Seoul Fringe Festival

The Seoul Fringe Festival is currently taking part in Hongdae. Its organised along the lines of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in that any artist can take part in the event. The official English website can be found here.

Last weekend, Robyn and I had a wander around Hongdae to watch some street performances, but failed to find much of note, due to a lack of signposting along with the Korean disdain for street names and an English map which marked venues, but indicated no nearby landmarks, so they were nigh on impossible to find (or it could be that we are both useless at reading maps)! We couldn't find Honggik Park (one of the main venues for outdoor performances) at all...

We went back to Hongdae on Sunday to see a Fringe event showcasing five Korean rock bands - Selly, Rubi Star, Renata Suicide, Dusty Blue and Pennylane. You've got to love the descriptions in the festival programme -

Selly - their music "stirs peoples emotions and touches their hearts with implicative emotions".

Rubi Star - "expected to be the next star band for its infinite potential".

Renata Suicide - "addictive heterogenous rock" which is "gaining popularity among manias"?

Dusty Blue's write up is the most baffling - "green paper covered with dust is still green, any dust cannot change its color". Huh??

Pennylane - "unique music combining 80's style pop and emotional modern rock". Ok, that one is quite normal!

All the bands were really good and gave me a bit of faith in a music scene dominated by poppy girl groups and boy bands. Its just a shame that the gig wasn't better attended - at no point was there more than 50 people watching. Maybe it was the lack of a bar...I've never been to a gig where there was no bar (not even soft drinks). It was probably a good thing as the loos were the squatting variety!

Selly

Rubi Star

Renata Suicide

Dusty Blue

Pennylane

The Fringe Festival ends this Saturday (29th August).

Seoul sightseeing

On Lisa's last weekend, we went into Seoul and stayed overnight at the Ibis in Myeongdong. It rained heavily on Saturday, which was a good excuse to look around the shops!

In the evening, we went to see a dance musical called Sachoom at the Nagwon Theatre in Insadong. The receptionist at the Ibis booked the tickets for us and we got them discounted from 50,000 won to 35,000 won! Sachoom is an abbreviation of the Korean phrase sarangha-myeon-chumeulchueora, which means “dance if you are in love.” The show was really fun and energetic mixing different contemporary dance styles and the glistening muscles of the male dancers didn't hurt either!

Me and Lisa at Gyeongbukgung Palace

Sunday was a much nicer day, so we went to Gyeongbukgung Palace and arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard ceremony (at least, I think that's what it was). It was the third time I've been to Gyeongbukgung, but the first time when the sun was out, so I took plenty of photos! Despite the hordes of people and fake facial hair (the guards, not me!), the ceremony was quite compelling, especially with the atmospheric music and it gave an inkling of the ornate rituals that existed during the Joseon era.

Changing of the Guard ceremonyAfter looking around the palace buildings, we strolled through Insadong then took the Seoul city bus tour (which managed to cram far too many people onto the bus and thus we could only see things which were on the right hand side of the bus due to all the people standing in the aisle, sigh).

Fan maker in Insadong

Deokjeokdo

After we returned from Busan, we ventured into Incheon to catch a ferry to to Deokjeokdo, an island about 40 miles or so off the northwest coast. To get to the ferry terminal, you can catch the 12 or 24 bus from outside Dongincheon subway station (exit through the underground market and the bus stop is outside MacDonalds) or catch a taxi.

The domestic ferry terminal is next door to the international ferry terminal and you can buy boat tickets at the desks inside. We hadn't arranged anywhere to stay, but we were approached by a guesthouse owner as we got off the ferry and he drove us to the guesthouse (or yeogwan) near Seopori Beach. The yeogwan was fairly basic, but clean and cost us just 40,000 won for the room.

Seopori Beach

Deokjeokdo is relatively undeveloped by Korean standards (no high rises here) and Seopori (the main beach on the island) has very little apart from the beach, some houses/yeogwans and a handful of convenience stores and places to eat. Seopori was very scenic (it reminded me of Pembrokeshire in a way), but it was spoilt by 2 things....the smell of sewage which kept wafting along the beach (you don't get that in St Davids) and the VERY LOUD American girl who was, unfortunately, staying in the same guest house as us. We now know almost every detail about her life. Loud Americanism is sadly not an uncommon affliction in Korea!

Seopori Beach at night

There isn't whole lot to do on Deokjeokdo apart from lieing on the beach and its not really set up for western tourists (there are only Korean restaurants, no bars or discos), but as a place to hang out and relax for a day or two, it was nice enough as long as its sunny!

Busan

Lisa came over for 2 weeks on the 22nd July. We went to Busan on the KTX bullet train to spend a few days on the beach. Sadly the weather down there wasn't nearly as nice as up here in Bucheon and we had some grey days, but being British, this didn't really deter us from lying on the beach!

Brits on the beach
1. Wear as few clothes as possible.
2. Soak up the sun.
3. Go for a swim in the sea (while the lifeguards are looking in the other direction)

Koreans on the beach
1. Wear as many clothes as possible.
2. Sit in the shade.
3. Wade into the sea (wearing full attire) up to knee height (if you go out any further, the lifeguards will blow a whistle at you and make you paddle back into shallower waters).

Gwangalli Beach

Typical Korean beach attire Yes, that woman really is wearing a pacamac!You can also wear all your clothes in the sea!
Gwangalli at night