So this is a very overdue post that I was supposed to finish last fall.. after sitting in my drafts for almost 5 months, I finally finished writing it!
After exploring Cheongyang and Pyeongchang using the FREE Explore Rural Korea bus, I joined the Asan Oeam Folk Village tour on the third day of my day-trip frenzy. Go to the Cheongyang post if you would like to know how to utilize the free shuttle service that will take you to Asan.
This was our itinerary for the trip:
UPDATE: This shuttle bus is not in service anymore. If you want to visit this village, take an intercity bus from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Asan Intercity Bus Terminal (2 hours bus ride) and then take Bus 120 bound for Gangdanggol 강당골 (40 minute bus ride) and get off at Asan Oeam Folk Village 아산 외암민속마을.
Asan Oeam Folk Village
We arrived at the village earlier than scheduled due to clear traffic which was a perfect start to our day. The village was a very traditional hanok village with clear markings, unlike the village visit at Cheongyang and Pyeongchang. It also felt more touristy because there were many locals visiting the village that day.
We had 2 activities: traditional paper fan decorating and Korean taffy making. The fan decorating activity was rather simple, simply using glue to stick pre-made paper cut-outs to the fan given anyway you like. There was a mini competition and the top nicest looking 2 fans were given a small prize.
After making the fan, we walked over to the candy making workshop area. This one was more fun because we had to make it from scratch with the materials given. The taffy was so sticky it was pretty hard, but fun! Kids would probably like this experience too.
Once all the hands on activities were done, we went for lunch and then a village tour where the guide explained the history about the village, the culture, etc. The lunch was buffet style with halal and vegetarian options too. It was pretty decent~
We also had some free time to explore the village on our own and take photos before we moved on to the next spot 😀
Mediterranean Village Visit
Okay, I was honestly pretty excited for this part of the tour because it looked like a mini Santorini in Korea from the photos but… I was quite disappointed when we reached there because it did not look like it at all in real life 🙁
It was basically an area of shophouses in the middle of Asan city area called “Blue Crystal Village”. Only one row of shophouses had the Santorini style buildings but the rest were not. Not to mention that the buildings were pretty old and wore down so it doesn’t look pretty anymore. We ended up spending our hour there in a cafe instead of walking around because there wasn’t much to see anyway.
Our tour group decided to skip Onyang Folk Museum because we weren’t very interested in museums and the tour guide immediately brought us back to Seoul. We arrived back in Seoul one hour ahead of schedule.
Overall the tour to the village was fun and enjoyable. It was a very chill trip compared to my other two trips to Cheongyang and Pyeongchang maybe because we didn’t do much and spent most of our time sitting down. I would recommend going for this if you have a free day in Seoul and have no idea where to go.