Nongae Festival 2008

The city of Jinju extends from the banks of the Namgang (gang = river) in the Gyeongsangnam Province. It’s where Nongae, a Korean gisaeng, or female entertainer (similar to a Japanese geisha), threw herself into the waters, tightly clutching a Japanese general during the Imjin Wars (1592), drowning him and ensuring freedom for Koreans through her sacrifice.

The 7th Jinju Nongae Festival was held May 23-25 this year to commemorate Nongae and 70,000 militia men and government troops who died at the Jinjuseong Castle Battle during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. The festival featured traditional arts of Jinju such as "Uiambyeolje," Jinju Sword Dance and the Nongae performance re-enacting her patriotic jump into water with a Japanese general.

The audience settled down on a floating stage to get a prime view for the show, in front of Uiam Rock (Righteous Rock). A spectacular show ensued with the re-enactment of the Japanese invasion, the Korean generals' defeat and subsequent 'walk the rock' at gunpoint...from where they jumped into the river and drowned.







The Japanese warriors ready themselves for the invasion








The Fan Dance Performance

As Japanese soldiers celebrate their victory and settle in to enjoy their success, a feeling of despair hung in the air as gun fire (fire works) still stung the senses.

The Battle...

The Korean Generals prepare to sacrifice themselves in

the river while Japanese warriors mock them in the background.

On the battle field the bodies of the brave soldiers lay strewn.

Nongae went on to seduce the Japanese general - a ceremony involving the exchange of drinks and her acceptance of which agreed to his intentions...or so he thought...

Many of the Japanese soldiers tried their luck,

but her charm alone would send them off into the river of doom...

On his embrace she clutches her hands together behind his back and jumps into the river dragging him down with her golden rings.

The river calmly swallows her victims into its dark depths...

Nongae's spirit emerges from the waters

Giving tribute to her spirit

The brave actors...

Getting information on Nongae proved to be quite a challenge...most of it is only available in Korean. English information is limited, but the second Nongae Festival in 2004 was accompanied by a wonderful website available in English, Korean and Japanese!!! Visit the site at http://eng.jinjunongae.com/ for a funky history of the Imjin wars, a description of Nongae (Jinju's mascot) and much more on this famous heroin and her city. A definite MUST SEE is the multimedia hall with an animated war re-enactment as well as English translations of some beautiful songs - quite poetic. The video clips are quite funny - especially with the little bit of Irish dance music in the background at the beginning, but none the less, entertaining and very informative!!! Be sure to click cancel if asked to install the Korean Language pack as it isn't necessary to view the site. The Nongae Relics tour allows you to pinpoint the surrounding attractions on a funky interactive map, while the Nongae Specialities section gives you an idea of the local cuisine and delicatessen...check out the 'Clean food' one...hiehie....

You could also look at an article on Jinju, and what it has to offer, at http://www.newsworld.co.kr/cont/0503/70.htm

Well, all in all, it was highly entertaining and informative to be part of the Nongae Festival proceedings...a definite must do if you happen to be in Jinju at the end of May.

Cheerio!

PS - got quite a few video clips to add...just some technical difficulties in doing so...will update as soon as possible!!!

Thailand May 2008

Dear friends, fellow travellers, family and kindred souls!

I'm back in Korea after 10 days of paradise...

To those of you who were clinging to your seats in anticipation, may this give you some relief (if not mixed with a jealous tinge...>hiehie<...) What started out as a simple reflection of our travels ended up as a mini-tour guide...hope you enjoy it as much as we did participating in these actual events!

Chillaxing (photo by Kees)

One adventure leads onto another - and so it happened that I emailed a dear friend asking him to join me in Thailand for a few days. Well, so he did and it was truly a great adventure!!! I fear that my words may lack substance in capturing those moments - moments that even I can only recall in my mind's eye... Yip, pictures paint a thousand words - but even then, these moments imprinted in memory far exceed the quality of the photographer... After a 6 hour bus ride, my flights (yes, all 4 of them) landed me in Taipei, en route to Hong Kong, onwards to Phuket and my final destination - Bangkok.

To my surprise I was treated like royalty and greeted by name at each airport up to Phuket where they were apologising for any inconvenience during my travels (while I didn't realise that my bag was travelling directly to Bangkok after having been left behind my connecting flight from Hong Kong to Phuket...). I on the other hand was just to grateful that somebody else was dragging my backpack along so that I didn't have to!

After a few hours delay - and Kees awaiting patiently - I finally arrived in Bangkok and had to put up quite a fight to get access to my bag as I was sent backwards and forwards to convince staff that my bag was somewhere - and who better to look for it than the owner! After some time I gather it was easier to get rid of me together with my bag than without, and the journey started to progress towards the greater confines of airports and into a magical city of squiggly lines and 'sawadee kap's and kaa's" (hello).

5 May...
Our first night was spent at a rather luxurious hotel on the Chaophraya River , from where we could appreciate odd looking smallish boats ferrying larger boats along a not too bad smelling river. Had we woken up earlier we may have appreciated the swimming pool with our complimentary breakfast - but alas, one cannot have it all...

Bangkok bridges and Kees

We moved onto pleasant - if less fancy - backpackers-like lodgings from where we explored the Khao San road - where all 'foreign' roads lead to...it felt like the segregated section for all first time foreigners - complete with the "it's my first day in Bangkok, please pick on me" imprinted unknowingly on your forehead.

We were grateful to have landed in the reliable hands of a tuk-tuk driver who really took us to a government operated tour agent, from whose aircon office we quickly organised the remainder of our stay in Thailand - up to my departure. We were gallivanted to the 'Lucky Buddha', surrounding temple buildings, tailors, jewellers, a fruit stall, and left at what we couldn't decide on as being the Emerald Buddha or the Grand Palace…it kind of looks the same...we did see a closing ceremony with officers marching beyond the great white walls. Apparently we did arrive on a special day and were able to visit places otherwise closed to foreigners (Kees would know more about this as he had a willing tour guide at the lucky Buddha who explained it to him...I was too trigger happy and was on my own mission to explore and photograph).

Bangkok at night

An evening is well rounded off with having met one of the presumably many Swedish in Thailand - Ludwig - who'd been travelling for quite some time and who's itinerary is left open for the next 9 months...what do these guys do to enable such endeavours...and of course...the local cuisine is washed down with local beer - a choice of Chang, Leo or Singha (pronounced sing).

6 May...
we depart on a 3day, 2night adventure in Kanchanaburi province - west of Bangkok.

On arrival in Kanchanaburi town we saw the Allied War Cemetery - with 16,000 of the estimated 100,000+ labour casualties (the 16,000 were Westerners from mainly Britain and Holland) who were forced to construct the railway line and bridges by Japanese occupied Southeast Asia during WWII. The Death Railway Bridge and Jeath War Museum (Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand and Holland) was short to follow and rounded off with a train ride along the Death Railway (aptly named after the many people that were sacrificed in the process of its construction) from Thakilen to Nam Tok.

Getting back onto our 'bandwagon' we continued our touristy day with a tour to a riverboat lunch and the Wat Luang Ta Bua Yanna Sampanno - Tiger Temple.

This promises to be quite amazing in the near future - with construction under way for a Tiger Island where they may roam freely. The canyon currently offers tourists the opportunity to approach these majestic cats under guidance of the green T's (when the tigers are taken to the canyon area for exercise daily). The staff take pics while you are under their close supervision...among others...those yellow eyes cut through you and remind you that the heat is but one of a few factors that keep you safe while the tigers lie it out....at times I was tempted to role over and scratch a belly, but these are not tame house cats...though they are used to the attention one of the older males parading in the background reminded me of their majesty in nature…wish I could've seen those eyes glancing at me through forests of bamboo...

After the heat of the canyon we splashed down under Sai Yok Waterfall beside the highway and returned for dinner at the lovely riverboat from where we would continue upstream towards the riverboat houses of Kitti Raft.

(Roadside Waterfall - photos by Kees)

But wait....the plot thickens as this is where we are more thoroughly introduced to some jolly good lads from London (Sam...yeah baby...and Alex), as well as a Phillipino Thai chef living in Australia (Michael), a Scottish lass (Jennifer), twee Nedelanders (Pascal and Leonieke), the male model and his girlfriend (from Norway? Sorry - I'm terrible at names...)...

Alex Sam (baby!)

Leonieke and Pascal awaiting our departure - photo by Kees

Michael (above) and Mr Norway (?)

Jennifer hangin' about

7 May...
Erawan National Park with its 7-tiered waterfall...an easy 'hike' (relaxed walk) to the top from where we gradually made our way down swimming and sliding as often as we could in the emerald pools...along the hike we found quite a few lonesome slops...so, uhmm...where'd the other half go? 'Erawan'...'er...there goes another one'? The forest has some pretty hard core sun beetles that sound like grinders or chain saws...makes you wonder at the path maintenance and those single flip flops...

Legend has it that Lawa was a poor man who hunted a deer to feed his family. Following the wounded animal he ended up at this cave - not finding the deer but instead a man. The man told him to let the deer go - returning to the cave to give tribute to it. Giving all he had would give him in return what he needed to provide for his family, and more - with the condition that he would not forget his humble roots, would bring contributions to the cave, and, would come back to the cave to die there once the day arrived. After quite some hesitation Lawa offered what he was requested and initially it went very well - he would return to give offerings for the riches he had been granted. With time passing by he would forget about the man in the cave...when his time came, he remembered, and returned to the cave to die. (uhm...any corrections on the legend are welcome...got a bit distracted by my trigger-happy moments...)

Salvador Dali??

On return to our boathouse the inspired young warriors went out gathering from the lands...foraging under the guidance of our chef...leaving the ladies to laze about...

8 May...
Splishing and splashing with elephants!!!! Truly an amazing FUN activity!!! After which we bamboo-rafted our way down to the lunch spot on the riverboat restaurant, jump from the very shaky bridge just upstream to enhance our appetite, followed by a more high and dry elephant ride in a forest nearby.

On this high note - we embark on our different destinations...3 days and
2 nights sure pass way too quickly.

Kees and I caught a train to Ayutthaya - an ancient city of ruins...at night this was quite breathtaking as the rest of the noise is dowsed in darkness...dinner at the Hua Raw Night market on the pier was an exciting blend of fragrances, sights and sounds...music - all too similar to those Afrikaans treffers (hits) only in another tongue...Baan Eve is a jewel of a guest house with owners that enjoyed sharing their culture and experiences with us - Sanchai may be a statistics lecturer, but his tour guide capabilities do not lag far behind!!!

9 May...
We rent cylces and went on to explore the Wats (temples)...of the more familiar ones we saw the following:
Wat Phra Mahathat, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram, Wat Ratburana, Phra Chedi Sri Suriyothai...(Kees...you're better at remembering names than I am...)...anyways, after a while you don't really know what Wat you saw...we did ride around the Old Royal Castle and explored most of the 'scenic routes' along the western side of Ayutthaya before returning to Wat Mahathat where I had a puncture and we had a short walk back to the cycle shop...he did warn us not to go off-road...but what's the fun in that?
;-P

We caught a train back to Bangkok for a connecting overnight train to Surat Thani, from where a supposedly 1hour bus ride (uhm...more like 3hrs) took us down to Krabi.

10 May...
Krafti Krabi Magic...
An exciting transfer from Krabi by Såwngthåew - small pick-up truck with bench seats down both sides and a plastic canopy to hold back most of the monsoon - brought us to within a kilometre or so of our Lakeside Bungalow in Ao Nang. Dropping off our bags we explored a bit - sitting out the rain in shops along our way and figuring out how to get to Railay beach in the hope to get some climbing squeezed in-between the showers…

Evening brought us to our first introduction to 'Lazy Bar' - an amazingly chilled back spot well worth the 2minute stroll from our bungalow to appreciate the local talent - a self-proclaimed band doing covers of all the best classics by U2, Pink Floyd, Guns 'n Roses, Tracy Chapman, good ol' Bob Marley...and if you call now! you manage to see a free fire show!!!

11 May...
Attempting to go to Railay
Having rent a scooter we slammed everything into my backpack and headed off on a poor start to find Ao Nang-mo pier (on the eastern side of Railay - more protected from the less calm waters moving in from the west...allowing access to Railay beach when the other pier is closed for business...having left the route guide at the bungalow and with rain threatening, we returned to Ao Nang trying out a body scrub and Thai massage...

12 May...
CLIMBING AT RAILAY
Well prepared and more practised at driving the scooter we head out for a serious day of climbing and was well rewarded by rain keeping off until later that evening...during the morning there were numerous guided climbs by local climbers making a baht out of top-roping tourists and even providing services for more experienced climbers.

We eventually made it on some of the routes that were occupied earlier that day and...wow...

Dropped Kees at a vital spot...yip...Exo - you're not the only one whom I've dropped...sorry Kees!!!!! At least adrenalin and scenery aided in my survival and no retribution was demanded...>sigh<...at least it was only 3 hangers...and you were quite high up....(lame excuse...I know...) Grateful you came off it quite well...

13 May...
Breakfast down the street at the Mild Bungalow next to Lazy Bar, brings this wondrous chapter to an end...
A horrific drive got us to Phuket Airport (playing chicken with all the oncoming traffic...seems to work well as everybody drives like that...)
Yeah, well...I headed back to Korea and saw Pieter off to Bangkok...missing SA all the more for having been half way there amidst surroundings that in some ways resemble home quite well...perhaps only much more than Korea ever will.

And so begins a new chapter of moments untold and yet to unfold...

Cheers to those who shared in this - if not in body, at least in mind.

Know that you're in my heart, thoughts and prayers as always!!!

PS. My apologies for any distraught, mispronounced, wrongfully accused records of events…blame it on good ol’ Chang if all else fails…