5th day at South Korea started like any other day here where we had a wake up call from Vincent at 5am. After cleaned and fully dressed-up, we went for breakfast, brought out together all our luggage as we wanted to check out straight away. The view at the hotel area was magnificent with the mountains, hills, beautifull flowers and tress, with a very refreshing air but the temperature was a bit colder compared to Seoul City. As I mentioned in earlier post, Alpensia Resort located on the highland and because of its abundant early winter snowfall, it is one of the first spots for skiing in Korea.
Alpensia Ski Resort has six slopes for skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. As we came here during autumn, the ski slope was covered with dried grass only. First snow expected to fall another 2-3 weeks.
Last photo of the Alpensia Resort before checked out!
We bid goodbye to this memorable place, then boarded to the bus and ready to start our itinerary of the day!
i) Cottage Cheese making - The Windville Cheese Factory
It took around 45 minutes from Alpensia Resort to our first destination. The Uiyaji Wind Village is one of the most popular villages in Korea. It is located in the Gangwon Province of Pyeongchang County, on top of Daegwalleyong between 750 and 800 meters above sea level. Why is it called the Wind Village? Because of the geografical factor (location, latitude, etc), the winds are quite strong here and there's also a wind power generation complex that utilizes the wind coming over the hills. So that's how the village got it's name. One who's been here could enjoy the panoramic view with the refreshing breeze. From far away, the sheep bleat is audible and the sound came from the sheep ranch nearby. Reminded me of the scene from Sound of Music. Splendid!
Address :
141, Hoenggye-ri, Daegwanryeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea
Transportation :
Seoul → (Bus) → Hoenggye Intercity Bus Terminal → (Taxi) → Uiyaji Wind Village
Entrance Fee :
Supposedly there’s no entrance fee, just a 3,000 won fee for a basket of hay to feed the sheep.
Opening Time:
09:00 ~ 17:00 (until 18:00 May-August)
There are lots of activity you can do while visiting Uiyaji Wind Village such as Cheese making, Pizza making, Ice-Cream making, sheep feeding and more. For this tour, we had a Cottage Cheese making and sheep feeding activity. Lets me bring you to my experiences for both starting with the Cottage Cheese making.
The Windville Cheese Factory which opened in 2006 has attracted both local and international tourists as well. This was the place where we learned how to make cottage cheese using top-grade fresh milk from Daekwallyeong Highlands with yearly plants and glasswort known to be good for your health. They extract the fresh milk from cows at 6am daily.
A cheese-making professional guided us on the cheese making process. She actually spoke in Korean, but actions do speak louder than words, as we seem to be able to follow the steps as demonstrated. In some occasions, Vincent also help to translate a little bit. But don't worry as the steps were very easy as they taught us the simplest way to make a cheese!
These are the procedures of making the cottage cheese. And I tell you, it was quite fun!!
First, the fresh milk would need to be boiled, and to be stirred constantly.
Vinegar was then added to the milk, and the milk will turn into curds and whey.
To make the cheese look more interesting, you can even decorate your cheese with edible flowers, which can get from this village.
Thereafter, the curd milks were transferred to the strainer, with a cloth on it to separate the curds from the whey. We then pressed the cheese (i.e. curds) using the cloth and a presser to squeezed out all the excess water.
And after all the pressing to drain the liquid off of the cheese, our dairy creation is ready to be revealed! The pressed cheese was flipped over so that it is upside down. Then remove the cloth to uncover the cheese.
Voila! Look how pretty our cheese was! It looks beautiful enough to eat. Haha!
After all that processes, we had a privilege to taste our cheese on the spot, together with some crispy chips and strawberry jam.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It’s really satisfying to see what you can do with these little ingredients and turn them into your favourite treat.
ii) Sheep Feeding at the ranch
Next, it was a sheep feeding time. We went out from the Cheese Factory up to the hill where the sheep ranch located.
We stopped by this cottage to collect hay and basket for sheep feeding.
Healthy looking sheeps!! The moment we came nearer the sheeps with the hay, they ran greedily towards us for the food like a stampede. Quite scary... Huhuhhuhu...
The sheeps ran out from the sheep ranch, waving their heads and mouth to us... Trying to get our attention so that we will feed them. One of the sheep almost in a standing position to grab the hay in Nor's hand.
After feeding the sheep, you may walk to upper part of the village to the Samyang Farm and Hanil Farm. That area is the site of the nation's largest grassland. You can feel the sun rising over hill filled with dewy smells where a flock of sheep are gamboling. If you're lucky enough and the weather is good, you can see a few wind mills on top of the hill, which are the Daegwallyeong Wind Mills. We on the other hand, went back to the bus as we needed to catch up with our itinerary back to the town.
As a conclusion, this is not a simple country side village as you thought in the beginning. It is the best spot that provides the best opportunity for you and your family to gather around, to spend your vacation in a meaningful way! Let’s say Cheese to this honourable Uiyaji Wind Village!
We bade goodbye to this wonderfull village around 10.00am and proceeded to the next destination.
Where was it? To be continued in my next post. Till then.
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