact he is juggling sliced bread and an entire bowl of noodles while managing to keep them together. Talent.

Then it was time to get on the bus and head home. I was a little sweaty. There was no more makeup. BUT! There was mild toasting of the face, but no burning! Thank you sunscreen and UV protected umbrellas!

Once we got back to Myeoung-Dong, Mandy went back to the room to die while Maddie, Dan, and I went to Two Two Chicken for dinner. Maddie had been so freaking excited about this place since she saw the name in a way I can only describe as Jennifer-esque. It was adorable (don't tell her I said that). We got potatoes and chicken to take back to our rooms and then bid each other goodnight.