My initial plan is to take a bus to Gangneung Unification Park from Jeongdongjin station where services are an hr apart. We checked with the station staff and was told that the 1st bus will run at 7.50am.
To get to the bus stop, we exit the station and walked straight into the small lane and up a small slope. The bus stop is to the left on the main road.
While waiting for the bus, a taxi pulled up and keep talking to us to take his taxi which runs on meter.
Not sure it's due to the cold or we are just plain tried. We decided to take it without much thinking. On the way to the park, he kept talking to us in Korean and recommended other places of interest to visit though we understand none of what he is talking about. Muhaha.
In the end, he called his daughter who spoke basic English and got her to talk to me. Turns out the park is yet to open and he suggested another attraction to visit. Worried about the meter, I haggled with his daughter that I will take his taxi for 80,000KRW and he is to drive us to the attraction he is recommending, then back to the park and finally to the train station. He agreed on the price and off we go.
Turns out he took us to the neighbouring town where Ojukheon House is located. The ride is pretty long and luckily we had already fixed the price since the meter is still running and has reached 50,000KRW by the time we got off at the attraction.
Besides being the driver, he became our guide and photographer and also try to explain the history of the park to us in simple Korean when he realised I could understand single wordings. Muhaha.
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| Statue of Sin Saimdang |
Ojukheon house is one of the top historical relics of Gangnueng. This is once the home of Sin Saimdang who is the mother figure of Korea (You can see her face on the 50,000 KRW note, given the low status of women in ancient Korea, I reckon she must be someone great).
Her son Yulgok Yi Yi (His face is printed on the 5,000KRW note), is a notable scholar of the Joseon Era.
The driver also took a English guide for us and pointed out the main attractions while walking us around the compound. He is funny sometimes when he insists that we stand at some particular place for photo taking and even teaching us how to post. Certainly a cute ajusshi.
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| With the black bamboos |
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| Love the Sun rays in between the shoots |
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| Some very old tree of this compound |
Ajusshi is also pretty chatty, showing us his family photo taken here and also talks about his son. He told us his son is now studying to become a prosecutor and he was very proud when he spoke of his son. He is even more happy when he realised I knew what he was talking about.
Mr Love asked how I knew the Korea word of Prosecutor and of course is I watched the show "Princess Prosecutor" in Korean and in that show they keep repeating this word. Muhahah. Useful huh?
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| I think this is the room where Yulgok Yi Yi was born |
This compound basically preserves the old buildings of which Sin Saimdang and Yulgok Yi Yi stayed in the olden days. I think they did add some buildings like the musuem that showcase some of their works and drawings. But the whole place was really humongous. I joked to Mr Love that if he had asked me to fetch him water here, he would have to give me 2hours in advance in notice lest he became dehydrated since need walk so far in the compound. Hurhur.
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| Some botak flowers |
We then went in an exhibition hall where drawings of Sin Saimdang and her children are on display.
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| Drawing of watermelon |
I for one cannot draw at all so am very impressed by the drawings made only by inks and they look so good after so many donkey years.
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| Flowers in bloom |
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| Me on the 50,000 KRW note |
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| Mr Love on the 5,000 KRW note |
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| It takes alot of skills to write such small words |
We found some announcements display that uses Qing Dynasty dates and got excited over the link with our Chinese history.
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| Using Qing Dynasty dates |
The second exhibition halls showcased the daily wares of old Korean. We took quite some time looking at the display here and our driver was patient enough to wait outside the halls for us.
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| Tablewares |
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| Cookwares |
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| Doctor's medical box |
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| Small writing table |
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| Medicine cabinet |
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| Some ceremony |
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| Earthwares |
He then took us round the remaning compound to take more pictures before driving us back to Gangnueng Unifcation Park.
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| One with Yulgok Yi Yi |
We were actually pretty thankful to have met this ajusshi as he had taken us to somewhere to where we wouldn't have gone to if not for him. This is not a very interesting place but was nice enough to visit to see the home of olden Korean times.
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