Day 3 - Korea

Sunday, Hahoe Mask Dance Festival in Andong

Hahoe Village is a half hour ride from Andong through the countryside where the Joseon-dynasty architecture and rural life has been maintained for the past 500 years.  Cutting through rice and vegetable fields, the bus deposits you in 16th century Korea.  Earthen thatched huts, larger homes for nobility of wood and tile, the Soback Mountains and the Nakdonggang River winding through Hahoe.  No trespassing signs were interspersed among the houses because this is a living community and people are going about their daily lives. This is where we spent the day.

golden rice fields on the way to Hahoe Village - someone told us there are about 32 grains of rice per stalk

The day began shrouded in a heavy mist.  But, intrepid tourists that we are, we walked to the bus stop (directions given at the hotel) and waited for bus 46.  While waiting for the bus, I chatted with a very nice young woman, Jiyoung, who was also going to Hahoe. When she found out we were from Colorado, she told us that she lived in Connecticut for 2 years with her husband at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.  Her husband is an officer in the Korean Army and she teaches English to 3rd and 4th graders. We enjoyed each others company so much that we spent the day together.

What a day it was. We took a quick ferry ride across the Nakdonggang River to the opposite shore and took a short hike to the top of cliff...the first attempt was aborted because the path was getting rocky, narrow, and ultimately disappeared altogether. Meanwhile Ray's "we're-all-going-to-fall-off-the-cliff-and-die-alarm" kept going off and was getting louder and louder. Before Ray began to hyperventilate, Jiyoung and I decided to turn around (Ray called this his "miracle").  We eventually found the right path, which was huge, and made it to the top of the cliff in about 10 minutes.  The view of the village and surrounding area was spectacular..the area reminded me of Hanalei Valley.

here's the cliff we eventually got to the top of

view from the cliff

more view from the cliff

see, here we are at the top of the cliff

During the day we saw 2 weddings, one contemporary wedding where they sang Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera's Music of the Night...which wouldn't be my first choice of music...and the second wedding was a traditional Korean wedding.

The bride was so beautiful in her white Korean dress, being careful to cover her face.  The groom was handsome in blue. During the ceremony, the groom had to prove himself worthy of the bride by walking on wooden beads and turning over on a plate (what looked like a heavy jello about 2" thick by 3" wide by 5" long) with chopsticks...if he could do this, he proved his wisdom.  The jello broke and fell all over the place. Jiyoung said that the young bride's parents owned the home where they were married.  

Bride has the cloth covering her face - groom in blue

preparing the bride at the house

We had a delicious mackerel lunch at one of the homes in Hahoe and it was so interesting and so much fun (oh, we asked for napkins and they threw us a roll of toilet paper)...the house was also used a guesthouse for rent. Jiyoung, being younger and faster getting up from the floor paid for the lunch...we felt awful about that! 

sitting on the floor of the guest room

Delicious! The Hahoe area is known for their mackerel, so we had to try it.

That afternoon we saw the mask parade as it wended along the village and ended the day watching the Mask Dance Performance in the arena. 

After the performance we walked around some more...

symbolic and not so symbolic phalli

us with some of the less obvious phallic symbols

When we got back to the hotel we were so tired and our feet hurt, but we went to dinner and then found this amazing market...so we ended up walking even more.