Our next stop for the day was Gongju, the sister town of the Baekje Kingdom where the evenings opening ceremonies and fireworks show were to take place. We needed to take a bus from Buyeo to Gongju which I heard was an hour.

We got to the bus terminal about 4.35 and got tickets for the 4.41 bus, which was lucky as the next bus was an hour later. The ticket was only 4000w ($3.50) and we got to Gongju in 35 mins. I wanted to find a place to stay for the nite so looked for motels. There were many by the bus terminal all charging 35,000w ($32).

One guy spoke reasonable english and showed us a town map with our location and the festival venue so I decided to take a room with him. It was quite nice, double bed, private bathroom, cable tv, all toiletries and towels provided for two people but I was staying alone.

The room was a bit girly with pink flower wallpaper, pink nightlight, and flower scents, but comfortable enough to crash for one nite. I guess this would be considered a 'love motel' where young couples go for privacy away from large families.

It was now close to 6pm so we wanted to get to the other side of the river for the 6.30pm opening ceremonies show. The bridge was closed for the festival so we had to take the long way thru the fortress and across a floating pontoon bridge that was made for the festival. Along the bridge were hanging lanterns. There were also mounted cavalry floats in the river making a royal procession for the King and Queen which would all be lit up at night.

We found the performance area and got seats near the middle but the seating was all full shortly after. The show started with some drummers, then korean rap group came out. Then the main events began. The royal procession brought a lighted flame, much like the olympics flame, which they joined together with other torches to light them all together.

Four pillars rose behind the stage which were LED screens creating background scenery for the performances as fireworks shot up. The main performance then began which was a rock and roll royal musical, much like Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. There was dancing, acrobatics, and sword fights.

Video : Royal Musical Show - Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB6eVhox RQ0

Video : Royal Musical Show - Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6aodPlM Roo

At one point the music stopped and they were having problems, so the mayor came back and started making speeches again. We didnt know if he was saying the event was cancelled. Luckily they got the music to start again and started the musical show from the start again.

Another thing that was getting annoying was people seated ahead blocking the view. In the centre of the seating area there was an aisle for people to walk left to right. First the people walking kept blocking our view as they would stop to look for chairs.

When the seating was all gone and people stopped coming thru in large numbers, the people in the front row behind the walkspace decided to move all their chairs forward and block the aisles. This created big pockets behind and people would pick up chairs and drop them there. I told my friend we should do the same since everyone was and we would end up being blocked again.

Also annoying were people standing to film the show, standing on their chairs, sitting on the armrests to get higher, or stacking chairs to be higher. All of these were blocking the views of everyone behind them. Koreans are usually very friendly and polite people but I'm surprised nobody was telling off these people.

Everyone behind had their views blocked but no-one would speak up and tell these people off. Back home people would have told them off and to sit down. There were many families with small children that couldnt see anything but they all sat there quietly.

The final two acts were K-Pop stars when everyone went wild. All the school age students had gone to the front, were standing, holding up cameras, blocking everything for everyone behind. Many were standing on chairs so I had no choice but to do the same and stand on mine so that I could see even though I was blocking everyone behind me.

Video : K-Pop Singer (Wheesung)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-OfM0Z JpI

Video : K-Pop Group - Sistar singing Push Push
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHic4p9X 5Ws

After that was an amazing fireworks finale. I managed to film 10 mins but the show was actually 25 mins long. There were many different types of fireworks timed to coincide with the musical performance. They had flying eagle kites lit up which had streamers of fireworks coming from their wings.

Video : Fireworks Finale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS_SOSds Fv4

As the show ended there was a massive crowd all trying to leave and get up the small staircases from the park. After dinner I went back across the river to where my motel was. By this time the floating bridge was all lit up with lanterns. The floating horse cavalry and royal procession was also lit up. In the distance the bridge that had been closed was also decorated with many lights.

This was quite a busy day making it from Daegu to Buyeo in the morning, catching the parade in time in Buyeo, making it to Gongju in time for the opening ceremony, and catching all the events in time. Tomorrow another friend will join us in Gongju and we will spend the day exploring the town by day.