Seoul Day Four
I know, I know. You’re wondering where Seoul Day Three (Part II) is. I decided to just hold off on video until after I’ve got the photos from each day up. I can actually put these up without a bazillion hours of work editing the clips. Therefore, please be patient. As always, we’ll get straight to the pictures.
So, on the morning of Day Four, our merry band of travelers met up at Jongno-samga again and headed out to Happy Suwon. Instead of taking off on the city tour, we headed to the Korean Folk Village. The folk village is a really a tourist attraction that combines actual museum-esque preservation with loads of quasi-traditional reenactment. It was really cool. Since we missed the first shuttle out, we had an hour to kill. As Jon mentions in his excellent post on the fourth day, we wound up eating onion rings and cheese balls at a Burger King. Random? Yes. So what? The other thing we did while waiting was watch the promotional video for Suwon outside of the information booth next to the station. It had the most over-the-top incredibly hyped up catch phrases I have ever heard. I wonder if the claims sound as silly in Korean as they do in English. (Come to think of it, the same goes for the DMZ trip. More on that in the appropriate entry.) We started to mock the voiceover, because it was so outrageous. “A city with more paid vacation days than working days. Suwon. A place where your poo doesn’t stink. Suwon. A town where all dogs do go to heaven. Suwon. A paradise for restroom enthusiasts. Suwon.” I almost got hit because I wouldn’t shut up. It was just too easy a target. I had to harp on it. Oh well. Maybe one of the girls grabbed a video clip of it. I searched the net and couldn’t find it. I wish I could share it with you in all its glory.
Upon entering the village, we accidentally wandered into some kind of side attraction area by following a family with children. We were amused, confused, and finally relieved of the whole mess when Jon figured out how to get out of there. Then we caught a bunch of live mini-shows in a row. It turned out to be great timing. We saw a musical / dance performance first, because we followed the din toward it, wondering what it was. There were a bunch of guys decked out in white clothes and colorful accessories running in maypole-esque spiral patterns and circles in the middle of a dirt pit. They played a variety of percussion instruments and a few reed or wind instruments (hard to tell). The coolest part, in my opinion, was the streamer hats worn by about a third of the group. Using subtle head movements in combination with rather large bodily moves, they were able to keep their streamers rotating in orbits about their heads. It was mesmerizing. There were a few instances of something that resembled a gymnastic horse routine crossed with breakdancing, including one guy who came out with a streamer something like 3 or 4 times longer than the normal ones. It was cool. Next, we shifted to a different viewing area and saw a troupe of girls perform some high flying tomfoolery on an old school see-saw. It was sweet. It reminded me obliquely of the Russian swings from the Cirque Du Soleil’s Varekai show.
When the high-flying girls ended their routine, an old dude took to a tightrope next to us. We were fooled into watching him for 15 minutes or so, when we realized that he was just going to walk back and forth across the thing in different ways and tell a joke in Korean every other pass. It was really boring compared to the see-saw, so we moved on and saw the wedding ceremony reenactment instead. It was pretty neat. The part that surprised Melissa the most was that they used live chickens in the show, wrapped up tight in silk bundles. Having finished the wedding ceremony, we decided to catch the equestrian show and then grab a bite to eat. The riders were genki beyond all reason, smiling wildly, flashing winks and knowing glances at the small gathering of tourists. There was a contingent to the left of us, all old women, making whoops and calls to the guys. Wendy said it was cute. I beg to differ. After watching some wild dismounting / remounting maneuvers, horseback archery and spear throwing, the whip cracked loudly for the last time and we made our way over to the lunch areas. After grabbing our tickets and food, we plopped down at an open air pavilion of sorts. The food was….shall we say…poor. And we got yelled at in Korean by the cranky kitchen lady. Thank goodness a bilingual tourist lady near us took pity on us and sorted us out. Thanks, lady! We couldn’t find a rubbish bin or tray station, so we guiltily left our trays neatly stacked up on the table. We hope that was proper protocol, but won’t lose any sleep over it.
We watched a guy make some cool candy that was popular with kings in the Korean court of old. He basically took a disc of hardened honey, a mountain of cornstarch and flour mixed, and some sticks in his hands and proceeded to stretch and reshape the candy into strings which multiplied exponentially. He then took this hair-fine candy and enveloped a spoonful of nuts and sesame, then wrapped them. The enrobing process was cool and all, and the candy tasted nice (though a bit cornstarchy), but the stretching process was the cool part. The candy is called Kkul-tarae. You can see how it’s made by watching this video. Cool.
We decided to go back into Seoul instead of trying to find our way to the nearby fortress. It was a good call, I think. We were getting tired. We finally ate at an Outback Steakhouse, completely over-ordered and had fun doing it. The receipt was a mystery for 3 reasons. First, the waiter forgot to tack on the price of Wendy’s side of mushrooms. She called him on this, and he added it appropriately. (This should show that we’re willing to pay the full price.) Second, at the top it listed 4 Guests and “DONKEY.” Maybe that’s the server’s odd nickname or something. No idea. Third, as Jon mentioned, we payed so that 200 or 300 won extra was there. That’s an incredibly small amount, so we left the cash as it was. The hostess came running down the stairs after us, thinking we’d underpaid. We recounted the bills, and she realized her mistake, and – it seems – tried to turn it into a “Oh you paid too much” conversation. We laughed and said she could keep the change. I appreciate an Honest Abe, though. Overall, friendly service and good times at dinner.
The girls wanted to go shopping more than Jon and I did, so we tagged along with them to one of the major shopping centers in Seoul. Dongdaemun, or the East Big Gate, area is jam-packed with malls. We went through countless floors looking at bags for Wendy, fabric / accessories / wigs for Melissa’s costume kit, and ties or jacket type stuff for me and Jon. I don’t remember anybody buying anything after all. We headed outside and walked right into a live event of some kind. We were in a reasonably good position, right behind the sound board (which was lame compared to the ones I’ve worked with) and seating areas. We watched a few acts on stage, who, judging from the audience’s reactions, seemed famous. We huddled there for a while, and then headed home for sleep.
That wraps up day 4.
