Suwon is about two and a half hours from Uijeongbu and in retrospect we should have left much earlier! There are two big attractions in Suwon - Hwaseong Fortress and the Korean Folk Villiage.
We really didn't leave early enough to see the Hwaseong Fortress, so we decided just to go to the Folk Villiage.
The Folk Villiage is about 30 minutes from the Suwon Information centre by a free shuttle bus. I just thought I'd share some pictures from inside the bus as every Korean tour bus I have been on looks like this on the inside - like it's about to take you on a "magical mystery tour".
Here's a few photo's from inside the Folk Villiage, I really like these totem pole type things (I'm not sure of their Korean name).
There were also a cow and calf at the villiage but I felt a little bit sad for them, they were in a small pen with no grass. I guess cows in New Zealand have a pretty good life - I think these guys would be much happier on my parents farm.
Here's a few general photo's of the Folk Villiage buildings, some of these are "commoners" houses, some were for people much higher in the social order.
In the villiage, there was of course, kimchi pots and chilli drying in the sun everywhere! 
There were also a lot of markets in the folk villiage where you could make various items that have been made in the traditional Korean way - these photo's were taken at the carpenters stall. Although, I'm not quite sure who would want the last carving in their house, maybe that's "just for fun"?
There were a few free shows at the villiage, we saw a horse/acrobatic show and also this tightrope walker. He hasn't actually fallen in this picture, it's all part of the trick, I have to say it looked like a painful trick for a man to perform!
One of the really cool things about the Folk Village is that you can actually touch and use the stuff at the park, unlike a museum, I really like that. Here's som of the stuff we played with - drums, some kind of game and I think what I am holding is some kind of pillow. But I am not really sure!
Here's a couple of photo's of rich playing a traditional Korean game we have played a few times before, basically you need to get those kind of spear like things into the bucket/circle type things. Sounds easy right - well it's not. Apparently this game was one that the aristocratic Korean women used to play back in the "old days" when they weren't allowed to leave their houses.
Time for more photo's of cute animals - there were a couple of donkey's at the folk villiage but this was the only one that would stay still long enough for me to take a decent photo.
Also, here's some pictures of some bunnies. I didn't see this kind of bunny until I came to Korea, I would have loved to have taken these guys home with me - I don't think that would have made the folk village people too happy though.
Finally, just before we left we visited the "Ghost House" - I knew it would be lame but if there is a ghost house, ghost train or ghost anything I have to go! I thought it was so lame it was good. But Rich thought it was so lame that it was, well, just lame.
No comments:
Post a Comment