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Of Gimhae Experience


After this outing, we saw the different sides of Changwon. At first, I, personally thought that there's nothing much to be explored here in Changwon, but I have to admit, I was wrong. After an hour thirty minutes bus ride, my partner and I, together with our mentor, arrived at the neighbouring city commonly known as Gimhae. Honestly, I never knew anything about Gimhae especially the attractions at the area. Luckily, our mentor stumbled upon an ad on a festival there, which we ended up joining on that Friday. The initial plan was to go there on the weekend, however due to the Tapan typhoon warning, we chose to leave after Friday class instead. (We were lucky because it did rain non stop that weekend!)

Our mentor is very thoughtful of us. She knew that we might not be able to understand a thing about it since the tour would be in Korean. So, she printed the English tourist transcript for us instead. The journey there took about one hour and thirty minutes by bus (considering all the stops). It was very nerve wrecking to be using buses here as some of them drive as if they're part of the fast and furious stunt team.  Regardless, I like the punctuality and the card tapping system (very much similar to Auckland, New Zealand). Once we arrived, I saw a lot of  Halal restaurant there, including an Asian Halal mart and a mosque. The vibe felt a little bit different than Sahwa. There are more foreigners around here too!

We decided to grab dinner before going inside the Gaya Cultural Festival. At first, we got into a Mediterranean restaurant but, since we felt like having ayam bakar, we ended up at the Indonesian restaurant instead. Sadly, I didn't get my 'ayam bakar' as they were just started to prep the chicken 😑😑😑 Still, I got to satisfy my craving by having chicken fillet and iced tea. We took that time to further bonded with our mentor. It's good to know that we're both born in in 1989, and just like me, this is her 6-7th years in teaching line. 

Well, about the festival, as I copied from Mr. Google;

"The Gaya Cultural Festival is a ritual and regional event of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

The Gaya Cultural Festival is a military event held in 42 A.D. to remember and commemorate the culture of the Gaya Kingdom founded by King Suro. The 'GaYa World Cultural Festival' has been proceeding since 2007, combining 'garak Cultural Festival' which has been held at '춘향대제일' since 1962 with 'Gaya World Cultural Festival' which was launched in 2005 for the purpose of listing the world's cultural heritage.

The Gaya Cultural Festival has seven events; official, folk, festival life, experience, installation, connection and auxiliary events. The official events include the rite of enshrining oil and wedding ceremonies at Guji Peak, the site of King Suro's carbonation, the Choonhyang Daeje held at Sungseonjeon Hall of King Suro's Royal Tomb in Gimhae, and the opening and closing ceremony of King Suro. Some folk events include the Jangyewhwasang Memorial Festival (an event honoring Heo Bo-ok, Heo Hwang-ok's brother who delivered Buddhism to other countries), the Gaya Nongak Competition, a folk opera competition, and Kim's interpretation exhibition. The festival includes the first party in Asia, the Kimhae Arts Center, the Gayageok Fashion Show, and the experience event includes the Gayageogo, the object hunting, the Soonjang experience, the Gaya Iron/Daejanggan, the Gaya Military Experience, and the Kim Su-ro/Hwang Pukkil Experience. The installation events include the installation of Gayagethema lanterns, the Luminarie Photo Zone with LED structures, the multicultural Ullim Madang where people can experience costumes from seven Asian countries, and the exhibition/sales exhibition of the best products from our country that promote products from small and medium-sized companies. Additional events will include the National Student Art Practical Contest, the Donghwa Contest, the National Baekiljang, and the National Student Music Competition.

The Gaya Cultural Festival is contributing to the establishment of King Suro's country and the legacy of iron culture, which had been brilliant for more than 500 years, and to promote the excellence of Gaya culture to countries around the world.

The 43rd annual Gaya Cultural Festival, which will be held from April 18 to April 21, 2019, is preparing to welcome visitors by preparing a variety of programs under the theme 'Gaekayan Culture, Light!' to directly experience the history culture of Gaya. In particular, the 43rd Gaya Cultural Festival will be a meaningful experience for visitors to experience the splendid culture of Gaya, with a focus on creative reproduction of the Gaya culture and development of an experience program for visitors". 

Lucky us, the festival was done again for the second time this year on the 20th September 2019. 
At the festival, we got to experience the tea ceremony where various of dessert and teas were served in little cups and saucers. Most of the dessert are filled with red bean paste too, just like ours. And then, we watched the Gayageum performance, one of the traditional Korean musical instrument.

 Watching that performance, I can't help but thinking how painful it is to be strumming the strings. Still, the music sounded beautiful. They did rendition of the traditional Arirang (traditional Korean music) and a few of Beatles songs. Then, we toured around the site which was by the way, AMAZING! As the theme goes, the place was lit with romantic decors. It almost felt like having a romantic candlelight dinner at a park. We also got a handrawn calligraphy arts. Funny thing was, one of the artists were about to close and yet upon hearing that we're from Malaysia, he stayed back and made two more drawings for us. He even asked us to give him a call if we were ever in Seoul!






As the night was caving in, there were no more buses heading to Changwon. Luckily, our mentor called up her husband to pick us up. Phew~what an evening!



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