TEA MUSEUM: A New Tea Room In Seoul's Bukchon Village

This must be the only tea room in Seoul where you can be seated on a balcony in a quiet neighborhood and with a view of the foliage of a palace while sipping dandelion tea and eating scones. 

The Tea Museum, which just opened a week ago, is perfectly located just right next to Changdeokgung or Changdeok Palace.  Originally a residence, the place was transformed by David and Jade Kilburn into an art space and a tea room, that serves different kinds of unique tea blends from all over the world as well as cakes, scones, salads and other baked goodies.

I regretted arriving late afternoon on my first ever visit. The view from its balcony of Changdeok Palace's Secret Garden under the bright daylight would have been an enjoyable experience while sipping tea.

And as the Tea Museum's maxim goes, 'Relax with Tea', I was able to enjoy a late afternoon dandelion tea with David and conversations over spoonfuls of Rose Petal Scone and the Tea Museum's Chocolate Hibiscus made with gluten-free flour from France and Belgian chocolate. They bake their own products by the way, and according to Jade, the master chef, the ingredients they use for their bread, cakes and salads are organic, and the teas are sourced only from the best around the world. With more than a decade of experience in the international tea business, David and Jade know best about tea.

On one corner of the second floor is an art space, where an exhibition of the work of Miss Bada Song, an interdisciplinary Korean artist based in London, is ongoing.

So, if you're a tea lover and just want to enjoy tea with friends or family on the most quiet corner of Seoul, just head off to Bukchon Village. From Exit 3 of Anguk Station, go straight for about 240 meters towards the Changdeok Palace. Once you reach the corner BEFORE the Palace, turn left and walk straight, tracing the Palace walls for about 280 meters. If you see the Yongsusan restaurant, the Tea Museum is about 80 meters ahead. Just watch out for its sky blue entrance, and there are a few parking spaces in front next to the Palace walls.

They have a garden and a space on the first floor perfect for family gatherings and meetings. They have wi-fi all over and a balcony with the view of the foliage of Changdeok Palace's Secret Garden. 

How many tea rooms in Seoul can actually boast of a view of a UN World Heritage Site?

                         (A garden path to Tea Museum)

                            (A tea room with a balcony!)

                                       (The first floor)

                          (Jade and David Kilburn)

                        (One of Bada Song's works on exhibit 
                          on the second floor art space)

 (The second floor decorated with wall papers from England)

                      (A warm cup of dandelion tea for me)

                   (A freshly baked rose-petal scone for me!)

                           (David's Chocolate Hibiscus cake 
          made from French flour and Belgian chocolate) 

                                      (A tea room with a view!)

(Tea with the autumn foliage of 

Changdeok Palace's Secret Garden)

Here's Tea Museum's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TeaMuseum

Tea Museum's website where you can purchase tea online:

http://www.teamuseum.kr/

                               (A map to the Tea Museum)

Bukchon Village's Hanok: A Vanishing Heritage

(Beautiful hanok covered 

with a think veil of snow)

The last time I walked along the inner alleys of Bukchon was in 2006 when I visited the home of David and Jade Kilburn. It  was during our despedida dinner for a good friend Brenda who was going back to her home in Canada after working at a national daily. That night, after our dinner, Jade invited the group to her home in Gaheo-dong, right in the middle of Bukchon Village in the Jongno District of Seoul.

While sitting at the living room of their hanok, I suddenly realized something. While we were there chatting, I recalled a scene from a Korean movie, 3-Iron, or its name in hangul, Empty House or 빈집.

In the movie, there was a scene where the lead actress went straight inside a hanok uninvited and lay down on the couch of the house, ignoring the couple who were by the front porch. The 'L' shape architecture of that hanok in the movie reminded me of the same shape of David's hanok. 

So, I had to ask David if it was the same house, and he confirmed it was! 😮

Even my friend Stefan from Austria was surprised about it as he said that was his favorite Korean movie. After all, that movie was directed by the award-winning Kim Ki-Duk! Lucky us! And lying there on the table in David and Jade's living room was a coffee table book featuring the movie with photographs of their hanok!

(Here's a link to the 3-Iron Korean movie. At 40:00, the two broke into David and Jade's hanok, and on 1:04, Lee Seung-yeon, the actress, walked in uninvited and slept on David and Jade's sofa.😁)

And as part of my weekend tour in the Jongno District, I once again roamed the alleys of Bukchon Village, where the last of the remaining hanok in Seoul still exist (read blog here). 

This was supposed to be a protected enclave of traditional Korean houses with their original architecture and structures still intact. But what I saw is a village where hanok homes mix with apartment buildings and commercial spaces. And while there were still old-looking hanok, you can see that there were newly built ones. They don't look old. One could tell they're newly built, which was a turnoff. 😡

As I walked the alleys, I was wondering whether the Seoul city government, or the officials of the Jongno District didn't have any plans to preserve the Korean traditional homes of the area. The remaining structures that still have the traditional Korean architecture are only a handful and seem to be concentrated in one small area. 

I read in the brochure that I got from the tourist information booth that this place was populated by court officers during the Choseon Dynasty due to its proximity to Gyeongbuk Palace and Changdeok Palace. These two palaces sandwich Bukchon Village.

From Exit 1 of Anguk Station (Orange Line), the path leading to the hanok enclave looked like an extension of artsy Insadong. But from Exit 2, along the busy road, the path is lined with commercial spaces with nary a hint of the traditional. You would know that you're actually near when crowds of tourists are gathered at a corner next to the pharmacy. It would have been interesting if that corner was actually a hanok housing a shop selling traditional Korean medicine, just like during the last dynasty. 

And near the more interesting corners, there were signs in English and other languages saying that the area is still a residential neighborhood, and should only be visited from 10AM until sundown. This means the residents also needed the peace and quiet the whole neighborhood is entitled to.😶

But while I was there, some Asian tourists couldn't seem to restrain themselves from the excitement of having visited Bukchon Village and having their selfies taken with the hanok in the background. I wonder how these residents feel that their homes are now a tourist attraction.😡

One couple who I think must have liked that idea is Mr. Yohan  and Mrs. Magdalena Kim, who both run the Bukchon Observatory, a home-turned-cafe. I was surprised one Sunday morning, right after the snowfall the night before, no one else was at their terrace.  They turned their unit at the top floor of a three-storey apartment building into a public viewing spot. For KRW3,000, you can stay at their unit, enjoy the view and have a drink. 🍵

I was thinking, a hanok might have stood on the spot where their apartment building now stood because right next to it was a row of hanok lined up in what looked like their original location ever since they were built, untouched and preserved. Maybe those hanok were only renovated, as they still retained their original look. I didn't have to ask Mr. Kim; it was obvious. 

Even at the alley where David's hanok now stood, a few neighboring hanok looked new and the corner lots were now occupied by modern houses. And I wonder why in the brochure the modern-looking house of Lee Jung-gu (not sure who he was) was being promoted as a tourist attraction, even though it stuck out as a sore thumb in the picture.

Some hanok in the area have been transformed into commercial spaces that offer some traditional experience for tourists. This may be of interest to those visiting Korea; they'd be able to experience the culture in Bukchon.

From the way Bukchon Village looks from the outside, the number of real hanok is dwindling and the area is losing its identity. 

I no longer felt the atmosphere of the old and the traditional as I walked the alleys after seeing only a few hanok next to two-storey apartments. I no longer see traditional; I see commercial. That's why I decided to shoot the photographs in monochrome so as to camouflage the reality that Bukchon Village has lost its identity and its heritage.

I don't know the exact count of the remaining authentic Korean traditional homes left in the village, and if it's decreasing, Bukchon's reputation as an area of authentic Korean homes may no longer be true.😔

Everyone calls them hanok; to me, they're Bukchon's vanishing heritage.😭

A Jongno Weekend: Hanoks, Mandu and Snow!

As part of my mission as a Global Seoul Mate, I checked in at  a B&B in the Jongno District, just next to Insa-dong, to experience a different kind of a weekend. I live in Seoul, and actually, Jongno is just seven minutes by bus from my neighborhood in Hannam-dong in the Yongsan District. Although it felt weird, I simply had to pretend like a tourist during the weekend!

I got to my preferred B&B place at the SK Hub Building right next to Exit 6 of Anguk Station on a cold Friday night at around 8PM. I was a starving by that time and I had to find a place to quiet my rumbling stomach. After dropping off my bag, I hurried down and follow where my hungry tummy led me.

Insadong's Koong Mandu
Luckily, Koong Mandu, my favorite restaurant in Insadong that serves the best mandu (Korean dumpling) in the whole of Seoul, was still open! Although, there were just a few customers inside finishing their dinner, I decided to join them. And from the menu, I then ordered a meal of six mandus swimming in a bowl of hot savory broth that could serve two hungry tourists! Ha-ha-ha! Their mandus are big, but for a starving person, the flavor of the minced meat filling and the softness of the mandu wrapper made it easy to gobble them down effortlessly. It has been a long time since my last visit here. I was happy to have made it before they closed for the day. 

(My hot bowl full of mandu. The lady in the background was filling the mandu wrappers with flavored minced meat.)

The Cheonggye Stream and Coffeesmith cafe
After a heavy dinner, I decided to walk it off by strolling towards the Cheonggye Stream, where I stopped by at the Tourism Information booth to ask for a map of Bukchon. It was very cold outside, but since the crowd that night filling the streets of Jongno didn't look bothered by the weather, I tried to share their spirit.

At the Tourism Information booth, I told Miss Ryu, the information officer, that I planned to visit Bukchon village the next morning; she then pulled out a map of the village from the shelf and explained the most interesting spots of the place to me.  Every night, the booth closes at 10PM and again, I was just in time! Afterwards, I continued my stroll along the Cheonggye Stream and stopped by the Coffeesmith cafe to study the map and update my blog while having a hot cafe mocha. It felt good sitting indoors with a hot cup of coffee!

                       (At the Tourist Information booth; 
                       Miss Ryu gladly took my photo)

                  (Frozen, not the movie, but the stream)

(Blogging away at the Coffeesmith with my hot cafe mocha)

Bukchon Village
This is perhaps the most famous place in Seoul where one can find a lot of clustered hanok, or Korean traditional homes. When I got there the next morning, a lot of international tourists were already there strolling the village. This place, by the way, is still a residential area. So, everyone is required to be quiet while walking around, but groups of tourists from Asia were noisy as they scampered around taking photos of each other. If only I could speak their language...

                                    (Hanok rooftops)

I followed the map that I got from the Tourist Information booth and had a great time revisiting the place. I was here a few times in 2006 when I was invited inside the house of Mr. David Kilburn, a British gentleman, who was an advocate of the preserving hanoks in this area. His house was a location of the movie, Empty House or 빈집.

My visit to Bukchon deserves a separate blog as I had a lot of photographs taken during Saturday morning when it was a bit cloudy, and the next day, when all the hanoks were covered with a thin layer of snow that fell the night before. I got there early in the morning to make sure I photographed the snow before it melted.

(A couple posing at a famous Bukchon alley full of hanoks)

Snowy Seoul
In the afternoon, I passed by Daehangno where I intended to catch a Korean musicale that night, even though I don't understand the songs. Ha-ha-ha!  This was where my friend Cielo and I caught Hwarang, a Korean musicale, when she came to Seoul last time.

                  (A sculpture next to the Hyewha Station)

                              (Snow started to fall!)

It turned out, while I was around Hyewha Station, I had to call it a day when heavy snow and strong winds came blowing through the city by mid-afternoon. I would have wanted to squeeze in a visit to a palace while there was still daylight. I guess the snowy weather didn't want me to.

Insadong's Ssamziegil
Although it was still snowing, but not as heavily as during the afternoon, I headed out again to Insadong, and stopped by Ssamziegil. 'Gil' in Korean means street, and this building is populary described as street as the structure is a continuous walk from the ground up to the highest floor. One can reach the top without using the stairs as the floor continuously elevates.

On my stroll at Ssamziegil and along Insa-dong, a few interesting souvenirs caught my eye. As a tourist, I gladly bought them to remind me of my fun weekend at this place. 

Insadong's Andamiro Restaurant
It was already below freezing when I finished my walk around Insa-dong, and dinner was just the missing slot in my schedule that night. So, I wandered around and found a familiar restaurant. Andamiro! Who doesn't like Italian food?

This restaurant's customers are mostly locals, who prefer a quiet place for their dinner of wine and Italian cuisine. A few friends of mine prefer this place when they're in Insa-dong, and there was no reason for me to go somewhere else to seek refuge and dinner in this weather. After all, I love Italian food, too!

                         (My bolognese pasta in cream)

'Dragon's beard' candy and Korean chestnuts!
And just along the main Insa-dong alley, there are a couple fo stores where tourists are attracted to. The guys making the 'dragon's beard' candy are always busy calling everyone into their stall to show how this unique candy is made. As I passed by, I got curious, too. I think I have tasted this candy years ago, and I forgot how good they actually were. This was the time I got me a box or two again!

And who doesn't enjoy a pack of warm, cooked chestnuts? As I walked toward my B&B right along the Exit 6 of Anguk Station, I spotted a chestnut vendor. I just couldn't resist buying a pack. I was supposed to be a tourist, who couldn't speak Korean, but I had to tell him I love chestnuts in Korean. He gladly gave me an extra to enjoy. A pack cost KRW5,000. Reasonable enough for these big chestnuts, freshly peeled and ready to eat!

Tourist Information Guides in Red Jacket
Since Insa-dong is also one of the most popular places for tourists in Seoul, a few teams of tour guides in red jackets walk around to provide information for everyone. They can speak in three languages: English, Japanese and Chinese. I will have to feature them in another blog as these guides are helpful and dedicated. I talked to a team while I was in Insa-dong, and they were there even during the snowy and cold morning, willing to help out anyone.

     (The Seoul Tourism Organization guides in red jackets)

Well, my weekend as a tourist in the Jongno area is over. But it was fun pretending to be one, especially there was a lot to see and discover again. 

So, thanks to the artisans, the vendors, the waiters, the hanok owners and everyone else who made my weekend in the Jongno District a good one!

                                  (Let's drink to Jongno!)