We started our trip at the YangPyeong Soomyland (양평수미마을) with this ajumma's outfit. It was very awkward for us to wear the flowery pants but we got used to it very soon since everyone of us was wearing the same pants and the hat is indeed very useful to block the scorching sun.

We gathered at Samsung Station 6th exit on 8.15am that morning. It was Sunday and was a very good day for me to catch up on sleep for the lost of sleep for the past two days. I was having ache all over my body because we went to the annual KoYonZhon. BUT, to get a firsthand experience at the village, I woke up very early on that day and reached Samsung Station on time. The Korean Farm Village Tourism Organization rented a bus to bring us here and there.


We went there by the rented bus but if you would like to go by yourself from Seoul, then you have to take subway to Yongmun Station. At the Yongmun Station, go out from the 2nd exit and go to the bus terminal and take the 2-1 bus until u reach the BongSan 2-Ri SuMiDeul bus stop (봉산2리수미뜰). You have to walk for 2 minutes to reach Soomyland.

But, from my past experience of travelling at YangPyeong, I will recommend you to take subway until the Yongmun Station then take a taxi to your destination because it would take more than one hour to wait for the bus. If you plan to take a taxi at YangPyeong remember to form a group of four so that you can save some money on transportation.

If you know Korean, you can download the Naver Maps apps. It is a very convenient navigation apps.
This is for iOS user.
This is for andriod user.

Soomyland
As soon as we reached Soomyland, we were given a big hat and a flowery pants.
Here starts our first experience of making Korean-style steamed bun.
At Malaysia, we call it as 'Pau'. I had ate a lot of steamed bun in my 20 years of life but i had never make it myself. Here come the ingredients for making the steamed bun.
Jangjangjangjang!!


Then, one of the staff there demonstrate on how to make a delicious and nice-looking steamed bun.
The first step is taking a small part of the dough and make it flat and put some red bean paste on it.


After that, pinch the dough and wrap it up nicely.


Next, flip the pinched up part and put it on a steam bun paper.
We, four people in a group made the steam bun with our creativity.




The bun have to be steamed for 20 minutes before we can eat them.

While waiting for the bun to be cooked, we went to a stream beside and had a pebble-throwing competition. The people, whose pebble can skip more will win.
But, we were busy taking photos by the stream.

After 20 minutes, our steamed buns were cooked. They were very hot but was the best to eat it hot.

The snowman bun I made. The red bean paste inside was not as sweet as I imagined and the steamed bun texture was totally different from Malaysia's steamed bun.

After eating the 'Pau', it's time for us to do some work! We took a sweet potatoes net each and heading to the sweet potatoes farm. After the Ajoshi who works at the farm demonstrated on how to pick a sweet potato, we start to pick the sweet potatoes using a small shovel. The shovel.

I was very happy and satisfied when we discover a sweet potato in the ground and after a few minutes we had picked many sweet potates.
I will be more appreciated when eating sweet potatoes from now on.
After that, we went for a ride on a traktor.

After the traktor ride, we had lunch buffet.
쌈밥 (Ssambap) means various of vegetables and meat are wrapped in a vegetable leaves together with samjang (the paste). Wrap it up in a bite-size so that it won't spill out the fillings.

The dishes are also available for Muslims. If you cannot eat pork, you can just wrap the rice with the vegetables. The vegetables and the tofu are also very delicious.

Our Soomyland trip ended with the delicious lunch. I will definitely come here again during winter for the ice fish festival.
P/S: Soomyland is famous for its festival 365 days.

If you are interested in paying a visit to Soomyland to experience the village life you can refer this webpage:Check the experience packages here!!
The reservation should be made before you pay a visit. Reservation can be made at website or by phone call.





Our next destination is the Sanmeoru Farm at Paju.
If you are travelling from Seoul, I will suggest you to go in a group by rented bus or driving there because the public transportation is very inconvenient.
We went for a winery tour as soon as we reached the farm.
The brewery is 10m underground and the temperature inside there is much more lower than the on land.

We took some pictures at the mural outside the brewery.

If you watched 'The Hotel King', a Korean drama before, then you will definitely know the winery. One of the scene were filmed at the winery of Sanmeoru Farm.

We also bottled up the wine and everyone of us bring one bottle of wine home.

Filling up the bottle with wine.

Sealing it with cork using a machine.

And, it's done!

Next, we made the Sanmeoru soap and chocolate.



I strongly recommend you to experience the jam making process. The jam is totally DIFFERENT from the jam in the mart. I love the sweet and sour taste.

Pouring the Sanmeoru wild grape puree into the pot to cook.

Add sugar and stir it until it is concentrated.

The jam is done.

Dip the biscuits with the jam or add a teaspoon of the jam into yogurt. These are the best combination.

















The best experience at Sanmeoru Farm is the wine sampling session!!!
The owner of the farm was too kind to let us enjoy the wine.


The dry wine. (I don't like it because of the bitterness). The alcohol percentage is 13.5%.

The sweet wine. (I love it so much because it tastes better for me). The alcohol percentage is 12%.

This is not the wine but a 100% pure wild berry extract. This is a little sweet and sour. But, some said that it was too sour. For me, it is not sour at all. ^^

The winery tour and the wine sampling session only cost you 3000won.
For more information, you can visit the Korea Tourism Organization website This website is in English version.
or the Sanmeoru Farm website This website is in Korean version.













Lastly, we went back with handful of things and it was a very nice experience. I had started to look forward for the next field trip!
P/S: If you have motion sickness remember to bring some medicine because the road to the Sanmeoru farm was quite crooked.


Posted by Lai Yu Han http://yuhansoulintravel.blogspot.kr/2015/09/one-day-trip-at-village-as-korean-ajumma.html?spref=fb
6:27 PM
THIS IS MY FIRST BLOG POST EVER!! I am getting excited! I spent a lot of time on designing and customizing this blog page. Little introduction of myself – I am kinda perfectionist. Okay, I hate to be a perfectionist. I am working on productivity and efficiency.
Back to the story. Two weeks ago, I started my first ever farm village trip in Korea. I was agog with excitement at going to the farm village! It was a beautiful (the best adjective I can come up with, I promise I will improve my writing next time) morning, the sun was blazing hot and the sky was covered with snowy white cloud (Oh wait, I am not writing a descriptive essay on scenery, am I?).
(Just a to-make-it-not-boring introduction to my post, I will make it sweet and short from now on ^-^)

The first stop: 京畿道 Soomy Land (수미마을)

For your information, Soomy Land is a farm village located ay YangPyeong, Gyeonggi-Do in Korea. Soomy village has been shown more than 100 times through TV programs and major papers since they opened farm tour in 2007. The village produces jobs and profits by holding 4-seasons festivals during whole year and provide tourists safe food and memories. They provide a variety of experience programs according to seasons. Here is the list of programs:
  • Winter: Ice-fishing, Sleigh-riding, kimchi and wakasagi festival
  • Spring: Strawberry festival!
  • Summer: Water activities~
  • Fall: Potato harvesting, Cat fish festival
Direction: To go from Seoul, you need to take subway to Yongmun station and then take bus or taxi to BongSan 2-Ri SuMiDeul (봉산2리수미뜰) bus stop. From there, a 2 minutes walk is required to reach Soomy Land. Don’t worry, it is just 2 minutes. However, from Yongmun station, you might want to take taxi to Soomy land because it may take a long time to wait for 2-1 bus at exit 2 of Yongmun station.

Address: 경기도 양평군 단월면 봉상리 531
531, Bongsang-ri, Danwol-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do.
Website: http://www.soomyland.com (only in Korean)
∗You might need to a navigation app to make your travel more easier. Believe me, it is better to use this navigation app. It is called Naver Map. Or you may download the google app or iOS app in your smartphone. However, you need a certain level of proficiency in Korean in order to use the app.
Enough for introduction, now let’s start our journey to Soomy Land!
Next, we were going to harvest sweet potatoes!! I love sweet potatoes but I have no idea how they are harvested. Before that, we were given a red bag to put in the sweet potatoes later. Let’s follow me to take a look at sweet potatoes harvesting!
We finished our first trip at Soomy Land. Wait, we still have one more place to go. Before that, let me do a brief conclusion on this Soomy Land. Basically, it was fun, seriously. I recommend you to come with your friends if you don’t want to have more fun! For muslims, you can just have lettuce wrapped with tofu and spicy soup with fish. BTW, Soomy land is well known for its 365 days festival. You can come whenever you have time.

The next stop: 京畿道 山葡萄园 Sanmeoru Farm (산머루농원)

After the first trip, I was almost fainted (I was too exhausted seriously). From Soomy Land to Sanmeoru Farm, it took us 3 hours by bus. It does not look that far from the map but it really is. Okay, I got some time to recharge before the next destination. Let me introduce to you Sanmeoru Farm before going on.
Sanmeoru farm has cultivated wild grape pursuing eco-friendly agriculture since 1979 and produced high quality goods contenting customers. The farm is well known for its activities such as winery tour, wild grape product making, and harvesting which everyone can enjoy together. List of activities you can have there:



Address: 경기도 파주시 적성면 객현1리 67-1번지
67-1, Gaekhyeon 1-ri, Jeokseong-myeon, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do
Traffic: Seoul/Gyeonggi Subway ⇒ Munsan Station ⇒ Bus No.92 ⇒ Jeokseong Terminal ⇒ Taxi (10 mins) ⇒ Sanmeoru Farm
Now, let’s start our tour!
The next activity: winery tour.
 Now it is the highlight of Sanmeoru Farm tour! That is — wild grape chocolate and soup making.
Lastly, we had wild grape wine tasting.
That’s all for this time. I actually spent more than 6 hours to write this post. Hope you enjoy reading. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions about Soomy Land and Sanmeoru Farm. I’ll try my best to help you. ;) See you next time! Check out my upcoming post by subscribing! Stay tune!
1:11 AM
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