One last spin...

30 May 2006

Seoul, South Korea

Cheongyecheon Stream--heading east/southeast

"One Last Spin..."

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Our last full day in Korea. Our hearts are quite heavy knowing that whenever we visit in the future it will only be a for a few short days here or there. It's unlikely that we'll ever again have a 'homebase' here within the city proper--so our days of exploring and wandering the wildest nooks & crannies of this city are quickly drawing to a close. :(

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We decide to return back to the 'stream' for our final trek. We'd walked at least 1/3rd of it already but we just weren't satisfied. One of those Green Tortuga things--if it's there you must overcome it! ;) We knew that there were some other interesting features along the stream and we just didn't want to leave without first seeing them.

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As I'd written in a previous post about the Cheonggyecheon Stream--it had been a meeting point for the community where the women would wash the laundry on the banks of the river while the children played around in the water and stream banks. So, we cheated a bit today--hopped the metro to the Dongdaemun Station and hopped on the 'stream trail' from there. This way, we would avoid the 6km walk just to reach the stream. As it turned out, it ended up being an 11 mile day anyway (according to my trusty McD's happy healthy meal Step To It pedometer we stumbled upon and pulled out for fun earlier in the day). Not bad for a day's work.

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Once we reached the stream we headed east--hoping to see as much and to get as far as we could before the sun faded for the day. Our first spot of interest was the laundry station. To memorialize this spot, they had built these concrete 'washboards' of sorts on the banks of the water, staggered at different heights where the rushing waters splashed up and over them.

rnrB displaying how to wash laundry in Cheonggyecheon Stream.

From here we continued east and noticed some more large fish in the rushing waters.

Here are 5 of the larger fish we saw in the water today. They appeared about 2' long and possibly a couple of pounds. Their coloring was rather neat--lots of pinks, greens and blues with scales that were quite pronounced and appeared to be 'edged' in a dark color. Interesting. Not a clue what type of fish they were--as usual.

Then further along the walk we see these massive gate doors beneath some of the bridges. These are about 7' tall double doors and open out. We think these are water drainage canals to allow street water to drain down into the stream. Korea gets hit with massive monsoonal rains each summer and we figure these were incorporated into the stream system to help alleviate the water burden on the street surfaces in Seoul.

trkr & rnrB showing off one of two Dolharubang statues on one side of the streambed. These fellows are native to Chejudo--an island off the southwestern coast of Korea. They're ancestral 'sentries' the villagers around Chejudo place in front of their homes/property to help ward off evil spirits. If you're interested, we hid a Dolharubang Letterbox here in Seoul last time we visited.

Then it was further along to the Wall of Hope.

This was really neat and truly a letterboxer's dream!!!

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The poem above reads:

"Cheong Gye Cheon is alive again,

Our stream long buried in darkness,

Is flowing again all clean and singing merrily.

Its newborn life and racing pulse

Fill our hearts with joy.

-

Seoul is alive again

We celebrate the restoration of our stream

And pray for peace, harmony and reunification.

The beautiful hopes and dreams of these 20,000 people

Are afloat

On this stream.

Oct 1, 2005

The Wall of Hope was a 20m long tile mosaic wall. It boasted 4"x4" tiles on it that had been decorated by 20,000 participants. Each tile was so unique, colorful, detailed--absolutely incredible!!!

Had we had a lot of time to explore I would have studied each individual tiles--they offered so many great ideas for letterbox stamps. Here's a traditional mask face that is quite prevalent around Korea. The detail was awesome!

Here's a rustic rendition of one of the city gates. I just loved the 'artistic' feel about this one.

Beyond the Wall of Hope was another stepping stone crossing area where the stream converged with another stream. This one was diagonal whereas the others have all been perpendicular to the side paths. To the left of the stone path are the riser-supports for the elevated highway that up until 2 years ago existed on this stream. I believe they left these three supports (each in different stages of disarray) to remind folks of where they'd been and where they were able to take this stream restoration project in such a short amount of time.

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Not long thereafter we passed by this mosaic tile photo account of what the area has looked like over the years. This was really neat!

Here's a photo of the view of the elevated highway taken in the Fall of 2003! That's the only thing we remembered about this area--so when we stumbled upon this incredible green spot last week we were in total shock!!! Where did they hide a 12km long stream in an urban jungle all this time???

Here's a view of the stream area as seen in 1961--it truly was a shanty town back then!

And here's a view of the area as photographed in 1896! It shows the women washing the laundry on the stream banks. I absolutely love the fact that they incorporated the historical views of this area in their final restoration project. They took so much effort in making this stream a wonderful place for the community to explore. I'm very impressed!

trkr's quite amazed that this pair of ducks isn't afraid of him. They sat there unstirred for a few minutes while trkr kneeled down to study them. I'm guessing these ducks are rather used to people now?

And finally--we had to head back home for the evening. We passed City Hall on our route back and the mood around the city was quite full of excitement. Tomorrow is election day and the candidates were all out shaking hands, speaking, dancing at large rallies--trying to vie for those last few 'precious' votes. It was a neat experience to get to 'feel' their excitement for their upcoming election. Along the way, we passed this neat 'spouting fountain' where the spouts would shoot their water stream in alternating patterns and make those really cool 'splooshing' sound when the pumps would press the water up. There was a neat lightshow that corresponded to the fountain and folks were encouraged to splash around in the water. Somehow I managed to snap this shot just between two large groups of school kids who were splashing around in the fountain. Just one more neat thing that Seoul has to offer its visitors.

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Well, tomorrow we're off to return to reality. :( Our whirlwind trip to NE & SE Asia has been awesome! We've experienced so many great things (& a few not so great things). We've learned as much as we could about this area as we could possibly squeeze into our time here. We've met people from all walks of life and hope to have assisted as many folks who needed it as was physically possible during this trip. We enjoyed an amazing couple week trip to Thailand and Cambodia--a region of the world I never personally expected to visit in my lifetime. It's been such an incredible experience and we realize that we are very fortunate to have been able to undertake such an adventure. We hope you've enjoyed our travel blog misadventures and have possibly learned a thing or two about these areas, letterboxing, geocaching or just international life in general. If you ever decide to visit this neck of the world, drop us a note and we'd be glad to offer some ideas in helping you develop your travel plans--so you can maximize your adventures in these places, too. Happy trails!

God Bless & see you on the flip side!

Ever the misadventure-errant I am...

daelphinus of the dvn2r ckr-s

Nano caching?

29 May 2006

Kyunggido, South Korea

Nano caching, among other things.

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Spent the day cacheboxing today. Nothing out of the ordinary except we were back near our old neighborhood. So, exploring that area after 7-8 years was neat. Our goal was to hike & explore until we dropped but we had to take a 70km drive down to the area before that was to happen.

We found the first cache box without a hitch. Stumbled on these beautiful roses along the way. Korea is definitely rose territory! I remember tending to the dozen rose bushes we had in front of my office building when we lived here previously. One Fall, a co-worker hacked the roses back to almost smithereens as a way to burn off some steam. Most other coworkers were convinced that the roses wouldn't bounce back in the Spring. The man who 'pruned' the roses transferred to another location so he missed out on the beauty he created. His ueber pruning on the bushes caused one of the most incredible rose displays I've ever seen. There were some roses that were about 8" across--reds, yellows, pinks, whites--the array of colors was gorgeous and their scent was amazing! Walking past these roses on the way to the cachebox reminded me of that awesome spring rose garden!

Our first hunt took us to a Korean military monument that was recently built in our old neighborhood. We found the cachebox here with little difficulty. Turned out it was a large LockNLock container that had been spray painted in matte brown & green camo stripes and blended in really well with its surroundings. The paint scratched off a bit in spots but it still served well to camouflage the large container.

Another area we discovered was a new park built a few miles from our old home. I'm pretty sure the area had just been some rice-paddies but visiting it today you'd never believe it! They'd added a couple of large duck ponds, rolling hills, an arboretum, rose gardens, hydrophyte garden and many other unique features we unfortunately were not able to explore. You see, when we arrived at the park it was closed for some reason. We could see past the gate guards that folks were meandering around the trails, enjoying picnics and other things folks do at parks. When the sentries wouldn't let us pass we were pretty dismayed. After awhile we realized we'd come all this way and didn't want to be so close and yet so far. So, through very broken Korean we explained our situation and how we'd only need 10 minutes in the park; they permitted us to enter. Then it was a mad dash to reach the cache box, snap a few photos at the lake and return to the gate. Somehow we managed to do it (don't ask me how--because I'm still not sure how we did it so quickly).

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From there we headed over to another cachebox that wasn't terribly exciting--then hit a 4th one. This one was supposed to be a hollow fake rock as displayed in the online logbook photos. We were pretty pumped to get an opportunity to actually hunt out and see a fake rock hiding container as we hadn't seen any like that besides the giant fake landscaping rock we'd visited a month before in downtown Seoul. When we reached the location in which it was supposed to be hidden (we could tell using some basic photo analysis) we were unable to find any fake rock. :( We scoured and scoured--then radiated from 'the' tree out around the extremely steep slope and still didn't find it. What we did find though was--3 coconut shells, a straight line of empty Soju (hard liquor) bottles in 1m increments leading away from the tree, a full bottle of Soju stashed in plastic bag and tucked in another hidey hole further up the hill, a recently dug Korean military fighting position (the dirt was still fresh!) about 8' from 'the' tree but still no fake rock cache-anywhere.

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So, our imaginations started to run wild. The soldiers who built the bunker got a few minutes of downtime. One of their derelict buds (or their superiors--who knows?) had stashed a dozen bottles of Soju off on the side. When the cat was away it certainly looked like they got to play.... Then in their drunken Soju stupor one of the guys squatted by the tree and noticed the very obvious fake rock casually hidden at its base. He grabbed it, realized it was fake and either took it home with him as a neat trinket or tossed it as far down the steep slope as his drunken state would allow. Or at least that's what we think happened. For all we know the cache could still be there--it just didn't seem to be in that grid square.

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After a good hour or so of hunting & pecking around the grid square we were pretty convinced it was missing. After our many 'failed' attempts at finding GCs in Asia because they just seem to wander off pretty easily around here we'd started carrying some GC repair supplies with us. So we decided to help the owner out and replace the cache while we were there--not knowing if the owner was still in the area or not. We found that one of the coconuts that we had found was hollow and it was the right size in which to hide our small LB container. Perfect camouflage! The only problem, however, is that coconuts are not native to Korea! So, we had to add some natural camouflage around the area to make it less noticeable. Here's a photo of our coconut shell 'hide':

Can you crack this nut?

Here's a photo of the container and the coconut shell behind it. Surrounding it are the 7 travel bugs and 1 geocoin we have on hand to return to the US shortly. This is our first coconut 'hide'. ;)

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Our next hunt was quite a bit different and really the only reason why I am even posting this rather boring day of GCing entry in the first place.

Can you see the geocache in this picture?

No, it's not the plastic bag full of travel bugs that rnrB is holding. trkr actually has it & the log in his hand! It's smaller than a penny! More like the size of a watch battery!!! This nano cache is by far the smallest cache we've ever found. Before this our smallest had been a 'listerine breath strip' container holding a LB Hitchhiker in it named "Pocket Change" that the 7Nails hid about 3-1/2 years ago.

Finally, a garlic truck we passed along the street in our neighborhood in Seoul. It was piled high with garlic bulbs--and yet another thing we don't ever see in the US.

The Other Great Wall

Stumbled upon 808 Dawn at the Korean grocery store today. It's won awards in the 'hangover solution' drink category somewhere around the world. Who knew? Hmmm...after our outing today, wonder if we'll need some? ;)

28 May 2006

Namhansanseong, South Korea

Namhansan Fortress

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After church we set out to find yet another cachebox. This one is located in Namhansanseong Provincial Park--way beyond the outskirts of Seoul but still within the metro line station footprint if you can just find the correct provincial bus to catch once you're there. Well the 1+ hour subway ride on three different lines goes without a hitch. Then we quickly hop on the correct bus and ride, ride, ride.

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We eventually get to a point where 'all the hikers' disembark and in our haste we follow them. We climb up a steep trail, going against the traffic it seems as hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of hikers are pouring off the mountain trail and heading home. It was a carnival like experience--just full of energy--perhaps even a bit like a German Volksmarch? We continue the climb and notice these really cool rock (memorials?) in enclosed areas just off to the sides of the trail. These cairns seem to cover several hundred meters of land and they're very interesting. They remind me of the Zen-like Japanese gardens we visit in the Seattle area--but here these cairns are repeated hundreds of times!

We continue our hike up to a ridge line where we realize our mistake. Our goal is to climb around Seoul's "Great Wall" and only after a couple miles and much elevation change do we reach the initial segment of the Wall--where we were supposed to begin our excursion.

We purchase tickets for the park and receive a map--which comes in quite handy. We realize that we are still a good couple kilometers off our mark. It looks like the only way to reach our destination is by walking all the way around the Wall--hugging its inside wall.

However, this route affords us many great views of the surroundings. This view shows Seoul off in the distance.

Here, trkr grins as he reminds me that it looks a lot like the Great Wall in China. He even pokes his head in many of the 'weapon' holes just to make sure it's similar and to see if there are any enemy down below. This Wall actually surrounds the Namhansan Fortress. It was first built in 672AD with several additions along the way. They are currently restoring many segments of the Wall--so as we hiked around we often met 'construction zone detours' that forced us to walk down some steep bits to circumnavigate all the construction confusion.

Here's a segment of the original wall that's become quite overgrown with brush and trees in some cases.

Another awesome view of the 'layers upon layers' of mountain ranges that radiate from Seoul. This country is very mountainous--quite rugged but oh, so beautiful! Although we're perhaps only 30km outside of Seoul's center we're still very near massive highrise apartment buildings. This trek feels like we're worlds away from the chaos of the big city. The views are spectacular!!!

Here's another older segment of the wall. There's a small gate through it here but the other side of the Wall has a 20m drop down a sheer cliff--so I'm not so sure where this gate leads.

This is the East Gate. When we first reached the Wall we walked up and entered at the South Gate--then hugging the 'zigzaggy' wall to the northeast for a couple of kilometers we reach the East Gate. Our desired destination is still about 1.5km beyond this--along very rugged terrain. Of course, I went into this outing thinking it was a 20 minute 'jaunt' up a few short inclines--so I'm still wearing church clothes but I swapped out leather sandals for my trusty Tevas. Totally wishing now that I'd opted for my hiking boots, instead. Too bad they're still full of water from our hike two days earlier!

Here's a view looking down the steep incline of the wall to the south.

Same stretch of wall but after it makes a 90* turn--this angle is looking northwest a tad. We continue another 500m or so and eventually find 'muggled remnants' of our beloved cachebox. Fortunately, we've brought our letterboxing repair kit so we revive the cache as best we can, offset it by 35m in a much less 'human litterbox prone' area and continue along our way. We feel much better having performed our 'good deed of the day'.

Once we reach the destination, we realize it's quite late--nearing 6:30pm with sunset scheduled rather soon. We opt to take a trail that heads to the center of the fortress & closer to the main road in the event we run out of daylight and must fumble around in the dark instead on our way to finding the elusive bus stop--the one we couldn't even find in broad daylight! ;) We stumble upon this really beautiful secluded temple complex along the way.

Some pepper crops we passed on our way to the bus-stop. We saw rows of lettuce, pumpkin and squash, too.

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Then we reach a 'big' road that cuts through the entire provincial park--the one on which our bus takes most hikers to smack dab in the middle of the park. The bus stop that's about 6km closer to our 'destination' than where we actually disembarked the bus. Oh, did we mention it's about 400m higher elevation-wise, too? That 808 Dawn is looking better and better now, isn't it?

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No--just joking. Our unintended detour actually showed us some really cools things. We wouldn't have seen those stone pillars/cairns had we gone the 'intended' route. We wouldn't have walked past who we think was Mr Universe hiking down the trail as we were heading up. This guy's quadriceps were about the size of both of Trekkies' or my quadriceps bundled together!!! Massive! We also would have missed the 'lecture' we received for taking our children up such a steep hike. Huh? These kids hike quite a bit and the trail wasn't that bad--now where were they during the thunderstorm on Gwanaksan the other day--we would have deserved the comments then! I also got chastised for hiking in my Tevas as some angry man vigorously pointed to his hiking boots (that look a whole lot like my boots that are back home drying out from the Great Flood on Saturday) and loudly tells me that I have the wrong shoes on. "But I hike in Tevas all the time back home--even up around Mt Rainier." Doesn't help--I'm wrong and that's that.

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The nice thing, however, is that along the way we pass an older gentleman hiking by himself. I guess he's in his mid to late 70s. I greet him with the standard "Anyonghaseyo" greeting which basically means hello. He greets me with "Anyonghashimmnikka". I am completely taken aback and this little interchange totally makes my day! This slight difference in greetings is lost in English but still exists in other languages. In Korean, the endings of the verbs show different levels of respect. Generally, however, the -haseyo ending is accepted to use for everybody unless you're speaking to the president or royalty or your familial elders such as a patriarch or a matriarch--at which point you'll use the -hashimnikka ending instead. It serves as a sort of reverence. In this case he used it on dippy ol' me--something I rarely experience in this country. So, that experience alone elevated today's good day to an incredible day!

This is a rather boring shot from within the metro station. What the folks are pointing out here are the little 'blue feet' markers where folks stand to ensure they don't block the off-loading passengers when the subway stops at the station. We find these little feet guides quite hilarious. I guess in large population areas crowd control is a big deal--these little feet just ensure that we don't create gridlock at the station, I guess.

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Another thing we've noticed lately is that it's election season. We see candidates' pamphlets, poster, flyers--you name it all around the city. We even see these small trucks that have 3-sided platforms in the back that are designed to hold candidates in them so the trucks can drive around the neighborhood and the want-to-be politicians can meet their potential future constituents while bellowing out their message from PA systems in the back. There are loudspeakers blaring from these trucks and it always gets me laughing because it reminds me of the grocer trucks that drive around town blaring out the deal of the day at 6am--which often seems to be watermelons (as we saw today), soybeans, eggs or pickled turnips. I usually wonder what they're campaigning about but never have the guts to ask them. :)

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It is definitely nice to see democracy in action though. Korea's definitely had its share of political problems over the years--from scandals to civil strife to assassination attempts. So it's especially nice to actually see the election process working properly. When we lived here in the late 90s Korea had just suffered a major financial blow (as did many other Asian countries when the Asian economy took a nose-dive)--they were bailed out of debt by the IMF (World Bank). The Korean citizens were so embarrassed about needing to be 'bailed out' by other people that everybody jumped on the 'surrender your precious belongings to the government to help pay off this IMF bailout loan as quickly as possible' bandwagon. We remember folks turning in their gold family heirlooms, their wedding bands, watches--if it was gold or had some sort of value to it folks were turning it in to melt down into ingots to help pay off the loan. We'd ask our Korean friends how they could possibly turn in their wedding bands and they'd reply, "we can always get another ring, we can't often regain our international pride." Apparently the entire country of South Korea filled two Swiss Air 747s with their gold within a week and had the IMF bailout loan paid back in lightning speed. I have no idea if the citizens ever received IOUs from the government for turning in their gold or if they have since been repaid for their sacrifices. It was definitely something I'd never seen in the US--certain it was a cultural thing, too. Here it seems folks elevate the society above the individual and that was definitely visible back in 1997-1998! Seeing the economic prowess of this country now--some 7-8 short years later after such a low point in their history is amazing! Seeing their political situation that much improved is even more miraculous!

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Anyway, today turned out to be a wonderful outing. We explored yet another part of Korea that we didn't even know existed a few weeks ago. We got to walk along an incredible wall that reminded us at times of the Great Wall of China. We saw wild irises, magpies, newly hatched birds' egg-shells lying around the ground and lots of other wondrous things. It turned out to be a great day--and, no--808 Dawn wasn't necessary! ;)

Sucker Hole...

27 May 2006

Seoul, South Korea

Gwanaksan Provincial Park

Sucker Hole Defined

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"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Herodotus chose his words well to describe our Gwanaksan outing today! Neither thunder nor rain nor lightning nor mud nor falling rocks nor sheer cliffs nor jagged, sharp undergrowth stays our attempt from the swift completion of Gwanaksan 4!

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We awake to cloudy skies, cool breezes and a slight mist of a rain. We wait a few hours, notice the sky appears to be clearing a bit as we can see a bit of blue and the rain has stopped. We decide to head out in pursuit of the one remaining cachebox on Gwanaksan that we have yet to attempt. Trekkie later informs me that this small bit of blue sky is affectionately known to aviators as a 'sucker hole'. "Now he tells me," I think to myself. ;) You think the weather will turn nicer and instead the cats, dogs and every other type of animal in existence finds its way out of the sky and comes screaming down on you--when you least expect it.

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This is precisely what happened to us.

We hopped on the subway for the 45 minute ride and then transferred to a bus to eventually reach our starting point. After our 'mega 12 mile outing' last weekend in the same mountain range that resulted in not finding a cachebox, we did a bit more research and honed in via metro bus much closer to our 'target' hoping to drastically whittle down the overall distance of the hike. This plan has us entering the mountain range by a dry riverbed stream between the two opposing 'higher' ridgelines instead of approaching it from the north or south that would involve another 'up & over' ascent through a ridgeline.

This peek through the tree branches where we 'broke through a saddle' between the two ridgelines reveals one of the lower 'perpendicular' ridgelines of the mountain we climbed over the previous Saturday.

We're making great progress on our trek and seeing some beautiful sights along the way. We notice the rhododendrons and azaleas that were blooming so prolificly last weekend are totally faded this day. We also revisit the wisteria and it is completely 'spent'--absolutely no hint of purple remaining on its withered buds. Boy--we certainly could not have timed last week's hike any better than we did--we were so blessed with the beautiful flowers then!

Along the way we know we need to reach a ridgeline to our north to reach our cachebox so we locate the 'upward' trail that appears to head in the appropriate direction and start forging away---up, up and uphill some more.

The gravelly, stony trail soon gives way to mostly steep and large boulder scrambling. Here is where the clouds start to pour in and we can see lightning and hear thunder rumbling off in the distance. We continue to forge ahead thinking, "we've come all this way..."

We eventually reach an intermediate summit of the ridgeline we were following and notice the much higher ridgeline we hiked over the previous Saturday to our south. It's now covered in rainclouds. The large communication towers and Buddhist temples that were so visible last weekend are nowhere to be seen--the clouds are that thick.

We continue up and up. Mostly rock scrambling now--some parts involving finding 'handholds' that just don't seem to be there. We end up using lots of 'cram your boots between the crevices in the boulders' approach to ascending. It seems to work. Where that doesn't work we reach for trees or bushes that might help give us that little 'extra' security to reach the new height. The rains start to trickle on us but we continue to forge ahead. A little rain isn't going to bother us, will it?

The raindrops soon become much larger. Lightning strikes rapidly approach much closer to us than is comfortable. The nerves are starting to kick in--we need to hustle and find this thing or call it off to seek shelter soon.

We soon reach an exposed peak where we think the cachebox might be but "no!" Then our trusty 'gadget' tells us, "It can't be here--instead, it's 150m to the east--over on that ridgeline instead!" What it failed to tell us is that there's a 200 foot drop deep ravine that separates us from our desired cachebox--and there's no way to reach it but to 'dogleg' another 2km around the main ridge over to another connecting ridge to reach it or we backtrack down the steep trail we just climbed up, cross the ravine somehow and then attack it from that angle. At this point, we realize we only have about 1-1/2 hours left of sunlight--so we opt for the backtrack and cross the ravine approach.

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That's where the rising waters, exfoliating rock ledges, gravelly trails turning into streams, tightly interlocking pine trees, cedars and juniper trees with sharp underbrush that always seemed to jab us no matter how we passed by them, lightning bolts rapidly appearing closer to us, all come into play. Somehow we attack the 'cliff', make it up to the opposite ridge and quickly secure our cachebox. It's the first time while hiking that we actually get excited when we see signs of 'humanity' such as soda can debris along the way--for that was when we knew we were approaching the 'real' trail and that the going would get much easier then.

By now it's raining cats & dogs. We're drenched, shivering, and muddy--but boy did we earn our 'treasure' today. ;) What you see here is the cachebox with nothing but a postcard and a handful of travel bugs that we brought along for the ride. Otherwise, our true treasure was the outing itself.

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We quickly descend the mountain, teeth chattering and completely drenched. Our socks are literally swimming in our Gore Tex hiking books. Jeans are so waterlogged they're twice as heavy. We're squeezing cups of water from the sleeves of our fleece pullovers. This must've been tropical storm rain!

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Along our descent we see a few other hikers heading down. One interesting thing we noticed, however, was a group of 5 men--all decked out in hiking/backpacking/overnighting gear heading up the mountain that we were descending. We greeted them beneath a pavillion where they were securing gore tex covers over their large backpacks. We inquired if they were overnighting it and they said yes. "Doesn't the intense rain bother you?" "No." He hands trkr an umbrella--not knowing that we already have 3 umbrellas on hand but we're so drenched at this point they won't do any good. "Are you tent camping?" "No--bee bee." Amazing! These men were heading out for the weekend, in this mad torrential downpour and bivouac-bag camping! Boy, have they earned our instant respect! We continue down the mountain, hop on the bus and take the long ride home--leaving large puddles everywhere we tread along the way.

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In the past 2 months, we've now logged over 30 miles of hiking around the Gwanaksan Mountains--in 3 outings. Including our previous letterbox 'planting' trek a year and a half ago increases that to about 36 miles. We have still only scratched the surface of this mountainous gem within Seoul's limits. Amazing! Too bad our time in the area is quickly coming to an end as we're leaving much of it unexplored. We will definitely miss this region. :(

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Herodotus did choose his words well in describing our outing today.

I'm sure he has a few more words to add to the description now.

Wonder if sucker hole has anything to do with it???

;)

United by Division?

25 May 06

Seoul, Korea

Cheonggyecheon Stream

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United by Division?

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Doesn't sound logical does it? But I'll explain shortly...

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Sadly our time in Asia is rapidly winding down as we'll depart in a few days. It's a bit melancholic because we know we won't be back for a long time. :( Due to this, we've realized even though we've been here so long that there are still a million things here that we've missed. We want to get out and see as much as there is to see before we leave but because we're so overwhelmed by the array of options, selecting a few precious things to do before we leave is quite daunting. So, our solution to this quandary is to avoid the decisions. We'll just hit the streets and walk whereever it is that our legs may carry us.

Spices drying out along the streets of our neighborhood. Not quite sure what spice this was but it seemed to be a bark of some sort or possibly even a mushroom with a very sweet aroma--like all spice or a hint of cinnamon. Airing out the crop of the season on the streets and sidewalks is a common occurrence in Korea. Usually we see rice or red peppers drying out there but this time it was spice season.

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Today we headed back out in the direction of Cheonggyecheon Stream--which in my mental image of things isn't that far from our apartment. In reality (after I studied the tourist map) it's actually about 6km to reach the entrance to the stream park and at the end of the day it appears we walked some 16 kilometers in total. Odd enough urban life does have its perks doesn't it? We never log this sort of 'sidewalk' hiking in the US as it's virtually impossible where we currently reside. When we set out, I envisioned returning to the stream we discovered a few days ago. Because we'd explored the western terminus of the stream the other day, this time we'd go the other direction heading east as far as we could go--while aiming to visit Tongdaemun Market/Stadium. So, we meandered our way over toward the stream, taking nooks, crannies and alleys to get there. I always try to select a different route through the alley ways each time so we can explore new territory--hoping to stumble on that special 'hole-in-the-wall' spot that offers incredible deals on treasures. This time our route took us through the Myeongdong Cathedral Neighborhood--bordering on the Cinematic & Animation Industry Neighborhood & the Chinese Embassy where we'd explored back on our 'hike around Namsan' several weeks ago.

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We saw lots of different things on this route including something that I totally didn't expect:

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a slab of the now defunct Berlin Wall!!!

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Who knew??? Berlin is a city in which I resided for 4 years in the early 80s--when the Wall was still standing that tragically divided the country into two. It separated families, friends, and neighbors and resulted in hundreds of people losing their lives as they tried to 'escape' to freedom in the West (either through the Wall that surrounded 'free' Berlin or the Wall that lined the border into West Germany). We resided on this tiny island of 'freedom' then--an outpost of sorts surrounded by one of the most fortified and heavily armed borders that ever existed. Our link to the West was via 3 air corridors, 3 train corridors or 1 highway route that was protected my military escorts along the Autobahn. All of our food, supplies, fuel--whatever you needed for daily life had to travel via one of these means to reach the 'island' of Berlin. Truly a political tinderbox that often resulted in stand-offs or exchanges of fire between the opposing sides, political summits between all the parties involved and 'Hollywood style' exchanges of 'prisoners/spies/you name it' over the Gleinecke Bruecke (Bridge of Freedom). That experience impacted me in a way I never would have anticipated before we moved there from the SF Bay Area in '81! In retrospect, it helped determine my career path, cultivated my political viewpoints and enabled me to form incredible bonding friendships with people whom we met there and shared these 'unique life experiences on a daily basis' unlike any other experience in life (except perhaps my bizarre & unique college experience but that's an entirely different volume of books) .

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Hearing machine gun fire on the other side of the Wall as folks tried to escape from the East was a common occurrence which really impressed upon me how precious and important freedom is. Sonic booms produced by planes jetting overhead occurred almost daily. Our school desks rattled out of place & classes halted to a stop because the noise level was so high when the miles-long parade of tanks would rumble back and forth along the cobbled street in front of our school campus as they made their way from their Kassernes to their training area near the Wall just a few miles from our school. These were daily reminders that we lived in a 'militarized' zone. Subway lines that we were not allowed to take (the entire Strassenbahn network!!!) because they'd cross over to the East side and we wouldn't be able to come back to the West without creating international incidents. Streets that stopped dead in their tracks where the Wall was erected right in the middle of the road in the early 60s. Buildings split in two where the Wall's path crossed over the footprint of the building and rooms within were blocked off with thick internal brick walls. Photos splashed on the newpapers of people who tragically died trying to cross over the Wall to freedom in the West that day. I recall seeing these 2-3 times each month (and those are the instances that we know about in Berlin--I'm sure the border to West Germany had even more occurrences!). A vivid memory that I will carry with me forever is seeing the 'cross' on the west side of the Wall where Chris Guoffrey died trying to escape on 6 February 1989--a mere 7 months before the Wall eventually 'tumbled'--that image will forever haunt me. (Something I stumbled on when I revisited the city in May 1990 during a college assignment.) Television channels were 'jammed' for fear of 'western ideals' seeping from the media reaching residents in the East. Reports of Stasi presence in West Berlin as they 'collected intel' on citizens--you name it--it was a really bizarre situation! One that definitely taught me great lessons in life that have forever forged my views.

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Fast forward some 12 years to 97-98 and I found myself residing on yet another 'outpost' of freedom of sorts--this time on the 'free' side of another heavily fortified and armed border known ironically as the Demilitarized Zone as outlined in the 1953 Armistice Agreement between the Allies of the United Nations & North & South Koreas. At the time I always saw the parallels between the two 'divided countries' and often wondered if there was ever a formal recognition (or a brotherhood type relationship) between South Korea and Germany. It's something that I often thought about--especially when either region made the newswire when I'd be reminded of the situation. Between that time in 97-98, however, I never did hear about or see anything that suggested that there was an official bond forged between Germany and Korea. Odd because their situations were so similar.

Berlin Bear in Seoul!

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Fast forward yet another 8 years and we're casually walking about the streets of Seoul and we stumble on this little patch of a park that is dedicated to the common bond that Germany & Korea share. Amazing! This is why spontaneously exploring different paths around your neighborhood is such a rewarding experience!!!

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A plaque in the area presented to Korea by the German Ambassador states (I'm translating this myself so I may not have it totally correct): "This Berliner Platz (a small park probably named after the famous Berliner Platz in Berlin) with an original section of the Berlin Wall was built by the City of Berlin for the residents of Seoul. These pieces of the Wall symbolize a peaceful resolution between the divided Germany with the hope that Korea will be able to peacefully reunify its divided peninsula . Berlin, October 2005, Klaus Wowereit, Current Mayor of Berlin"

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NOW HOW COOL IS THAT???

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Not even 5 meters away from this park is another entry point to the Cheonggyecheon Stream zone--the crazy thing is that it's an entrance point that we used only two days earlier and we somehow missed the 14' tall x 1' thick by 12' long chunk of Wall. It just goes to show you can see something new every single time you pass through a neighborhood--even if it is a place you visit often.

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From memory lane, we continued down to the stream--heading east.

Neat fountain that alternated its water show with different heights of the water jets to differnet cycles and I'm sure a spectacular lighting show at night. On the right side of it is a little platform where people are encouraged to stand and interact with the water feature.

Another interesting mosaic tile wall we discovered. We just finished reading The Odyssey and several Greek Myths in school so the labrynth instantly caught our attention. This one was entitled "Visual Labrynth"--I tried to follow the maze but gave up a few minutes into the process. By the way, we couldn't find Daedalus or Icarus anywhere in the labrynth. ;)

My favorite area was the quilt mosaic. This was several dozen meters long and featured many of the traditional Korean quilt patterns in all their vibrant colors.

Loved the different patterns and colors!!!

Here's another section of wall art near the labrynth. These were tile flowers (?) that jutted out about 2' from the wall's surface. Their colors corresponded really nicely with the pattern of colors on the tiles below--although those colors don't show that well in this picture as there was an underlying layer of metallic colors that highlighted the various shades of blues, greys, and whites.

A unique little pond on an upperlevel of the pathway adjacent the stream. This one featured a large stone island, with lights and neat little frog water intakes (submerged in the photo) that created these interesting sounds when they 'inhaled' the water.

Another one of the quilt panels. Seems to be a take on the traditional Amish Log Cabin quilt block. Hmmm--which came first, the chicken or the...?

rnrB enjoying some play on the rocks and posts inset into the stream. Many of these little islands protected fiber optic light displays that are incorporated into the water. Not too far from here we noticed some fish in the stream--mostly little fingerlings of fish about 5" long but at one point we did see a lonely fish that was about 2-1/2 feet long and the 'locals' said he weighed about 20kg! I wonder if these fish have been reintroduced to the area or if they have just 'found' it on their own? The passersby take a keen interest in the fish (which I hope will continue as folks around here are known for 'harvesting' anything that appears edible that they find in the public domain--ranging from dandelions in city parks, to fruit on trees to other 'edible' objects--I'm hoping these fish are allowed to prosper before they show up on somebody's dinner table soon). ;)

A tile photograph of one of the bridges over the stream before it had been filled in to create the highway. This bridge is the one where I posted a photo of one of its original support stone blocks the other day. Throughout the stream you can still seem some stone foundations of where these original bridges were located. The restoration project team took great strides in sparing/reviving as much of the original architecture as they possibly could.

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The other day we failed to explore the stream at night so this time we did just that. As the natural light dimmed the light show around the city and within the stream zone started to radiate. It created an incredibly romantic ambience and it was very evident in the hundreds of passersby enjoying the area.

The lighting system of one of the bridge underpasses. My current camera doesn't take very good night shots--these lights had the most beautiful blue glow about them--which illuminated the entire bridge underpass and the surrounding water.

Another light display in the stream. Gorgeous although this photo doesn't do a very good job of conveying that either.

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We concluded the evening at, of all places, Outback Steakhouse. I was dying for a steak. Odd-since I eat red meat about 3 times a year! Usually that statistic increases a bit if we find ourselves in In'N'Out Burger territory--which isn't all that often anymore. Again-sticker shock! The Outback Special was $22 for 9oz and $25 for 11oz--the Victoria Filet was $32! Bloomin' Onion about $8! Ouch! I guess it's been a long time since I've eaten out at an 'upscale' chain restaurant. My standards for 'upscale' are pretty low, aren't they? ;) These prices don't include the mandatory 15% value added tax here in the city--so it really hurt! But it was worth it--a great meal!

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All in all another great discovery in the city of Seoul today. Seoul is really emerging from under its mantle of being known as the 'dirty city in Asia with little cultural appeal' and becoming a travel destination in its own right. Our experience here has been wonderful. The sites are beautiful, the people extremely kind and warm and the food and entertainment delightful. Every return visit to the area reveals another whole new world of discovery and it's only improving in time! Can't wait to see it in another few years as they add more and more parks and green belts such as the Cheonggyecheon Stream.