Out & About: Insadong

Hwang-sa is baaaackkk!

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This is what we awoke to this morning (8 Apr). The Yellow Dust is back in full force! I've spent almost 2 entire years over here now and have never seen it this thick. This photo was snapped at about 9 am and that's the sun blazing fiercely through the dust with Seoul Tower to the left. There's a layer of thick, gritty yellow sand on everything--similar to yellow pollen in the spring but much thicker, grittier & you can actually taste the grit in your mouth when you're walking about! The dust lingered in the air the entire day--and even continued all day on the 9th of April!

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Out and about in Seoul again! Trekkie was arriving in town later in the evening and after another 6-month long separation I had to come up with a way to get the kids to forget about it until he actually arrived (so as to help 'deal' with any travel delays that often seem to plague us along the way)--otherwise, they would have been 'squirrely' the entire day--enough to drive me mad! So, another 'outing' was in order. We began the day by returning to seek out the geocache mission we aborted the previous evening. We tiptoe back through the plaza and go straight to the spot. It's about 50m away from where we hunted & pecked the night before. Again, I wouldn't be describing this experience on a letterboxing-focused forum except for the fact that it was yet another ingenious hide. Of course, circumstances have changed slightly from the time when the planter originally hid the GC. Seems they've installed concertina war (Texas accent shining through brightly here) i.e. razor 'war' in the vicinity of where the GC resides. I learned through online discussions that it was placed there to discourage the homeless population from seeking shelter in that spot--not necessarily to discourage urban treasure hunters from seeking out their McHappyMealToy treasures. So, I tiptoe delicated through the figurative minefield and soon find the prize.

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Peekaboo!

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As occurs often in letterboxing, some things aren't always as they seem!

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What I failed to mention is that this boulder is about 2 feet away from a 5meter tall by 8meter long plate-glass window of a commercial building. The receptionist's desk is in full view of the boulder. That made for a very interesting 'retrieval'. These aren't the typical GC's I enjoy because I'd rather not 'cause a scene'--but I had a TB I just wanted to drop off so I went for it--assuming that my luck with Korean GCs would likely change soon now that I'd found most of the 'easier' ones around the region and before this trip to Korea we'd only found 2 out of about a dozen (or more?) attempts.

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Mission accomplished! We head via metro to my favorite 'urban' part of Seoul--Insadong--it's a quaint little antiques and art supply alleyway that really seems to ooze Korean Old World charm. Along the route to Insadong, we stop by a letterboxer's dreamworld:

Lock & Lock Heaven!!!

This is just one side of the store, there were aisles and aisles of containers that would serve quite well as letterboxes. ;)

We next find ourselves in Tapgol Park just outside the entrance to Insadong. We go inside the walled park to let the kids run around a bit and to give me a chance to sketch some of the more interesting sculptures, pagodas and pavillions in the park.

We stumble across a group of Korean schoolchildren obviously working on a school project. The Koreans work 6-day weeks and the children attend school 6 days a week, too--which explains why they were out and about on a Saturday afternoon.

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Soon, rnrB & trkr intermingle in the schoolchildrens' assignment and I get hounded for another English Class Project "interview" by what appear to be college students who are also roaming about the park. This happens frequently for foreigners visiting Seoul. The students in English class are encouraged to randomly select a foreigner to interview them about various subjects of the day. Today, this young woman's subject was Pets. So, I got to answer a dozen questions about our 4 cats--all the while a young man was snapping photos of us during the project. Try explaining that one of your cats once saved your life by scaring off a burglar who was trying to break into your apartment at 3am by jumping on the window-screen while clawing and hissing at the burglar until he ran off screaming "Damn cat!". I doubt the student expected an answer like that! If anything it'll make for an interesting English class when she completes her project. ;)

Pine tree amid flowers in Tapgol Park.

Things are just starting to bloom around here--making for some interesting pictures!

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Eventually we actually reach Insadong and some things have changed since our last visit. It looks like one of the buildings near the entrance had been removed and replaced with a nice Zen-like park full of formally maintained boxwood plants, giant strategically placed boulders, pea gravel and stone block walking paths--all blended together to create this very appealing place where one can just sit and think or watch passersby as they wind their ways toward the Insadong alleyway.

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We meander our way through the endless stream of Saturday afternoon shoppers and gaze upon street vendors selling all sorts of wares from silk scarves, handcarved wooden spinning tops, handmade floral papers (bookbinders will LOVE their assortment!!!), traditional Hanbok formal dresses/suits in a rainbow of colors, brass Buddhas, wooden 'bells' used in Buddhist ceremonies, persimmon and cinnamon tea, pumpkin candies, silk-covered notebooks, antique Korean rice moulds, a Paduk table with stone & ivory (yes, ivory) playing pieces that appears to be several centuries old (I'm enamored by this piece and really consider shelling out the 200,000 Won to purchase it!--about $250)

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Twice, again, I'm stopped by Korean students for formal interviews. The second one involves a professional video camera and questions about my feelings on Insadong. Man, did they pick the right person for that topic! I yield to the interview and am now really wondering when I'll actually see my face 'pop' up on Korean television. Bizarre! That's scary to just think about.

We continue to wander and the kids stumble across a man behind a window making noodles in the traditional manner. He appears to knead the dough like a pizza crust twirler but instead of twirling it, he kneads, twists, stretches, twists, flours and twists it again--repeatedly until the dough just falls out into noodles similar to the shape and size of fettucine. It's mesmerizing to watch the process--so much so that the kids insist on sitting through 3 entire iterations of it!

Further down the passageway, we find two older gentlemen who are selling handmade wooden spinning tops. trkr is instantly attracted to it and we sit and watch for quite a while. These two gentlemen are able to do tricks with these tops that we've never seen before--they're almost like the Harlem Globetrotters of spinning tops. ;) I break down and purchase one for the kids for about $5. The experience is more than worth it and I go ga-ga for traditional wooden toys!

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We stop at our favorite 'fast-food' Korean restaurant "Shinpo" adjacent the Starbucks in the neighborhood (yes, it's even here!). I detour from my typical meal and order the Sokogi bu sut dolsot bibimbap--sweet beef, mushrooms, assorted vegetables on a massive scoop of sticky rice in a flaming hot (yes, flaming hot!) stone bowl with a dollop of red pepper paste. I like it but still prefer the dolsot bibimbap (which is what Koreans consider their 'diet' food--I LOVE it!)--it's similar to what I ordered today but has fewer mushrooms and more assorted vegetables like lemon grass, beans, carrots and cucumbers.

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We finish our meal and then head over to Starbucks for the 1 mandatory $6 caramel macchiato in country. It's good! ;) We don't forget to return our 'paper' cup for a 50Won refund.

One of the many interesting graphics we see around Seoul that we saw on one of the walls in Insadong. I'm always soliciting ideas for future letterbox stamps. This is a slight variation of a graphic I used for a letterbox that I hid here in Seoul a couple of years ago.

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It's getting dark out and almost time for trekkie to arrive. We slowly make our way back to the metro and notice some interesting food stores along the way. We stop to photograph one of the stands that's selling roasted silk-worms & tiny cockle shells, octopus legs (GIGANTIC ones at that--thick, pink and burgundy with large suction cups!--the only thing I can compare them to are those massive turkey drumstick legs you see for sale at fairs) and other assorted foods we rarely see for sale in America. One gentleman who's passing by instantly falls in love with trkr and purchases him a cone full of fried crunchy shoe-string sweet potatoes from the stand. The potatoes taste incredible. We weren't so daring to taste the other fare at that stand, though. ;)

trkr comments that the cone resembles the Statue of Liberty's torch. Some passersby overhear him say it and I translate for them saying that he said it looked like the Olympic Torch (knowing that Seoul is still very proud of the fact they hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics). I figured that would go over better for international relations here in Korea.

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Finally, the funny Korean sign of the day.

I thought this was quite appropriate especially considering that we're experiencing the dusty, sandy, gritty Hwang-sa this time of year.

Those Yellow Sands really do seem to end up everywhere--so much so, that a business has named itself "Win Win: Sand & Fresh Drink".

That was good for a laugh or two!

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We eventually make it back 'home' and Trekkie arrives about a half hour later.

The kids are ecstatic! As am I!!!

It's so nice to finally have the family back together again! This trip is the tail end of an abnormally long separation that was supposed to last only one year, soon turned into two and then was extended an additional 4 months beyond the 2 year mark a few weeks before he was to return home. Our trip out this time was a 'make lemonade out of lemons' approach to dealing with it. One month after we return home from this trip, though, Trekkie will return to the US for good and we'll actually live together in one place again--simultanesouly! Novel idea for a family, eh? ;)

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Say a prayer for a servicemember out there & thank a veteran for defending the country. The sacrifices we've experienced these past couple of years are rather miniscule and only pale in comparison to what many other families have experienced recently--especially for those families whose loved ones did not safely return home or those who were severely injured and must live daily with reminders of their sacrifice(s). Please thank them abundantly!!!

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"No one has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends"