[Jeollanam-do] Haemaru Healingsoup (해마루 힐링숲)

Haemaru Healing Forest is a guesthouse situated at the foot of Duryunsan Mountain, Haenam in front of Wondo Beach and surrounded by a cypress grove. The mountain, cypress grove, and beach are all visible from the main floored hall room. For this reason, many of the guests who stayed here say that the picturesque view seems to change day by day. The town where the guesthouse is located is specially designed as a ‘hanok village,’ consisting mostly of traditional Korean houses of Jeollanam-do. It is also widely known as ‘Haenam Kimchi Village’ because of their famous cabbages, which are grown in the natural environment and are used to make kimchi. Specifically, there are three villages in this area: ‘Green Experience Village,’ ‘Farm Stay Village,’ and ‘Resort Village.’ There is a public swimming pool in the area managed by the villagers and is very popular among visitors, with ticket sales reaching KRW 100,000,000 a year. One of the advantages of staying at this guesthouse is that it’s within a one-hour ride to a number of popular nature destinations such as Wando Cheongsando Island, Gangjin Dasan Chodang, Jangheung Cheongwansan Mountain, Woodland, and Yeongam Wolchunsan Mountain. Haenam is known as one of the best regions of Korea for enjoying the famous Jeolla-do cuisine, so visitors to Haenam are advised to try the local food. The villagers built these traditional Korean guesthouses so that their visitors can have a day of relaxation in nature, away from their hectic city life. With this mind, they used natural pinewood and red clay from Gangwon-do to build authentic traditional Korean houses and utilized traditional Korean tiles from Goryeong.

The name ‘Haemaru Healing Forest’ was given by the owner of the guesthouse, with the subtitle ‘A place where you can tell your story.’ The guesthouse buildings are in ‘ㄱ’ shape. The main building, called ‘anchae’ in Korean, has floor area of 72m², which is big enough for up to 25 people. There are two rooms, a large living room, and a kitchen in this building. The rooms are furnished with sofa, television, air conditioner, refrigerator, and table just like an ordinary home so that guests can feel at home during their stay. The ‘bakkatchae,’ or ‘detached house,’ is a single room with capacity of 6 and is furnished with air conditioner and bathroom. The guesthouse is owned by a couple who still work in Seoul and need to travel back and forth between Seoul and Haenam frequently. They’re both nature lovers, so their most favorite place in the house is the kitchen garden where they cultivate their own organic lettuce, perilla leaves, and chili peppers. The kitchen garden is open to guests who want to try the homegrown organic vegetables. Various experience programs are offered here as well, such as yunnori, dadeumi, jwibulnori, and kimchi making. Jwibulnori is a traditional Korean game played on the eve of Daeboreum or First Full Moon Day, where people burn dry grass on the ridges of rice paddies and fields and others spin cans of flames attached to the end of a stick or a sling. For safety reasons, this game is played with the consent and participation of the villagers, so be sure to ask the owner of the guesthouse when the game is played. It’s free for groups of more than 10 people. As for the kimchi-making class, it is offered by the guesthouse owner’s younger brother and sister-in-law who live and run a kimchi factory in the village. They will teach you how to make kimchi, step-by-step, start to end. The kimchi-making class is a paid program, so be sure to ask the guesthouse owner how much and when the class is held.