Hahoe Village is tucked away into a lush, green, dense, hilly region that I couldn’t have found on my own with a compass, a map, a GPS in hand and Guy sitting shotgun.  Mostly because all of Korea could be described this exact way.  The incredible Hahoe Village is 600 years old, so I guess she can hang out wherever the hell she pleases.  I assume building this village in such a remote area made sense at one time, but now it just begs the (admittedly beligerent) question:  really?!  Oh, but I found fleeting moments of the reverence I’d been looking for at the temples weeks ago!  There is something special about being a part of things so old, yet thriving in the modern age.  People still inhabit all of the ancient homes, cultivate fruit from the apple, orange and tomato? trees, landscape the yards…sell things to tourists.  Another juxtaposition, one of dozens I keep tripping over in Korea.  The cars in the yards of the traditional structured houses threw my mind for a loop, for example.  The cars and then the outhouses — still necessary, apparently. 

  In the photo on the right, notice the firepit under the middle part of the house, obviously used for heating or the kitchen.  This room to the right, with the open door, seems to welcome guests, but no.  Sure would be nice to be able to read the signs!  Then I wouldn’t appear to be an absolute  idiot, albeit a well-meaning one.  I swear.

As you might imagine, the area surrounding Hahoe Village is rice fields.  This makes sense, right?  Gorgeous plots of land with acres upon acres of rice, planted months ago and beginning to be harvested now.  The way it’s been done for centuries.

    It’s difficult to see, but in this photo on the right, rice hangs ready to be plucked.  No workers out today, though.  Maybe they were all at the Andong Mask Festival, which was our second stop of the day.  See concurrent blog for more!

 

 

             Didn’t believe me about the tomato trees, did you?  Here they are!