Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The O'Chang Travelogue: South Korea


Tea time with monks on Alishan in Taiwan
We touched down at Chiang Kai Shek Airport in Taiwan at around 7 PM and Han Ji's mom met us in the lobby. Asian airports never cease to astound me. Not only how everything is free, like the luggage carts, Internet access and motorized trolleys that take you across the terminal, but it's also all so modern and high tech.

I am always impressed by the Japanese bidet toilets, which feature heated seats, soothing sounds that drown out any noise that might come from the stall, and the warm, cleansing sprays of water that can be set directionally. There's also the  EVA Airways Hello Kitty check-in:

Plane

Check-in
Flight Attendants

Yeah!!!
Coming back to Taiwan, a country where I lived for five years, after another five years is a disorienting experience, which I can only compare to returning to your old high school after graduating - there's no going back.

The first thing we did (after waking up at 4 AM due to jetlag) is go out in search of our favorite street food we had longed for the last five years. For better or worse, many of the vendors still recognized me.

"You got...STRONG!"

"Whaa! You so fat!"

"How you get so fat?"

If I went back to Taiwan, I would likely be crash dieting in no time. I've heard that in some cultures, having someone point out  your girth is a compliment.

"Fat! S'good!" they'll say, giving you a friendly pat on the tummy.

But not Taiwan. I tried on about six pairs of pants in the clothing market and nothing fit.

For our next trip, I think we'll hit Mississippi to revive my self-esteem.

I did find a nice souvenir to bring back to Maine though:

The only other state shirt they had was "Boston Massachubatts"
After staying with Hanji's mom in Taipei for a day, we embarked on the next leg of our trip: Korea. Han Ji's mom is Korean and she has been after us for years to come visit her homeland and finally we were able to make the trip.

Seoul

After arriving in Seoul, we caught a high speed rail, followed by a taxi up to the family's apartment where Han Ji's brother Chewy is currently living while he studies film.

Never been in a subway station that had emergency gas masks available...



I noticed all of the windows on one side of the family's apartment were frosted, so that we couldn't see out. Apparently, the former president, who lives next door, had all of his neighbors windows blocked the same way.


"I wonder if it's raining..."
Being that I will soon be a retired elected public official, I also share those privacy concerns and am looking into taking similar action.

The next day we decided to hit the market. Shopping in this particular Seoul was a crazy, frantic experience. The street was like a white water rip of  shoppers rapidly streaming through the market. I had never witnessed such a chaotic frenzy of economic activity on a city street before.

Mama Choi decided to stop for a round of energy drinks before we hit the shops as this had always been their shopping tradition. There were several old ladies standing around pounding the sugary sodas at the counter when we went in. As we went to buy different items like underwear in the market, the venders would give us more complimentary bottles. I suddenly noticed all of the venders had cases of the stuff under their counters. Everyone was completely wired.

Let's shop.

Some underwear for  those cursed with a flat posterior

I was curious what this thing in an aquarium outside a seafood restaurant was
Mama Choi asked an old lady sorting vegetables out front and she replied, "dog penis." (gay-bool: 게불) It's a seaworm that they slice up raw like sashime.  As are many odd and rare items (often derived from endangered critters) in Asia, from deer antlers to bear bile, the gay-bool is supposedly good for "night time stamina."

I have no idea what these guys are selling
We ended up going to Han Ji's favorite sushi restaurant for lunch. The eatery originally started as a sole food vender selling the three food components - spicy octopus, daikon and rice wrapped in seaweed - to seamen on the docks. She separated them so they didn't turn all mushy by the time it was lunchtime on the ship. Her signature dish became so popular, she eventually opened a restaurant, which flourished.



We had always wanted to try the "doctor fish" (AKA nibble fish, kangai fish, or reddish log sucker) ever since we had seen them at spas in Taiwan.

Dr. Fish
They're little fish who love nothing better than to nibble the dead skin off of your feet, leaving the healthy skin to grow. Given my foot health history, I'm sure they had a feast, though I hope the attendants did a scan for floaters before the next customer.


Yummy
Han Ji had been asking me for a while if I wanted to try dog, which I wasn't particularly anxious to sample. She said it tasted like beef, while others have told me it tastes kind of sweet or even minty. Then I saw this activist walking around the night market and decided to pass on it.

Anti-dog meat activist in the market


The next day we went out with one of Mama Choi's friends, Hyun, a Buddhist monk. Mama Choi spent ten years living in Buddhist monastery before she married Han Ji's father and moved to Taiwan. Ever since then, almost all of her friends have been monks and nuns. He took us out to an amazing traditional Korean restaurant.

The restaurant

Master Jihyun, Han Ji, Mama Choi, Chewy and me

After a night of karaoke, which fortunately we have no pictures, we set out to meet our friends from the oi punk band Captain Bootbois  down in the university district. They were playing at a concert called "Man Fest," which conjured the exact opposite image than what was intended. According to Han Ji, Koreans aren't shy about celebrating their masculinity. Homosexuality also doesn't have the same level of acceptance as it does in other Asian countries I've been to. The Korean term "penis friends" (고추 친구) simply means two very close, heterosexual male buddies.

Captain Bootbois
After we met up with Dong Hyun of Captain Bootbois and saw their raucous performance, we decided to wander around the park across the street, which grew more and more carnivalesque as the night went on. What began as an arts and crafts fair, soon evolved into several different performance spaces throughout the space and floods of young people streamed in. In one corner of the park a large group of people pounded on drums, while an impromptu rave with a DJ and strobes started up in another. Toward the back, several bands queued up to rock out.

 Forgot this crust punk band's name

 Drum circle

 Rave
We talked briefly to a group of expats who were hanging out on the concrete wall drinking beer. An Australian named Tom was playing in some anarcho-crust punk playing that night and we happened to have mutual friends in the Asian punk scene (it's actual a small continent when it comes to punk music). He and a couple of Americans talked about their jobs and their prospects back home. Everyone agreed it was best to hold on to their employment, since there wasn't much waiting for them back home. A skinhead named Chuck from Portland Oregon was on his second stint in Korea. He recently returned after searching for a job for eight months back home. As much I don't miss the expat English teaching scene, if I was facing the same prospects after finishing my term in the legislature, I'd probably want to go back as well.

Local character

Makgeolli cart
Suddenly the Makgeolli Man appeared out of nowhere pulling his hand cart full of plastic bottles and it was all over for us. He weaved in out of the crowd shouting "Maaaaaak-geolli!!!! Maaaaaak-geolli!!!!"

"Are you AMERICAN?!" the Makgeolli Man asked excitedly. "I LOVE AMERICA!!! Have some more mmmmmaaaak-geoli!!!"

He immediately started filling up several paper cups and planted them in our hands and arms. After watching a couple of songs from a punk band playing in the park and finishing the cups, we turned around to see the grinning makgeolli man behind us.

"More mmmaaaak-geolli!" he shouted, filling up several more cups and thrusting them at us. "I love America!"

A Canadian musician standing on the corner saw us with all of the cups and shook his head. "I'd be careful with the makgeolli man. He's famous and he's bad news."

I had grown up constantly hearing stories about makgeolli from my father who had been stationed in Korea during the late 1950's. Pretty much all of his army stories started involved, "I could fill up my canteen with makgeolli for 50 cents!"

Makgeolli is liquor that is made from a distilled mixture of rice and wheat. Farmers often drank it, so it is also known as "farmer liquor." According to wikipedia, "The winner of a public contest by the Korean Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries for the selection of an English name for makgeolli was "drunken rice," with the Ministry reasoning that foreigners would understand it is a type of liquor made from rice." It has a short shelf life, so I'm not sure if it will ever gain much of a foothold in the market over here though.

The taste is a little sweet and a little sour and has a milky white appearance. It's actually tastes very similar to the millet wine that Taiwanese aborigines drink. It also gives you a raging headache like Taiwanese millet wine, which we learned all too well the next day.

"Oh have you seen the makgeolli man, the makgeolli man, the makgeolli man..."
Mama Choi packed a few bottles of makgeolli for my dad to bring home. He eagerly consumed it with his neighbor Richard out in the front yard on Memorial Day. And it apparently brought back memories as he began spinning some yarns about his military days.

"It's just like I remember it - though with less chunks! Did I ever tell you about the time I lost my underwear in a typhoon?"

On Sunday we took a train out to Ttukseom Park to meet some Filipino migrant workers. My friend Gi, a migrant worker organizer I knew from Taiwan, gave me the contact information for these factory workers who had been fighting for equal protection under Korea's labor laws. Just a week before I had arrived, Migrant Trade Union leader Michel Catuira had been deported because of his organizing activities. Interestingly, the MTU is part of the umbrella organization the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, as Korean union workers have recognized that having solidarity with marginalized and often exploited foreign workers is in their interest.


Michel Catuira speaking at a rally
There are currently 12.5 million Filipinos living and working outside of the country, amounting to 11% of its population. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) amounts to US $10 billion or 13.5% of the Philippines GDP. We met up with the group of mostly women factory workers in the park and we had a little picnic of Filipino food. It being Mother's Day, they formed a circle and talked about what it was like to have children living back in the Philippines, while they had to work in Korea to provide for them.


Korea Federation of Trade Unions with Migrant Trade Union at solidarity protest
Needless to say, many tissues were used up during that session. Afterwards all of the women and Han Ji played a bunch of games, like a hula hoop contest and a sack race. I had a few beers with the guys and they updated me on what was going on the labor front. As with most wealthier industrialized countries facing tough economic times, the government has been introducing more protectionist measures and scapegoating foreign guest workers. Of course, as in other countries, government officials have to face the fact that the jobs being taken by migrants are not easily filled by local workers. As Alabama's agriculture sector struggles to remain afloat in the wake of the enactment of their draconian immigration law, South Korea had similar results after the government experimented with eliminating it's foreign workforce several years ago.

Setting up the picnic

Children of one of the women married to a migrant worker
I just realized, I kind of look like a cult leader in some of these photos.




Migrant mothers

Elsewhere in the park, a group of elderly folks enjoy the afternoon with singing and copious amounts of makgeolli and soju.
The following day, we met up with another monk named Yumhay and headed to a Gyeongbok Palace (Palace of Shining Happiness), but first some spicy, cold stingray noodles. Mama Choi had been coming to this particular restaurant since she was a child.
Stingray: kind of crunchy, kind of chewy. Not bad.

Gyeongbok Palace
Gyeongbok Palace, built in 1394, was the first of the Five Grand Palaces and was built by the first monarch of the Joseon Dynasty, King Taejo. It was mostly destroyed in the Japanese invasions of 1592-1598. It remained in ruins for three centuries. After being reconstructed in 1867, the Japanese came back and after Japanese agents assassinated Empress Myeongseong in the courtyard, her husband Emperor Gojong left the palace. The imperial family never returned to Gyeongbokgung and it was destroyed by the Japanese in the early 1900s. I guess I can understand why so many Koreans resent the Japanese even to this day.

The throne

Master Yumhay
The wives' quarters
The wives' quarters


The South Korean government began restoring the palace in 1989 and it's a sight to behold. It seemed like half of the enormous palace was devoted to his hundreds of wives and Mama Choi said that's part of the reason none of the kings seemed to live beyond 40.


Inside the wives' quarters

The palace uses ondol heating, an underfloor heating system which uses direct heat transfer from wood smoke to the underside of a thick masonry floor in traditional Korean architecture.
Hyangwonjeong Pavilion, is a small, two-story hexagonal pavilion built around 1873 by the order of King Golong
 Afterwards we hit the market to pick up Han Ji's favorite dish, Korean blood sausage. Can't say I'm a fan...

Blood sausage stand

And some sticky rice in chili sauce.

And fried soybean cakes.

Other scenes from the market:



The meal
 On our last day, we went to the Korean Folk Village, living museum outside of Seoul featuring traditionally built houses and farming. There was also traditional Korean dancing, music and acrobats.

Having some periwinkles for lunch

But first, another traditional Korean lunch with makgeolli. I can't remember the last time I had periwinkles, even though they're all over the place back in Maine - not bad. I also saw some elvers, which local fishermen in Maine get 1000 bucks a pound from buyers in Asia, but I didn't get to try them.


Scenes from the Korean Folk Village:

Cool way to carry eggs

Blacksmith shop - Master Yumhay bought me a beautiful gardening implement

The furnace
Loom




How they used to iron clothes

I would love to build one of these in the garden for rabbit and coon spotting

On the way home, Han Ji started to act kind of strangely. When we stopped at the market, she started wandering around aimlessly, uttering nonsense words and speaking incoherently. We spent the rest of the evening panicking over what was going on. At one point, she took a shower and came out asking why it was so dark since it was morning, even though it was 9 at night. Turned out she had overdosed herself on motion sickness patches and apparently, the active ingredient scopolamine can lead to "mental confusion." Now, whenever we see someone acting strangely or say something crazy, we just say, "must be on the patch."



Kids, stay as far away as you can from this stuff. We're using Dramamine next time!

Cheers!

Next up: Taiwan!

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