Hangawi - Festival for foreigners in Ulsan

Sunday 19/9/2010

Korean people in Ulsan are known to be very blunt, but they still do a lot for foreigners here. Like today, they organised a whole festival for the foreigners living in Ulsan. There was a few stalls with different things do to from trying on traditional Korean wedding clothes, Korean games, to hitting the living daylight out of a piece of dough.

The festival started at 14:00 and was just a 5 minute busride away from home.

The three explorers - Me, Jean and Lindie.

The festival was held at Ulsan Grand Park, one of many beautiful parks in Ulsan.

A map of the park. The festival was held at the bottom at the main entrance.
The park is enormous.

One of two statues greeting you at the entrance.

Stalls on the left side.

Centre of the action. The stage where they had some traditional folk dances and
a mini fashion show of traditional Korean wedding couture.

Stalls on the ride side.

These guys were trying out the see-saw thing. Trust me, it looks easier than it is.

There was a stall where you could try on some traditional wedding clothes, and Lindie and I decided to try it out.

It is extremely hot in those outfits, and unfortunately photo
wasn't all we were going to do...

After the photo's the Koreans wanted Lindie and I to try out the see-saw, dressed like a married couple. I really hope that the see-saw isn't part of the wedding ceremony.


Doing the see-saw in these clothes, not fun.

  

We attracted quite a croud and will probably end up on some brochure for foreigners.

  

Lindie was absolutely terrified.

After a while we decided to give up before we break something.

 Then, after trying out the clothes, I decided to try something else. There was a piece of tree stump at one stall where they would hit a piece of dough with a wooden hammer. The guy before me was so gentle to with the hammer, but I decided to give the dough a good beating, much to the appreciation of the stall owner.

Some good stress relief, taking everything out on the dough.

"If you know what's coming, you'd grow legs very quickly and get out of the way."

The festival started with some speeches from important people in Ulsan. After the speeches there were some folk dances and the wedding couture fashion show.

They were quite good. The two on the sides couldn't see each other,
yet they were hiting the drums like one person.



These poore foreigners had to dress up and do the fashion show on the stage.
Those outfits don't have much ventilation and the sun was shining as if it was
summer.

 

Radha and Dawn, posing for one last photo before rushing to get out of
the dresses before they melt.

We decided to try a Korean game. The goal is to throw the arrows into the rings and I think I got 3 out of 15 arrows in the rings. Not good, but hey, I'm not Korean and it is a Korean game...

The little one got away just in time, before Lindie's arrow zapped past her.

Trying our best, but with little success.

After giving up we moved on to the other stalls, and found one where you can have your name written in Korean calligraphy. Of course we all did it.

This little boy was waiting anctiously to get his paper with his name on.

All done!

After a few hours we decided to go and get some pizza, and as we exited the park, we saw a line of people. The ones in front were walking away with big, red packages, and we decided to join them. The Koreans were giving gifts to the foreigners, because next week is the Korean Thanksgiving holiday.

So happy with our gifts! In the bag is a box with a hamper of toothpaste,
soap and shampoo. Very handy, but seriously, isn't giving someone
soap and toothpaste an insult? Anyway, we were happy.