A village out of time

Adventures, bus, travelling in Korea, ,

My travel-partner tells me this is a moment she will never forget. ‘She’s right,’ I think. We’re sitting on a bench, under twisted, Korean pine trees, the a sky full of stars, watching the Nakdong river meander past Buyongdae Cliff. The night is perfectly still except for our laughter and the calls of night birds. Very occasionally, a rustle or murmur of household noise drifts across from the village at our backs. It is a perfect evening: relaxed and calm and beautiful and (finally) not cold enough to chase us indoors.

Earlier in the evening, we sat on the floor of restaurant near the village and savoured a glorious dinner of exquisitely-cooked mackerel, yummy haemul pajeon and creamy dongdongju.  There were many restaurants to choose from. This one was buzzing with multi-generational family groups around little tables, all sitting on bright red cushions on the warm, polished-wood floors. Our spot was in the open air, under a little roof, just at the edge of the building. Sitting cross-legged on raised floors to eat is the one disadvantage of wearing hiking boots to travel in this country because each time the boots need to come off and then be replaced at the end, which is rather a mission. For leisurely and delicious dinners like this one, it is worth it.

I arrived at Hahoe Village around mid-afternoon. Anna got their earlier through a series of unfortunate timing moments: she, travelling from Seoul, arrived earlier than expected while my bus from Daegu was delayed due to traffic problems. The bus to the village only leaves from Andong every couple of hours, so it made sense for her to go ahead, to secure us accommodation and spend some extra time exploring. She meets me at the bus stop. I pay the 2000 won entry fee (R14). There is a bus that takes visitors from the entrance gate and ticket office to the village itself, but we decide to walk. It is the kind of place where walking made sense. The path winds up little hills and across bridges under tall trees, between the road and the river. We would walk this path again several times, back and forth, that afternoon sunshine and the dark, quiet evening.

Hahoe Village has been here for some 600 years. A farming village and the rural home of a line of scholars and government officials, it has sat quietly in its loop of river the Nakdong river that surrounds it on three sides, the people, simple farmers and noblemen, working side by side for all those centuries. Its current claim to fame is that it is a ‘traditional village’, a tourist attraction because the houses are still the same houses – both the noble tiled-roof houses of the Joseon dynasty upper classes and the little thatched cottages of ordinary farmers – as those hundreds of years ago. In a country that has developed so quickly that grandparents and grandchildren have grown up in worlds which would, quite literally, be hundreds of years apart in any other country, tradition is a complicated issue. The majority of the tourists who visit the village are Koreans, often Koreans taking their children from their sky-scraper apartment-block homes to see what the country looked like not so long ago. It is marketed as a glimpse of life in the past but t is more than that. The marketing creates the impression of a place artificially stuck in another time. The reality is far more comfortable and more interesting, at least for me. This isn’t a dead relic of a time that is long gone. It isn’t a museum. It is a real village where real people live and work. And these people aren’t stuck in the past. They still live in traditional houses and do traditional things, like make their own kimchi and farm vegetables, but they live in the real world. The traditional houses have cars in the driveways and electricity and sometimes even satellite dishes. That might disappoint some people but it isn’t intrusive. It doesn’t detract from the enchantment of the place, it just makes it more real.

We stayed in house number 42. A gate of sticks opened onto a dusty courtyard, where two elderly ladies were working their outdoor wood-burning oven and a pile of red peppers lay drying in the open air. One side of the courtyard was shielded from the road by a open-air, thatch-roofed storage area. On the other three sides, were traditional thatched buildings. Our room was in one of these. Up four stone steps and across the threshold – through the empty doorway, we stepped into the kitchen and shoe-pit area and took off our shoes before climbing onto the raised, wooden floor. Anna had warned me that our room was tiny. There were two little rooms opening off the small central area of the little house – a ‘room’ that was little more than a raised-floor platform of shining, polished wood resting on the stones that make the foundation of the house. Two sets of paper double-doors led to our room on the left and another on the right; doors too low to walk through upright. Inside our tiny room lay a mattress and bedspread. On the wall was a mirror. There were no other furnishings. The walls were papered white. Opposite the doors was a window of paper over a wooden frame. Beyond the window were some of the traditional rich-brown pots, a little grass and a wall topped with traditional roof tiles, above which we could glimpse other thatched rooves, a tree or two, and the sky. The afternoon sun seemed to rest on the scene of rural ordinariness.

The afternoon is wearing thin as I wander along dusty paths between traditional houses in a world so far from my own. Anna has gone to lie down for a while, so I am exploring alone. The traditional rooves and the fancy houses that typify Korea sit, happily, alongside traditional thatched cottages. I walk past houses where husbands and wives sit on their wooden floors drinking tea and talking. Children play in the tourist-attraction restored buildings. A Korean fir tree sits proudly next to an information board proclaiming that it was planted by Queen Elizabeth II. I wander further, along semi-deserted dusty streets. Swallows flutter back and forth under the eves of a thatched house. I am struck by memories of the swallows back home (in SA). They must have flown from there by now to have arrived here. Not the same swallows, of course, but still a strange sense of sameness in all the difference. Around a corner I come out of the village into farmlands stretching to the river and the hills. A farmer is driving his tractor home at the end of the day. Anna and I talk several times during the weekend about the universal sameness of ordinary rural life.

Two old men, clearly residents of the village, chat on a pathway, one in a full suit, complete with hat, the kind of suit my own grandfathers used to wear. A middle-aged man passed me on a bicycle. A woman in a little cottage is sells curios. There are so many twists and turns and paths and alleyways and pretty buildings. 180 families make their home in this village. I find a house, no longer used, set in a square walled-in garden, complete with spring-green fruit trees. The house is empty and the windows are bare. Next to it is a two-story pavilion. The information board says that it was been built 1576 to take advantage of the views of the river and the cliff. The pavilion was named for the medicinal herb ‘Wonji’ because “the place itself is as effective for improving mood as the herb”, the info board tells me. The sun is sinking, so I find a quite spot by the river and watch it slowly drift towards the horizon, reflected in the quiet river below. The many tourists who cluttered the place during the day have, for the most part, left and the ordinary peace of rural life is beginning to descend on the village.

Later in the evening, as we turn away from the river to return to our lodgings for the night, an almost full moon is rising. We follow its rise, between buildings and across beautiful, traditional rooves and rustic thatch, as we walk through the sleeping village. There are enough electric lights but we don’t really need them tonight. The streets, between the walls topped with roof tiles, are quiet; empty of people, and magical in the silvery, moon-lit night. Our hostess looks across the courtyard and waved us goodnight as we quietly walk to our room. The heated floor takes the slight chill off the night air and we climb into our warm floor-bed and fall asleep in the stillness of a traditional village.

In the morning we wake to birdsong. ‘There are no cars,’ Anna says. It is early; way before the alarm we so diligently set. The people staying in the other little room are starting to move around. We follow suit and head out to walk the village before the tourists arrived. Strange, as tourists ourselves, that the best part of visiting this village should be the evening after the masses have left and the early morning before they arrive. We take a slow stroll around the village in the crisp morning light. The houses are still beautiful. People are starting to go about their chores. Farmers walk their fields. A church spire rises silently alongside the town.  It is difficult to describe the quiet joy.

We stop at a little curio shop just opening for the day and contemplate ice-creams but decide, when they don’t have chocolate, to go back to our lodgings and think about breakfast instead. Our hostess is sweeping the courtyard when we get back. With absolutely no common language, she asks if we’d like something to eat. Although still a little resistant to the idea of kimchi and rice for breakfast, we agree, partly to please her. We pack up our few belongings and sit on the polished wood floor to wait, enjoying the light and the breeze and the views. Before long, our landlady arrives at the open doorway with a small round table laden with dishes, and places it in the middle of the floor for us to sit around. On the table are bubbling tofu soup, a whole mackerel, two silver bowls of rice and 7 different side-dishes. Some of them are unexpectedly delicious: the greens (of an indeterminate variety) with sesame oil and sesame seeds, the small, fresh succulents with delicious red sauce, the pickled garlic. Even the kimchi has an unusual flavour. And the fish is delicious, too. I never imagined that I would find myself enjoying fish, rice and kimchi for breakfast. Then again, I never imagined I would one day eat breakfast sitting on the polished-wood, raised floor of a traditional Korean farmer’s house that may well be hundreds of years old. Just as we finish eating, our ajumma arrives with perfectly sweetened, milky coffee.

A ferry crosses the river to a traditional house and Confucian school and the cliff on the other side. We gleefully perch on the wooden benches in the mid-morning sunshine as the ferryman poles the boat across the gently flowing water. We wander around, taking many, many pictures and climb the cliff (up the path at the back, not the cliff-face, obviously) to look down on ‘our’ village. There it lies, nestled in the curve of the river, looking just as peaceful and enchanting as our experience of it has been. A friendly Korean man obligingly takes some pictures of us with the village in its valley and the mountains beyond as a strikingly beautiful background. Touristy pictures just to prove that we really were there.

We both want to stay but we know we can’t. Buses are infrequent and the work week is calling. We walk the path for the last time to catch the bus back to Andong for a delicious galbi lunch and then  onward bus-trips to our respective Korean cities. It is a place, a moment we will never forget. A visit that will stay with us. It doesn’t seem like it rushed past or was too short. That sense of time passing quickly can’t capture the peace and the relaxation. There are many things to see in Andong, the majority of which we didn’t see because we chose instead to spend our time soaking up the atmosphere of Hahoe Village. I am glad, I realise, on the comfortable bus back to Daegu. Those other sites may be amazing but sinking into the calm of a place still living and working and laughing in the same kind of houses they have used for hundreds of years (plus the river and cliff), is probably one of the most precious experiences I have had in Korea.

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Some practicalities for those who might wish to plan their own Hahoe Village experience. Anna and I were travelling from Seoul and Daegu respectively. We both found that the most convenient way to travel to Andong was by bus (3 hrs from Seoul, 1hr 30 min from Daegu). This in spite of the chaotic nature of Daegu’s bus set-up which is destined to become a blog entry all of its own. Bus tickets were 7300 won from Daegu and around 16000 won from Seoul.

On arrival in Andong, the tourist info office outside the train station should be a first stop. They are super-helpful and have maps of the area, as well as bus times, prices and info on where to get a bus to each tourist spot. They also speak English, which is a great help to those (like us) who are linguistically-challenged when it comes to speaking Korean. There are also plenty of restaurants in town and I would highly recommend the steak galbi, even if it is a bit pricey – it thoroughly satisfied two South Africans who are used to good meat as the norm.

The bus to Hahoe Village leaves Andong only 8 times a day so make sure you get there in time or you will wait for up to 2 and a half hours. Once at the village, you will need to pay the 2000 won entry fee. This is nothing to pay given what you will be seeing. You can take a shuttle-bus to the village itself but, provided you’re not carrying too much baggage, the walk is far prettier.

We attempted to book accommodation in advance and were frustratingly unsuccessful. Once there, however, it wasn’t all that complicated. We stayed in one of the rustic, thatched houses and were extremely happy. It is probably important to note that this is not luxury accommodation. If you like 4-star hotels, you should go elsewhere. We were in a tiny room with only bedding and a mirror for furniture and the toilet and shower were across the courtyard in outhouse-type constructions. That said, we found it clean and comfortable and the calm and sheer peacefulness was glorious. There is underfloor heating in case of cold (Room price: 30 000 won). Also the breakfast was amazing (7000 won per person). Oh, and not being able to communicate at all with the ajumma running the house didn’t pose a problem either. The four French tourists who were staying in the other room seemed equally happy. Staying overnight is a good idea because it will give you a chance to see the village without the masses of tourists who descend on it during the day.

For those wishing to eat out at Hahoe, there are plenty of restaurants near the bus stop/fee-paying spot and we were very happy with the food – the mackerel is highly recommended. The famous Andong Soju (which is purer and has a higher alcohol content than other soju) is available in the village. If you’re looking for night-life, you will be disappointed – this is a tiny, rural community that lives a farming lifestyle and, as a result, tends to go sleep relatively early. If you’re still awake after dinner, try walking by the river. It is beautiful. And take the ferry across the river (during the day, 2000 won per person) and walk/hike up the cliff to get a stunning view of the whole area. For sheer quirkiness, be sure to check out the Korean fir tree planted by Queen Elizabeth II. There is also an “exhibition hall of Queen Elizabeth II” (because the world is sometimes a strangely tiny place).

Every place in Korea has its own charm. I don’t care how touristy and clichéd a traditional village may sound, a visit to Hahoe Village is a delightful, relaxing, charming experience that any visitor to this country would be making a mistake to miss out on.

Glorious music, exquisite voices, passionate dances and a set that almost stole the show

Arts, Daegu

The 33rd Periodical Performance of the Daegu City Opera was a triumph of art. As seems to be the norm with shows in Korea, or perhaps just those I have been lucky enough to attend, this production was big. As well as the Daegu City Opera, the production of G Verdi’s La Traviata showcased the significant talents of the DaeguCity Symphony Orchestra and included contributions from the Daegu City Choir and the Daegu City Modern Dance Troupe.

The story of La Traviata is one of love, loss, honour and tragedy. Violetta, a Parisian courtesan, meets, on her return to society after an illness, an admirer by the name of Alfredo Germont. Although she brushes off his declaration of love, saying that she prefers to a life of freedom, she is touched by his earnestness. Act II finds the two living in pleasant domesticity in a house in the country. When Alfredo discovers that she has sent her maid to sell off her possessions in order to continue financing their love-retreat, he feels ashamed and sets off to make things right at his own cost. While he is away, Violetta is visited by Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont who pleads his case, not only for his reckless son but also for Alfredo’s sister whose engagement is threatened by his scandalous affair. Although Violetta proclaims that she cannot relinquish his love, she is eventually convinced and sits down to write a farewell note to Alfredo. While she is writing, he surprises her, but instead of telling him why she is so distraught, she assures him again and again of her love and then leaves. Alfredo is calmly awaiting a visit from his father when a messenger arrives with a letter, the letter from Violetta ending their affair. In his despair, he sends his father, away and, finding an invitation to a ball that evening, decides to meet the woman who has broken his heart. Violetta arrives at the ball with her former companion, the Baron Bouphol, who, after warning her to stay away from Alfredo, challenges Alfredo to play at cards. Alfredo wins the game, claiming that unlucky in love is lucky in cards. As they go in to dinner Violetta asks to speak to Alfredo and warns him that he must leave. In a rage, he accuses her of loving another. She says lies and says that she does. In front of everyone, he throws his winnings at her feet and publicly insults the lady. The party guests rebuke him for his actions and the Baron challenges him to duel. Six months later, the final scene opens in Violetta’s bedroom, where she lies dying of consumption. Outside the crowds are celebrating Mardi Gras but she is broken-hearted. She receives a letter from Giorgio informing her that the Baron was only injured in the duel and Alfredo now knows the truth and is one his way to see her but she frets because he has not yet come. Her heart soars when Alfredo arrives and they declare that they will leave Paris and live together in their love, but it is too late for Violetta, who dies at her true lover’s feet.

The soaring tragedy of Verdi’s music (and the story-line) makes this an Opera packed with emotion, something that the excellent and well-trained voices of the two leads, Lee, Hwa Young (Violetta) and Lee, Hyeon (Alfredo) carried beautifully. At times, their movements were a little excessively dramatic, stumbling with rage or grief, but their operatic performance was passionate and accurate. Perhaps the best interaction, however, was between Lee, Hwa Young (Violetta) and Lee, In Cheol (Giorgio), whose portrayal of a powerful father pleading for this courtesan to release his son was heart-rending yet simultaneously compassionate. In addition to Lee, In Cheol’s great acting, his gorgeous voice was like liquid velvet.

Most of the other voices and performances were equally good, with the possible exception for Gastone who was a little quiet during the first act. The choir that supported the leads, under Chorus Master, Park, Young Ho, was also excellently trained and added depth and richness to the vocal music as well as numbers on stage.

The dancing was a dramatic addition. I thought the decision to use modern dancers in what was otherwise a fairly classical operatic performance was interesting. It also complemented the set, which I will get to in the a moment. For the most part, the dancing was a subtle artistic highlight – a brush-stroke emphasizing the other activity on the stage and in the music. In the first act, the dancers added action and lightness to Violetta’s party, for example. In the third act, they were the main attraction at Flora’s ball. Their dramatic movements and intense portrayal gave visual life to the words of the opera. Overall, the dance added the same depth visually that the choir added musically.

All of this added together to create a wonderfully rich and engaging experience. All of it, however, was almost topped by the visual (stage, costume and lighting) design. I include costume and lighting design here because they was very definitely a part of the visual impact but the real star for me was the set by Lim, Chang Joo. Over the years of watching performances, I have seen a variety of approaches to set design. Opera is the theatre genre with which I have probably the least experience, but even within this genre, I have seen different approaches. Both the version of La Rondine I saw in Cape Town and the Madama Butterfly I saw here used large, static sets aimed at creating some sort of realism. The Brunch Opera version of La Rondine I saw here also went for something like realism but this time using just a few props and a very basic backdrop. This La Traviata set used emptiness and minimalism to create a box or, from the audiences perspective, a frame, that seemed to capture and contain the opera’s intense emotion and music and make it even more powerful.

The basic set was a huge, empty white box. In the prelude and first Act, colour was added by a huge red set of steps suspended at the back of the stage, a red wooden horse lowered from the ceiling on a single white pole, on which Violetta sat and was raised up at various points, and a floor-to ceiling pop-art-style portrait that reoccured as a theme throughout the staging. On the left of the stage were five chair-sized 3D letters – A, M, O, U, R. The scene opened with four dancers sitting perfectly still, draped on and around the letters and Violetta standing half way up the staircase in shadow. The dancers wore black dresses with blue scarves and as they came to life and moved silently towards Violetta, added living brush-strokes of colour to create the dramatic visual movement (complemented by excellent lighting design). Violetta’s outfit, however, was completely traditional. As the action proceeded, the letters were used to visually complement the music as Alfredo lifted them and lined them up to spell ‘amour’ as he talked of love and Violetta knocked them back down as she brushed off his declaration.

The letters remained a feature, arranged in various forms through-out the rest of the show. In the second act, the red staircase was gone but the letters remained. The rest of the set included chairs and tables – all white and shaped like steps. There was also a red tricycle with two red balloons tied to the handle-bars and two teddy-bears sitting on the table. During the scene at the ball, the visual drama peaked when the female dancers and choir members, this time with red scarves over their black clothes, rose – in a perfectly still silhouette-style tableaux – from below the stage. The theme of all the costumes in this scene was black and red, capturing the drama. Modern props added an extra edge to the visual presentation, such as a photograph of his daughter handed to Violetta by Giorgio and a modern IV stand in the final scenes.

The set (plus costumes and lighting) was imaginative and modern and as visually dramatic as the opera is musically. The stark backdrop and clear colours (black, white, red, blue) highlighted the words and music and the hard proscenium arch of the white frame separated the audience from the action in a way that somehow encouraged suspension of disbelief. I found myself (and find myself again) wishing I had the vocabulary to accurately describe and think about the effect. As a non-expert, I am struggling to explain it beyond being able to say that it was exceptionally effective and left me wishing I could go back and take pictures analyse it academically to figure out why it made the whole opera more real by not being realistic, how it both contained and magnified the intensity and emotion.

The opera was long. It started shortly after the advertised 4pm – anyone who is a stickler for show punctuality should be prepared to put that aside when attending an Opera in Korea. After many, very much justified curtain calls, we finally left shortly before 7pm. But it was 3 very worthwhile hours. If I had the chance, I would gladly see the show again. This production of La Traviata was both an excellent opera and an exceptional theatre experience. Many people shy away from opera because they don’t understand it or don’t think they will enjoy it but this show has convinced me, more than any other, that anyone who is in Daegu would be making a mistake not to take advantage the opportunity to experience Opera at the Daegu Opera House.

La Traviata was directed by Chung, Kab Gyun and conducted by Diego Crovetti, under the artistic direction of Kim, Sung Bin and executive producer Lee, Jae Jin. It was presented by the Daegu City Opera with the Daegu City Symphony Orchestra and performances by the Daegu City Choir and Daegu City Modern Dance Troupe at the Daegu Opera House 22 to 24 April 2010.

Anticipating Opera

Arts, Daegu, ,

I woke up this morning feeling tingly with anticipation. There was sunshine creeping in my window and blue sky outside, sharpened by the contrast with rolling white clouds around the edges. I am off to the Opera today. I am so excited. I haven’t been to the Opera since I saw Madama Butterfly in December. This is not for lack of trying. There simply haven’t been any performances that I was able to attend since then. So I am excited to see Opera again. Actually, I’m excited to see any theatre. I’m feeling a little art-starved at the moment.

This is, of course, brought sharply into focus by the fact that I now know that I’ll be home in time to see at least a few days of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July. Fest has become (for my mother and me at least) an annual pilgrimage  to several days – a week if we can manage it – of intensive culture and arts immersion. It is the most amazingly stimulating, relaxing, exciting, fulfilling experience. For those who have never experienced Fest, it is a week long  festival of arts and culture, including drama, dance, comedy, visual arts, music of all varieties, cinema, flee markets and street theatre (this year extended to 15 days of AMAZ!NG ). There are nearly 500 different performances, showings and exhibitions in that time. Some of them are funded ‘main’ productions, such as the annual festival ballet – this year Cape Town City Ballet performing Carmen (swoon), the gala and symphony concerts (conducted by Richard Cock – swoon again) plus other musical performances from the likes of Vusi Mahlasela, BLK Sonshine and Samson Diamond (SBYA for music), major theatre productions and developmental student theatre. There is also the Jazz Festival where some of the top jazz artists around (Concord Nkabinde, Sibongile Khumalo, etc., etc.) perform and new talent is showcased. The ‘fringe’ festival has hundreds more shows, some of which will flop completely but many of which are world-class theatre by some of the top performers in the country, who at no other time gather in one place, making Fest the only opportunity to see them all in action in just 15 days. Physical theatre, live music, dance, drama, plenty of comedy and the usual festival standards like ‘Raiders’ and (although I find him annoying and would never see his show) Stef: the ‘fringe’ is an integral part of the variety and diversity that makes Fest a unique cultural experience. Alongside this are ‘Word Fest’ – a literary festival that warms my heart,  Winter School (recently renamed ‘ThinkFest’) where some of the countries top minds come together to talk about topics ranging from law and  neuropsychanalysis to hip hop activism and sports versus art. Oh, and as a myriad visual arts exhibitions by a wide variety of artists.  To someone for whom all of the above equal joy, Fest is an abundantly joyous experience. This will also be enhanced, this year, by seeing my family for the first time 12 months (yay!) and by the prospect of touching base with friends (some of whom are now showing up as experts and performers in the Fest programme – as odd as that may seem). So the anticipation runs high, even two months away and even though I am very sad that there does not seem to be a way for me to make it back in time for the ballet, the gala or symphony concerts or the lecture on a century since South African Union, given by one of my all-time favourite South African historians.

The anticipation of Fest and the knowledge that it is just a couple of months away, make the anticipation of this Opera even more thrilling. Today’s Opera is La Traviata (G Verdi) performed by the Daegu City Opera at the Daegu Opera House. It’s a matinee performance at 4pm. I’ve never seen La Traviata and am very much looking forward to it. I have researched the story, of course, so that I can follow, because the synopsis that is handed out is generally in Korean and therefore not helpful to me. After 10 months I know enough basic Korean to buy things in shops and direct taxi drivers but I definitely cannot claim to speak the language and would probably still, even had I been studying Korean seriously this whole time, not be able to understand enough to follow an Opera synopsis.

In the midst of all this art-sy anticipation, a friend and I are also preparing for a trip to the cultural heartland of Korea next weekend. We’re both quite excited to see some history and culture although the planning is attended in this case by rather a lot of frustration and dead ends – it appears not all Korean tourist destinations have managed to become English-tourist-friendly. At this point we may or may not have booked accommodation at a place that may or may not have an actual name. It should be an interesting weekend and finding out all I can so that we don’t miss any of the wonderfulness is yet another part of why today is a day filled with the anticipation of wonder and the joy of looking forward to the things (and the people with whom I will share those things) that are good and special and joyful in my humble little life.