This is an approximate transcript of a "conversation" we had with a drunk, middle-aged Korean man we met by chance while waiting for the subway--- ^^
DRUNK GUY: American?
US: No, Canadian.
DRUNK GUY: Oh, Canadian.
US: Yup…
DRUNK GUY: You know pop music?
US: We’ve heard of it, yes…
DRUNK GUY: You know George Michael?
BBRO (80s Fan): Omigosh, Wake Me Up Before You GoGo!!!!!!!!!
ME: I saw where George Michael was arrested in Beverley Hills….
DRUNK GUY: (sings) Wake me uuuuup, before you Gooooo Gooooo.
BBRO: !!!
DRUNK GUY: Fabulous
ME: …
DRUNK GUY: America!
US: Canada –
DRUNK GUY: Oh! Canada! You know Celine Dion!
US: Of course…
DRUNK GUY: Fabulous Celine Dion!
ME: …
DRUNK GUY: Fabulous.
US: (awkward) Uh… huh
DRUNK GUY: How old are you?
BBRO: At home I’m 22—
ME: And I’m 21 –-
BBRO: Here we’re… What?
US: 23?
DRUNK GUY: Oh, 23! Fabulous!
[Right around this point is when he spits on BBro, so we start to get more than a little nervous]
DRUNK GUY: Fabulous.
US: ….
[The subway comes]
[He ushers us on. With both hands. On the ass. Awkward]
DRUNK GUY: Fabulous George Michael.
US: Oh… Yeah
DRUNK GUY: Celine Dion!
US: Yup
DRUNK GUY: 23! Fabulous!
[etc etc]
US: Well, this is our stop!!! [It’s not]
US: [runs---]
Showing posts with label subway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label subway. Show all posts
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Insa Dong
Insa Dong is the place where people (foreigners) go if they want to buy something “cultural” from Korea, perhaps to give as Christmas presents, and what have you. I say “cultural” in quotation marks, because although many of the things that they sell are (stereo-)typically Korean, such as paper fans, traditional musical instruments, reproductions of ancient weapons, and of course the omnipresent cell-phone charms, many, of not most, of these items sold by the street vendors are proudly emblazoned with “MADE IN CHINA.” They don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re totally selling out their heritage. As the guy from Suwon English Village told me: “Koreans love to save money.”
Getting to Insa Dong proved to be a bit of an ordeal. I took the Subway from Cheyongyangni, to Jongno-(sam)-ga. It’s easy enough to get to the station, but at this particular station, there are three lines that run though, and the exit to Insa Dong is at the far end of the last one. So, I have to walk from the farthest end of the first station, all the way through the second, to the farthest end of the third. It seems to me that it rather defeats the purpose of taking the subway, if you still have to walk about 25 minutes to get where you want to go.
Even though it’s secretly trashy, Insa Dong is still a pretty cool place to look around. My favorite parts of the area, though, were the ones that weren’t trying to be “cultural.” There is a really cool shopping mall, which is really just a giant spiral ramp, with the stores on the outside edge, and open on the inside, so that you can look down into the courtyard below. There were some really interesting stores, leather crafts, jewelry, accessories, and the like. There were also, tucked along beside staircases, and in corners, some really interesting pieces of installation art.
While Insa Dong is probably most known for its street vendors, we saw some other really cool (and scary!) things while we were there.
The streets are closed on the weekends to vehicular traffic, because there are so many people. While we were pressing our way through the crowds, we saw a group of people protesting. There were two people with hoods on, and their wrists and ankles tied together, and then to each other. They were being led down the street by a man in an army uniform holding a machine gun! The gunman represented the Chinese army, and the hooded people North Korean refugees, although they clearly were not (even though we couldn’t see their faces, they spoke English, as did the girl who explained to us what was happening, and most of the protesters were white). 
The scenario: as many as 300,000 people defected from North Korea in the last several years, and fled to China to hide. Since China won the bid for the Olympic Games, they have been under pressure to uphold International Law, and so they have been repatriating these defectors; or, they have them arrested or killed (if they are deported back to North Korea, they’ll essentially be killed anyway). The goal of the protests is "No Olympics in Beijing Without Human Rights for North Koreans.” The protest started 444 days before the Olympics are set to start, and it happens every weekend.
We followed the protesters for a while, and they eventually led us to a sort of street stage,
where there was a performance of drumming and traditional Korean instruments. It seemed to be a school group, maybe, since they were pretty young. There were some people dancing, too, and at one point this guy was wearing a hat with a really long ribbon on it, and he’d wave his head around, and the ribbon would make big loops in the air. It looked really wacky.
After that, we went to my new favorite place, which is called Ice Berry. For a little taste of how amazing and bizarre it is, go to http://www.iceberry.com/ and click on the pink button. It’s really something special. I’ll wait –
Ice Berry is sort of ice cream, except it is actually ice, and cream. It’s a big bowl of chipped ice, and then ice cream on top, and you get it with different toppings (fruit, chocolate, cereal???); I had strawberries on mine. It’s a variation of a really popular Korean dessert called Bingsu, except that Bingsu usually has red beans on it, so it’s a little off-putting, but probably delicious.
Getting to Insa Dong proved to be a bit of an ordeal. I took the Subway from Cheyongyangni, to Jongno-(sam)-ga. It’s easy enough to get to the station, but at this particular station, there are three lines that run though, and the exit to Insa Dong is at the far end of the last one. So, I have to walk from the farthest end of the first station, all the way through the second, to the farthest end of the third. It seems to me that it rather defeats the purpose of taking the subway, if you still have to walk about 25 minutes to get where you want to go.
Even though it’s secretly trashy, Insa Dong is still a pretty cool place to look around. My favorite parts of the area, though, were the ones that weren’t trying to be “cultural.” There is a really cool shopping mall, which is really just a giant spiral ramp, with the stores on the outside edge, and open on the inside, so that you can look down into the courtyard below. There were some really interesting stores, leather crafts, jewelry, accessories, and the like. There were also, tucked along beside staircases, and in corners, some really interesting pieces of installation art.While Insa Dong is probably most known for its street vendors, we saw some other really cool (and scary!) things while we were there.
The streets are closed on the weekends to vehicular traffic, because there are so many people. While we were pressing our way through the crowds, we saw a group of people protesting. There were two people with hoods on, and their wrists and ankles tied together, and then to each other. They were being led down the street by a man in an army uniform holding a machine gun! The gunman represented the Chinese army, and the hooded people North Korean refugees, although they clearly were not (even though we couldn’t see their faces, they spoke English, as did the girl who explained to us what was happening, and most of the protesters were white). 
The scenario: as many as 300,000 people defected from North Korea in the last several years, and fled to China to hide. Since China won the bid for the Olympic Games, they have been under pressure to uphold International Law, and so they have been repatriating these defectors; or, they have them arrested or killed (if they are deported back to North Korea, they’ll essentially be killed anyway). The goal of the protests is "No Olympics in Beijing Without Human Rights for North Koreans.” The protest started 444 days before the Olympics are set to start, and it happens every weekend.We followed the protesters for a while, and they eventually led us to a sort of street stage,
where there was a performance of drumming and traditional Korean instruments. It seemed to be a school group, maybe, since they were pretty young. There were some people dancing, too, and at one point this guy was wearing a hat with a really long ribbon on it, and he’d wave his head around, and the ribbon would make big loops in the air. It looked really wacky.After that, we went to my new favorite place, which is called Ice Berry. For a little taste of how amazing and bizarre it is, go to http://www.iceberry.com/ and click on the pink button. It’s really something special. I’ll wait –
Ice Berry is sort of ice cream, except it is actually ice, and cream. It’s a big bowl of chipped ice, and then ice cream on top, and you get it with different toppings (fruit, chocolate, cereal???); I had strawberries on mine. It’s a variation of a really popular Korean dessert called Bingsu, except that Bingsu usually has red beans on it, so it’s a little off-putting, but probably delicious.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Vacation!
July 27-31
We have a vacation from July 27-31 (which includes Saturday and Sunday, which I never work, but nonetheless count among my already paltry number of vacation days for the year). So BBro and I made plans (aka she made all the plans, and I did nothing) to go to Busan for the weekend.
Busan (also, for some reason, spelled Pusan) is toward the south-east of Korea, and is the second biggest city in the country. We wanted to have as much time as we could in the city, so we woke up bright and early (5:30 for me) and met at Seoul Station, where the KTX trains leave from. BBro was about half an hour late, as one of us ALWAYS is, but we still had lots of time to transfer from the subway to the normal train, and find our gate and have breakfast (oreos and canned ice coffee – breakfast of champions). So then we get on the train for our long, long, long journey. We got some crackers from the cart on the train, which had something creamy on them (cream? Maybe? Butter?), which is pretty gross, and yet completely typical for Korea. The ride itself is pretty uneventful, but the train goes about 800 km/h, which is pretty cool.
So our first shop was some place that was supposed to have amazing shopping. Alas, it only had women’s clothing stores, which sort of blew for me. But it did have a store called BEYONCE which is amazing.
But overall, not good. I also tripped on a table at lunch. Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art, on account of I love modern art <3<3<3<3 Fiona Valverde <3<3<3 But it was closed, until the next day when a new exhibit opened. OMG I hate vacation, everything that happens is just like in stupid Seoul. So, back on the subway again, and – oh, the first time we tried to get on, we thought we could use out T-money cards from Seoul, so we swiped them, and….walked right in to the turnstiles. Awkward! So this time we knew better and we got our tickets from the machine. I wanted to see if anyone would notice if we got child tickets (half price), so I pressed the button, and this random woman FREAKED OUT and tried to “help us,” by buying us adult tickets. While BBro was choking to death.
Anyway, when we got off our (full price) subway ride, this crazy old man started talking to us – instead of just giggling and pointing, as is usually the case. But he was about 110 years old, so he was clearly senile. He told us about how he was in the Korean military, and he was the English interpreter when they were in the US. His English was actually pretty good, up until the point when he asked “Can you understand my English,” and we stared at him all agape; for some reason we had understood everything previous, but not this.
So we ruined an old man’s self-esteem. Anyhoo, he still decided he wanted to take us wherever we were going, which was the Millak fish village. It took us FOREVER to find it; he decided he had to go home, and gave us some horrible directions, but we had a map anyway. So we go in this grody looking building, that’s just tank after tank after tank of fish, and shellfish, and SHARKS, and some weird tubules. We got two different kinds of fish from a nice lady. Now, I love sushi, but seeing the fish have their heads cut off and skin cut off, and then put in front of me to eat… I wasn’t that hungry. I recovered though, and it was actually really good. Clearly the freshest fish possible ever in the world.
After that we went to this amusement park called Me World, that we saw perched atop a hill. It had a roller coaster and a ferris wheel, and a flume ride (as well as these crazy animals that you can drive around the park), and its incredibly amazing. Then we got a cab and tried to take us to the hotel the website itinerary suggested, which it turns out IS NOT EVEN A HOTEL AT ALL. It’s some sort of spa.
Plus, I got in trouble there because I didn’t put my shoes in the “encampment for shoes.” So, we have to find another place to stay, even though this one took about an hour to find (the cab driver didn’t know where it was, then we tried to find it on our own, then an old man [so nice in Busan! But crazy] told us where it was). The second place we found was… Who knows – no English name. A love motel. But we didn’t stay there long, we walked down the street to where the restaurants are, and this man ATTACKED US, trying to get us to eat at his restaurant. So we did (But a woman using the same “advertising” approach, for the same restaurant, made a kid cry). We got some clams, which the guy cooked at our table, and they were AMAZING. So winner.
Day two started much the same way that day one ended: with a huge seafood meal. Apparently its all they have in Busan, since it’s right on the coast. We got this octopus and onion omlette. Which sounds bizarre, but is actually pretty delicious. Except for it comes with a bowl of tiny dried fish. Not so hot.
Then we went to the Yonggungsa Temple, which is a pretty nice place once you get down A HUNDRED AND EIGHT FRIGGING STAIRS. Which might be fine on a normal day, but when the temperature is the highest its been so far this year, and the humidity is about 10000%, its not THAT fun. But it was really interesting to see the temple, and the monks, and the weird underground crypt that people pray in, and all the Buddha statues (I rubbed a belly for good luck!) that people make offerings to (generally milk, it seems, which might not be the best idea on this hot day), and the…. Gift shop? I thought monks took a vow of poverty. And this shit is expensive too. BBro got a lovely “authentic” (ie: it has a “made in China” sticker) Buddha paperweight snowglobe. The gold coins offered to Buddha in it? American pennies. You stay classy, Yonggungsa Temple…
Also, there are Swastikas everywhere at Temples. Interesting…
Next we went to the most amazing aquarium. It had everything I’d ever heard of, and then some. And penguins! And also this live show, which had a mermaid, which was awesome, and then a pirate, who was horrible and disgusting, so we left at that part.
We saw the hugest turtles and sharks and jellyfish, and the whole thing was underground. Then we went on the hilariously cheesy “simulation ride” which is like a roller coaster, only it doesn’t roll (or coast, for that matter), it just sort of jostles around in front of a screen of an under-the-sea scene. Awesome, nonetheless. Oh, and we had Bennigans for dinner too, which had good bread, but was otherwise fairly disgusting. It’s because they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to have Korean food or American food, so they tried to come up with some horrible, soggy hybrid. One way or the other, folks.
After all that – it’s the longest, narrowest restaurant I’ve ever seen, it takes like 45 minutes to walk from one end to the other – we went to the Mipo Harbour for a cruise! While we were waiting in line, it started to sprinkle a little bit. No worries, the boat was going to be IN water anyway, so we figured it wouldn’t be affected much. When we got on the boat, it was pouring pretty hard, but we were still pumped, we weren’t going to let it get us down.
By the time we set off, though, it was the CRAZIEST, most hardcore storm I had ever seen. The boat was rocking so hard, and rain was coming in EVERYWHERE. We were sitting in the front row, and the canopy didn’t quite make it all the way, so we might have gotten a little extra, even. At one point the driver announced something, but we ignored him… until a few minutes later I looked back and every! single! person! was gone! Apparently there’s a downstairs to the boat, and he told them to go down. Only we couldn’t hear or see what was going on. Hi! We’re tourists! The boat ride was so intense, and the islands we went to see were barely visible because the rain was so hard and the waves were so high. But since it’s Korean weather, the ride back was perfectly smooth and fine.
After that terrifying few hours, we tried to find a mall that the website itinerary had recommended, and the amazing-sounded Horrorwood, which is to be found within said mall. First problem: the mall’s name is completely wrong in the itinerary. Problem the second: Horrorwood isn’t in the mall. At all! Ugh. Never trust that stupid itinerary. That’s twice now. Dejected, we took the train to Gyeongju (2 hours), and then a cab to the Sarangchae Guest House (ok, itinerary, you get one more chance). Since BBro’s director had cancelled our reservation, instead of confirming it, it was, of course, full. Luckily we found the All-in Motel fairly close by, which had this cracked-out Sauna Shower, which I used to about 45 minutes – which is a bad BAD idea. I was so steamy at the end, I could barely breathe. And it had the HUGEST bed, which led to a good sleep…….
Day three! We left the All-in (and its huge rack of porn), and found a restaurant for breakfast. We add cold noodles and sat on the floor (we’re practically Korean!), and then walked to a park called Daereungwon. This whole area of Gyeongju is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which makes it pretty cool.
The first sight was a group of tombs of former rulers, who are buried, and then on top are HUGE mounds, like man-made grassy mountains. They bury husbands and wives next to each other, and it totally makes their graves look like boobs… Anyway, they excavated one of them, and you can walk into it. The guy in this grave is living in style! Er… Dying in style? Well, already dead in style, I suppose. Anyway, his tomb is pimped out – air conditioned. Some of the artifacts they found are in cases around the tomb, they’re pretty interesting. The kings must have always had sore backs, they had to wear so much bling. This was also the site of my favorite moment in Korea
Brittany: Hi! You…Take…Picture? Us? Here?
Guy: Sure, ok, where do you want to stand?
[We pose]
Brittany: Gamsahamnida
Guy: …I’m Chinese…
Bahaha. It still makes me laugh, to think about it. “Asians all look the same,” she tries to reason. Anyway, when we had walked out the end of the park and were where we started our morning, we asked a tour guide where to find out next stop, the Cheomseongdae Observatory, “Sure, just go back to the other entrance, and ….” Of course.
A long walk later, we found it, and it was…Frankly, a lot less cool than I thought it would be. It’s pretty much just a stone tower. And not even a really big one. It’s pretty old, but still, I was expecting more. Then we saw a famous forest… an ice storage room… where a palace used to be… And then Anapji Pond, a huge pond with a bunch of buildings around it, which was actually quite stunning. The king who had it built wanted to use it as a place to breed rare and exotic animals. Now people go there to have picnics.
Next we took the bus to Bulguksi Temple, which is the most famous temple in the country, and houses many of South Korea’s national treasures (Dongdaemun is national treasure number one, haha suckers). The walk to this temple didn’t have as many tacky gifts, but it had about 50 people selling corndogs. Everything leading up to the Temple is horrible and tacky, but then once you get there, its huge and breathtaking.
It’s just gigantic, open rooms one after another, and then the ones that are closed in have row upon row of paper lanters, and interesting artifacts. But, alas, they have a “photo prohibition,” according to their signs. We skipped our last stop, a Grotto, and instead went back toward the station. We stopped at a huge bakery that had about 40 bakers working, and they all make little breads filled with red bean. The first bite I thought it tasted ok, but turns out that no, it’s horrible and disgusting. Good thing we bought 20 of them. To get that taste out of our mouths, we went to So-and-sos Yogurt Ice Cream (that’s not its real name, I just have a bad memory). We asked for yogurt ice cream, and they said no!? So we pointed at the menu, emblazoned with Yogurt Ice Cream, and pretty much nothing else (since it’s a Yogurt Ice Cream store). Still no. Point to the giant picture of ice cream? No. Point to the ice cream machine that’s clearly right there? Another no. Man, they really did not want to sell us ice cream.
So, we just went to the station, and had a heck of a time trying to buy tickets. But eventually we got them, and even did our transfer (fairly) successfully (Oh my gosh! Is this it? I can’t tell if this is it! Should we get off? What if this isn’t it? I’ll go look! I can’t tell if this is it! There’s no sign!). We arrived back in Seoul quite late. All in all, quite the successful trip!
We have a vacation from July 27-31 (which includes Saturday and Sunday, which I never work, but nonetheless count among my already paltry number of vacation days for the year). So BBro and I made plans (aka she made all the plans, and I did nothing) to go to Busan for the weekend.
Busan (also, for some reason, spelled Pusan) is toward the south-east of Korea, and is the second biggest city in the country. We wanted to have as much time as we could in the city, so we woke up bright and early (5:30 for me) and met at Seoul Station, where the KTX trains leave from. BBro was about half an hour late, as one of us ALWAYS is, but we still had lots of time to transfer from the subway to the normal train, and find our gate and have breakfast (oreos and canned ice coffee – breakfast of champions). So then we get on the train for our long, long, long journey. We got some crackers from the cart on the train, which had something creamy on them (cream? Maybe? Butter?), which is pretty gross, and yet completely typical for Korea. The ride itself is pretty uneventful, but the train goes about 800 km/h, which is pretty cool.So our first shop was some place that was supposed to have amazing shopping. Alas, it only had women’s clothing stores, which sort of blew for me. But it did have a store called BEYONCE which is amazing.
But overall, not good. I also tripped on a table at lunch. Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art, on account of I love modern art <3<3<3<3 Fiona Valverde <3<3<3 But it was closed, until the next day when a new exhibit opened. OMG I hate vacation, everything that happens is just like in stupid Seoul. So, back on the subway again, and – oh, the first time we tried to get on, we thought we could use out T-money cards from Seoul, so we swiped them, and….walked right in to the turnstiles. Awkward! So this time we knew better and we got our tickets from the machine. I wanted to see if anyone would notice if we got child tickets (half price), so I pressed the button, and this random woman FREAKED OUT and tried to “help us,” by buying us adult tickets. While BBro was choking to death.Anyway, when we got off our (full price) subway ride, this crazy old man started talking to us – instead of just giggling and pointing, as is usually the case. But he was about 110 years old, so he was clearly senile. He told us about how he was in the Korean military, and he was the English interpreter when they were in the US. His English was actually pretty good, up until the point when he asked “Can you understand my English,” and we stared at him all agape; for some reason we had understood everything previous, but not this.
So we ruined an old man’s self-esteem. Anyhoo, he still decided he wanted to take us wherever we were going, which was the Millak fish village. It took us FOREVER to find it; he decided he had to go home, and gave us some horrible directions, but we had a map anyway. So we go in this grody looking building, that’s just tank after tank after tank of fish, and shellfish, and SHARKS, and some weird tubules. We got two different kinds of fish from a nice lady. Now, I love sushi, but seeing the fish have their heads cut off and skin cut off, and then put in front of me to eat… I wasn’t that hungry. I recovered though, and it was actually really good. Clearly the freshest fish possible ever in the world.After that we went to this amusement park called Me World, that we saw perched atop a hill. It had a roller coaster and a ferris wheel, and a flume ride (as well as these crazy animals that you can drive around the park), and its incredibly amazing. Then we got a cab and tried to take us to the hotel the website itinerary suggested, which it turns out IS NOT EVEN A HOTEL AT ALL. It’s some sort of spa.
Plus, I got in trouble there because I didn’t put my shoes in the “encampment for shoes.” So, we have to find another place to stay, even though this one took about an hour to find (the cab driver didn’t know where it was, then we tried to find it on our own, then an old man [so nice in Busan! But crazy] told us where it was). The second place we found was… Who knows – no English name. A love motel. But we didn’t stay there long, we walked down the street to where the restaurants are, and this man ATTACKED US, trying to get us to eat at his restaurant. So we did (But a woman using the same “advertising” approach, for the same restaurant, made a kid cry). We got some clams, which the guy cooked at our table, and they were AMAZING. So winner.Day two started much the same way that day one ended: with a huge seafood meal. Apparently its all they have in Busan, since it’s right on the coast. We got this octopus and onion omlette. Which sounds bizarre, but is actually pretty delicious. Except for it comes with a bowl of tiny dried fish. Not so hot.
Then we went to the Yonggungsa Temple, which is a pretty nice place once you get down A HUNDRED AND EIGHT FRIGGING STAIRS. Which might be fine on a normal day, but when the temperature is the highest its been so far this year, and the humidity is about 10000%, its not THAT fun. But it was really interesting to see the temple, and the monks, and the weird underground crypt that people pray in, and all the Buddha statues (I rubbed a belly for good luck!) that people make offerings to (generally milk, it seems, which might not be the best idea on this hot day), and the…. Gift shop? I thought monks took a vow of poverty. And this shit is expensive too. BBro got a lovely “authentic” (ie: it has a “made in China” sticker) Buddha paperweight snowglobe. The gold coins offered to Buddha in it? American pennies. You stay classy, Yonggungsa Temple…Also, there are Swastikas everywhere at Temples. Interesting…
Next we went to the most amazing aquarium. It had everything I’d ever heard of, and then some. And penguins! And also this live show, which had a mermaid, which was awesome, and then a pirate, who was horrible and disgusting, so we left at that part.
We saw the hugest turtles and sharks and jellyfish, and the whole thing was underground. Then we went on the hilariously cheesy “simulation ride” which is like a roller coaster, only it doesn’t roll (or coast, for that matter), it just sort of jostles around in front of a screen of an under-the-sea scene. Awesome, nonetheless. Oh, and we had Bennigans for dinner too, which had good bread, but was otherwise fairly disgusting. It’s because they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to have Korean food or American food, so they tried to come up with some horrible, soggy hybrid. One way or the other, folks.After all that – it’s the longest, narrowest restaurant I’ve ever seen, it takes like 45 minutes to walk from one end to the other – we went to the Mipo Harbour for a cruise! While we were waiting in line, it started to sprinkle a little bit. No worries, the boat was going to be IN water anyway, so we figured it wouldn’t be affected much. When we got on the boat, it was pouring pretty hard, but we were still pumped, we weren’t going to let it get us down.
By the time we set off, though, it was the CRAZIEST, most hardcore storm I had ever seen. The boat was rocking so hard, and rain was coming in EVERYWHERE. We were sitting in the front row, and the canopy didn’t quite make it all the way, so we might have gotten a little extra, even. At one point the driver announced something, but we ignored him… until a few minutes later I looked back and every! single! person! was gone! Apparently there’s a downstairs to the boat, and he told them to go down. Only we couldn’t hear or see what was going on. Hi! We’re tourists! The boat ride was so intense, and the islands we went to see were barely visible because the rain was so hard and the waves were so high. But since it’s Korean weather, the ride back was perfectly smooth and fine.After that terrifying few hours, we tried to find a mall that the website itinerary had recommended, and the amazing-sounded Horrorwood, which is to be found within said mall. First problem: the mall’s name is completely wrong in the itinerary. Problem the second: Horrorwood isn’t in the mall. At all! Ugh. Never trust that stupid itinerary. That’s twice now. Dejected, we took the train to Gyeongju (2 hours), and then a cab to the Sarangchae Guest House (ok, itinerary, you get one more chance). Since BBro’s director had cancelled our reservation, instead of confirming it, it was, of course, full. Luckily we found the All-in Motel fairly close by, which had this cracked-out Sauna Shower, which I used to about 45 minutes – which is a bad BAD idea. I was so steamy at the end, I could barely breathe. And it had the HUGEST bed, which led to a good sleep…….
Day three! We left the All-in (and its huge rack of porn), and found a restaurant for breakfast. We add cold noodles and sat on the floor (we’re practically Korean!), and then walked to a park called Daereungwon. This whole area of Gyeongju is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which makes it pretty cool.
The first sight was a group of tombs of former rulers, who are buried, and then on top are HUGE mounds, like man-made grassy mountains. They bury husbands and wives next to each other, and it totally makes their graves look like boobs… Anyway, they excavated one of them, and you can walk into it. The guy in this grave is living in style! Er… Dying in style? Well, already dead in style, I suppose. Anyway, his tomb is pimped out – air conditioned. Some of the artifacts they found are in cases around the tomb, they’re pretty interesting. The kings must have always had sore backs, they had to wear so much bling. This was also the site of my favorite moment in KoreaBrittany: Hi! You…Take…Picture? Us? Here?
Guy: Sure, ok, where do you want to stand?
[We pose]
Brittany: Gamsahamnida
Guy: …I’m Chinese…
Bahaha. It still makes me laugh, to think about it. “Asians all look the same,” she tries to reason. Anyway, when we had walked out the end of the park and were where we started our morning, we asked a tour guide where to find out next stop, the Cheomseongdae Observatory, “Sure, just go back to the other entrance, and ….” Of course.
A long walk later, we found it, and it was…Frankly, a lot less cool than I thought it would be. It’s pretty much just a stone tower. And not even a really big one. It’s pretty old, but still, I was expecting more. Then we saw a famous forest… an ice storage room… where a palace used to be… And then Anapji Pond, a huge pond with a bunch of buildings around it, which was actually quite stunning. The king who had it built wanted to use it as a place to breed rare and exotic animals. Now people go there to have picnics.Next we took the bus to Bulguksi Temple, which is the most famous temple in the country, and houses many of South Korea’s national treasures (Dongdaemun is national treasure number one, haha suckers). The walk to this temple didn’t have as many tacky gifts, but it had about 50 people selling corndogs. Everything leading up to the Temple is horrible and tacky, but then once you get there, its huge and breathtaking.
It’s just gigantic, open rooms one after another, and then the ones that are closed in have row upon row of paper lanters, and interesting artifacts. But, alas, they have a “photo prohibition,” according to their signs. We skipped our last stop, a Grotto, and instead went back toward the station. We stopped at a huge bakery that had about 40 bakers working, and they all make little breads filled with red bean. The first bite I thought it tasted ok, but turns out that no, it’s horrible and disgusting. Good thing we bought 20 of them. To get that taste out of our mouths, we went to So-and-sos Yogurt Ice Cream (that’s not its real name, I just have a bad memory). We asked for yogurt ice cream, and they said no!? So we pointed at the menu, emblazoned with Yogurt Ice Cream, and pretty much nothing else (since it’s a Yogurt Ice Cream store). Still no. Point to the giant picture of ice cream? No. Point to the ice cream machine that’s clearly right there? Another no. Man, they really did not want to sell us ice cream.So, we just went to the station, and had a heck of a time trying to buy tickets. But eventually we got them, and even did our transfer (fairly) successfully (Oh my gosh! Is this it? I can’t tell if this is it! Should we get off? What if this isn’t it? I’ll go look! I can’t tell if this is it! There’s no sign!). We arrived back in Seoul quite late. All in all, quite the successful trip!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The Lost Boy
June 28th
Here's an email I wrote to BBro about the experience I had coming back from her house:
Sooooo....
You know how I left your place at like 8:30 the other day... Guess what time I got home? 2:00.
I hate Korea.
I took the Subway first, and I thought everything was fine. Then I got off at the stop I was supposed to transfer at. And for some reason their colors are different. So I was following the blue signs, because I wanted the blue line. So naturally that was the purple line. So I went back the other wayand got on the green line... Which is the blue line. Then I got off at Cheyongyangni (whatever), which for some reason is on the map twice.
So I get on the 420 which supposedly stops at my school. Of course it doesn't. Maybe it takes a different route in the opposite direction? I just assumed I missed it, so I stay on, because I also assume the bus does a circle. It doesn't. So I'm at the other end of the city and the bus comes to
the end of its route. I'm the ONLY person on it. The driver tells me to get off, and points to another bus.
So, back the other way. I'm clearly not on a bus that goes to Dongdaemun, just back across the river. So the guy tries to tell me how to get to Dongdaemun? I think? Eventually a kid who speaks English gets on and we have this exchange:
KID: Get off at (whatever) stop, ok?
ME: ...ok
KID: Do you know where (blah) is?
ME: no
KID: then how were you going to get off there
ME: ...
KID: do you have any Korean friends?
ME: Not yet, I just got here
KID: You're going to have a lot of problems.
Jerk.
So then we get to (so and so) stop and the bus driver gets out of his bus and CHASES DOWN ANOTHER BUS. As if they don't come every 30 seconds! So I get on THAT bus... Finally this guy goes Dongdaemun, Dongdaemun, and like pushes me toward the door. So I start walking.
Half an hour later, guess where I am. Same place I started! Somehow. So I walk some more. And then I'm in like whatever-dong or -gu, or whatever.
Eventually I try to get a cab. I was reluctant because of our horror last time. Plus I was pretty sure I knew where I was going. Samsung. Turn. etc. So, I stick my arm out, and a cab that was already passed me, and going like 100 m/h, SLAMS on his brakes. I say Tapshimni Sagury... He deliberates for literally minutes. With the counter thing going. Then drives. Then stops and
deliberates some more. Then yells at the police (!!!) then drives. Clearly doesn't know where he's going. Eventually he drives past my motel. Finally.
Thank God.
Worst day ever.
Good chicken though.
Here's an email I wrote to BBro about the experience I had coming back from her house:
Sooooo....
You know how I left your place at like 8:30 the other day... Guess what time I got home? 2:00.
I hate Korea.
I took the Subway first, and I thought everything was fine. Then I got off at the stop I was supposed to transfer at. And for some reason their colors are different. So I was following the blue signs, because I wanted the blue line. So naturally that was the purple line. So I went back the other wayand got on the green line... Which is the blue line. Then I got off at Cheyongyangni (whatever), which for some reason is on the map twice.
So I get on the 420 which supposedly stops at my school. Of course it doesn't. Maybe it takes a different route in the opposite direction? I just assumed I missed it, so I stay on, because I also assume the bus does a circle. It doesn't. So I'm at the other end of the city and the bus comes to
the end of its route. I'm the ONLY person on it. The driver tells me to get off, and points to another bus.
So, back the other way. I'm clearly not on a bus that goes to Dongdaemun, just back across the river. So the guy tries to tell me how to get to Dongdaemun? I think? Eventually a kid who speaks English gets on and we have this exchange:
KID: Get off at (whatever) stop, ok?
ME: ...ok
KID: Do you know where (blah) is?
ME: no
KID: then how were you going to get off there
ME: ...
KID: do you have any Korean friends?
ME: Not yet, I just got here
KID: You're going to have a lot of problems.
Jerk.
So then we get to (so and so) stop and the bus driver gets out of his bus and CHASES DOWN ANOTHER BUS. As if they don't come every 30 seconds! So I get on THAT bus... Finally this guy goes Dongdaemun, Dongdaemun, and like pushes me toward the door. So I start walking.
Half an hour later, guess where I am. Same place I started! Somehow. So I walk some more. And then I'm in like whatever-dong or -gu, or whatever.
Eventually I try to get a cab. I was reluctant because of our horror last time. Plus I was pretty sure I knew where I was going. Samsung. Turn. etc. So, I stick my arm out, and a cab that was already passed me, and going like 100 m/h, SLAMS on his brakes. I say Tapshimni Sagury... He deliberates for literally minutes. With the counter thing going. Then drives. Then stops and
deliberates some more. Then yells at the police (!!!) then drives. Clearly doesn't know where he's going. Eventually he drives past my motel. Finally.
Thank God.
Worst day ever.
Good chicken though.
Some local flavor
June 24th
When I finally wake up from an entire day of sleeping, I try to find the motel lady, to find out the address of the motel, so I can get my bags delivered. After trying to explain to her my needs, she just calls her son, who speaks English. After a few minutes he manages to tell me 99-1, and then tries to spell the name of the place. He gets as far as T-O-P-S-H-I-T-L-I-R (before he gives up, and says he’ll just come over. And this whole conversation took about 10 minutes, to get those 10 letters out of him). So he brings me the address, which, it turns out, is Dapsimni. That’s sort of close. Anyhoo, once the lady helps me figure out the phone, I call the Korean Air people, and they tell me that they’ll bring my bags the next day. That was relatively painless! Finally something that went right!
Next I called Alaina, with the number I had gotten from my [approximately] 30 second chat with Mom and Dad. My first try, I ran out of coins, but upon attempt number two, she tells me to meet her and BBro at Dondaemun Stadium Station – take a taxi there, and then I can get a card for the Subway. I head out onto the street to try and find a taxi. They all seem to be on one side of the street, so I go to the corner, and go across to that side. The sidewalk seem to be gated along here, for some reason, so its hard to get a taxi somewhere other than the intersection. By the time I get across the street, the light had changed or something, because all the taxis are gone from here, and are at a different corner. Several attempts later, I stop fooling around and just step into the middle of the street to get a cab. “Dongdaemun Stadium Station,” I say. “Dongdaemun Station?,” he replies. Awesome! He understands English! …Or so I thought. He drops me at Dongdaemun Station, which, of course, is not Dongdaemun Stadium Station. I didn’t realize this, though, until I went down the stairs and back up every exit at the station. And there are a lot. Then I saw some roadsigns that said Dongdaemun Stadium, and followed them, assuming the Station would be at least close. It’s not, particularly. It took a good half hour of walking around the stadium to find it. But I did!
It turns out that Dongdaemun Stadium Station is rather…epic. But somehow BBro and Alaina manage to find me. So we go to McDonalds for lunch. You know… For some of the local flavor. I did actually have a Bulgogi Burger, whatever that is. It was pretty alright. Getting home, though, was an ordeal. BBro and I tried to walk home from… Wherever we ended up, because I thought that with my VAST experience of the city, I’d be able to find a tiny motel in a city of 12 million people. Needless to say, we didn’t. We walked for several hours, stopping in stores every few blocks to ask for directions, and even getting help from randoms on the street. Eventually we called BBro’s director, and she told us to get a cab to Dapsimni Sageory (the junction closest to the motel). And what do you know, about half a block away, there it is!
When I finally wake up from an entire day of sleeping, I try to find the motel lady, to find out the address of the motel, so I can get my bags delivered. After trying to explain to her my needs, she just calls her son, who speaks English. After a few minutes he manages to tell me 99-1, and then tries to spell the name of the place. He gets as far as T-O-P-S-H-I-T-L-I-R (before he gives up, and says he’ll just come over. And this whole conversation took about 10 minutes, to get those 10 letters out of him). So he brings me the address, which, it turns out, is Dapsimni. That’s sort of close. Anyhoo, once the lady helps me figure out the phone, I call the Korean Air people, and they tell me that they’ll bring my bags the next day. That was relatively painless! Finally something that went right!
Next I called Alaina, with the number I had gotten from my [approximately] 30 second chat with Mom and Dad. My first try, I ran out of coins, but upon attempt number two, she tells me to meet her and BBro at Dondaemun Stadium Station – take a taxi there, and then I can get a card for the Subway. I head out onto the street to try and find a taxi. They all seem to be on one side of the street, so I go to the corner, and go across to that side. The sidewalk seem to be gated along here, for some reason, so its hard to get a taxi somewhere other than the intersection. By the time I get across the street, the light had changed or something, because all the taxis are gone from here, and are at a different corner. Several attempts later, I stop fooling around and just step into the middle of the street to get a cab. “Dongdaemun Stadium Station,” I say. “Dongdaemun Station?,” he replies. Awesome! He understands English! …Or so I thought. He drops me at Dongdaemun Station, which, of course, is not Dongdaemun Stadium Station. I didn’t realize this, though, until I went down the stairs and back up every exit at the station. And there are a lot. Then I saw some roadsigns that said Dongdaemun Stadium, and followed them, assuming the Station would be at least close. It’s not, particularly. It took a good half hour of walking around the stadium to find it. But I did!
It turns out that Dongdaemun Stadium Station is rather…epic. But somehow BBro and Alaina manage to find me. So we go to McDonalds for lunch. You know… For some of the local flavor. I did actually have a Bulgogi Burger, whatever that is. It was pretty alright. Getting home, though, was an ordeal. BBro and I tried to walk home from… Wherever we ended up, because I thought that with my VAST experience of the city, I’d be able to find a tiny motel in a city of 12 million people. Needless to say, we didn’t. We walked for several hours, stopping in stores every few blocks to ask for directions, and even getting help from randoms on the street. Eventually we called BBro’s director, and she told us to get a cab to Dapsimni Sageory (the junction closest to the motel). And what do you know, about half a block away, there it is!
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