[Part 3] 142. Yangpyeong English Village

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before but the filming we saw in Jeju's Lotte Hotel was actually for episode 4 or 5 of the Korean drama, Secret Garden. What a pity that we didn't get to see Ha Ji Won and Hyunbin! Instead, we saw the actor who acted as Oska in the drama. Cheongnyangni Station and the Lotte Department Store there are also 2 of the film sites for Secret Garden.

Before we left for Yongmun, we had lunch at the food court in the shopping annex of the Cheongnyangni Station. Unlike in Singapore, payment for food in food courts in Korea are made at a central counter and you'll be given an order slip with your order no. on it. When your no. flashes on the LCD screen, you can proceed to the relevant stall to collect your food. For example, I ordered Jeonju bibimbap from the stall called Rice Bowl and my order number was 144. When the number flashed on the screen, I headed to Rice Bowl to hand the staff my order slip and collected my food. You can have water from the water coolers by the side of the food court where the trays return area also is. There are no cleaners in the food courts here to clean up after you so do remember to clear your food trays!

Reading the English Menu after the guy at the counter heard us having trouble deciding what to order because the main menu was entirely in Korean and Phyllis didn't understand anything so he gave us that menu. 

The highlight for today was visiting the Yangpyeong 양평 camp of Gyeonggi English Village where the Korean Drama, Boys Over Flower 꽃보다 남자, was filmed in, with Jeannie, Phyllis, Raus and Yuya. To get there, we took the train (note: not the subway!) from Cheongnyangni Station to Yongmun 용문, about 1 hour 11 minutes away from Seoul. From Yongmun, you can actually take a free shuttle bus to Vivaldi Park to ski. But for us, we got out of Exit #1 at the station and took a cab to the English Village which was about 5 to 10 minutes away. The taxi driver charged us an extra 2,000KRW for having an extra passenger (there were 5 of us and the maximum capacity was supposed to be 4) so our total cab fare there amounted to 5,000KRW. He dropped us off in front of the Security Office and we were greeted by a middle-aged Korean man who could speak fluent English because he spent quite a number of years living in Canada. He was the security guard for the Village who also handled ticketing (5,000KRW per person) and acted as our tour guide. According to Nandar who went there a few weeks or months back, you have to let him know that you're visiting the Village to check out the film sites for Boys Over Flower so that he'll bring you to the school building and open up the classroom which was F4's "office".

Remnants of the night before

Taxi stand

Remember this foyer? 

The locker area?

The female F4 version

Erm, spelling mistake even in English Village?

Remember the ice cream scene?

Fascinated Korean kids with the star, Yuya

To Jeannie: the freedom to eat biscuits! (insider joke)

Biscuit Freak no. #1

Fellow biscuit freaks

Do not cross. And cross, he did. 

Phyllis, Jeannie and I

Yuya demonstrating how to play golf in the English Village

When left to our own devices...

Back to the office where the security guard called the cab for us

While waiting for the cab

Having some food in the train station 

We slept all the way back

If you would like to go to English Village to take photos, I will recommend the Paju camp instead because it's bigger and prettier. But if you want to check out the film site for Boys Over Flower, then the Yangpyeong camp is for you though there's pretty nothing much to do after checking out the school building where the drama was filmed in. Because it's smaller than the Paju camp, there were fewer photo-taking opportunities. Even though the Paju camp is much further, I think the 4 hours traveling time back and forth is worth it!