The Jinju Namgang Yudeun runs for two weeks, and has lots of activities to do for a festival that one would assume is centralized around just watching the lanterns float down the river. There are tons of festival games, some rides, a market area, arts and crafts, traditional performances, contemporary performances, delicious food, riverside cafes. And of course the lanterns.
The lanterns are not merely the small floating paper lanterns as depicted in so many movies, though. The lanterns in Jinju are elaborately constructed statues depicting scenes from folklore and popular media that are larger than life and light up the night.
And eldritch horrors from the deep
I wound up at the festival two weekends in a row, and both were fantastic, if different, experiences.
The first weekend I was regrettably traveling solo. I got to the festival in the daytime, and proceeded to go around taking photos of the statues, and really just trying to experience what a Korean festival was like. I was having a good time somehow, and then managed in short measure to run into somebody I knew in a city I didn't. Apparently someone from my training group was stationed out there, and I managed to not be so alone after all! I have the best luck.
So we wound up in a small group running around the festival, playing with all the statues, trying all the foods, and we wound up inside the castle. Jinju has a castle (called a castle, more of a fortress. Called a fortress, more of a bunch of ruins) and it gets included in the festivities as well. The lanterns extended all throughout the castle, and there were stages in the midst of it. We happened upon a traditional dance performance that was real interesting, with a bearded historical figure and a....tiger with a rifle. We dubbed him Gun Tiger. It seemed fitting. We were actually pulled into the dance at one point and it was a whole lot of fun.
After a bit more cavorting into the evening, my friends decided to turn in, but seeing as how my plan for Korea is not to waste money on hotel rooms, I ended up staying out all night and trying to entertain myself. There was a K-Drama section to the festival which was temporarily entertaining, and I was drinking and checking out the festival games, when I was approached by two foreign girls. They cornered me and demanded to know the location of the best drinking sites in the city. Because I tend to just osmose this information, I got us there and we quickly found a neat little bar with other friendly foreigners to waste the night away with.
Once we were kicked out of the bar (for closing reasons, not being rowdy) we decided we should stay out for the rest of the night. A such, we grabbed some soju and....ran back to the festival, of course. Ended up spending a night drinking with a t-rex lantern and then taking the first bus back in the morning. All in all, a good time with friendly strangers. Traditional Korean experience so far.
The second festival day that I was around I actually went meeting up with friends, so a pretty good time from the get go. Before meeting up with them I ran into a survey taker, who claimed that every foreigner he spoke to was a teacher and I explained to him that we're all either teachers or military with a handful of engineers. Cause, well, it's true!
Meeting up with my friends was basically a repeat of the previous time. A bit more time at the k-drama festival, and these friends stayed out a lot later, but I still was avoiding a hotel room. After ditching my friends in their hotel, I was wandering in the direction of the watering holes when I was beckoned over to a table by a Korean man with a plate of crab and a bottle of soju. It's like he was speaking my language!
I sat down with the man and found out he absolutely did not speak my language. Fortunately, two of his friends quickly showed up and we all got to drinking and half-communicating. Turns out they were all bus drivers in the city, and one of them was a former nationals boxer. Definitely some interesting drinking companions. After a good chunk of the night passed, we parted ways and exchanged number in case any of use were ever around again.
I was tired at this point, and went to go sleep in the woods. Because apparently I'm a hobo. I found a nice bench and nestled in, and took an hour or so nap. The night got too cold and I headed to a mart for some food to heat up. I was eating some ramen outside when another traveler motioned me over for some conversation. He was from Mongolia, and a few other Mongolians showed up. We shared a bunch of drinks, some Budweisers and sojus, and I wound up staggering off in a movie-like stupor after the sun came up. Found a nice cozy patch of concrete in the entrance nook of a public transit building and was woken up by a nice young usher who was opening the building in the morning after a rather comfortable nap. I had accomplished a night of blackout korea, and luckily I don't own anything worth stealing so I made it out just fine.
Just this past Monday I wound up in Jinju again. Funny story, everything in Jinju is closed on a Monday. Regardless, myself and a fellow traveler I know wandered about through the castle area and a chunk of the city nearby and had a rather nice time. The castle is a completely different experience in the daytime without the lanterns, so it was definitely worth heading back for the day trip. We actually went and saw the monuments and shrines within and I'd recommend anyone make a stop there while in Korea. The river is beautiful without the festival clogging the landscape, and the fortress itself is well maintained as well.
The city has other things to offer, such as a large theater, some fossils, a prehistory museum, and food worth trying, so definitely a good place to spend some time.
Amongst the less seen sights, we did happen to see a rather...passionate woman loving nature, though. And by that I mean we were strolling through the castle when a woman walked toward a tree, greeted it, and began to hold it close while kissing it ever so tenderly.
Korea, am I right?
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