We were taken on one of the KTO’s new iBuzz tours, and the first stop on our itinerary included a trip to a cultural center to learn a traditional Korean drum. I had seen a performance of traditional Korean music once before by a group from Daejeon, who performed several years ago in Nanjing, However, my knowledge of traditional Korean music was extremely limited. Playing the salmunori, a two-sided drum, was a cool experience. It’s hard to get the rhythm down since I haven’t played a musical instrument in years.
The two instructors, a young man and a woman, played a long song together and were in sync from the start. Their performance showed us that the salmunori takes a lot of patience and practice to learn.
We also tried our hand at some traditional dances. One involved long sleeves that we wore over hour hands to give our arms three-foot long extensions of white fabric. Another used a hat with a long strip of fabric attached to a metal stick coming out of the top of the hat. When you swing your head the whole thing swivels in a circle. This dance accessory was something that Charlie and I saw in a performance on Korea’s Independence Day two days earlier.
Lunch was a feast of banchan, many small dishes of cold appetizers, and grilled pork and beef wrapped in lettuce with steamed rice and vegetables. The food was fresh and full of flavor, like every meal that I’ve had in Korea. The setting in this restaurant was just as good as the food. We ate in a cozy restaurant where everything was made of a beautiful, rich wood. The ceiling lights were set inside woven bamboo baskets, which I learned are also used as pillows, sans the light bulb, in the summer because they’re cool and airy.
A Seoul Greeter, Jung Won Choi, joined us to lead the tour around the Bukchon Hanok village, a neighborhood of traditional homes and the scene of a number of modern Korean dramas.
After lunch we strolled around this area, undeterred by the summer rain, and stopped in a traditional home. The home we visited had several rooms separated by sliding bamboo doors, all arranged around a small courtyard. The bamboo mats on the floor and the walls and furniture made of deeply fragrant wood created an earthy, cozy feeling. I admired the workmanship of the home, the doors and the windows, nearly all of which was made from wood.
Ms. Choi and all of the KTO guides were a great bunch and were extremely helpful. They were all very knowledgeable about the Korean food and culture that we experienced that day.
You can view photos from the tour and a video below.
