Episode 47: In Which DFM Goes On 7 Dates, And A Bell Rings 33 Times

Some readers are probably wondering what happened to me last week. Last week was a continuous blur of meeting friends to say good-bye for the last time (this trip). To compound matters, my access to Internet has been sporadic. To make up for my absence, here is the entire week in recap, in one post.

On Monday, December 28th, I met Mitja, my Slovenian friend, for dinner in Itaewon. We went to Don Valley (the same place I went with Tae-young back in March) to have some galbi. Despite Don Valley being a Korean restaurant, it was obvious that no Korean would be caught dead coming here twoice.

Mitja has a Korean girlfriend and he has been living in Korea off and on for about a year. He says he has eaten more than his bodyweight in galbi in that time, and so he could tell that we were being ripped off - the lettuce was unfresh and the ssamjang minimal. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a little bit of justice when I could tell that the restaurant owner was disappointed that Mitja understood Korean dining culture and demanded his side dishes refilled. Mitja, for his part, felt not the least bit embarrassed about constantly calling the waiter over to give him refills. He later told me, "if they had a cart at which I could refill my own side dishes like the other Korean restaurants, then I wouldn't need to bother the waitresses so much."

* * * * *

On Tuesday I went to Insadong to meet Elise. She took me to a restaurant called Koong, which is famous for its North Korean mandooguk (dumpling soup). The founder of the restaurant is Mrs. Lim, who has made the Kaesong recipe traditional dumplings for 75 years (Kaesong is a city in North Korea).

The restaurant is now run by Mrs. Lim's granddaughter, but I assume the mandoo still tastes the same. If I'm honest, mandoo of any variety doesn't look that hard to make, so I'm sure Mrs. Lim's granddaughter couldn't have messed up the taste too badly. Unfortunately, I've never tasted the original mandoo of Mrs. Lim, so I have no basis for comparison. Consequently, I could have been sold horse manure wrapped in dough, told it was "award winning," and I wouldn't have known the difference. A free meal is always delicious though, so I'm not complaining.

* * * * *

On Wednesday, December 30th, I went back to Jeungsan at 7:00 PM to meet Shin Seung-hyeun (formerly known as Sin Seung-hyeun, but I changed his name to make it easier to pronounce). Mr. Shin, The Fruit Guy, has been wanting to take me out to dinner for the last two months, and so even though I had to move I told him I'd come back, and we made the arrangement for this night.

We walked a few blocks to a local gamjatang (pork ribs and potato stew) restaurant with his two young sons who came along. I couldn't stay too long though, and so after stuffing myself on giant pork ribs, potato, and ice cream for desert, I headed over to Ace Climbing Centre where Choi was waiting to take me out for yet another good-bye party. And so, for the next two hours I tried to find every spare cubic inch of stomach room left over after my first supper to fit in even more galbi.

* * * * *

On Thursday I visited Woojin at the newly built Times Square mega mall near Yeongdeunpo station (near Ace Climbing Centre). Woojin later helped me ascertain that banks in Korea will buy my Korean won back at rates roughly 25% higher than those of Royal Bank in Canada. With this information I went back to my hostel to rest up for the New Year's Eve festivities.

A couple of days ago Mr. Lee (the manager of Jin Guesthouse) told me that 8 teachers from Daegu were coming in and had wanted to book one room. Since I was staying in the only 8 bed room, I volunteered to move to free up the remaining bed.

My new room had six beds, and I was sharing it with two Norwegian blokes, currently on a break from studying in China, and Klaire, an Australian teaching in Japan on holiday in Korea. With nothing much to do inside the hostel, we all decided to check out the "famous" bell ringing down town at Bosingak.

(Left to right: Harald, Klaire, and Joe.)

(Harald was very popular with the locals, and these high school boys fell all over themselves with excitement at the chance to have their pictures taken with a foreigner.)

(There it is, the bell that all the fuss is about. The bell in Bosingak gives Jongno and Jonggak - the nearby street and subway station respectively - their names, as "jong" means bell in Korean. Every New Year's Eve, and only on New Year's Eve, the bell is rung 33 times to represent the 33 Heavens of Buddhism.)

From the above picture you can see that there were many people there (the Internet says the crowds sometimes number in the 10 000s). However I must say Seoul needs to work on its fireworks presentations. The lone streak you see on the right of picture X is from a handheld stick that revellers could buy at the site, and which shoots really weak mini-fire works about twenty five feet in the air. Joe agreed with my negative evaluation of the fireworks, saying that in Shanghai, where he is studying, there are fireworks every night that defy description.

After the freezing cold "party" that involved watching poor Korean pop stars having to dance and perform in significantly less clothing than is advisable for -13 degree centigrade weather, Harald, Joe, Klaire and I went back to the hostel, where Klaire fell asleep, and Joe, Harald and I watched Rambo 4 - one of the few movies that is over 50% killing and gore, but still needs more.

* * * * *

On Friday I went to see Ms. Yun in Sillim-dong. After some kimbab and a movie I said good-bye, and went to Ji-hyeun's place (near by), where she had invited me to try some of the delicious ddeokguk (rice cake soup) she had made for me.

In the mean-time I had been told by my friend in Ulsan that she was in New Zealand, so I couldn't stay with her the next week, like I had planned. Furthermore, my friend in Busan told me that I couldn't stay with her until Wednesday, so for the next five days I was without a home.

At least I wouldn't have to worry about that for the next two days, because I had already arranged to meet with James from Suwon and spend the night at his house, after a park workout of course. Before I left though, I had to drag my luggage across town to store it in Tyler's house (the other "foreigner" climbing at Ace, who was nice enough to let me sleep on his couch for three nights after I came back from Suwon).

And that brings us to Tuesday, January 5, where I'm now sitting in Tyler's living room, watching his movies, trying to live as cheaply as possible until I head to Busan tomorrow. Check back in a few days for a full update of the journey.

Episode 37: In Which DFM Receives A "Gift" And Gets One Glove

While I had been visiting Suwon last week, James mentioned that he wanted to come to Seoul and do some indoor rock climbing with me.

We met at 11 AM and had some lunch.  We went to a small little "hole in the wall" restaurant and looked at the large menu up high on the wall.  James had turned his chair a bit to see the menu, and this caused his chair to sneak into the aisle a bit.  A man came up and started yelling at him to move his chair out of the aisle.  At first I thought it was all a bit odd, but then I saw he was wearing pajama pants with hiking boots and I realized he was just one of many old, crazy drunk men around Seoul.  The other people in the restaurant were quietly laughing at the whole scene and I could tell they were looking to see how we would respond.  I figured this sort of thing happens all the time with that guy.

Speaking of crazy old guys in Korea, the other day I was on a train and this man came on with a pair of flashy Mizuno running shoes, a bright red Adidas track suit, a US Army canteen on his hip,  and a bright orange baton like you'd see someone at an airport use to guide in planes.  He looked very serious and I thought, "this guy is probably going to start telling everyone to repent of their sins."  As if on cue he starts marching back and forth yelling like a drill sergeant (a drill sergeant with a red track suit on though).  When he left, people on the train were laughing, but then they looked at me, the foreign guy, and started laughing even more.  One man told me that he was a Christian, but I wasn't surprised.  Some of the Christians in Korea take their Bible thumping really seriously.

After lunch, we still had 2 hours until the climbing gym opened up, so James and I went on a trek to find some workout parks.  Along the way James gave me a "gift."  It was a can of silkworm larvae, which are apparently very high in protein.  One can has 40% of your daily protein requirements.

We were in the middle of the city, so we couldn't find a park per se, but we did find an apartment complex that we snuck into.  In the back there was this playground for the local kids, but we used it to do some muscle-ups on the monkey bars, and we also worked on various ways to fly back and forth between the two outside rails.

After an hour at the first apartment complex we walked around and found another place.  This one was more of a public park for children.  We used the chin-up bars to attempt a new stunt of standing on the bar, because they were a little too low for doing muscle-ups.

Finally it was time to go climbing, but I'd be lying if I said we weren't both a bit tired and sore from our workout.  We had the gym pretty much to ourselves, and Ji-Hyeun came over and climbed some hard routes to show us just how much better she was than James and I.  No, that's unfair, I actually called her over to get some "beta" for a route I was trying to climb.

  

I had to go meet my boss, Mr. Kim, for a meeting of all his teachers at 5:30.  I was a bit early, so I stopped to watch these buskers playing in a subway station.  Unlike Canadian buskers, Korean buskers are invited by the city to play in the subway station to increase the cultural benefit of all its travelers.  There is a show every Friday.

The two musicians were really good, but some of the translations were a bit off, because I haven't heard of Bob Dylan's "Knock Heaven's Door" or Johnny Cash's "Rinj of Fire."  However, when one person wasn't playing the other was out in the crowd offering some of his food to me and engaging me in pleasant conversation.  As a tribute, they introduced me to the crowd as being from Canada and one of them played Neil Young's "Heart of Gold."

The "Rinj of Fire" incident reminded me of when I was shopping a few days ago and heard a tune I recognized.  It was unmistakably a Beatles' tune, but the words were in Korean.  Then, the next song on the radio was a Korean version of Biz Markie's classic(?) "Just A Friend."  Only in Korea?

My meeting with my boss was to introduce me to the other teachers he had working at his other schools, and also to go over the lesson plans for the next two weeks.  Most of the instructions/lessons I heard sounded far too difficult for my students to follow, but up until now no one has told me that I need to improve, so I figure that my school is a bit of an anomaly and that I should just continue to do my best.  Oddly enough since there's so many of them here, I've learned that English teachers are quite scarce compared to their demand, so I'm not too worried about being fired either.

After the meeting we were all taken out for food and drink by our boss (there he is in the front row with his fingers in the air).  If you look around you might also recognize Lee, who is now in charge of finding English teachers (that explains how I got the job), and also Thom (not a typo), at the top of the table with the blue T-shirt (Lee's friend from when I got taken out clubbing).

When the pork ribs were brought out, everyone was given a blue glove.  They are essentially those little knit stretchy gloves that we use in Canada for keeping our hands warm, but here in Korea they use them for preparing, and in this case eating food.

I was a bit miffed when my new repair job chipped whilst eating the pork.  I've felt some small chips on the edges recently and today a strip off the bottom came off.  It actually just brings the new tooth into line with the tooth beside it, which is nice, but it does not fill me with a lot of confidence in Korean dentistry.

My disappointment, combined with the fact it was getting late and I needed to wake up early the next morning, gave me the impetus to leave.  But at least now I have a copy of the class materials I'll be using so that I can prepare for my lessons a bit more.

At first I was glad to not have any cock roaches in my new gosiwon, but I guess the management just traded them for large spiders.

Episode 10: In Which DFM Does Some Korean Hiking And Eats All Sorts Of Foods For The First Time

One of the first people I met when I went to Ace Climbing Center yesterday was a man named Kim In-Paik (I call him Perry, because that's his "English name").  He mentioned that he was going hiking at Gwanak-san the next morning and I asked if I could tag along.

Hiking on the weekends is like driving during rush hour.  Swarms of people could be seen all over the subway stations wearing Norwegian knee-high wool socks and with every conceivable type of hiking aid imaginable, all heading towards one of the 25 mountains in and arround Seoul.  This picture is just of the back end of a mob; there are more up in front of the pack and a lot coming behind me.

Of course there were myriad workout parks.

Even when the trail split off in many directions, there were still enough people to make sure you could never get lonely... or a have a moment to yourself.

 

Along the way I saw the last ice of winter and the first flower of spring... look closely, it's there.

About halfway up the mountain, Perry, myself, and Perry's two friends, Ji-Sun and Young-Joo (I have no idea if that's how you spell them, but that's my best guess) broke off from the herd to have some lunch.  Ji-Sun and Young-Joo whipped out all sorts of ingredients and Perry had brought a small propane-fueled camping stove and accomanying cookware.  We had oysters cooked in some sort of batter, pickled rice shoots in soy sauce, a very similar soup to the one I had yesterday, and dubu kimchi (sounds like "tow-go gim-chee") with daeji bulgogi.  In English that's tofu kimchi with pork.

Perry brought along a small bottle of Chinese wine with which to have a toast.  In an effort to sample everything Korean (Chinese wine sort of counts) I had a very small cup (you can see it in the picture next to the normal sized clear plastic cup).  My report is that Chinese wine tastes like Robitussin.  It's quite powerful, and will clear your head up right away (it'll clear it right off if you're not careful).  Perry is a big fan of the wine and seemed to think that drinking a little wine was good for keeping the body warm, good for learning a new language, good for curing any illnesses, and good for solving just about any other problem life throws your way.

To pass the time and keep warm, Perry and I would climb on the boulders surrounding our lunch site.  Perry would also tell me many Korean parables and try to teach me how to speak Korean.

Warning:  Korean joke coming.  

A man is walking along in the mountains when he has to evacuate his bowels.  He covers up the excrement with a stone.  Another hiker comes along and has to evacuate her bowels as well.  She covers up the remainder with a stone.  After many years a hiker comes along and finds a large pile of stones.  It is a Korean tradition that when you come across a large pile of stones you kneel down and pray.

It's tough to see, but I thought this picture was hilarious.  It was inside a public washroom at the bottom of the mountain, on a condom dispenser.  Inside the condom are two small smiling children.

Perry thought I was very brave to come to Korea by myself.  He himself had traveled to Thailand and could understand how difficult it was for me.  He said that he liked my spirit and offered me free room and board at his house.  He also offered to show me around to places that are so traditional even most Koreans don't know about them.  Since I still have two weeks left at my gosiwon and I enjoy the free rice and kimchi (but not enough to stay another month), I told him that I would take him up on his offer at the beginning of April.

A final note on Korean hiking.  Korean hiking and DFM hiking are very different things.  Koreans like to take an entire day and commune with nature.  I like to take an entire hour and attempt to race to the top of the mountain.  I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I go hiking with Koreans.

When I arrived back in Itaewon I needed to go get some apples for my lunch the next day.  When I came up to ground level out of the subway station I was absolutely blown away by all the white people.  It was whitey central tonight.  I couldn't understand it.  I knew Itaewon was a tourist destination for some reason, but this was unreal.  Later I reckoned that it was just a typical Saturday night and all the English teachers and American soldiers had come out to get drunk, get in trouble and generally give foreigners a bad name... so, nothing out of the ordinary.

I did notice that while I can count on one hand the number of obese Koreans I've seen so far, I could only count on one hand the number of white people in Korea who weren't overweight this night.  It was unbelievable.  Besides raising the average bodyfat percentage of Seoul about 50%, white people partying in Itaewon are also loud and obnoxious.  It's no wonder racist Koreans hate us, we're a scourge on the planet.  I vow to never go out into Itaewon after 8:00 PM ever again so long as I can help it.

Episode 8: In Which DFM Hikes Suraksan And Breaks His Tooth

The big plan for today was to hike up a mountain.  I had ran up to the top of the hill in Namsan Park, but that was child's play compared to the real mountains surrounding Seoul.

I checked out a website about hiking in Seoul and the first mountain that came up was Surak-san (I think the suffix -san means mountain in Korean).  I probably should have researched its location a little more, but I decided to just head for the subway station entitled "Suraksan" on the map.

I wasn't sure how to get to the trail from the station though, but while traveling to Suraksan station I read in my Lonely Planet guide about a route up the mountain.  This route called for a quick transfer to a different line than the one I was currently on and heading to a different station.

My station was the last stop for my train and so it made it easy to find.  When I exited I found myself in the middle of a small market.  This market reminded me of Namdaemun market, but was nowhere even close to being as large.  The problem with exiting in a market was that I had absolutely no idea where I was or where to go.  Also, this market really stank, and that's saying a lot coming from a guy who can't smell.

I wondered around for a while and of course got myself stuck in wrong streets in dead ends, but eventually I found my way to this sign which looked positive.  I couldn't understand any of the directions on the sign, and I wasn't entirely sure which mountain was which or where I even was on the map, but at least I knew I was at the bottom of a mountain and that's all I needed to know.

Before I even made my way onto the trail I ran into an outdoor badminton court, an archery range, and of course a workout park (four in fact).  This one had some different equipment in it.  On the left is a spinning log that allows you to attempt your "Log Driver's Waltz," and the device in the middle is for working your obliques by standing on a platform hinged at the top and swinging your legs together from side to side while holding onto the handles.  The third object is just a big wheel you can spin around, but I'm not sure what good it would do you since it's very easy to spin.

 

I wasn't sure how to get up the mountain, but I took a road and it led me to this - some sort of Buddhist shrine I gather.  Unfortunately that was all that was there, and there was no road or trail leading any further up the mountain.  I had to turn back.

 

I went all the way back down to a fork in the road near the beginning of the trek and took the other road.  I decided to make up for lost time by sprinting up the trail.  It was hard work, but it soon brought me to another Buddhist Shrine type place, this one being guarded by a stone lion and a dog who kept barking at me and then running away when I came near.  I later found out that you are supposed to make a donation to the shrine... oops.

I looked up and still had no idea where I was going, but I figured that this mountain top was as good a mountain as any, and so I set a course for the peak.

 

The trail started to become treacherous, and then it became even more treacherous.  Still I headed on undaunted.

  

Eventually I came to a small clearing with a man in a business suit standing and gazing out at one of the most magnificent views I've ever seen.  I couldn't believe he was in a business suit with his leather shoes up here.  It just goes to show you how fit Koreans are that they would consider this hike easy enough to not warrant changing.  Actually, this man was in stark contrast to the first hikers I saw coming back off the mountain when I was just starting out.  There were two women who were wearing enough gear to scale the Matterhorn, and here this guy was in his work clothes, I chuckled as I made the comparison in my head.  I stopped to enjoy the view with him and he explained to me that I was indeed on Surak mountain and the mountain I just took a picture of was Bulamsan.  After I commented on how Seoul was so big you couldn't even see the other side (and not just because of my poor picture here), I bid him adieu and carried off to reach the summit.

The trail started to get really wild now.  If you look closely at the top of the picture you'll see that certain parts have a rope hanging from them to help you get up because they're too steep and/or there is not sufficient footing.  That's always a good sign.  I actually made it up this part without the rope, but it could have come in handy where I tried to go next.

I ran under the metal telephone cable tower and so I knew I was getting quite high up now.  I also knew that I was getting into a little more than simple hiking when I saw a sign signaling a gathering point for those in need of emergency rescue.  As if it were an omen, around the next corner I saw this rock face.  It's tough to tell from the picture but the grade on this rock face is probably about 70 degrees.  Actually the trail hadn't stopped, it went off to the side, but I decided to attempt to go up this rock anyways.  I used a combination of rock climbing and tree climbing to get myself half-way up, but eventually I ran out of tree and the only thing preventing me from falling and breaking my legs was the 1-inch diameter dead tree branch I was white-knuckling.

I eventually got my backpack unstuck from the tree branches and made my way back down.  The trail was easier, but I still managed to slip on some of the steep traverses and almost slid down the mountain on a couple of occasions.  The rock was covered in dead leaves/grass/pine needles, and every so often I'd wipe out and start sliding down the mountain.  Each time though I managed to hang on by my fingertips (literally) to a small irregularity in the otherwise smooth rock surface, and this saved me from a nasty ride.

After some close calls and some hard scrambling towards the end, I came to this clearing and these weird shapes in the dirt that the wind had formed.  I looked for the rest of the trail, but like the bear all I could see was the other side of the mountain and so I realized that I had made it.

All that remained was a 20 foot climb up the vertical face of this boulder structure.... Or the slightly less difficult scramble up the back side.  I went for plan B, but it was still a struggle.  Someone had chipped handholds into the boulder making it easier for which, at this point, I was very thankful.

Surprisingly, the view from the top of the mountain was not as good as where I had looked out before with the man in the suit.  Perhaps that was because I was actually quite scared up on the top of the boulder and so I couldn't enjoy it, or because I had now moved further away from the city?  Either way, one false move and I was a goner.  I did get this nice shot of a mountain on the other side though.

Pretty soon it would get too dark to see and it was now getting quite windy so I wanted to get down as quickly as possible.  Once I got past the really tricky pitches at the top, I opened up into a run.  It was quite fun and I got a good head of steam going.  With the winding sections you saw in the pictures before it almost felt like a bobsled run... except with roots, stumps, and tree trunks to knock you out or trip you up if you made a wrong step.  I almost ran into the power line structure, but luckily someone had already thought about this and had taped on some foam padding.

I managed to make a wrong turn somewhere and came out at yet another workout park.  I ate a dinner of rice and tuna I had prepared earlier and checked out the park.  This one had some different apparatus like angled monkey bars, wood stumps of varying heights to jump around on, a rope walking challenge (kind of like a spider's web made of rope you have to walk across), and this rolling log of death.  This is by far the hardest obstacle I've come across at a workout park yet.  The log has a groove on each end and it will roll from side to side in the depression cut out for it on the smaller, perpendicular log.  I tried three times to walk across it, but each time I could only make it a couple of steps before the log bucked me off like a mechanical bull.  If I had more time and light I would have taken off my backpack and really given it a go, but I had to keep moving.

It turned out I needn't have worried because I was right at the bottom of the mountain anyways.  I dragged my weary legs back into town (a fair hike on its own) and tried to find the station again.

This is one of the perks of getting on at the first/last station... empty seats.  This is a rare sight on a Seoul subway car indeed.

When I got off the train at Itaewon station I tried to find that truck with the jjinppang (giant steamed bun with sweet bean paste I ate last week and loved).  I couldn't find him though, so I settled for a dozen mandarin oranges (tangerines) for less than $3.00.

When I got home I set about doing my laundry and took a shower.  I was going to attempt to get to bed early, but long story short I broke a tooth trying to rip open some packaging, and I spent an hour or so trying to set up the appropriate files through my travel insurance to have the tooth repaired.  I found a reputable dentist in Seoul who speaks English and will attempt to make an appointment tomorrow as soon as possible.

Tomorrow will be a rest day since I'm out of money for the week.  I of course will go climbing.

Episode 5: In Which DFM Acts Korean And Subsequently Gets Himself Into Trouble But Also Has An Adventure

I awoke today with a knocking at my door.  Actually, it was a knocking on the door of the next room over, which is so close to me that the sound entered my room too.  When I looked at the clock though, it was 9:00 AM.  Hurray! I've finally adapted to the time difference.

Today I had my first experience with washing laundry in Korea.  They have a nice washer, but no dryer at my place.  Instead I am to hang my clothes up in my room on a rod above my bed.  There is a fan like you'd find in a bathroom with a shower to suck the moisture out, but it isn't very powerful and for some reason (perhaps because of the fan) my room smelt like someone  had been smoking in it, for the rest of the day.

I went out to buy some cereal for breakfast the  next morning and decided to stop back in to see Mr. Choi and get a pre-paid long-distance/local calling card.  The card he sold me had the best rates on it, but on my way back home I found the exact same card in some back-alley shop for three dollars less.  Mr. Choi is ripping me off!  Actually, it's not his fault, he works for a major mobile service provider, SK Telecom, which sets the prices I'm sure.  I see the shops all over the place and they specialize in high-end phones.  LG Telecom (a rival service) didn't even offer pre-paid phones or cards, so I guess they're not too worried about cheap travelers who don't want to spend money.  Mr. Choi is very kind and helpful though (go figure), and gives me great personal service so it's not all bad.

It was about 5:30 PM now, so I went out to catch the "Yellow #3" bus to the base of Namsan Park in the center of Seoul.  I just missed my bus by seconds though, and some Korean in very poor English (better than my Korean though) tried to offer my help.  "Is-uh there anything-uh I can help-uh you with-uh?"  We eventually worked out that the Yellow #3 bus was the only bus going to the Park, and that it would be around again in half an hour.  Having adopted the Korean motto of life (bali bali, or "hurry hurry") I couldn't wait half an hour, so I set off on a trek to find Namsam Park on my own... on foot.

I headed off around the corner to where I knew I could see Namsan Tower,   John had taken me this way on my second day here, but before I could make it to the end of the block no less than five different shop keepers tried to sell me a custom made suit or pair of shoes.  (Remember what I said about Itaewon being a pushy tourist trap?)  I wish I had brought my camera back when John had taken me because the view was spectacular then.  Today however, it was either very foggy or very smoggy, or both, because the view was awful (and the air quality wasn't the best either).  I wasn't sure where I was going exactly, but I could see the tower and decided to start walking in that general direction.  The closer I got, the better I could see how many roof tops were between me and the tower... a lot.

Eventually I found this sign post.  The Korean hangul at the top reads "Nam-san gong-wan" which, as you'd expect from the sign, means Namsan Park.  I headed down the street to the right like the sign said, but next time I will definitely take the street to the left and stick to the main roads.  Keep reading, you'll see why.

I snaked in and out of buildings and down side streets until I came to one of those pedestrian overpasses where I was stunned by this massive church way up on a hill overlooking the city.  This church is visible from almost every neighbourhood near my place (unless you have a large building in the way... which is most of them) and apart from Namsan tower, elevation wise it is the highest building I've found so far.

I passed a driving range in the middle of a residential area (they're all over the place; you can see them by the massive green net tents used to keep the balls inside).  It was kind of funny because the cars were parked underneath the netting, and the people were basically hitting golf balls at their cars.  I should have taken a picture.

I kept going and thought I was getting close but wound up stuck in an apartment building complex.

This cute little girl playing around in the apartment buildings wanted to try out her small amount of English on me, and asked me my name.  A boy, who I assume was her brother, was playing with her and they both took turns asking me questions.  It felt like being in an ESL class.  "Where are you from?  What is your name?  How old are you?"  I asked them how I could get to Namsan tower.  They pointed at the tower looming over our heads (yes, I know that's Namsan Tower.  I want to get there!).  I asked again in a slightly different manner.  "A car," was the response I got from the boy.  "Ann-yo" I replied and pointed at my feet and mimed a walking movement.  "WALK!" The girl squealed in delight and mimed my marching movement with me.  I just laughed and took a picture of her. (Annyeo means "no," and is not to be confused with annyoeng, which sounds similar but means "hello"... I've already made that mistake before.) 

The apartment complex had a massive play area which absolutely blew me away.  You can see from the accompanying video that there is room for an entire soccer field in the area, and I'm standing under shaded bleachers.  It all must be very nice for the residents of the complex.  But then again, unlike where I live the city planners in Seoul actually think about their citizens when constructing buildings/neighbourhoods.  If you listen carefully you can hear the golf balls being whacked from the nearby driving range, at the beginning of the video clip.

Just on the other side of the apartment buildings I could actually see the entrance to the park, but there was a locked gate between me and the street.  I could have jumped the fence, but didn't want to do anything to offend the locals.

So, back I went down the severely sloped street to Namsan Tunnel 3.  This tunnel heads right through to Namsan Park (where I wanted to go), but is closed to pedestrians.  The problem was that  I couldn't find a way to get to the other side of the road.  There was no overpass/walkway that I could see (this one I'm standing on to get this overhead shot is to cross a different road right beside it), and there is no crosswalk on the street.  In fact there is a sign that says no crossing.

There was however this beautiful park, which was shockingly situated right beside the major road you just saw.  (Look, you can see the road through the trees!)  These parks are all over Seoul and are one of my favourite things about Korea (besides the Seoul subway).

Then I found it.  I had spent five minutes contemplating a jay-walk across the free way and admiring the park, when all that time this tunnel was right behind me.  Under the road I went.

On the other side I promptly took another wrong road and got stuck in the same position that I was in on the other side of the road when I was in the apartment complex, but one block over.  Back down I went.... again.

Eventually I ran into a building I thought looked kind of familiar.  I thought about it for a second and then I remembered something Nelson had told me the day before when we were taking the bus back from the mountain and he had pointed out that we were in Haebangchon.  Wouldn't you know it?  I was exactly in the same street that I had first explored on my first day here.  I found the side street where I had stayed and snapped this picture of my first night place.

Success!  After an hour of taking wrong turns I had finally found the entrance to Namsan Park.  What a great feeling.  Now I only had to hike up the mountain.

Right at the top of that first ramp there was an amazing workout park.  There were no fewer than three of these parks on my side of the mountain alone.  I'm not sure how many there are in the park in total, let alone the city, but they're very popular with Koreans on their early morning exercise outings (or so I've read).  In the top picture you can see two barbells on stands (about 25-30 lbs a piece including the bar), a set of parallel bars, three separate heights of pull-up bars, a slanted and flat bench with handles at the top for doing leg raises, and these crazy devices where you hold onto bars and stand on a turntable and twist your hips to work your abdominal muscles.  You may not see it all because my picture is bad, but they're there, trust me.

In the second picture there are some more twisty plates, some even lower pull-up bars, a spring-loaded see-saw/teeter-totter, and these therapeutic back massagers (they're the blue things way at the back).  There are also some more dips bars and even more pull-up bars and a bench press station along with badminton courts.  I couldn't get any decent pictures of these though because at this exact moment the sun went down and all of my pictures looked awful after this.

I headed off into the dusk up the mountain.  There were all sorts of trails and I had a blast trying to figure out the most direct path to the top.  I spent some time trying to get a good picture of a small stream, but to no avail as the light was just too poor.  Then I looked up through the trees and... wow!

I had taken shots of the tower earlier, but the smog made the view less than perfect.  This was the first time I'd seen the tower with its lights on, and the base was aglow with a bright aura (the picture doesn't do it justice).  Renewed with vigour I dashed up the rest of the way.

N Marks the spot.  Namsan Tower is now officially called N Seoul Tower, but all the Koreans I know or have met still just refer to it as Namsan Tower.  This is a view of the tower from its base, at the top of the mountain.  At the top there is the obligatory restaurant and an observatory tower.  I didn't go up though because it costs money, and... well we've already covered how cheap I am.

Beside the tower is this beautiful pagoda.  I watched the weapons demonstration the day before from up there on top of the steps (the demonstration occurred where I was standing when I took this picture).

Koreans have a love-hate relationship with dogs.  One hand they eat them, but on the other hand they're quite worried about their well-being.  Apparently there is a big problem with abandoned dogs in Korea because I have seen lots of website ads asking for donations to help lost/abandoned dog societies (or maybe Koreans just care more about lost dogs than Canadians do).  These pictures show the latest idea being showcased by the Tower.  A Korean furniture designer feels that dogs want to be with humans, and s/he has built this chair that allows the dog to sleep under you while you work/rest so that it will always be around its master/friend.  The idea (explained in the accompanying placard) is that if the human master can see how much the dog wants to be around him/her, then he/she will not abandon the dog.  I love how Koreans always boil things down to black/white solutions.

All around the top of the mountain are these flying/floating wire mesh figures of humans performing different feats.  There are bright lights being shone directly on them to make them glow like they do.

Ah yes, the famous BE&CH of Love.  Here you see the slanted benches I wrote about in Episode 4, and the locks attached to the fence.  Each lock has a message written on it (I assume it's the wish).  There are literally thousands of these locks around the entire "beach."

By this time it was getting quite late and so I figured it was time to head back home so that I could go climbing.  When I first arrived at the top, I saw the Yellow #3 bus just leaving.  When I started to head back I saw it just leaving again!  Second time I had just missed it.  I couldn't believe it.  I started to run back home, but by this time my legs had turned to mush and it was far too dark to safely make my way back down the side of a mountain.  I turned around and decided to wait it out since it was a nice night anyways, and this would probably be much faster in the end.

It turns out my entire journey was unnecessary (but still fun), because the next bus came fifteen minutes later.  How could I possibly think that a bus could take 30 minutes to come around again in Seoul?  There's no way the Seoulites could wait that long for anything.

The bus drove past Namdaemun market, and a library and some other neat sites that I promised myself I would visit again sometime.  This was the first time I had taken a Seoul bus by myself and I was quite proud of the "achievement."

In Seoul there is a device called a "T-Money card."  You pre-load money on the card (I may have talked about this already, I'm not sure) and use it as your bus ticket each time you ride.  You get a discount on a regualr ticket if you use it, and unlike with a normal Seoul bus ticket you can use your T-Money card as a transfer.  On the way back out of the bus you scan the card again and it will give you 30 minutes to get on your next bus/subway for free.  That meant I had 30 minutes to get home, eat, and get back on the subway to go climbing (I also had to hurry before the gym closed).

This is my bottomless supply of rice I keep talking about (you can see the bottom here, but it will get filled up, don't worry).  Usually I'd have kimbap, but no time for that, so I used my can of "hot pepper tuna" that John urged me to buy my first day here.  It was amazing.  Made me choke when I had it on its own, but with the rice it was Biblicly good.  I am definitely taking some of this hot pepper tuna back home with me to Canada when I'm done here.

The climbing gym was very busy tonight (just as "Yoon" had promised).  There were two main groups as far as I could tell.  One was a "climbing school" that "Yoon" was running and contained a bunch of raw beginners being  worked into a sweating heap of worn out flesh by Yoon and his non-stop rotation of climbing and calisthenics.  The other group were a bunch of climbers in their forties who were busy working each other to death on some made up problems.  This older group invited me over to join them and would point out challenges for me to complete.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up and would embarrass myself, but it turned out I was the most experienced climber there (besides "Yoon").  I easily dispatched most of the problems they set out for me (I had been climbing twice as long as most of them), and each time I did I was met with an uproarious round of applause from the other climbers.  It actually started to get embarrassing and I had a lot of practice saying "kam-sa-hap-nida" which means "thank-you" and bowing.  Everyone was very friendly and some of them tried to talk to me in what little English they posessed.  

After climbing I asked "Yoon" if there were going to be any competitions at the gym.  He said that he holds competitions every three months, and that the next competition would be the last Friday of this month.  I plan to swim with sharks on the Saturday, so if I can get my high-speed train ticket (bali bali) for Saturday morning I should be able to compete and still make it to Pusan for the shark scuba adventure.

I still plan to climb at this gym about once a week because its been so welcoming to me, but I need to say "ann-yo-hee keh-say-yo" to Astroman and find out what the other gyms in Seoul are like.