Touring Namwon

18.01.2013

We slept over at Jenna's house. In the morning I played a bunch of Ben Folds music and no one knew what it was. I was preparing for the big concert in February.

After that, we hiked up the mountain and met Ryan and her boyfriend Jake for coffee, where they have some of the best coffee I've had in Korea yet.

Then, we went to the place where Chunhyang met her husband. It's a big story in Korea, I'll paste it here from Wikipedia.

MongRyong who always studies hard, goes out to get some fresh air. He sees ChunHyang on a swing and it's love at first sight. He orders his servant, BangJa to ask ChunHyang to come to him but she refuses. MongRyong goes to talk to ChunHyang's mother, Walmae, to ask permission to marry ChunHyang; Walmae gives her permission and the two young people marry that day.

MongRyong's father, a government official, has to move to another region, so MongRyong has to leave ChunHyang to follow his father. After he leaves, a new lord comes to ChunHyang's village. The new lord is greedy and selfish- he always wastes his time at partying with courtesans. ChunHyang, renowned for her beauty, is forced to come to his party. Although ChunHyang is not a courtesan the lord treats her like one because her mother is a courtesan. So he compels her to sleep with him, but ChunHyang keeps refusing because she is married. The lord gets angry and imprisons her. He decides to punish her on his birthday.

MongRyong wins first place in a state examination and he becomes a secret royal inspector, who investigates and prosecutes corrupt government officials as an undercover emissary of the king. Under disguise, he comes to ChunHyang's village and finds out what happened to ChunHyang and the misbehavior of the lord. He must conceal his real identity so he acts like an insane person and wears mendicant clothes. Despite his mendicancy, ChunHyang still loves him and asks her mother to take good care of him.

At the lord's birthday celebration, MongRyong comes in and makes a satirical poem about the misbehavior of the lord, but the lord does not understand the poem. MongRyong discloses his real position and punishes the lord. At first, ChunHyang cannot recognize MongRyong and he tests her faith by asking her to spend a night with him. ChunHyang, who still cannot recognize him, refuses him as well. However, she recognizes him soon and they live happily ever after

Soooo after that, we had some mud fish soup, which Natalie recommended to me. It's some sort of Namwon specialty. It wasn't the best, I wouldn't have it again.

We made our way back to Iksan pretty much right after that. We'll probably be back soon, I think I'll go for sure in May anyway, for the big Chunhyang festival.

The river