New site design and a new poll

Hope you all enjoy the new banner and backgrounds. I took this photo in Jeju from the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong or Sunrise peak.

Also, fill out my new poll, "How much Korean do you know?".

Making Noodles, Traditional Style

 It started as one big piece of dough. And he kept twisting and stretching.. twisting and stretching...

Then, like magic, it started to look like noodles...

Finally I decided to make a video rather than taking 100 photos. I only caught the very end, but that's the most impressive part.... 

Then, all you need is some Jajang and you have Jajangmyon! 

Hi Seoul Festival Closing Events

After visiting the Amsa Prehistoric Village, we made our way over to Banpodaegyo bridge (the rainbow water bridge) where they had stopped traffic on the lower deck of the bridge for pedestrians and were holding a final "non-verbal performance" to the side of the bridge in the Hangang park.

We really got there in time just to see the final act, we though it would go much later than 7:30, since the bridge would be closed until 10pm. But, that final act was quite spectacular to say the least. A combination of a huge Traditional Korean music group plus a French drumming group which performed suspended from a crane with an acrobat over their heads.

 

 

 

 It felt like a wild party with everyone going nuts on their respective drums when the drummers descended from their lofty position in the sky and joined the Korean drummers. Awesome vibes all around.

 

 

I hope you had the chance to check out the Hi Seoul Festival for at least one day over the past week or so. It was a really great chance to see performing acts from Korea and all over the world. If you're interested in other events from Hi Seoul Festival, check out my last post on the subject as well.

Amsa Prehistoric Village: Prehistoric Culture Festival

Sunday we stopped by the Amsa Prehistoric Village (암사선사우적지) to check out the Prehistoric Culture Festival going on for the day. We didn't expect the huge crowds we found there, and unlike most festivals around Seoul, we didn't see a single foreigner in sight. While the festival was only mildly interesting to us, children would have had a blast here. 

The following are some of the activities that everyone was invited to join:

Build a prehistoric house

Meet a prehistoric person

 This caveman was extremely excited to see me. The photo opp was priceless.

Here's a safe activity for children: Start a fire

Crack acorns

Original pottery and artifacts from prehistoric times in the museum

 The museum here is small and there is no significant English signage. I found myself bored because I couldn't understand anything. The boyfriend explained some things to me, like that they classify the peoples by the designs of the pottery.

Prehistoric houses

Sirum(씨름) Korean style wrestling

Prehistoric Olympics (and you thought the Greeks were the first!)

Very popular musicians

World's first Lotteria, established in 4000 BC! 

 If you're in the area, Amsa Prehistoric Village might be an interesting stop, but I don't feel as though it's worth going out of your way to see. The festival made it slightly more entertaining but this would be most fun with children I think.

Fireworks Fail

My actual view of the fireworks

 A friend and I decided to try to see the international fireworks festival Saturday night. Worst idea I've had in a long time. We had heard from many people to not even bother going to Yeoido, so we tried to watch from the opposite side of the river around Ichon at the Hangang park there. When we arrived at Ichon station at 7:30 (when the fireworks were supposed to be starting) it took us 15 minutes just to get out of the station because there were too many people jammed around the four turnstiles to get out and it all bottlenecked.

Once we got out, the fireworks were coming from behind the station, in the opposite direction of the park. But we followed all the people trying to go to the park anyway. The closer we got the more people leaving we started to see. We asked one woman if it was worth going to the park, and she said you could see well, but there was a lot of smoke there. We continued on, but eventually we came to a stop. Being short often means I don't know what's going on, but luckily my friend is on the tall side and told me what was going on ahead of us... to get into the park you had to go through a tunnel. Basically, imagine 100,000 Koreans (not really exagerating either) trying to go through one pedestrian tunnel at the same time... yea... not pretty... so we turned around and tried to find somewhere else to watch....

A zoomed in view of the fireworks from my viewing place

Eventually we settled on watching from between apartment buildings over the trees. What a disaster. We were only able to see the biggest fireworks, and then only part of them. Then going home was even worse. Going to Ichon station wasn't even an option there were so many people. So we tried waiting  for the bus. No, too much traffic. The bus wasn't moving either. Finally we walked from Ichon to Yongsan. On a normal day it might only take 15-20 minutes, but it took 30 because it was just so crowded that we couldn't walk quickly.

Anyway. Big disappointment all around, I've learned my lesson about seeing fireworks in Seoul... Did anyone else get a good view?

Jeju Guide: 가파도 Gapado Island

가파도 is the second most southern point of South Korea. The most southern point, Marado island is quite popular to visit for it's one feature of being the most southern part, but from what I hear, there's not much to do there, so we opted to check out Gapado instead. The ferry to Gapado only leaves about every three hours or so, so you need to time your departure and return well so you catch your boat.

What's so great about Gapado? Well, there's not much to do there actually, but if you're seeking to escape the tourists and get in a peaceful walk, bike ride or fishing, this would be the spot to do it. We spent just under 3 hours on the island and we had enough time to walk around a good portion of the island plus eat lunch. Needless to say, the island is tiny. I wish I knew how many people live on the island. While the town seemed reasonably big for an island that you can walk around in 2 hours, we probably saw a total of 20 islanders while we walked around. Maybe they like to sleep in on Saturdays...

On the "Oleh Kil" or walking path in Gapado, with Hallasan in the background.

A place for yearly Shamanistic rituals

And lots and lots of stone walls and farms.

If you plan on coming to Gapado, you need to go to the 모슬포항 (Moseulpo harbor). Most people getting on the boat will be headed for Marado, but you can purchase your round trip ticket for about 10,000 won, and call 82-64)794-3500 for times. Our departure was at 9:00am. I timed the boat ride. It was exactly 16 minutes. There aren't many English websites that mention Gapado, it's not on Wikipedia or on most blogs. But, I found you a few links, here, here and the most useful here if you'd like to see a little more of this remote island off the coast of Jeju.

Vote for Steve the QiRanger

Steve the QiRanger is trying his best to become the host for a new travel show called "Paradise Hunter". While I've only met Steve once in real life, he seems like a really good guy and from checking out a few of his videos on his YouTube Channel, he seems like he's got the right personality for one of those TV shows. So, check out his video, if you haven't already, and click here to vote for him.