Korean Folk Village

Korean folk village was the first trip I made after I landed in S.Korea. There is a direct bus from Suwon station to Korean folk village (bus no 37), although we took the bus from Suwon tourist information centre nearby to Suwon station. Korean folk village has buses making trips to and from Suwon tourist information centre. The last bus from Korean folk village back to Suwon tourist information centre is at 5:30 pm. The travel time is roughly 60 minutes. Korean folk village is in Yongin city, a different city and you can view the Korean country side, highways on your travel. The entry fees is 15,000 won, which i felt was pretty high compared to what it offers. It is a fun trip if you have a big group, with just one or two it can turn entirely boring. The area is very vast and takes at-least 3 to 4 hours to cover. Make sure you have packed up up something to eat and drink before you set out.



. Korean folk village is modeled on a natural environment with traditional houses, various household goods, cattle and life in the villages in Korea from different regions.provide visitors with a broad understanding of Korean food, clothing, and housing style of the past. About twenty workshops, various handicrafts such as pottery, baskets, winnows, bamboo wares, wooden wares, paper, brass wares, knots, fans, musical instruments, iron wares and embroidery, the customs and lifestyles of the past generations have been carefully preserved. If the modeled folk town may not seem to hold your interests, you will certain enjoy the Korean folk play experience, a bunch of horse riders with their impeccable performance will leave you spell bound. They display impressive feats of acrobatics and horse riding, archery. The other show is Korean folk dance which is not exuberant as the previous one, but a good watch. Drums, dance and an colorful display of dance will keep you engrossed for a while. The place is very scenic, especially if you time your visit in the months of April and May. There are plenty of corners for a good group snapshot. Food and beverage is available on payment basis. Overall its a good visit if you have a group of at least 5 people. There are handicraft shops where you can purchase souvenirs. In comparison to Insadong market this place is mildly expensive.

Verdict:

• Ease of transportation: 4/5
• Value for money: 2/5
• Recommended group size: 5 or more

For more information refer. Korean folk village Some pictures below

My Stay @ Suwon

I currently staying at Suwon, South Korea. Suwon is one among the few cities which has negligible crime, and considered one of the safest cities in the world. It is a beautiful, clean and less populous. The facilities available to citizens are great and in my opinion, life is relatively easier for the common man. The citizens are disciplined and near law abiding. Public transportation system, safety facilities, public infrastructure are truly commendable. The people are friendly, helpful and industrious. Suwon, prides over the Hwaseong fortress, which it maintains as a cultural symbol. Samsung one of the behemoths has a extremely large campus here and the campus seems to be more of city than just a campus of a MNC. Seoul is just an hour by the subway train and may be 30 mins by the super fast KTX. I've enjoyed every bit of my stay in Suwon and I am sure it will not disappoint anybody from any country. A few snaps of the Suwon city.

The apartment where I stay

Neatly layed out roads in Suwon city

One amazing thing here in Korea, is the separate cycling track, beside the footpath. Cyclist need not risk their lives cycling on the road.

This ship is actually a restaurant !

Bustling with lights

Travel Tips

I will list down a few tips that will help travel make your travel in Korea easier. I don't claim to be a travel expert, not by any stretch of imagination at least. However based on my experience on travel to at least 12 different locations in Korea, I found these handy.

Tip 1. Purchase a travel card Ex. T Money POP card, the basic card costs 2500W (to be interpreted as 2500 won). You can charge for a minimum of 1000W and any amount upward, usually for a day's trip for distance of 30 km and back, by subway / buses, it will not exceed 6000W. So 10000W should be an ideal recharge amount. You can purchase the card in any departmental store. The card also applies in taxi's, however very used often in subways and public bus. The charge is not always a straight forward distance calculation, certain parameters like, time difference between first and second journey, distance difference between fist hop and second hop etc, play a role in fare calculation. A couple of trips should enlighten anybody about the tricks of the trade.

Tip 2. South Korea is very well connected by trains and the subway system is excellent. Any expat would find travel easy with the subway map. The subway map can be download to your phones or you can obtain a free copy at the tourism information center in any city. The subway system is based on line numbers, a close look at the map will help you reach any city by changing trains at appropriate line changing stations. Must have thing.

Tip 3. A little bit of google for possible routes, line exits, alternative travel options, distance and duration always help in planning your trip better. There are upteen websites which provide such information, in my opinion, the offical korea travel website Travel Korea is more reliable and updated.

Tip 4. All it takes is knowledge of a few handy Korean words to make it a successful trip along with all the planning. Do keep some words handy, you can find them in the links I shared in my previous posts. It always helps to know the name of the destination in terms of local language, as commoners may not be aware of the place by plain English reference names.

Finally, the key ingredient would be your enthusiasm to travel. You can get all the resources you want, but the lack of enthusiasm, cannot be equated for any amount of planning or resources. Korea is a beautiful country, the people are helpful and friendly, and transportation system is excellent. It cannot get better than this. Go out, get some sunshine !

Some more pics