DIMINISHED THOUGHT

The other night Chris and I went to a jimjilbang, a Korean bathhouse, that bears little to no resemblance to the 1920's American establishments adorning bathhouse row in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The first thing you do is you fork over your shoes when walking in and take a small key from the tiny locker you put your shoes in on the way in. You then give this key to a man at a desk (essentially they're going to be holding your shoes hostage) to receive a key to a larger locker in which you place all your clothing and belongings after stripping. These lockers are just off a common area where there are lots of naked men lounging about watching television and reading the paper. A small counter with toiletry products ran across one wall for those ready to rejoin the outside world.

Once your are naked you make your way to the actually bathing facility which in this place had a very modern, institutional, stream lined feel. It was made of primarily black granite, tile, and stainless steel with tubs made of a kind of smoothed polished concrete. As we walked in Chris told me, "Be prepared to be watched like hawks." They apparently don't get a lot of white guys... The first thing you do is you take a pretty normal shower just like you would anywhere. The key is to make sure they that you are a clean before you hop in the baths. From there you can go to any of the baths or saunas they have. Chris noted that there might be a particular order for doing this but he was unaware of it.

In the center of the room they had three concrete hot tubs with red LED signs noting the relative temperature of each. We jumped into one in which a Korean guy was hanging out and Chris noted, "I bet this guy won't last two minutes." Sooner than later (although he did last longer than 2 minutes) this guy left the pool. From there I went on to try most all of the baths facilities. You could hop back and forth between the hot pools that reached a total of 45 degrees Celsius. After getting all hot you could run over to this little area filled with smooth, black river stones that were supposed to be good for your feet and hit a small button the back wall this would start a torrent of cold water from a nozzle on the ceiling that beat down on you like a cold water fall causing you to lose your breath as your body struggled to make sense of the abusive temperature change.

After this you could run into a small sauna like room that functions as a cold room. Condensation from the bath has cooled and frozen as ice on the walls and over head there is a giant refrigerator coil creating the impression of being inside someone's ice box. If you run next door you'll enter a steam room filled with plastic chairs and a large boiler in the corner. It is primarily tile and drops of water have collected on the ceiling into hot little droplets that hang like a thousand little swords of damocles ready to fall on your naked skin. I set down in a chair a little ways away from the boiler only to have it shoot out a stream of steam in two directions barely missing me. I have no doubt that it would have seriously burned me had I been so unlucky and thoughtless as to sit directly before it. The hot damp air feels heavy in your lungs and those droplets can't be controlled and fall on the most painful and inappropriate places so you go on to the next room. The next room is a traditional sauna that reaches 178 degrees Fahrenheit. Note that this a grand total of 34 degrees difference from the boiling point of water. Suffice to say that one cannot stay in this room for long. Still it's uniquely beautiful as the owners had inlaid stones and crystals into the walls of this room that I suppose Koreans believe have special properties (this according to Chris). The air burns your nose so mouth breathing is essential and the heat causes your eyes to dry. Your wet hair shortly begins to feel like it's caught fire and you know that it's time for you to leave.

Out in the main room you can run to large "refreshing" pool that is filled with cold, clean water much like a pond in early spring. Your body doesn't really like the temperature change and you'll find yourself gasping. There is a large nozzle on the ceiling in this pool that if you press a button on the wall will shoot you with a stream of water so strong that it beats you back down into the pool like you are a protester fighting against a fire hose. Following this I decide that it was time to quit so I ran and jumped into a pool of tepid water with jets and hung out for a bit talking to Chris.

After this, when it was time to leave, you bathed again. This time you set down on these little plastic stools in front of a shower nozzle and you were given a bar of soap to wash yourself with. It's a bit different experience to do the whole sitting down bathing thing. It seems to so mundane yet odd for someone that has spent the last 20 years of his life on his feet while showering. I guess it makes it easier to wash your feet.

After that you get dressed and your back on the street all clean. What more could you want?

Labels: bath, korea, Travel

Random thoughts:

The ability to ride bicycles on the streets in Asia must be facilitated by natural selection.

I'm taking this moment to out Chris for taking accordion lessons.

I've been looking for one of the horribly grammatically incorrect English t-shirts that all the Koreans seem to wear. I want one that doesn't seem to have a sexual connotation unintentionally (ie. "I will knock some secret into you").

Korean ATM's are criminal. They're charging me an 8 percent (not a withdrawal fee...8 percent!) fee to take out money. Korean bankers should be drug into the streets and shot.

Ok. Tomorrow I'm guest teaching Chris's classes. Why? Because I thought it would be fun and most week long visitors don't get the opportunity to explore a Korean school and meet a bunch of kids. They typically make you sign on for a year to do that. I'll write more as it comes about.

Labels: korea, Travel

Fan death is a myth. It's crazy but apparently many educated Koreans believe that sleeping under an oscillating fan within a sealed room will cause death. A few nights ago we went out to dinner and this came up after the main course. Chris just seemed exasperated. "Sleeping under a fan will not kill you."

So Chris and I decided to do our own little mythbusters exercise wear we turned on a fan, sealed his room and put ourselves to bed. In the dark I hear Chris ask "Do you suppose it could be something about Korean buildings?" "I guess anything is possible." Needless to say, I'm alive, Chris is alive, the fan is still working. Everyone survived.

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The other day we hiked up a mountain behind Chris's school where they have lots of excercise equipment waiting for those fit enough to get to the top and not be out of breath. The trail follows through the wooded area on the mountain and runs straight up the hill as the Koreans don't seem to jive with the winding, easy path. The difficulty of getting to the top was compounded by the slick, red clay that seemed to coat the mountain and although I did not slip it did occur to me that I might be quite dirty by the time I got back down.

At the top it was interesting. The first thing that one notices is that there is a large helicopter landing pad ready in the case of invasion from the north. As you walk around the mountain top you begin to find gunners nest and prebuilt bunkers of cinder block with shallow trenches that connect them. The S. Koreans are prepared. They'd just need a machine gun and maybe a few sandbags (although not neccesarily) and they'd be good to go. Apparently Daegu was one of the last places taken in the Korean war and they have no intentions of that happening again.

They have lots of dip and chin up bars at the top along with a set of bench presses each with a preset weight that are surrounded by a hovering crowd of middle aged and older Korean men like something out of a jail house film. Chris decided that we needed to lift weights. They began to talk to Chris and ask him about what he did for a living and then finally asked us to try the heaviest weight at the end. This turned out to be 80 kg which is just about my body weight. The old men got up and all shuffled down the end of the row of benches to watch me attempt this feat. I lay there wondering how much this was going to hurt and why I was giving into something akin to peer pressure (but I guess it's only peer pressure if you consider 57 year old Korean men my peers) then exhaled and pushed the bar off the rack. I looked up at Chris standing over me spotting as I pumped through the motions. The first was clumsy and lacked good form but I eventually found balance as was able to show a modicum of grace as I repeated what I felt was a required number of repetitions. I got five off in all. I'm still sore two days later. Still it was kind of cool. After all I was the strongest man on the moutain top.

Click here for pictures.

So yesterday I took the KTX from Seoul to Daegu which reaches a top speed of 300 km per hour shooting through the Korean country side. Let me tell you something right now: Korea is really mountainous. It made me miss my mountain bike. Luckily Chris actually has a pretty nice bike that he said that he would let me ride if I wanted. Yeah!

So from what little I saw Seoul is a bit more polished than Daegu. Daegu has some trash in the streets while even the back alleys of central Seoul seemed to be spotless. Also there is a bit of a difference in how people dress. The teachers from Daegu complained that a lot of the times the Koreans were stuck in the 80's and that the women in Seoul showed quite a bit more skin.

Alright I'm heading out to a Buddhist temple today and I may spend the night out there. We'll see how it goes.

So I've technically been to North Korea. Yesterday I went to the DMZ and visited the JSA where when North Korea and the Republic of Korea do decide to talk they can do it sitting in the same room but in their own respective countries. I'm not kidding. The conference table sits directly on the 38th parrallel and the place is guarded by both sides around the clock. The ROK Marine corps stand like Buckingham palace guards with their arms spread and their hands balled into fists as if they must constantly be prepared to take a swing at you. They where large aviator sunglasses just like that guy in Cool Hand Luke and they give off a constant "Don't F#$# with me" aura.

When you enter the camp they take you up to a pavillion sort of observation tower where you can see the N. Korean side of the border. There are men standing on the other side that are very obviously observing you on the other side through field glasses. The ROK marines stare back but they station themselves so that only half their body is visible from behind the buildings facing N. Korea as to present a lower profile for bullets.

The buildings are primarily two different colors; the silver of the N. Korean side and the UN smurf blue for the good guys. They are designed to be neutral with no decoration and look more or less like house trailers dropped on a lot. A concrete curb runs between the buildings to show where the 38th parrallel lies. Beyond that is a series of small white poles that denote the boundary. Inside the MAC building, which sits on the line is the one and only place you can cross over into N. Korea without a visa or fear.

I was travelling with a bunch of my friend Chris's friends and one among them used to be a member of the communist party in the US. While in the DMZ there was a considerable amount of very vocal encouragement from our traveling companions encouraging him to defect. I was actually suprised that the guards were so layed back about it (well they were motionless) as I thought they would have little sense of humor concerning this. Regardless Jim did not "go home" and we all made it back to Seoul.

On a side note you're only allowed to take pictures in certain areas and one of the guys I was with tried to snap one from his hip as he was walking. A guard came right up to him and asked him to delete it. Very observant. He immediately knew whose shutter it was. Amazing.

Ok, so Paul I've promised pictures. It's not going to be today but soon. I promise.

So yesterday evening I met up with my buddy Chris and some of his friends here in Korea and we went out to eat. They brought out these two huge pans of meat and vegtables that they cooked on a little portable burner placed in the middle of the table. It was full of seafood and beef.

So....I tried soju last night. As the english teachers that I've been hanging out with note it's pumped full of chemicals which I presume act as a preservative and make it a little rough on you the morning after. It's only 40 proof liquor and it's made from sweet potatoes of all things so it has a smooth, sweet, mellow taste that allows for the liquor to sneak up on the unwary.

Previously in the afternoon, I took a tour of of the Korean palaces and I met a frenchman that has been working in Philidelphia and we went out to get a drink. Thus I tried Korean beer, which unlike Chinese beer, seems almost indistinguishable from the American stuff. They're just really light lagers.

Labels: korea, Travel

So what is Seoul food like? Well yesterday I tried to answer than question by eating in a couple different restaurants and today I'll continue my experimentation and report back. Lunch yesterday was in a tiny little restaurant down a side street that contained a few business men in damp suits from the constant Seattle like rains that covered the city yesterday and a pair of young women picking through the remains of their side dishes. One side of the restaurant had a large glass mirror on the wall from which you could observe most of what occurred.

A young woman wearing a baggy yellow t-shirt and sagging cargo shorts that when to mid-shin bussed the table when I came in and let me sit. She asked me what I wanted and I pointed to what one of the young women was eating and she gave me what I assume was some sort of assertation before before padding off to the kitchen across a soaked cardboard box laying on the floor. I could see her washing her hands although the place didn't really look that clean. It was the sort of place that would make my mother cringe. But here's the thing...I find it really difficult to believe that you can actually get sick off a lot of types of Korean food. So many of their dishes are pickled, which functions as a natural antiseptic, that it seems unlikely. When she served up to be what turned out to be some sort of tofu stew with hot chopped peppers in it the dish was boiling. Where are the germs supposed to live?

Anyway I liked the food but my taste for Korean is unsophisticated. I like the place near campus as Purdue which Jiyeon hates (says it's "not very good") so I really shouldn't be considered knowledgable. They gave me a few side dishes with mushrooms, kimchi, and what seemed to be some sort of pickled seafood. Also they gave me a tiny little plastic bottle with foil across the top. When I asked what it was for my waitress managed one word in English: "Dessert". It turned out to be a very thin yogurt loaded with sugar. I confronted Jiyeon about this later. "I thought you said that Koreans didn't like sweet things?" Since I've been here I've managed to get two drinks that were sweeter than anything you would find in the states. She replied that she guessed Koreans like sweet drinks but not really candies or pastries.

So last night for dinner Jiyeon took me to an old school korean barbecue. They take small pieces of meat and cook them on a table top grill. Then after you dip the meat into sesame oil, you place it into one of the several varietys of lettuce/leaves that they provide you along with a dab of rice and peanut paste and shove the whole thing in your mouth. Oh so good. Of course you also have many side dishes and other such things. This whole process truly deserves more of an explanation but I'm getting a little burnt out writing.

Ok so here is a list of quirks about Korea that I find interesting thus far.

1. Koreans drive on the right but on the sidewalk they walk to the left. It's harder to get used to than you'd think because when you forget you just drift back over to the right. I mentioned this to Jiyeon and she asked me how I knew the rule. I told her I observed it. It's actually not to hard once you realize that they actually have painted lanes on the side walk and subway just like vehicles to guide foot traffic.

2. Even the bums have style. The people of Seoul seem to me to be very fashion conscious. I mean some aren't and maybe this is a bit of a generalization or a stretch...I mean I've only been here for one day but it seems that way. I sat next to a bum in a park yesterday (You could tell by looking at his hands...really long natty nails and hadn't shaven) that still seemed to have a kind of urban style. Weird.

3. Koreans are nice. They're very polite and helpful. I haven't made up my mind whether this is genuine friendliness or not though.

4. Metal Chopsticks. They eat with metal chopsticks that I find hard to manipulate than wood. In the two restaurants that I've been in they've been in a little box on the side of the table and when food is served you get them out.

5. Seoul is big. I've been in cities before (Macau comes to mind) that I've walked from one side of it to the other over the course of a day. I don't think you could do that in Seoul.

6. Skin conductivity on the elevators. You don't press the elevator buttons in my hostel, you touch them. I've tried doing it very lightly. Apparently it has to do with conductivity and not pressure. Amazing.

7. Shower clogs. These are awesome and came in the room (Now I won't catch athletes foot!) but they're a little small on me.

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Itinerary for the Day:

Meet Jiyeon to go to market
Eat cold noodles
Mess around
Meet Chris at the train station

Note: Chris's mom sent brownies with me for Chris. This is the message Chris sent me when I didn't call:

"Dude are you alive man? Gimme a call and lemme know you got in ok and the brownies are safe... 010-2415-3833"

Guess his priorities are in order.

Labels: korea, Travel

I'm safe and sound in Seoul (How's that for alliteration?). The flight over here was brutal and I didn't sleep alot. Right now it's one o'clock in the morning and I'm getting to go to bed. Let me just say that Koreans are super polite/nice people. It's like the twilight zone coming from the midwest where I've been hanging out for the past couple of years. I met an exchange student on the plane and a nice Korean lady that immigrated to Canada but after 20 years still couldn't really speak English (she was in Vancouver...no excuse). She helped me know which bus stop to get off at. Then a young woman stopped in the middle of the night to ask me if I was lost. It's just wild.

So I paid about 17 USD for my hostel bed but I have the entire room to myself. It's sparse and showing wear but it's clean. They even had these crazy little plastic clogs for the shower. To top it off I turned on the TV and watched what channel came on. Anyone that's seen MTV in states will not find it hard to believe that the Korean version seems to be better. It's not the high quality of the latter but rather the baseness of the former. It probably helps that I can't understand what they're saying. I imagine I would think more highly of American MTV then. That's all I've got. I'm heading to bed.

Labels: korea, Travel

I'm driving almost all of I-40 this summer. I'm only going to be missing a little stretch in North Carolina but beyond that I AM going coast to coast via car. So on Monday I drove from Asheville, North Carolina to Little Rock, Arkansas through the Smokey Mountains. I'm used to the Ozarks which are an old mountain range and have been ground down my time to nubs of their former selves. In contrast, the Smokeys seem almost sharp with high conical hills, rock faces next to the interstate that had been planed away as they cut the road, and a winding path that quite frankly scared me when the semi's came by.

From there it was on to the rolling hills of Tennessee. All very green. If you looked to the right you could see the city of Nashville which has made itself a permenant fixture on American radio despite the lack of quality of the crap they spin. Not that I dislike country music but I don't like Nashville.

Just before home you reach Shelby county which holds Memphis, Tennessee. I tell people I always know when I'm about home because you see the interstate signs that remind you that "The King is Alive" and "He Lives" and they're not talking about Jesus. You cross the bridge into the Wasteland that is east Arkansas, a flat desolate place that seems to sap the hope of all who enter. As my brother once told me, "There's a reason why they learned to play the blues in the Mississippi- Arkansas delta. Life's hard there." It's hot, flat, and poor.

This plain keeps up until you reach Crowley's ridge, a geological anomaly that just from the flat plane, a narrow strip of ground that just from the surrouding plane. Then it's past Brinkley with it's old cotton plant. The land stays flat until you reach Little Rock where the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains begin. All off a sudden you have rolling hills and thick forest as compared to the farmland you just passed through.

Crossing the I-430 bridge over the Arkansas river you can look to the West and see the sun set over Pinnacle mountain, which in comparison to the Smokey's looks like an aborted misformed attempt at moutainhood. The Little Rock side of the river rises steeply from the bank with a forest hiding the houses that stand on the slope. The sun reflects up off the Arkansas giving an orange, red hue to the quickly graying world.

Labels: i-40, Travel