Gimhae From Above

Another day of great weather and another local hike. This time to the top of the small mountain next to my apartment building. After four months here, it's actually the first time I've been up there. I will definitely return, as it is a quick little jaunt, and has some nice views of both the city and country

My neighborhood. Somewhere down there is my apartment building.














The rice fields I like to bike across. As you can see, it is quite a nice expanse of flat space














More rice fields. The edge of Busan can be seen in the far background.














The nearby small town where I teach on Fridays.

Gaya Land: Not Quite the Happiest Place on Earth

This weekend, I hiked across town to visit our local amusement park, Gaya Land. The park is hanging on by a thread. The grounds are unkempt. The rides are rusting away. The water park has been drained. Not surprisingly, the crowd is quite small. The W1,500 (US$1) admission fee is worth it just to see the spectacle of a dead amusement park. Most of the rides do seem to be working, and with absolutely no lines at all.

A view of the park, located in the mountains around Gimhae














The near empty park lot














The park map is showing some signs of age














No copyright infringement to see here














I think that's suppose to be Snow White and the Seven Dwarves














The roller coaster, which actually runs when people want to ride it














An overview of the park














The defunct water park portion

Gimhae Gaya Culture Festival

Another festival, this one a bit closer to home. Gimhae hosted the Gaya Culture Festival for one week. It was actually a pretty good festival, and I regret not spending more time there. They had a wide variety of entertainment, a decent food selection, and a various craft activities for the children. Although there were a few Korean twists that you wouldn't normally see at a festival in the States. For example, the hand acupuncture booth which was doing good business. I did spend a few hours getting paid to walk around and speak to people in English. Mainly school kids. After my shift, I managed to check out some of the closing activities.

One of which was a massive tug-of-war contest. The central rope stretched for a couple hundred yards. From this main rope radiated side ropes which people pulled on. To add to the effect, they had school groups dressed up in traditional Korean uniforms and groups of drummers in, what appeared to be, clown costumes.


Here is some video footage of the actual tug-of-war and the post tug-of-war dancing.


After a couple of rounds of tug-of-war, the post battle celebration began. Cutting away a piece of the rope seemed to make for a valued souvenir. Unfortunately, I didn't bring a knife with me. Maybe next year.

Gimhae

I moved into my new aprtment, and started school. No classes yet, so I've only been spending a few hours a day there. Nothing too interesting this time around, but I think I'll be making a lot more trips this year. Being hemmed in by Seoul made travel a hassle. There are also a lot more mountains, temples, and other historic sites to see in the area.

The view from my apartment


I have been able to ride my bike a couple of times. There is a nice biking and walking path along the local stream. I rode part of it, and it appears to be a quick and easy escape out of town. The new subway line to Busan is also under construction.


Getting out of town and into the country side takes about 10 minutes. To the north and west it is hilly, with mountains all around. To the south are rice fields. Going east I ran into Busan traffic. So at least I have three good directions to bike this year, as opposed to the one I had in Incheon. Here is the view from the south, looking back into Gimhae.