Oh, Hello! A couple weekends ago we went to the Jinju Lantern Festival with our outdoorsy Canadian friends Sarah and Amir. They have a car so we all piled into ther beat up Hyundai Avante and headed to Jinju, the city with the cleanest air in Korea. It took somewhere between 2- 3 hours....I can't keep track. Heading into the heart of the city we split up in search of a cheap love motel to share together. We settled on a nice 50,000 won room equipped with a double bed, and a bunch of sleeping mats. After a Korean style game of ka-wi-ba-wi-bo (rock, scissors, paper), Dave won so we got the, probably not to much more comfortable than the floor, bed. We ate at a cute little Japanese restaurant and headed to the festival. Here are some pictures along with stories.
The festival during the day. There were tons of these huge lanterns, all sculpted to be different characters and animals. They were scattered along the river and on both sides. They were beautiful!
We walked around to through the tents selling food and gifts. This monk-ish guy lured Sarah and I to sit down. He asked Sarah what sport she played proceeded to give here a few slick moves to either stretch her, or break her neck. I'm not sure which one.
Placing his hands on her face, messing up her glasses.
He told her to just relax. I don't think so!!!!
Amir and Sarah drinking some dongdongju which is similar to Makgeolli, both being a mild tasting milky form of alcohol. It sounds gross, but trust me, it's delicious! It also gets served in a clay bowl and you drink out of bowls. It's interesting.
Here's me drinking the stuff. Yum!
Ooo la la! One of the best things about Korea! They sell rotisserie chickens out of the back of trucks! It's cheap and delicious!
The festival at night!
Often times you will see men and women begging for change on these little scooters. It's really sad.
This is the huge tunnel of lanterns. It goes on forever!
Look at the detail!
These are the wish lanterns. You can buy these before dark and they will float them down the river. Sometimes they catch fire. I guess there wishes didn't come true! They had this unnecessarily big speed boat going up and down the river on fire patrol. If there was one on fire he would use an oar and splash water on it to put out the mini fire.
Inside the tunnel. It was magical. Also, some food for though. Each of these lanterns cost 10,000 won. You don't have to be a math genius to figure out that this is the money tunnel.
Amir being crazy
A glamorous picture of Sarah. These are fried spiral potatoes on a stick. Needless to say they are delicious!
Our chickens we devoured with our fingers
An awesome sculpture
This is a funny story. This Korean man came up to us while we were hanging out on the steps. He introduced himself to us, said nice to meet you, did the Gangnam Style horse dance, took out his wallet and gave Amir 10,000 won, then walked away.
The cutest little boy that we talked to for a long time
Check out those leopard pants! I need to get some of those!
The dad came over and wanted to take pictures, so the mom handed me her baby...what everyone would do in that situation. Hand the foreigner your baby.
The baby was sad, but did not cry out. He just had one single tear running down his cheek.
If this woman knew how much I love Korean babies I don't think she would have handed him over to me. I was one step away from taking him home with us.
Man making dumplings
Oh how adorable!
And this my friends, is called the Tunnel of Love...Welcome!
Ladybugs....
Cockroaches?
Fireflies....
...and Rocky....with a Korean cutie
A continuation of the expensive tunnel of lanterns. This was one of my favorite parts because they were all handmade by kids. They were really great! They had everything from a YouTube lantern to a milk lantern. It was spectacular!
Life jackets on land...because you can never be too safe.
This special lantern breathed fire. I don't know how safe that is.
No explanation.
Korea hates Japan. A very intricate battle scene
....complete with a dead guy who was shot by an arrow.
....and one falling off the later who may or may not have gotten stuck with that spear
....and a man dropping a rock on the other guys head
Ending the night with another round of dongdongju
Breakfast the morning after. Kraze Burger.
We all had such a great time! It was one of the biggest and baddest festivals here in Korea.
Unitl next time....
