Episode 51: In Which DFM Gets Caught In The Acid Rain Without His Coat And Becomes A Korean Busking Groupie

In 1988 the 24th Summer Olympic Games were held in Seoul.  To commemorate the games a giant park was built around many of the venues from those games.  I thought I'd do my tourist's duty and check out the park today.

On my way out the door I took this picture.  Perhaps I've mentioned it before, but I live at the base of Hooker Hill where all the prostitutes hide inside of non-descript buildings and jump out to offer to "love you long time" whenever you walk by (they have CCTVs fixed on the street, so they can see you but you can't see them).  As if that weren't wild enough, I recently looked across the street for the first time and realized I also live right next to a transgendered bar.  Itaewon is the center of all things that the government has made illegal, which is also why it has the highest percentage of gay bars anywhere in Seoul.

My main goal was to visit the Olympic Museum at the park.  Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but that's okay since there wasn't much to show.  That's not to say I did not have a good time though, but the museum was more about information on past Olympiads than showcasing historic items.  There wasn't anything there that you couldn't find in a book, but since I'm a huge sports history buff I had a great time re-reading all the information I already knew, but in Kongrish.

I finished up at the museum early, so I decided to take a stroll through the magnificent Olympic Park afterwards.  The Park is situated around a tributary of the Han river, and because of all the rain for the last five days the grass was especially green.

Of course, one can't have a cultural event without including some works of "art."  In Canada we just substitute physical art (sculptures, etc.) with Native dancing, so there's really nothing different going on here.

It must be said that some of the pieces were rather interesting.

However, some were just plain... well, as Strong Bad would say, "Iranian art is weird, man."

Germany's contribution to the park was this homage to mechanical precision.  There're even a couple of rulers in there, how fitting is that?

Raise your hand if, like me, this is the first time you've seen a four-person quadracycle.

I wish I had more time at the Olympic Park, but sadly I had to go to a meeting with my boss and coworkers.

I remembered that Friday at 5 PM is the time for subway station performances.  I hustled over to the busking section, but no one was there.  I shuffled away disappointed, but ran into my two busking friends at the escalators.  I helped them set up and we shared a limited conversation in Kongaleserish - a combination of their Kongrish and my Englean - before they started playing.  We exchanged e-mails and they expressed sorrow that I would be leaving Korea soon.  I promised them I would hurry back.  On an unrelated note, would you believe that the man with the guitar is 38 years old?  Asians have the best anti-aging genetics in the World.

Episode 14: In Which DFM Visits A Korean Bath House And Another Museum

I set my alarm for 9:30 AM last night because I wanted to get an early start on what was sure to be a big day.  I needn't have worried though, at 8:30 I was woken up by a message just too urgent to wait.  Apparently someone was opening an English school and wanted teachers.  Never mind that Nelson already told the woman that I wasn't staying around  long enough or intending to work, I just had to be woken to be given the message.  Oh well, I was already up more or less anyways since my next door neighbour was having an extra loud phone conversation and playing Nintendo at 8:00 AM as usual (she went to bed after 1:30 AM too, so I don't know how she does it, I'm actually impressed).

First up on the list of things to do was visit one of the saunas for which Korea is famous.  Saunas in Korea are actually public bath houses where everyone walks around naked and sits in various tubs of various temperatures for various lengths of time (there are separate areas for men and women).  Some of the high end saunas will have green tea, coffee, pine needles or other exotic additions in their tubs, but my bath house just had water.  (There was a sign that said it was sulfur water pumped up from a mile under ground or so, but who knows?)

It's not just a room of hot tubs, it's the experience.  There is a locker room aide who hands you all the towels you could ever need, in every possible shape, size and texture, there are little seats where you can shave at your own mirror, and a TV in the locker room with its very nice hard wood floor among many other niceties.

As for the hot tubs, there were four of them.  A Cold Tub with water at 23 degrees centigrade, a Warm Tub with water at 40 degrees, an Event Tub, which is another 40 degree tub but this time it has jets, and a Hot Tub with 45 degree water.  You wouldn't think it, but that extra 5 degrees makes a big difference.  The Cold Tub also had a "water fall" jet which seemed like a neat concept until I tried it out.  Three high pressure nozzles blast you with water from the ceiling and it really hurts.  I can see why no one else used them while I was there.

There were also two steam rooms.  One was 49 degrees and had jets spraying mist from the ceiling and round stumps on which to sit.  This room was very pleasant.  The second steam room was 69 degrees and the air tasted like hot chocolate (which I love).  69 degrees is very hot.  There is a 3 minute egg timer in the room, but I couldn't make it even a minute and a half (according to the timer, assuming it was a three minute timer).

The price was about $5.50 and it was more than worth it.  I was skeptical that sitting in hot tubs could be as enjoyable as all the websites say it is, but I am now a believer.  Half of the fun is trying to figure out in which order to rotate between the tubs and steam rooms so as to create the most comfortable contrasts in body temperature.

As mentioned before, there are more expensive bath houses that give users access to fitness rooms, game rooms, and massage parlours.  Actually, there was a masseuse at my place too, but I think that cost extra.  Regardless, this was an excellent first time experience and I think I just might splurge and spend a day at one of the fancier bath houses before I leave Korea since it is not appreciably more (you can even sleep there at night for no extra fee).

At the Sauna I met a man named Lee Young San who had visited Australia and met a Polish woman there and they are now married.  He was eager to show me pictures of her.  We also talked about his experiences with racism in Sydney, Australia and Moscow, as well as the attitudes of Koreans towards the Korean War and Americans in general.  Lee said that at least half of young Koreans resent Americans in some capacity because they now feel that they were used by America for political ends.  It was a long discussion and I won't bother trying to type it all down here.  Long story short, Lee Young San invited me out with him and some of his coworkers on Friday night.

Speaking of being asked out, Perry invited me over to his house on Monday night for dinner so that his wife can meet me and agree with him that I should stay at their place (his words).

I think I mentioned that I had cockroaches in my place and I finally caught one out in the open with my camera handy.

After returning from the bath house, I had some lunch (that's when I snapped the shot of the 'roach, which is why I included it here) and set out to find the National Museum of Korea.  I knew the general location and even which turns to make, but after a while I became disoriented and started to get worried that I had missed it somehow.

Most of the way there I was against a wall for the American military base.  Can I just say that most of Seoul, even the old side streets, have some sort of charm to them (I think), but that walking by anything to do with the American military base just makes your soul die?  The colour of everything is a light yellow-beige/brown combination, there is barbed wire everywhere, and the military police guarding the gates never smile ever (and they wear the ugliest beige uniforms).  If you have the displeasure of being above the fence on a high side street looking down, you see that many of the trees are dead too.  So I was very happy when I finally came to the beautiful Yongsan Park, a breath of Korean life in a sea of American inspired death.  (That's not me being a bleeding-heart either, it's just an observation)

The first non-pale, yellow/beige-like colours I saw in over twenty minutes of walking.

Crazy post-modern Korean art, or just a tribute to The Adam's Family?

There was another workout park, but this one was the most fun yet.  I actually spent a good fifteen minutes playing around on some of the more novel pieces of equipment.  In an attempt to keep the drain on my blog's image limit down I'll only post two of the most notable.

This is a treadmill that is made of rollers.  You have to hold onto the handles (which are unfortunately a bit low even for me), but the sensation of never being in control as you pull endless Fred Flinstones is quite neat.

This is the best piece of equipment I've seen yet.  It is an inversion rack.  You stick your ankles inside the pegs so that your feet won't fall out, and you use the welded wheels to rotate the entire contraption upside down.  There's no worry of getting stuck, because the entire device is spring loaded so that you will rotate back to an upright position the moment you let go of the wheels.  This was great fun to use, and felt wonderful on my back.

The design of the museum itself was worth the walk.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but as you walk around you get to see something new and exciting from every angle.

My guide book said that the cost was $2.00 for admission, but today it seemed to be free as nobody would accept my money no matter how hard I tried to give it to them (tipping is a concept that does not exist in Korean culture either from what I've read).

As with the War Memorial Museum, I took way too many pictures to include everything here, but what follows are some of the highlights of the highlights for me.

Ancient Scream mask made from a sea shell, presumably purchased from a woman on the sea shore.  As with movable metal type and many other inventions, Korea has always been ahead of the West.

A mace, and various replacement heads.

Brass cleats worn by soldiers.  Wouldn't you like to see an Olympic Tae Kwon Do tournament in which the competitors use these instead of those padded shoes?  The next time you ask if a given martial art will "work" for you, remember that martial arts were designed to kill people, so yes, it'll work for you.

This is a large coffin and it had a great name, but I forgot it.  Some of my readers who know a certain College in a certain city may think this looks familiar.

The description of this oar-like object was "Beating Stick" and it is from the 19th century.  It was placed right underneath the bludgeoning clubs, so I'm pretty sure it was  not used for beating the dust out of rugs.  It is roughly 6 feet long, or maybe longer.  I'll take a wooden spoon or ruler any day after seeing this, thank-you very much.

In the Joseon dynasty it was apparently customary for every male over the age of 16 to wear an identification tag.  It had your age, origin or birth, social position, and any other pertinent information necessary to peg you into your position of influence and value in a rigid social hierarchy.  This tag is made of ivory and this indicates that the wearer was a high-ranking government official in 1784.

This is an ancient, royal chamber part.  I know what you're thinking, so I don't need to say it.

This was neat.  It was the only Buddhist sculpture in the entire exhibit (and indeed the only one I've ever seen) in which the subject is not sitting cross-legged or standing in some sort of meditative pose.  This one appears to be simply reclining back on one hand like she's watching TV.

I don't know how it got into the National Museum of Korea, but this is a bike from Vietnam that has a large pile of fish traps stacked where the seat would be.  There were some pictures of fishermen riding these bikes with all sorts of various traps piled up behind them like the Clampetts going to Beverly Hills.

One of the more magnificent sights (which is why I saved it for the end) was this royal bed.  It was so large the user had to climb stairs just to lay on it.

 

Without a doubt, the most incredible display was this giant pagoda.  It stretched from the ground floor nearly to the third floor (each floor was about twenty feet high I'd estimate.  If you look very closely you can compare the height of the pagoda to the woman standing beside it in the second picture.  This was a favourite of all the photographers in the Museum.

What a day.  It's good to be back on track and out seeing Seoul.  Tomorrow I have a climbing contest with some more Korean dining afterwards.  Should be exciting.  It's weird to think that pretty soon March will be over and I'm going to have to start worrying about how to get my KTX (high speed train) ticket to Pusan and how to get from the train station to the Aquarium?  Time is flying by.

Episode 7: In Which DFM Visits The War Memorial Museum And Goes Climbing Some More

Today was another big day.  I set off early today so that I could get some nice pictures of the War Memorial Museum in the afternoon light.  And boy was it worth it.

I saw this crazy sight along the way.  The side roads by my place are so steep that the driver of this SUV had to put bricks underneath his tires in order to park.

The Korean government gives a lot of money each year to homeless people and especially to  Korean War vets.  But, they drink it all away and go begging for more or searching for bottles.  You will see a lot of beggars wearing army clothing, but I'm pretty sure they just bought it from Namdaemun market since there was a huge supply of army surplus clothes there when I visited, and the people wearing them and begging aren't even old enough to have been in the Korean War.  (Maybe the Vietnam War though...)  This garbage can had a strip of metal covering the opening to prevent people from sticking their hands inside and searching around.

I had to cross the craziest 6 way intersection I've ever seen when I got to the end of the street.  My light clearly had a walking signal shining, but that didn't seem to matter to the 8 or so drivers who just raced past me on their red light.

When I finally crossed the street I was walking by a military base of some kind (perhaps the American Military base).  There were a lot of police officers patrolling the street in front of it but they weren't very friendly.  I said "hello" to at least five of them (in Korean too), but only one responded.  I thought that perhaps I had broken some Korean cultural taboo by addressing a superior, but I later heard from Koreans that they just aren't friendly to anyone.  I wouldn't be happy either if I had to spend my day guarding an American Military base.  It was a bit shocking to see them so unfriendly though, since there was a police bus parked alongside with a banner which tried to promote the police force as friendly by showing a motorcycle cop stopping to help a young child.

I was walking along an extra wide bike path when I came to a rest area.  I'm not sure if this bench is for dwarfs to sit on or just to use for tying your shoe, but it is the lowest bench I've ever seen.  Compare the height of the bench to that of the curb beside it.

After about a 12 to 15 minute walk I finally came to the most amazing place I've seen so far.  This is the front of the museum and I could only get about a third of the building in this shot.  There are two giant wings off to each side.  It was the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War, and there was a military procession out front (I think they were just practicing though).  Admission was less than $3.00, which means that it was less than a dollar per floor.  Incredible!

The first exhibit as you enter the door is this gigantic Peace Drum.  I'd estimate that this drum is well in excess of 10 feet high.

  

There is more than just Korean War memorabilia though, it a museum of everything that has to do with war.  Pictured here are an ancient horse bit and crossbow firing mechanism from the Early Iron Age.

I was very displeased to see that some Korean had vandalized an exhibit.  That's the downside of trying to be like the West I suppose: You lose your respect for yourself and others.

One of the neatest displays I saw was this ancient rocket launcher.  The arrows have gunpowder and a fuse attached to their ends.

  

Although there were many heart-rending monuments at the Museum, I think these two were the most touching.  The first is a tear drop wrapped in barbed wire that is composed entirely of ID tags from fallen UN soldiers who gave their life for peace in Korea.  The second is a torn dome with two brothers (one is a soldier for the North and one for the South) clutching each other.  One brother is on each side of the divide, and it represents the splitting of a nation, or people... of families, because of politics and war.

  

Outside the museum was a massive collection of military weaponry and machinery, just an example of which includes this US Naval Gun Turret (which you can climb inside of and touch the controls) and this Soviet tank with a gun so long it wouldn't fit in the picture.

Of course the real sight was the B-52 Bomber.  For this shot I was standing roughly 100 meters away, with the camera lens as wide as I could get it.  However, you can see that I still was not able to get even half of the plane in the shot.  Words or pictures cannot even begin to describe the size of this behemoth.

There were a lot more sights to see at this museum and I took over 300 pictures (and that was just of the things I found especially interesting!)  However, I don't want to run out of my allotted storage space on the blog before the end of my trip so I did not include everything.  For one of the best tourist sites you'll likely ever see, fly to Seoul and visit this Museum.

On my way back home I took a picture of this store on Itaewanno (the major street by my place).  Calvin Klein underwear and clothing is incredibly popular in Seoul.  Every single street I visit has someone with a stand selling real or knock-off versions of Calvin Klein underwear.

After waiting for the rice to steam (I was shocked to find it drowning in a lake of water inside of the steamer when I got home), and finding a climbing gym that was open late and had advertised day pass prices, I finally set off to Summit Climbing Complex for another climbing session.  (In the future I'll have to get a Korean speaking friend to phone and enquire about rates and hours for some of them.)

  

I thought I would take some pictures of my street at night, since it is quite pretty with all the neon signs.  In the first picture you can see all the pubs along the left, and the second picture contains a nice picture of the neon signs for the restaurants you see on the right in the first shot.

These are two of the friends I met at The Summit Climbing Center.  On the left is Jenny, and the guy standing is Hyun-Dai (yup, Hyundai is making people now too).  Hyun-Dai lived in Montreal for a year and has a daughter who stayed there and is going to University now.  Both Hyun-Dai and Jenny spoke very good English, in fact almost everyone at The Summit Climbing Center seemed to speak at least some English.  I also met Yu-Suk but he left before I thought to take a picture.  Hyun-Dai liked to make jokes and call him "You Suck."  Hyun-Dai was also quite pleased to see that I was so short since it meant he wouldn't be alone anymore.  He called us "The Two Hobbits."  Little did he know that my University nickname used to be Frodo when I played on the football team.  Everyone was very friendly and practically fell over themselves to help me.  I will definitely come back again.

Summit Climbing Complex was a very nice gym.  The routes were much different than most gyms in that they were all long circuits.  The shortest circuit I could find was 29 moves, and some of them were 70 moves or more.  I did not have the endurance for these routes, so I spent most of my time making my own hard boulder problems.  Mr. Chang, the owner said that I had a good bouldering style.  I told him that I ought to have a good bouldering style because it's all I ever do.  Mr. Chang also said that I was very strong, which is a huge compliment from a guy who has led groups of Korean climbers on climbs in Yosemite Valley.

Hyun-Dai was very impressed with my Korean pronunciation and told me that I spoke "perfect Korean."  I think he was just being nice though, because Jenny did not agree and was quick to inform me whenever I messed up.  (Note:  Hongik University is not pronounced like "honky," it is more like "own" with an "eek" on the end, and an h at the front.)  I appreciated her help though, because sometimes the locals cannot understand what I am saying when I pronounce the words wrong.

When I left, Mr. Chang presented me with a gift from the gym of a free guide book to Korean mountains and a sheet of large stickers advertising the gym.  I was blown away, and I could tell that it was a big honour to receive this present because Jenny gasped when Mr. Chang presented it to me.

This was by far the best day of my trip.  Tomorrow I will attempt to find a mountain on the outskirts of Seoul to hike.