When you travel to a foreign country, you may sometimes have an itch to stay in an accommodation that is different from the usual fare. Like ryokans, in Japan. In Korea, we have hanok. They are essentially wooden houses with a lawn and a lovely roof of blue or black tiles that traditionally belonged to the upper class. They’ve only recently increased in number.
Looks pretty enough, right? So why the scarcity? A bit of history trivia here: see, the ones still standing survived the Korean War and the miracle of the Han, when development was warping away at light speed. Apartments sprang up in virtual forests in Seoul, where land was scarce and people were not. Preserving these guys wasn’t a major priority either – too old-fashioned and difficult to manage. Due to newfound demand, it’s only now that new modernized ones have been popping all over. Even locals like to experience staying there for a night.
There are several ‘villages’ of them scattered throughout the country. The most well-known is Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, and the other is Jeonju Hanok Village. The latter is where I’ve stayed during Saturday night.
Bu Kyung Dang(부경당)
I found this particular hanok via Airbnb – my friend and I were reserving everything at the last minute (look at my post on food in Jeonju to see what kind of trouble we had with the KTX tickets, lol). But for something that happened last minute, we were pretty lucky to land this! This, being Bu Kyung Dang – the guest house with the perfect location, great rooms and hosts who love to talk to you about Jeonju.
My first inkling of our good luck came when our host called me on the day I reserved a room. Apparently our twin room was actually gone, so he’d upgrade us to a triple room for free! And you know how you can sometimes tell how a person is when you talk with them on the phone? This uncle sounded pretty cheerful.
The second was when we arrived. We took a taxi from Jeonju station, which took about 15 minutes. Turns out the house was right on the edge of Jeonju Hanok Village. (Yeah, I didn’t even check where it was until I got there. Hush.) Great accessibility, but also some peace and quiet at night. You’ve already seen photos of the exterior, so I’ll skip the description. We met the host in the garden and were shown to our room.
Triple room and the host
And wow? You can immediately tell the room decor is a mix of traditional and modern style – the paper-pasted door slides, the wallpaper have Hanji patterns, and the futons are folded up in the corner. Us being tired from the train ride, we went straight to the futons, spread them out, and just laid there for a while. Now, you might think it uncomfortable, staying in that room. After all, the only furniture there was the mini-table. But think about it in another way. You’ve now got the whole floor to laze about on! Also, the tiles were warm, courtesy of floor heating, and the mini-table was there if you need to put down food somewhere separate from the floor.
Before we went out, the host gave us a tourist map of Jeonju Hanok Village and asked us if we had any questions about things we wanted to do. Wearing hanbok? Going to the Jaman Mural Village? Or, he asked, did you search restaurants you wanted to eat at? No… we said. The man shook his head, took out his pen, and proceeded to merrily scribble out the places selling affordable and delicious menus and snacks. Tell me tomorrow if you want to rent hanbok, he said. We walked out into the sunset with the map clutched in our hands. I give credit where it’s due – nearly all the places we ate at that day and the next were on his recommendation.
Breakfast and the kitchenette
We woke up on Sunday morning and were pretty excited about breakfast, but didn’t know where it would be served. Turns out it’s right outside our door! We stepped out yawning and were handed a cup of blended banana and fruit. Yum. There was a big tupperware filled with slices of bread in the kitchenette. Next to that, two toasters and jars of apple and apricot jam. The coffee machine had finished dripping some really strong hazelnut coffee. I unfortunately have no photos. What can I say? Too busy trying to open my eyes and eat at the same time.
So look at the photos below, and tell me you don’t want to stay in a place like that!
Jamie on the move 