Posts tagged with theme park
November 08, 2009. After having lunch at Itaewon, Seoul, our tour guide brought us to a “Korean Folk Village” theme park forty minutes away in the city of Yongin in Gyeonggi, South Korea. The folk village is actually an artificial recreation of Korean folk villages that showcase traditional Korean life and culture. It was apparently built partly as a way of preserving, albeit artificially, the traditional way of life in Korea in the midst of its rapid economic growth and modernization. The park is divided into different areas featuring different types of Korean homes and communities, from farm villages, to landlord’s courtyards to traditional marketplaces. The park also features live “actors” playing the role of traditional Korean folk villagers going about “normal” everyday routines, from cooking to farming. To be fair enough, the entire recreation of the folk village was highly realistic.
Some areas also feature shows that showcase traditional Korean ceremonies from weddings to dances. Since it was drizzling that afternoon, the traditional wedding reenactment show was canceled. We were able to witness, on the other hand, a show featuring horsemen doing acrobatics with their horses. It was pretty cool.
November 06, 2009. A few hours drive north of Busan is the city of Gyeongju, once the capital of Silla, one of Korea’s ancient three-kingdoms. With a long and rich history spanning over a thousand years and more than a handful of impressive structures dating back hundreds of years, it has been designated by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage city.
Leaving Busan at past 10 in the morning, we arrived in Gyeongju right in time for lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant. It was my formal introduction to Korean food and eating practices. We had a room in a courtyard style home with warm elevated flooring. We were served the entries in batches, every quarter of an hour or so. I don’t remember everything that was served, as most of them were terribly unfamiliar. It might take a longer stay in Korea for one to truly appreciate the food. Many of them were pickled, spicy vegetables, cold cuts of raw fish and other sea creatures, and some beef soup. The servings aren’t big, but since there were a lot of dishes, it was more than enough to fill us up. Formal lunches like this are meant for long afternoons with conversations among friends and colleagues.
Silla Millenium Park in Gyeongju is a modern theme park that seeks to recreate an ancient Silla city. Since we only had an hour or so to spend in the park, we were not able to go around much. We were only able to see a show in the park’s Jang Bo-Go Performance Stage, depicting a battle between Koreans and Chinese invaders trying to occupy a Silla city. The Koreans win and thwart the invasion, of course.
Right after having lunch at Tagaytay with my blockmates, we drove back to Manila in under two hours to get to Star City by six in the evening. We didn’t let Enchanted Kingdom’s being closed douse our excitement for rides.
For some of my blockmates, it was the first time they’ve been to Star City, while for me it was the second time this year. Because it was Tuesday evening, the theme park wasn’t too crowded and the lines not long, so we were able to try out some of the rides multiple times. My blockmates and I bought ride-all-you-can tickets so we took advantage of it by going through almost all of the rides, even to all of the horror houses. At the end of the night, we were professing to each other how much more fun Star City was than Enchanted Kingdom. As some of us say, [Block] B is for bitter.
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A friend invited me to Star City theme park last Thursday afternoon. It had been more than two years since I last went to Star City. I had just passed my hard-bound written thesis that day, and a trip to Star City was a welcome treat.
You know, it’s a sad realization when you get really bored at some of the tame rides, which were obviously designed to amuse children. We boarded some Little Mermaid boat ride as an appetizer for the better rides. It was really corny. Childhood days are truly gone.
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law student, film school graduate, student leader, youth activist, Kabataan Partylist legislative officer