Rakhi: My first Chuseok in Korea was great and having Joel’s parents over made it even more special. After having the first Friday of their arrival off to recuperate and acclimitise to Korean time, Ann and David embarked on the ‘Rakhi and Joel Tour of Seoul’ It was great to re-visit some of the places that Joel and I have already been to but it was even better to get out and explore more.

On the same day that we went on the Han River cruise, we stopped by Seonyudo Park which until that morning, neither Joel nor I even knew existed. Seonyudo Park was originally used as a sewage treatment plant but transformed into a park in 2004. It’s in the middle of the Han River and is connected to the Yanghwa area of Seoul by a visually striking bridge made of environmentally friendly wood. Within the park, there is a greenhouse, botanical gardens, a river history museum and art gallery and cafes. The park was a great discovery and made me realise just how many unknown and undiscovered areas there are in this ginormous city.

Also on our tour was Namdaemun which is Korean for "Large South Gate." It is a historic gate in the southern part of the old city of Seoul and is also the entrance to Namdaemun Market, one of the oldest and largest traditional outdoor markets in South Korea. The market was enormous and it seemed that the number of people there could equal the whole of the population of Manchester! It was very crowded and very overwhelming! At Namdaemun like so many market places in Korea, there were lots of vendors selling the popular snack ‘beondegi’ which are steamed or boiled silkworm pupae which are seasoned and eaten. The stench of these things is unbearable; I really don’t know how anyone can eat them, but each to their own.

Although Joel and I had no time to work out at the gym whilst Ann and David were here, we still got plenty of exercise walking around the city and up and down stairs. A particularly gruelling day out was spent on a walking tour of Inwangsan, a shamanist hillside village in Seoul. Our guide book has this tour down as ‘a short uphill walk,’ so we were all surprised to discover that it was actually ALL uphill! The village has Seoul’s most famous shamanist shrine, small Buddhist temples and if you scramble up some rocks like we did, you can see part of the Seoul fortress wall. It was very peaceful walking around the village and there were very few people there. Apart from some monks doing some maintenance, a Canadian guy and his mother and a few Koreans hiking up the hill, we were the only people around. There were lots of traditional Korean houses and brightly coloured temples but more fascinating were the hidden crevices which serve as shrines for shamanist deities. Just walking around, we stumbled on lots of them with remnants of past offerings such as rice cakes, fruit, water and also wax from candles lit during the various ceremonies. It’s hard to believe that such a spiritual, tranquil place exists in the middle of one of the most built up cities in the world.

Ingwangsan wasn’t the only quiet place over Chuseok; our area was quieter than usual, as people had travelled back to their home towns to be with relatives. Chuseok is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month and is the harvest season after the harsh toiling of farming in spring and summer. Korean people take this time to thank their ancestors for providing them with a good harvest of rice and fruit. On the morning of Chuseok, people offer cooked rice, soju and "songpyeon" (rice cakes), to their ancestors to thank them for their blessings of a good harvest. Another ritual is visiting ancestors' tombs to pay respects and repair any damage. The Chuseok holiday almost felt like Christmas what with seeing all the special gifts displayed in shops and everybody dressed in their finery. Although Joel’s gift of Spam was the definite winner of best ‘Chuseok Gift 2006,’ lots of the gifts in Home Plus could have been close contenders. Who wouldn’t appreciate an elaborately wrapped gift set of soap and toothpaste or beef or frozen fish (which cost over 100 quid by the way)?! Having the traditional Chuseok dinner bought over to our apartment was a wonderful surprise. We’ll certainly be returning the favour with Christmas dinner with plenty of sprouts and stuffing!

Also over Chuseok, we saw a celebration performance at the National Centre for Korean Traditional Performing Arts. There were various performances including a folk music recital, a farmer’s dance like the one we saw at the Folk museum the day before and the dance, ‘Ganggangsulae.’ It’s a dance where in the evening girls and women wear their favorite hanbok and dance under the bright Chuseok full moon in a large circle. Groups of girls form a circle and start moving clockwise and then counterclockwise around a solo singer who dances and sings in the center of the circle. It’s presumed that the dance originated during the Japanese invasion when women danced around fires in the evening to make the Japanese invaders believe there were plenty of soldiers in the area.

Now we’re back to school and we don’t have another holiday until Christmas Day. We’ve been spoiled so far with at least one national holiday falling every month and of course having a whole week off for Chuseok. It’s going to be tough!

I’ll be posting some pictures off the last week and half on the Webshots sight soon- keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this beauty…!