Gimje Rice Festival

We had a Korean holiday on the 3ed of October - and a significant one for us - it's the LAST HOLIDAY until December 25th!! -sniff sniff-

We headed out on the bus with some of our foreign friends to Gimje - with Tracy, Robin, Rachel, Nicole, Deb, Francois, Sakkie, and us. Ludolf was supposed to join us, but being cell phone-less it's not as easy to get ahold of him. We all took the 20 minute bus ride up to Gimje for 1900 won - less than $2. we waited for the free shuttle bus to take us out to the festival and called Ludolf in the meantime. he was home, said he was gonna get on the bus, we spelled the name of the place for him and said we'd wait for him. The girls went on to the festival while me and the men waited for Ludolf. we waited for 2 hours and 12 buses from Iksan later, and his brother decided that was enough waiting - so we went to the festival.

there was a main stage with traditional dancing and constumes and the place was packed! Kite flying, a romainian booth with cabbage rolls!!, huge swings, animals, a GIANT statue of 2 dragons made from bamboo, and a chicken stand that we shared some roasted chickens from. During our meal, Rachel heard from Ludolf - he didn't know where he was. but it ended up that he bought the ticket for Gimje for 1900 won and asked the bus driver which bus to take. the bus driver directed him to the bus that was going to GimHAE for 19000 won and the longest direct bus you can take from Iksan for 3 1/2 hours. Sucks!! so we waited 2 hours for him in Gimje thinking he stood us all up, and he was just trying to find a pay phone to say he was on the other side of the country and wasn't gonna make it. so Ludolf spent his last holiday on a bus for 8 hours.

and imagine, he still hasn't bought a cell phone!