I am not sure how many of you are aware about the current difficulty in the political situation in Korea due to presidential problems but this definitely has had an impact on our tul tour program. Political demonstrations in Seoul and other Korean cities have caused closure of many main roads and places and if not addressed properly it could have made tt participants stuck even the entire day in a traffic jam.
As always tt organizers take these things under consideration and prepared a backup plan.
TUL TOUR “MALAYSIA INSPIRED”
In order to avoid any difficulties the first thing in the morning we did was to move to the Ahn Joon Gun Memorial Hall first. We toured around the museum admiring the documents, calligraphy work, learning about this brave independent movement activist and took group photos. Then we spent about 1.5h working on the details of Joon Gun tul in front of the Ahn Joon Gun monument. Many people were passing buy and watching our training and taking picture. It was a great promotion for Taekwon-Do ITF in its homeland. Mast. Kruk was covering many nuances and technical aspects associated with this pattern. On the way out of Memorial Hall we stopped for a few group pictures in front of the statute of Yi Hwang (Toi Gye) as we did not plan to visit a location associated with this scholar who’s pattern Toi Gye is name after.
It was just a proper time to leave Seoul as demonstrators started gathering on the streets and police begun closing roads.
TWe moved to Paju a city where Yul gok had a significant presence in the 16th century. He worked there during his adult time and passed away there too.
Upon arrival to the site we had a picnic style lunch at Yulgok park and then watched a movie that presented Yulgok’s life and achievements.
Being armed in new knowledge we walked in amazing scenery to visit his tomb located on the Park premises. It was the first time when tt members visited Yulgok tomb. This time of the year the surrounding area was so colorful and beautiful and since there were not many visitors very peaceful as well.
After taking some group pictures we returned to the two large monuments of Yulgok and his mother Shin Saimdang located at the entrance of the park and begun Yulgok tul training that was conducted by Mast. Zibby Kruk.
For about 1.5h participants were able to practice the elements of the pattern, received individual corrections and since it was the last practical session Master Kruk provided a summary for every single member what they have to work on. Master Kruk pointed out and personally checked whether students remembered what they had to focus on during their trainings while back in Malaysia. Also head instructors, Mr Razak and Mr Hafidz had an extended conversation with Mast Kruk about future training.
After training student’s spend some time to recite their prayers and we moved to a guest house in Incheon located very close to the airport. After dinner and making sure that our guests are well set for tomorrow’s travel back home the organizers farewell the tultourers and departed to Daejeon.
Our Malaysian guests expressed their appreciation for what they were able to experience and we all are looking forward for another meeting soon in 2017.