The Men With the Spinning Horsetail Hats

Today, I went with Deena and a few of her friends from work to the Korean Folk Village. As with most of the attractions outside Seoul, Deena lives close by as she is in Yongin City, but in order to get to the places by public transportation, we have to go into Seoul to get to the place. It's the ultimate double-back and a bit annoying.

The Korean Folk Village was designed to look well, just like a village in Korea back in the day. It was complete with dirt roads, thatch-roof huts, pigs, pheasants and people making traditional Korean crafts.

However, this is the 21st century and while striing for some historical accuracy, places such as the Korean folk Village have their novelties as well so that everyone can be entertained. Even the bratty, snot-nosed kids that were painted on the banners on the bridge leading up to the kiddie part of Korean Folk Village, which was designed with Playland-like attractions, such as a mini Ferris Wheel, bumper cars and a carousel. We had to pay extra to go on the rides, and since I only budgeted for the basic pass, I didn't go on the rides.

We had lunch at an open-air food court where you first bought meal tickets, then went to the particular booth that made the specific food that you ordered. I ordered a leek pancake, which was leeks in this sort of batter and made into a pancake. One thing I noticed is that Koreans like to cook with ALOT of oil it seems. The woman jsut kept on pounding the cooking oil into the pancake mound and spreading it out, whereas I know that I could have made the same pancake with a helluva lot less cooking oil. It tasted rather greasy, but it was very good.

After lunch, we all headed over to the performance area and saw traditional Korean farmer's dance, seesaw jumping (where girls stood on a seesaw and using each other's weight, propelled themselves into the air) a tightrope walker and horse performances. It felt like a circus at times, but the tricks were very well done. My favorite part was when, in the farmers dance, men wearing horsetail hats spun the rod that connected the tail and the hat and sent the tail swirling, while at the same time propelling themselves about the performance ring like gymnasts.