Hi Seoul ‘Festival’

Today marks the start of the Hi Seoul Festival, and the few of us (Chin Keat, Yong Hui, Valerie and I) went over to Cheongyecheon (the most famous river in Seoul) to watch the mass parade. However, the moment we came out of the subway station, we saw hundreds of police in shields, head gear and bulletproof vests standing guard. I didn’t think too much, cause there are always policemen near Seoul Financial Centre.

We only started to suspect something was wrong when we saw policemen dragging struggling people away from the streets, with reporters at the same time taking videos and snapping pictures. Later we found out that there were around 4 to 5 protests taking place here all at the same time. We were also told that the festival might be cancelled because of the protests.

Nonetheless, we still decided to try our luck at the starting place of the parade. When we were there, the performers were already starting to play music and dance, and the mood was really high! What we didn’t expect was that the protesters had already mixed themselves into the performers. When the parade was going on, the protesters were creating havoc, chanting loud cheers and sabotaging the props.

At one point, there was a whole fleet of cars forming a contingent along the street, with special festival ambassadors walking beside the cars. The protestors actually started to cut the floating balloons off the car, and the event organiser was so worried he used the PA system to instruct all the ambassadors to get into the cars, so as to protect their safety.

We kept ourselves safe by walking in front of the parade, where there were no protesters around. At the end of the parade street, there was a giant outdoor concert stage. We were lucky enough to squeeze to almost the front of the stage, as we were told there was going to be multiple celebrities performing in half an hour. We saw so many fans holding 2PM balloons, and Valerie was so excited, as she loved that group. 

Unfortunately the protesters made it to the concert plaza too, and started to merge into the crowd. Many of them held placards and flags, and were shouting really loudly (not too sure what they were protesting about, but I heard it was the 1 year anniversary of the agreement of the importing of US beef into South Korea; the citizens were worried about contracting Mad Cow Disease. Also, apparently the South Koreans seem very unhappy with the present government) around us. We felt trapped in between the protesters.

The MC also seemed to be freaking out, and told the PA system to keep looping the songs so as to drown the chants of the protesters. This got the mob so angry that they started to throw stuff onto the stage, even hitting the host as a result. In the end, the mob managed to storm onto the stage and shut down the whole system.

At that point in time, we tourists were still really puzzled on what was happening, until the PA system started announcing that the concert would be cancelled and urged us to leave this place immediately. Volunteers were shouting frantically at us to leave, when the police started to put on their anti-riot gear and circled the entire plaza. It was then we started getting worried that we would not be able to leave the plaza, especially when the police were starting to walk inwards, making the circle smaller. Around us, we could hear loud screams and high shrills, as the protesters resisted arrest. Luckily we caught sight of an exit and made our way out to the subway station, where it was safe.

Anyway, please don’t worry about us in Korea, because all the protests here are non-violent, and protests happen rather frequently too. In fact, one of the flags we saw belonged to Korea University. The protesters ranged from students to elderly people, and besides the rowdy noise (and a handful of more violent people), it was pretty safe. In fact, we were more afraid of the fully-equipped policemen more than anything, cause they looked really menacing in their huge numbers. And besides, I am safely blogging about the event now, aren’t I? Heh :)

Gyeongbokgung (景福宫/경복궁)

Chin Keat came for a short holiday to Seoul during the weekend from Beijing, and hence became the very first friend of mine to come visit me here. He brought bak gwa from 美珍像， which tasted damn shiok! He wanted to visit somewhere historical, so we went over to Gyeongbokgung to view the palace.

The palace reminded me a lot of the previous palace I went to, but the highlight of the entire trip was that I saw the King! He was taking a stroll with the queen at the royal garden, together with a horde of palace maids and bodyguards when we were there, and we took so many pictures of him! I can’t believe I was so lucky to have seen them the first time I went to the palace!

Anyway, for those who are getting lost here, these people are just actors. Heh, no real kings here (although there are real descendants of the last King of the Joseon Dynasty. Managed to see one 2 days later, performing a rite for the past king)! But then, it’s still very exciting to see one whole group of people wearing ancient clothes and walking around. The men even wear fake moustaches! Anyway, the ‘King’ takes a half hour walk around Gyeongbokgung every day at 2pm, so those who want to catch the royal walk can do so at that time!

Also at Gyeongbokgung are free costumes for people to try out. Not only that, we were given the opportunity to wander around in the costumes and take pictures. Exciting!

For the rest of our time in the palace, we just went around taking silly shots. Chin Keat brought along a DSLR, so we basically wandered everywhere to take pictures. And the pictures turned out pretty good too! Even the standard jump shots look sharp. Orh, I want a DSLR already!

We also took super unglam shots of us imitating the standard Sybil pose at Busan beach! Damn erxin!

Busan Day 3

Okie, I feel bad about procrastinating my blog entries, so shall make use of my free time now to finish blogging everything. We were all supposed to wake up at 4.30am to catch the sunrise at the beach, but no one woke up (as expected). The bulk of us (Long, Yong Hui, Ziyi and me) woke up at 10am and went for a stroll at the beach. As compared to Friday, Sunday was way more crowded. There was some prelude to the upcoming beach festival, and we managed to catch some sand artists making sculptures at the beach.

The beach was still really cold when we were there. Even the sand was cold to the touch. There’s also a mermaid sculpture here, just like in Copenhagen! This was the second mermaid sculpture I have seen in South Korea; the other one was at Nami Island, Chuncheon.

We also managed to visit Nurimaru APEC House, which was a convention hall specially built to welcome heads of every nation during the 13th APEC summit in 2005. Now that it has served it's purpose, it has been converted to a tourist attraction by the government. The place was really beautiful, with wonderful views of the sea! And I managed to find the Singapore seat, where PM Lee sat previously. It must have been really exciting to be one of the participants of the summit! The view enough is worth sitting through hours of conferences!

After we checked out of the hotel, we met up with everyone else for lunch. Something really nice happened that day too. My hosts from Daegu actually travelled all the way from their home to find me at Busan! At first when I invited them to join me at Busan, I did not expect them to agree, but they really came! Although it was supposed to be only a one hour trip, the terrible traffic conditions resulted in them getting caught in the jam for 4 hours!

And the worst thing was, my host, Daedong형, drove here, so he was exhausted by the time he came. And he actually parked his car at the terminal so that he could take the subway and buses with us (there were too many of us; he couldn’t drive us all).

Daedong형 took us to a restaurant that is extremely popular in the area. In fact, many artistes who travel to Busan will come here to have their tteokboki (rice cake in spicy sauce). Besides that, we had cold noodles, dumplings, blood sausages (pig intestines filled with pig’s blood and glutinous rice), tempura vegetables and other pork innards. Damn delicious meal, and costs only $4 per person!

Following that, we went to a famous temple in the outskirts of Busan. At first, I was thinking it’s going to be another temple again, but it’s seriously the most beautiful one I have seen here, because it is situated right beside the sea!

At the entrance of the temple, there were 12 deities corresponding to the 12 different horoscopes of the Chinese calendar. Here I am, posing with the oxen statue. Notice that there are coins left on the statue; people place them there, and if the coins do not drop, their wishes will come true.

Here’s the very last picture I took with my hosts before I left for Seoul. They are seriously the nicest people I have met in Korea! I highly recommend staying over at their place if anyone is going over to Daegu!