A Brief Re-Visit to Hanok Village

 Delve into the details of Hanok...that's what I wanted to recapture.

But then...it was a hot yet bright day.

See? It's seamlessly beautiful.

Then...it's time to go into the house.

First. ..the door handle caught my attention. See how it aged...

A peek into the kitchen.

And the wooden handrails over the rooms...

...and then a look into the interior of a room.

It's unmistakably so.Hanok.in.style.

A look.out.to.look.at.

Another door handle. Wait..it's the same as the previous one. Only...this time..I took the picture from inside the house.

Yup...it's another doorknob.

Wooden ornament and an iron latch (?)...

An old dilapidated wooden floor only accentuated the oddness of the house...which is great!

What would a hanok without these kimchi earthenwares? 

Jeonju Trip (part 1): Bibimbap for Lunch

The interior of the restaurant where we had our lunch. The Korean-style drawing adorned the wall. As for our lunch, it turned out that they were already served even before we got there.  

The ceiling was made out of wood-which surely give an ambiance of what traditional house may look like from inside. 

now..this is what I call food^^: being a vegetarian, I just asked the meat to be removed from the list of the side-dish. 

What about the egg? hmm...well, I can eat that. After all, I am NOT 100% pure vegetarian or vegan. 

This was something that I found for the first time that day. Moju (makkeolli)^^ but this one is specially made in Jeonju.  

When we finished our lunch, I got a chance to look around the house and the owner seemed to like tiny ornaments or decorations which were meticulously arranged on even every nook and cranny of the house.  

The front facade of the restaurant. Yep, it's typically designed like what most people would encounter when they step into Korean-style traditional house. 

A sumptuous lunch, indeed.

MMCA (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art)

Oh, there's a spot we need to go...and have a look.

It's the newly-opened Seoul's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) 

But, no..we didn't go inside...we're just taking a look at it from outside...

but for the kids...it already became a playground... 

even in a chilling evening weather...they seemed to never mind of having time there. 

oh, well....we might as well let them play while we're taking a rest inside the warmth of the museum. 

And this is what I happened to see..... an art installation...on display.

"home within a home within a home within a home within a home..." 

while I was admiring the 'must-revisit' museum ...the kids were still busy playing outside.!!!!

Gyeongju Summer Trip (part 2)

After about 3.5 hour-ride from Seoul, we safely arrived at Dongdaegu (East Daegu) Station where we had 20 minutes to rest before changing our train into the Mugunghwa train (the less expensive intercity train). We were about to embark on the 2 pm train that would transport us directly to Gyeongju. 

Freya and Eyra were having cups of milk before departing...yes..it's better to drink something warm instead of iced-beverages in the unbelievable 'heat' in the summer. 

Even the air-conditioned coach seemed to be hapless to retract the heat that 'bombarded' the window panes of the coach. We felt a little hot...so as to make the kids enjoy the 1-hour trip (Dongdaegu --> Gyeongju), their Mom made ponytails out of their hair. 

We arrived at one of the several small stations along the way. 

Another group photo: we did not travel by ourselves, in fact another family (mas Wawan and Mbak Ulfa) were also on the trip together with us. It's their first trip to Gyeogju, too. So ...the more the merrier, right? 

With gleaming smile on their face (including mine?)^^ we're trying our best to make every second counts (counted). 

my turn.... 

Another small station. Oh, this one really captured our attention since there was this petai cina tree. Yes, petai cina (Leucaena leucocephala) that we can easily find back home in Indonesia. Well, of course, I am not sure if they were petai cina..or lamtoro or mlandingan...anyway..it just captured our attention. 

Back to the coach...now let's take a picture with om Wawan and mbak Ulfa. 

One-hour trip never felt so bored if we knew what to do...and always kept the spirit high and positive...and oh...we started to see the glimpses of hanok houses...Korean traditional houses that we knew we would encounter a lot in Gyeongju.

so..it meant only one thing: we're approaching to arrive at Gyeongju.

Hanji Maeul (Hanji Village) part 1

For those who might not have heard the word 'hanji' or 한지, it is natural. Well, Hanji does mean (lieterally) Korean paper. We had a chance to visit this famous Hanji Maeul in Wanju area, Chollabukdo province. 

First thing first: We went there just to experience first-hand on how to make a hanji from natural resources --which is abundant in the area.

The picture above: one of the Hanji village in-charge told us about the initial steps of making hanji.

THe paper derived (to the best that I could grasp) from the Dak tree (닥나무) skin being pulled off after boiling them in the heat.The peeled-off layer of the tree skin was then beaten by a traditional stick as seen above. I am sure that there must be some modern equipment to do this. Anyhow, we managed to experience the traditional way of crushing and pounding the so-called 'dak-tree porridge'^^ 

I thought it was a a weed or some kind of opium ^^ (gosh and gasp!!)^^ But, I was completely wrong.

It turned out to be some kind of plants being used in making the hanji. Not sure what to do with, but it was surely one of the visible characteristics easily found in front of the hanji village.

The wet soon-to-be paper made by using a wooden or bamboo-made sieve seen on the pic above.  The ready to be-dried up paper was then placed on the wet tissue-like cloth so as to make it easy to pull off.

Here is a closer look at how the sieves were being used by dipping them into the daknamu or dak tree porridge. Each of us was busy making our very own hanji. 

It is a heated plate where paper are heated so as to help it dry up faster. I could not imagine what they must have been using in the past. I bet....they just let it dry under the sun for a day or two..but here..it took only 10 minutes or so. 

Now these are what I call 'sieve'. Well, I simply do not know what it is called in Korean let alone English. So, I just might as well call it a 'sieve'

Hurray!!! The first hanji ever! I just could not believe that we did make our own hanji right here on the spot. Well, who would've thought?

It looks not as bright as the office-use paper as we know of. But, it is non-chemical (I guess) and it is made of purely natural stuffs.

Intermezzo: Just when I was about to exit from the paper-making room, I stumbled across this huge-looking wooden equipment...which turned out to be some kind of  ironing machine /tool  for pressing/flattening the paper. Impressive, eh?

Just when I was going out of the room, one more thing worth-doing was....printing a mark on our paper we made. It is a must-have item on our paper so as to give it an authentic look and feel. 

At least ...we got a chance to make it look like factory-made.

With a touch of some knot from another paper-made lace,  I made my paper look more stylish. (at least...it was supposed to be so^^)

The front facade of the whole complex at Hanji Maeul. A tall & giant Korean traditional swing was set up in front of the hanok-shaped factory.

A group picture with some dignitaries who runs the complex. The houses' lights were lit since it was already getting dark and we were just anxious to have dinner. 

And what kind of dinner we had that night? (check out my other entry list about Wanju trip)