Seoul Seeking

Aaaaah.....the 'Seoul of Asia'.....there is so much to do! And living a 'mere' 1 1/2 hours away by subway, most weekends seem to lead here. And the last few weekend have produced some interesting finds...

....Like yesterdays stroll in the Yongsan red light district. There are numerous prostitution areas around Korea, usually situated near bus or subway stations to maximise business, but Yongsan is considered one of it's most prominent. It's similar, if not a lot smaller, to Amsterdam, as it works on a window shopping basis: girls sat in brightly lit windows showing what they've got. Korea recently announced a major crack-down on prostitution, planning to demolish and rebuild the red light districts, and a protest again this decision last January left 6 people killed when police 'surpressed' the protest. Walking through the area yesterday was wierdly ghost-like. Almost half of the windows have been smashed and covered with red tape, many of the buildings were abandoned, but then a few of the premises were fighting to stay alive with its bright lights and solitary girls sat in the windows. A police car was parked at the end of the road with lights flashing and policemen talking, but they didn't look in any hurry to stop the girls working. The police turning a blind eye it seems.

Only a stones throw away, and a little less risqué, but involving just as much nudity.....was the huge Dragon Hill Spa where we spent a good 3 hours relaxing and swimming and snoozing and playing and eating. This sauna is built over 7 floors, some communal, some same-sex, and has everything from virtual horse-riding to outdoor steaming jacuzzis to communal sleeping areas. On entering, you are given a pair of pajamas to wear - one size fits all, man and woman, and once inside, you can't but help feel part of a wierd pajama wearing commune. Even the naked areas are fun, even if you do get lost and get pushed by old Korean women trying to stop you from bursting through the doors into the men's section and giving them the shock of their lives. Well worth the 10,000 Won (£5) to get in. Or that's what they'd have thought if we'd have actually burst through. 

The artsy side of Seoul can be found north of Anguk Station, where there are art galleries literally every few metres, all of which (I came across) were free. There was some excellent contemporary art which illustrated Korea in various different ways but each seemingly spot on.

Thomas Struth exhibition, Hyundai Gallery

Even nicer, the galleries are all in the Samcheongdong area, which remains 'old-school Korea' with it's low-rise Hanok buildings instead of the high-rise apartments bollocks....sorry, blocks, you usually see everywhere else. This area was saved from the demolition ball in an attempt to preserve the traditional architecture, and it feels an age away from Seoul's current towers. Dotted with tea-rooms and galleries, it makes a very nice afternoons wandering.

Reads 'Korea'

So what else can I find in Seoul over the coming year? Looks like I need to do some more Seoul-Seeking....  ;-)

Is It Because I's White?

So this week was Lee's Birthday! His 28th, according to us....his 30th, according to Korea. Eh? I hear you cry. Well, in Korea you are born aged 1. You then gain another year at the Lunar New Year (usually January or February)...meaning that a baby of 2 days old could be deemed 2 years old, just because of the month he was born. And seeing as Lee was a Christmas baby...he was 2 by the time he turned one month. So happy 30th Lee! He shouldn't worry. Age is a very important thing in Korea.....the older you are the more important you are, so really he's just been pushed up the importance hierarchy. And he's a man. Even more important then.

So to celebrate, we had a few drinks with friends in Bucheon, the university city 15 minutes away from us. Ice-cream cake, cocktails & beer later we headed outside to summon a taxi home. This should be easy. Should. But for some reason we always find it hard to get a cab from here. Driver after driver says 'aniyo' (no) when we open the car-door, or puts his arms up in a non-ambigious cross. We decided it must be the wrong place to get a taxi - wrong side of the road or something. So we headed to the taxi rank and stood behind a 20 person strong queue to wait for a taxi, in minus 12 temperates, I might add! Taxi pulls up, Korean gets in, taxi drives away. But as soon as we are the head of the queue, the first 4 or 5 taxis either drive straight past us to rejoin the back of the queue, or refuse to take us and let in a Korean instead. I realised.....Is It Because I's White?

I guess they're still getting used to our presence, especially living somehwere outside of Seoul, where the sighting of a westerner is still a surprise. And people are notoriously scared of what they don't know. I remember one class I had when the bell went and all the little kiddies started screaming and the Korean teacher explained it because they had never been left alone with a white person before. It's OK, I'm not that scary.....usually.... !

Actually sometimes it goes the other way too. Often us westerners get a better deal than the Koreans. Many festivals or tourism events give us westerners free tickets and queue jumps. Even our local, and beloved, bar VonTees has special orders to give any westerners free hot food on arrival. Is pretty handy sometimes, but I can't help but wonder how the local people feel about being seconded all the time.

Perhaps it would be nice, Korea, to ignore the fact that we're 'different'....we're not! We don't need the freebies, and we don't need the arms crossed 'aniyo' either.....let's just embrace the fact that Korea is becoming more culturally diverse, and enjoy what a wonderful country this is. And please please let me in the taxi when it's minus 12 outside.......

Underground

I love living abroad, because the most mundane of things excites you. After my first solo bus ride in Korea I spent the next 4 hours mentally congratulating myself for being such a strong independent woman. Even ordering your own beer and getting the one you asked for is a mental pat on the back.  Of course, there are a few, minor, tiny downsides to being a stranger in a strange country.....mostly that you don't have all the inside information. It's easy to get a guidebook and pick out all the tourist traps, but when it comes to music and the arts, it's difficult to find the underground venues when they're so...underground.

So, I love it when I stumble across a creative diamond in the rough. And Korea is full of them.....it's just finding them (apparently). The highlight of my year last year was one of these finds. Just advertised on a few posters round Seoul as a 'pysychadelic love camp...free to anyone who brings flowers or incense' we found ourselves in the middle of the mountains with about 150 Koreans, a stage of flowers and candles, tents and tipis, free drink being passed around and even free food. The live music continued all night only interrupted by contemporary dance performed by people painted head-to-toe in white. By the end of the night most people had their face and bodies painted, including me, but......I think I was enjoying myself too much at the time to remember how that happened.

So this year, I was on the hunt to find an authentic venue where there was live music, contemporary arts....and just some raw creativeness. So when I found myself walking into the cave-like Obeg with live music, free drink being passed around, a place to put your shoes so you can dance barefoot, and a bearded Korean man wearing the women's traditional hanbock dress whilst passing around sheesha....I knew I'd found it again. Big smile on Michelle.

There were about 7 live bands, ranging from reggae to samba and soulful,  to 'Rapercussion' - a 30 piece drumming group (which my drunken friend managed to sleep through...impossible, one might think) - and was even interrupted by some breakdancing and caperero. Besides losing my wallet in the melee of the music, it was an amazing night......and just what I needed to find in Korea. Can't wait to get back there! So anymore hidden treasure anyone? 

Get Naked and Sing

Get naked and sing. Well in Korea, I don't mind if I do! They're two of the most quintessential Korean leisure activities, along with eating BBQ and knocking back soju of course. So I'm glad that my week involved them all.

Koreans LOVE singing. They teach it in school, taxi drivers sing whilst driving you, they sing in shopping malls...or anywhere there is a microphone. And seeing as microphones are fitted into coaches, private karaoke rooms, public shopping areas and even into taxis, there is a lot of singing in Korea. And actually, Koreans are pretty amazing at it (which is lucky). But the best way of singing in Korea is in the Noraebang......the private karaoke rooms that are just about everywhere, open 24 hours, and even come equipped with their own tambourines.

Seeing as it was Matt's last night in Korea he couldn't leave without one final Noraebang. Even in the smaller cities, such as my Siheung, you can stroll in at any time with any amount of people, and with lots of beers stashed in your bags. Westerners tend to take the Noraebangs a little less seriously than the Koreans - 80's power ballads and Beatles classics with a little bit of Bohemian Rhapsody thrown in is standard. Koreans can take it a little more seriously. Seeing as they can actually sing, it's less about the disco anthems and more about the emotional solos. A friend of mine once mistakenly joined in a Korean lady's solo only to have her drink thrown over him and her storm out. Ooops. But for us, it was Queen, Neil Diamond and the final farewell to Matt - 'Hello Goodbye'. At the time, we all thought we sounded amazing. And because there's no evidence to prove otherwise, I'm gonna say that we did.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet until I remembered it had been ages since I'd gone to a Jjimjilbang - the Korean sauna. Like the Noraebang, these are pretty much everywhere, open 24 hours, and very cheap. Unlike the Noraebang, this is for same-sex only, which is good...because you must be naked. Eeeeek. Coming from England and not being used to stripping off and strolling around, at first, I wasn't too keen. But after the first one - where I travelled 3 hours to get there on the promise that you could wear bikinis, just to get inside, pay, and be told that that was a lie....I was hooked. Hot baths, really hot baths, ice cold baths, saunas, steam rooms....these sauna's are amazing! Best of all is the ajima scrub-down, where you are literally scrubbed, with a brillo-pad equivalent, from neck to foot by an old lady wearing nothing but her knickers. Sounds bad.....but feels good.....

Sauna's are dual purpose too, as you can sleep there for a really low price. You are given pyjamas and then sleep on the floor in a communal room with everyone else sleeping there. Doesn't sound appealing? Well it seems that the people who use these the most are business men who literally don't have enough time off from work to go home and sleep....so they crash at the nearest jjimjilbang. Similarly, as most Koreans live in one-floor apartments with their family, sauna's provide women with the welcome privacy needed to properly relax. Seeing as I have followed suit and now live in a one-room apartment with my boyfriend...I think i'll be spending more time at here too.... only joking lee........ ;-)