TacoCat’s Travels #253 (Seoul): Seeking Serenity in Bukchon Hanok Village 🏯

July 2024 · 8 min read · Seoul

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, I've been sharing about our first trip to Seoul back in Nov 2022! We were waiting post-covid for everyone to go on their holidays before taking a big one and we finally decided to go on our honeymoon! It's also our first time experiencing Fall so we were double excited!

Last week, we finally wrapped up our one day adventure in Everland, Seoul's biggest theme park! The park itself is so big that they have cable cars and ski lifts to take you from one side of the park to the other!

We were so exhausted from walking around the park but had a lot of fun exploring the different areas from Zootopia to Blood City and the international zones as well. It was truly an full-day adventure and we were dead tired after that.

15 Nov 2022. Tuesday.

We retired early but also slept in the next day and by the time we left the hotel to start the day it was noon. We didn't really have plans for today and just wanted to relax so we thought we'd revisit a place we didn't get to enjoy the first time.

We made our way back to the Bukchon Hanok Village, home to hundreds of traditional houses that date back to the Joseon dynasty. Some of the houses or hanoks still have residents staying in them, but many of these hanoks operate as cultural centers, guesthouses, restaurants and tea houses, providing visitors with an opportunity to experience, learn and immerse themselves in traditional Korean culture.

The first time we wanted to come here was earlier on in our trip but we were really unfortunate to get caught in a storm at the time and got absolutely drenched. So we wanted to make up for it by visiting here in the daytime.

Since this is an actual neighbourhood with people's houses visitors are reminded to be respectful and keep their voices down so as not to disturb the residents, which I really appreciate since I'm not a fan of noisy tourists either.

We tried to be as respectful as possible, but it felt a little weird taking photos with someone's front door.

The architecture was truly amazing though. Our housing in Singapore is mostly apartment blocks so seeing these old buildings still well-maintained and having people living in them was astounding.

It felt like we were walking through an anime set, and we even saw a stray cat running around a corner!

Even the alleyways were quite picturesque; it's really nice that they maintained it so well to this day.

I feel like I could just sit in a corner and sketch the landscape. I bet some animes were based off of this village.

It did feel a little weird juxtaposition seeing modern technology like luxury cars and doorbell cameras in this area though. But it made sense since these houses probably cost millions by now.

There were a few relatively modern-looking buildings that looked like Japanese apartments. We also saw another stray cat that had the most beautiful colours!

There was a couple taking photographs here with a professional photographer and a very cute doggo walked past all of us!

Eventually we met the doggo up close somewhere in the village and I snapped a photo of it with an adorable bee backpack!

After the couple took their photos we got to take a photo on the steps too!

We were mostly walking around the back of people's houses taking photos and appreciating all the different architecture styles. I liked that the houses had some commonalities like the kawara (clay roof tiles) but each house also had its own unique design and personality.

I think the easiest way to distinguish each house was definitely the entrance and front door. Some of these doors looked really fancy! I made sure my shoes were clean so I didn't dirty the front porch.

Even some of the alleys were unique with their own tiles. This one felt like it led to a very fancy house at the end.

I think some people would think these traditional houses would be for the less well-off people but you can tell immediately that these particular houses belonged to wealthy families.

Some of the doors did look more worn than others but I'm pretty sure it was intentional to keep the aesthetic.

This particular walkway was on a fairly steep incline and Sean got creative with his balancing pose.

There were signs posted that I think was to tell tourists to be respectful but ironically they were all in Korean so most tourists wouldn't be able to understand anyway.

I'm not sure how many houses are in this neighbourhood but I can see traffic being an issue since the pathways are quite narrow. With so many tourists about I wonder how the residents travel out by car.

The designs on the walls were really stunning, and the thing that amazed me more was how clean it was! You'd think these older houses would be decrepit and dirty-looking but everything was spick and span.

There were also quite a few shops like cafes and tea houses. They also looked really fancy and seemed fit for connoisseurs.

We saw quite a few other tourists while exploring the village and there were even volunteer ambassadors walking around telling people to be quiet if they made too much noise.

After walking around for a while we realised there was a route map and different points of interest along it. It's a shame we only found this after walking around for an hour or so.

I think one of the numbers pointed to this place called Bukchon Best Prospect. I think this cordoned off area was paid-to-enter since the sign says it's and exhibition hall that houses the best observatory to view Bukchon and Gyeongbokgung Palace, and a place to see Seoul's inner mountain and capital city at a glance!

We didn't really know how to enter and were fine with just viewing the village so we passed on it and continued on.

I didn't realise how far we'd walked until we came up to this balcony and could see that we were significantly higher than when we started.

The view was pretty amazing too! Not only could we see the trees in their varying fall colours, we also saw the main street below with the regular buildings and cars.

We walked along the road beside the balcony while enjoying the view. There were also some nice leaves here too and I couldn't resist trying to recreate a meme:

Seoul is truly such a vibrant city; with the perfect blend of nature and man-made structures from different time periods. We could even see the mountains in the background. What a wonder.

We came across another cute doggo going on a walk, and it felt like we were unintentionally stalking it since we were walking in the same direction for quite a while.

So we stopped to take some photos to not make the dog or owner nervous.

We started making our way towards the station and saw another doggo in this alleyway of street stalls.

Seeing all these cute pets made our day so much better! It was definitely a lot better than the first time we were here.

Once we made our way to the main road it was an easy walk to the station.

We took the train a few stops down to Seoul Station since we didn't get to see the shopping outlets here the first time.

The station had both Lotte Outlets and Lotte Mart but since the Outlets had mostly luxury shops that didn't interest us we made our way to Lotte Mart!

The outside already looked huge but we were really stunned when we entered the supermarket.

It was only one floor but had aisles that seem to go on for miles!There was also a dining area where people were eating.

If you didn't know, one of our favourite things to do together is grocery shopping! Since I cook a lot, we always like to look for new foods to try and good deals on snacks.

Of course, Lotte Mart wasn't all food, they had a big section of cosmetics and beauty products.

Turns out the Mart itself is three floors, with brand shops sharing the space on the third floor. Most of the goods were on the second and third floor though.

We did take a look at everything but since it was the middle of the day we didn't want to buy too much back.

In the end we bought 3 bags of snacks and since our hotel wasn't too far away we decided to head back to drop them off before going somewhere else for the night.