Korean Folk Village (민속촌)

I'm not sure where this place is, but on Monday, I went to an amusement park type place that was built to show the old/traditional villages (think Williamsburg, Virginia, USA) that existed in Korea way back when it wasn't the technology savvy country that it is today...which wasn't actually that long ago. From what I keep hearing, the Korea that exists today is nothing like the Korea that existed as soon as 20, 30, 50 years ago. I think back then, Korea was still largely an agriculture-centred country with little infrastructure and few luxuries (like modern toilets, for example!). But I'm not an expert, so don't quote me. The Folk Village is also where a lot of popular Korean dramas have been shot, like Palace Jewel (Daejanggeum) and Sunkyunkwan Scandal. I think they were scheduled to shoot something there the day that I went, but I didn't see any camera crew while I was walking around.

Korean Folk Village

Korean Folk Village

If you do decide to visit the Korean village, don't go on a Monday. There are supposed to be people role-playing and showing you how people lived back then, but all those people don't work on Mondays (and yet the park is open, why?)! Anyways, they still had some fun performances that I had a chance to see. I watched the horse show and the traditional wedding ceremony.

The man with the whip (left) cuts the flower in half (right)

Gangnam Styling on a horse

Traditional Wedding Ceremony

I really wanted to get my fortune read by the fortune teller on site, but she's off on Mondays (I took that as a sign). Plus side to going on a Monday is that I tried my hand at archery and got to use up all the space and even got to shoot 3x more arrows than was paid for! There are a lot of workshops that you can partake in too. I made a mug in the pottery workshop! By "I made," what I really mean is that I watched the pottery man make the mug, while I got to dip my hands in clay, haha. They offer on-going ceramics courses where you can really learn how to wheel-throw pots, etc. but that's not something I'll be able to do in my short stay.