Chris & Sophie's Jeonju Blog: Hanok Village

On returning to our flat from shopping we passed some of the other foreigners living in our block who we're heading over to Hanok Village - the oldest village in S.Korea and also the largest of it's kind, so we decided to join.

It's about a 10 minute taxi ride from home and the cab came to 4,000 won (£2) taxi's are very cheep here.

Hanok Village is truly a beautiful place, as we make our way down one street we're surrounded by fantastic buildings and lots of hand craft stalls and performers on the street.

Hanok Village

Above you see a short clip from the end of a street performance.

All was going well and we continued to the end of this street - but that was as far as we got. You see at the end of this street is a bar, a bar run by a Korean man that goes by the name Casanova, he invites us to sit down and gathers chairs for all so sit pretty much right on the street. He then brings out the Mokoli - a rice wine. He places and fills a large bowl in the middle of the table and dishes out the cups, hands the scoop to Chris who's been before and aware of how to serve to do the honours. As with everything here in Korea you have to serve with the right hand but also you must serve to the same side you scoop the Mokoli, and never serve yourself. Its a nice drink and one I recommend trying.

Now I should probably mention the fact that this Mokoli we were drinking was FREE, yep didn't cost us a thing! You see Casanova's job is to pretty much get foreigners like ourselves to pull up a stool and enjoy ourselves - because we also act as an attraction for the locals and help drum up business for the bar. So for the duration on the evening - for as long as we stayed - the bowl would never be empty of Mokoli as Casonova would bring crate after create over for as long as the drink was flowing and sure enough the bar filled up and we we're joined by Korean's and posed for photo's.

Casanova would also try and set up any singles around the table, if your a guy he would find a Korean girl to sit next to you have talk and visa versa. It was a great evening and one I'm sure to repeat.

Casanova bringing over a create on Mokoli

Hanok Village with the Korean Tom Cruise

You see the guy on the right with the aviators? He's the Korean Tom Cruise told us how much he liked western music - then played us Celine Dion! He also had the Top Gun music