Chuseok - being free from Keli again - Part II

Chuseok - being free from Keli again - Jinju

(suh) Chuseok was soon to come, so my friends and I spent four weeks planning where to go and what to do. Despite having so much time, we simply could not make up our minds. Shall we go to Jeju island along with the rest of the foreigners? The weather was still warm through the early autumn days and enjoying the holidays soaking on a beach in the island sun wasn't a bad idea. Or would we rather venture to Seoul where everyday life moves at a frantic pace in the midst of a vibrant metropolis? Perhaps it would be best to simply stay in Daegu, exploring the beautiful mountains and the unknowns of the city.

We soon realised Chuseok was far too short toexperience and try out everything we desired to see in this wonderful, flourishing country. Since we couldn't reach an agreement on what to do, we focused on finding what in common we desired from this trip. So we all got stroke by the idea of trying something traditional. But celebrating Chuseok as Koreans do is easier said than done as this would mean going home to our families. This was obviously no option so we kept on asking Koreans where they usually go and how they make themselves a pleasant time. After questioning numerous native Koreans, we soon got a list of the best places to see over our holiday. After several hours of planning and budgeting, we narrowed down our list. One particular location quickly caught our eye: Jinju.

          Jinju is a relatively small city with 350,000 inhabitants. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to have much on offer in the eyes of a tourist. The city centre is nothing spectacular and the two museums would bore you to death before giving you any sort of insight into Jinju’s  history and culture. Annually, however, Jinju breaks it mold, transforming into a seemingly magical show of light. Jinji becomes a truly breathtaking place, taking one back to the roots of its history and an enchanting view on the glistening bank of the Namgang.

Every year, the spectacular show takes place for fourteen days beginning on October 3^rd, immediately following Chuseok. The Jinju Yudeung Festival is held to commemorate the  victory of the Korean forces at the second Battle of Jinjuseong. The patriotic spirit of the 70,000 who died defending their country hand down the tradition of Yudeung. Thus, the history of the festival spans back to the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea when Jinju's vital surrounding wall was in danger. General Kim Si Min and his troops used pungdeung and other lamplights in both the Namgang river or into the sky as a signal requesting support of nearby forces. These lanterns apparently stopped Japanese invaders from crossing the river and gave Sin Min Gim enough time to adaquetly prepare his troops for the Japanese attack.  Since the majority of the soldiers’ families lived beyond the safety of the castle walls, they  lanterns to their dear ones as well, hoping to last through the hard and uncertain times of violence, solitude and fear that lay ahead. In remembrance and honour the fallen troops, this tradition has continued as the people of Jinju annually drift their lovely handmade lanterns down the Namgang, each with a personal wish.

It was the late afternoon when we reached Jinju and apart from a few paper puppets was barely anything to see that gave us the impression of a great event which was going to be hold that night. However, at this time this was of least interest to all of us as we didn’t know where we were going to sleep at night. All the motels were either already booked out or the  remained accommodations were nearly unaffordable for a poor students’ budget like ours. 

So we went to the tourist centre and asked for help. The friendly looking woman behind the desk quickly understood our problem and kindly recommended us a so called Jimjilbang. Well, yes we said we wanted to experience the Korean culture to the fullest but not knowing what I had to expect I’m not entirely sure which one was actually the greater experience – the night in the Jimjilbang or the lantern festival. However, only twenty minutes away by walk we finally reach the Korean Spa which was as predicted really cheap – only 8000 Won to spend a night there. So we dropped our stuff and headed quickly to the festival.

Ein Tunnel von erleuchteten Laternen - ein Tunnel von Wünschen und Hoffnungen.

Twilight has come and the moon golden glowing in his fully round shape was already up high in the sky by the time we got there. Jinju suddenly presented itself in its entire beauty: It totally blew our mind seeing how this little city and the Namgang River turned into a breathtaking miracle landscape resplendent in thousands of colours and enchanting lights! Big figures were built up all over the place showing the troops of the Jinjuseong Battle and reminding of former times. These figures also gave a good insight of Korean traditions, its rich fauna and flora and its impressive art and craft work. 

Not just figures in human shape were built up, even the temple were enlightened by an uncountable amount of lights. But not only the past were presented! The river Namgang showed the multicultural connection of Korea to each country with Vietnamese women in their traditional clothes, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Chinese Dragons, German windmills and so on. 

So we were walking along the river bank enjoying the wonderful sight of colours and lights as we suddenly saw little lovely self made paper lanterns swimming down the river. All of them had notes attached which seemed to be wishes and hopes for the future. We wanted to do that! What a wonderful reminiscence would it be seeing our personal wish flowing down Namgang, too and knowing to have been part of this fantastic old Korean tradition. So we all made a little lantern ourselves, tried to be as creative as Germans could possibly be and attached our hopes and wishes for our family as Koreans already did it 400 years ago. Deeply touched and inspired of the atmosphere of this whole festival we sent them down the river hoping our wishes will come true.

As all of this wouldn’t have been enough we suddenly heart several bangs and reports. We looked into the sky and an amazing firework had just started exploding into all kinds of colours. Everyone marvelled at the flashing lights and the crowd turned into a choir of “Ahhhs” and “Ohhhs”. And so did we, too.

Ahhhhh! Ohhhhh! Aaaaah!

Die Koreaner sind manchmal schon ein witziges Völcken.  Eigentlich hätte man das ja mal aufnehmen müssen. Sie sind ja schon irgendwie süß, mit ihrem Hang zur expressiven gemeinschaftlichen Begeisterung. 






Eines muss man ihnen allerdings lassen: Das Feuerwerk war wirklich eines der schönsten, die ich bisher gesehen habe. Da kann ihnen keiner so schnell was nachmachen, an Kreativität hat es ihnen dabei nicht gemangelt. Vielleicht gibt es aus diesem Grund in Deutschland immer nur ein müdes "Ooh" zu hören..






Als könnte es auch irgendwie anders sein.. Essen und trinken, Süßes und Salziges, eigenartige, sowie unwiderstehliche Köstlichkeiten gab es natürlich auch hier an jeder Ecke. Da bekommen auch kleine Kinder ganz große Augen bei solch riesigen Maiskolben.








Eine erleuchtete Kürbiskutsche. Eigentlich wollte ich mit Mai ja ein wenig Zweisamkeit genießen, aber die Herrschaften mussten ja natürlich wieder dazwischen funken..










Ein wenig Patriotismus ist natürlich auch immer dabei. Aber das sieht man hier ja gerne..













Der Fluss Namgang hell erleuchtet mit tausenden von farbenfrohen Lichtern. 


Ich vermute, Kinder haben diese Laternen selbst gebastelt. Leider kann man auf dem Foto nicht ganz erkennen, was sie alles dargestellt haben. Unter anderem war hier nämlich auch Google, I-phone, Zigaretten, Spongebob, "Angry Birds" und Geld aufzufinden. Was das wohl über die Wünsche der heutigen Jugend in Korea aussagt..? Naja, das mal außen vor gelassen, zeigt der Rest natürlich eine unbeschreibliche Vielfalt an Kunstwerken anderer Art - wunderschön, inspirierend, modern, abstrakt, verträumt. Und alles in einem einfach atemberaubend schön!

Ich war's nicht! Ich schwör's! Ich käme niemals auf die Idee in einer Umkleide einfach Bilder zu machen. Mai Linh war diejenige, die der Verlockung wiedermal nicht widerstehen konnte. Das Bild ist natürlich verschwommen, denn es wurde ja in Windeseile, aus Angst vor einem Moralapostel erwischt zu werden, unerlaubter Weise aufgenommen. Dafür sieht man auf man darauf  wenigstens die schönen Kutten, die man für den Spa bekommt. Den Bikini kann man hier also getrost zu Hause lassen, das sexy Badeoutfit ala Sträflingsgemeinschaftsdress wird hier vor Ort bereit gestellt.

Tiered from strolling around and by getting overwhelmed of all these new impression of Korean culture and traditions we thought it would be time to head back to our place to hit the hay – the Jimjilbang. It was kind of weird to see that people obviously still go there washing themselves, having a bath or relaxing in the sauna even it’s already in the middle of the night. But this is a Spa so where were we supposed to sleep? In some corner in a sauna? This can’t be true! So we had a look around and out of the blue we happened to stumble over a mass of people sleeping, snoozing and snoring! All of them were lying on the ground, totally relaxed and comfortable with themselves. As they covered nearly every space it was hard to make our way through them and nearly impossible not to step at least on each second one. Seeing this, all of us looked a little baffled not knowing where to go and what to think of it. So we wondered where all these people came from? 

And why they were not sleeping at  their home or why they were not going to a hotel? Could it possibly be true that this is a common way for Koreans to have a cheap overnight stay?And still we hadn’t found a solution to our problem yet: Where are we going to sleep?  In the mist of all these strangers squeezed in right next to each other leaning on somebody’s body which I don’t know at all? 

Typisch koreanisch? Wirklich?

Anscheinend schon. Da liegen sie alle auf dem Boden gemeinsam, aneinander gereiht wie die Sardinen, dösen und schlafen. Naja, 8 000 Won ist ja wirklich spottbillig, aber .. wirklich jetzt?

Man kann sich gar nicht vorstellen wie viele Menschen in diesen Räumen lagen. Als wäre der Krieg ausgebrochen und alle würden nun gemeinsam in einem Bunker nächtigen müssen. Noch viel passender dazu ist natürlich das Nachtgewand: Für Frauen rot, für Männer grün. Ein wenig Notstands- und Gefängnisflair kommt da schon auf. Allerdings will ich das hier gar nicht schlecht reden, denn praktisch, günstig und komfortabel ist es allemal! Und für Backpacker wie uns einfach nur ideal! Ein wenig eigenartig und gewöhnungsbedürftig ist diese Art von Unterkunft zwar allerdings schon, aber definitiv eine Erfahrung wert. 

Well, yes we said we wanted to experience the Korean culture to the fullest but to be honest, no one of us expected this as some kind of traditional accommodation! But at least we wanted to give it a try so we were looking for a nice little space where we almost could fit in. Resting there for several minutes, we surprisingly didn’t mind at all laying so close to these other people. The only thing that kept us awake was finally the heat which seemed to rise with every second. We couldn’t stand that through, this was far too hot! So we got up and started wandering around again. We had a look in each room we could find but all of them were stuffed with people and steaming for heat. We made our way through the whole building and finally reached the last stage where we found an empty wide roof top. The moon was still shining and from there we had a wonderful view over the lights of the city. So we nestled down in our blankets, snuggled up to each other and slept peacefully in the shine of the full moon.