Going to the Bukchon Hanok Village was not our original plan. It was supposed to be the following day but by the time we ended our tour of the Lotte Tower – Seoul Sky, it was too late to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace which would close at 6.30pm. (Due to our waking up late in the morning which disrupted our entire planned itinerary)

We were not confident there would be time to tour the huge place as it would take around 1hr to take the subway from Lotte World, back to the main city area. Hence, Vin suggested pushing the planned itinerary to tomorrow.

Again, we had to change many subway lines before we finally reached the area. By that time, we were really tired and made our slow walk to the Bukchon Hanok area, according to Google Map. However, it was such a famous area that I felt we must really go there to see for ourselves (okay, maybe it’s just me), even if the sun was almost setting and it was around 6:15 pm.

Arrival at Bukchon Hanok Village

We walked up the first street (slope) that we saw. I explained to my parents that we were there to see the famous slopping streets with old Korean houses known as “Hanok”. I guess they had seen it in Korean Dramas so it was not too hard to convince them to walk up, though I felt guilty making them walk so much. Believe me, the slopes of Bukchon Hanok was kind of a challenge for us people used to flat grounds!

Going up the slope, I discovered this was different from my idea of Bukchon Hanok Village. The houses all looked modern and I started wondering whether we came to the wrong part.

Bukchon Hanok Village – An Ancient House

Soon, we came by a group of people coming out from a beautiful looking house. It had a courtyard and steps so high to an ancient-looking front door. We were intrigued. Hence, Vin asked a woman standing in the courtyard, “Could we go in? Is it nice?” She said, “Yes, you should. Very nice! Good!”

Still, we were hesitant and puzzled at the people just standing around and some others coming out of the door… when finally, someone approached us and showed us a brochure that explained that this was actually a “Hanok Museum”. It’s official name is the “Baek In-Je House Museum”. Best of all, the admission is totally free! However, they were closing soon but kindly, gave us about 20mins to explore.

Explore Baek-in-Je House Museum

Upon entering, I found myself fortunate to have stumbled upon this gem of a 100-years-old house. It is one of the few remaining large-scale traditional Korean houses in Seoul, with servant’s quarters, inner quarters and a large garden, so huge and well-preserved. I came to the Bukchon Hanok area, expecting to only stroll through the streets and admire the exterior of the houses. I did not expect I would be walking inside a real one!

As we walked, we became the only visitors left. Thus, it was nice to explore all the different corners and take nice pictures against the traditional backdrops. Too bad, we were not wearing any traditional costumes so it does look a little odd! If you rent the Korean traditional costume for a day, perhaps you could come here for photo-taking!

I think this was such a great idea to introduce visitors how an upperclass Korean used to live. If we had more time, we could have watched the full video presentation in one of the rooms about the story of the house. I could only catch a little of it before moving on.

We finished with walking around the garden and taking a group photo against the architecture in the courtyard.

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Bukchon Hanok Village’s Famous Photo Slope

We decided we really need to find that iconic street where countless people take the contrasting picture of ancient versus modern.

Walking back down the slope towards another district, we repeated our walk up the slope again, to reach the top.

My mum was showing tiredness as she lagged behind but suddenly, found her favourite thing to do when we walked past a vehicle. A man was selling Korean Melons from the back of his pick-up truck! I was skeptical about it since he wasn’t doing it legally. However, my mum was insistent on getting them because she found them cheap. She told me that these melons costs so much more in Singapore and were considered prized fruits. Then, she added on more weight to herself by climbing up with a bag of ten melons…I was worried but I had many things to carry myself so had to shrug it off.

Finally, we reached the top part where, looking back, we could see a contrast of modern buildings against the row of traditional houses we were standing beside. Alas, the house on the other side of the street happened to be undergoing construction and there was a big white ugly board! =.=” Therefore, I would not be able to get that “dream photo” every tourists takes – standing on the sloping street with the modern Seoul behind us and traditional houses on our two sides…I was rather disappointed.

Soon, we passed by a shop selling some interesting food, ramen and drinks. Dar was thirsty and we got him an orange juice drink from there.

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Group Picture by Friendly Guides

Standing near the shop, were two guy dressed as “city-guides”, helping a tourist to take photos on the sloping street. I remember reading about these Koreans working as volunteers to help navigate tourists. Thus, we waited for our turn to ask them for help, so we could have a group family photo to remember by. Though a little spoilt by the white board, it was still nice to remember our sweaty faces and accomplishment for climbing up the steep street! *grin.

After reaching the top and getting that photo, we were all exhausted and had no more interest in exploring other small streets to discover more interesting houses or shops (original plan was for tomorrow and visiting a tea house). Hence, we continued walking until it goes down again to the main street.

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Going down slope

We passed an artist’s shop with impressive artwork of Seoul’s architecture, the Gyeongbokgung Palace from afar. I looked at it enviously and complained that we could not make it in time to visit (T_T).

We also came across this extremely steep stairway with funny directions. I think I did send Vin down to fulfil my curiosity about what was beyond. However, I could not remember now what he saw. Also, placing a chair there made us chuckle. Someone thoughtfully think we would need a rest after making the long way down.

From then on, it was still a long walk down to the main street (sloping gradually downwards fortunately), where I finally gave up and needed to rest due to my breaking legs. It was more painful for our legs to walk downslope than upslope actually. I asked Vin whether we should call a taxi but in the end, we decided to still take a metro for one station to a station near Tosokchon Samgyetang. I could not tolerate anymore “10 minutes” walk.

Tip: One should wear a shoe slightly bigger than your normal size (half/one inch) when walking down a slope or your toes would hurt!

[ SUMMARY ]

Travel Period:30 May – 5 June 2017 (Tues – Mon)

7 DAYS 6 NIGHTS IN SEOUL/JEJU ISLAND

Total Time We Spent for Tour (with lots of photo-taking and some rest):

Walking up to Baek-In Jae Hanok Museum : 3 mins

Tour inside Baek-In Jae Hanok Museum: 21 mins

Walking up to Sloping Street for Photo-taking: 3-5mins

BUKCHON HANOK – BAEK-IN JAE HANOK MUSEUM : 4/5

Great:  We love architecture so it was nice to view an ancient Korean living quarters with some modernised facilities. You can use the modernised toilet facilities there. I like the way the bottom of the house was lifted above the ground with extended platform area outside of rooms. The garden was pretty and there were interesting little paths to walk on.

Con: The style of some rooms in the Korean Hanok wasn’t exactly Korean as the website states that due to its owner working with Japanese, many rooms were furnished in Japanese style.

Read next post : Day 2 – Dinner at Tosokchon Samgyetang

Read our Summary Itinerary Post for South Korea 2017 Trip : 7 Days in South Korea Seoul and Jeju Itinerary

Read Tips on Seoul: Exploring Seoul Tips and Experience