Those precious wasted moments…

Jeju is a relatively small place. You could drive completely around it, following the coast, in about 5 hours, maybe less. The center of island is clearly indicated by the large volcano and the area in between is given mostly over to the farming of nectarines and… I’m gonna say… garlic. The coast is a mix of rocky, lava stone outcrops dotted with the occasional deserted white sand beach. I say deserted, like a ghost town. Creepy. Like the Chinese, the Koreans are scared of the sun. They fear the evil “tanning” effects it might have on their skin. So deep is this fear that they often cover themselves, head to toe, before going outdoors. We passed plenty of hikers wearing long pants, long sleeves, gloves, wide brim hats and… of course… umbrellas. Really. We were wearing shorts and sandals, enjoying the sweet kiss of the Sun and these people were doing everything they could to hide from it. As with China (and maybe more parts of Asia?) they find whiter skin more beautiful. Perhaps this is a hold over from the time that rich women were indoors and poor women were in the fields, leading to class differences being clearly reflected in the color of the skin. Whatever the reason, these people steer clear of the beautiful, white beaches… so more for us!

We’ve eaten a lot of new things on this trip. Dishes we’ve never heard of. Spices we’d never known existed. But today we really topped it off with several courses of raw… and even living… seafood. Lots of raw fish, sure, like sushi. What’s new? And then a platter of shell fish… things… a snail… thing… some octopus… clam-ish stuff… Okay, yummy. A bite of this, a bite of that… and then something moved… Wait a minute! … Half of the platter is moving… uh oh! How did I not notice this? Is this normal? Is it supposed to move? To be alive? I look around at other tables, they grab a squirming shell creature, pop his shell off, dunk him in hot sauce and… down the hatch (don’t forget to chew well!). Okay, here we go. Lavinia, this was your idea, so you go first. I put the first victim on her plate. A drop of sauce fell from her chopsticks on to the poor creature. He cringes as if shot. You poor thing. She pours some water from her glass to wash off the sauce.

“I think the sauce is hurting him!” she whimpers.

It’s food. Eating him is going to hurt him. But anyway, she waves the waitress over and tries to indicate this poor creature is in pain. She can’t eat it. Please cook it. “Prepare,” she says. The waitress doesn’t speak English, but somehow interprets that Lavinia needs help preparing the dish. So she enthusiastically rips the little guy from his shell and drowns him in hot sauce. Boy, he’s really squirming now. She offers it up to Lavinia with a smile. Here you go, madame. Caught between disgust and a possible insult… she grabs it with her sticks… breathes… and bites. Don’t forget to chew!

Never one to be one-upped by a woman… I grabbed the next one, shucked it, dunked it and attacked. Don’t forget to chew, indeed.

Amazingly enough, my stomach survived. After my last experience in China, I was sure I’d be praying to the porcelain thrown again, but strangely enough… I feel fine. I suppose enough hot sauce and alcohol can sterilize just about anything.

We decided to rent a car in Jeju, to explore the island at our own tempo. Many travelers rely on the islands ample bus and taxi supply, but we decided it would be simpler to just rent a car… yeah, well… no maps and only a GPS navigator… in KOREAN! Oh boy! This was an adventure. Fortunately, some clever person decided to link the telephone directory to the GPS, so you can just type in a telephone number and you’ll be guided to the matching address (only works with land lines, of course). We could follow the big arrow on the screen easily enough, but the maze of streets and intersections is terrifying, nonetheless. Six roads converge with no clear idea of who has the right-of-way. No stop lights or lines or any of that. Nope, just quickly moving objects from every angle. And all the while we have this Korean voice babbling on. She spoke way too much to just be telling us when to turn, so we knew we were missing some additional information. Judging from the excitement in her voice, we assumed it had something to do with “leveling up” and “following the quest.” After a while, it made perfect sense.

If we drove correctly for at least a kilometer, we got plus two Experience points. If we discovered an alternative route, we gained plus one Wisdom. If we took a wrong turn, minus three, and so on. I’m pretty sure we also found an enchanted sword or two and escaped the clutches of more than one goblin. This made swerving through the Korean drivers much more entertaining, as you can imagine. The sound it made when we reached the hotel was more appropriate for saving the princess, so we celebrated with a bottle of soju and planned the next day’s journey through the Tunnel of Trees to the Crater of Doom.

Happy Anniversary! Six years married and nine together, in total. Six… long… years… oh, boy.

We had lunch with a a girl we met during our first trip. We had expected a short lunch in town, but were pleasantly surprised by a nice long lunch at her home, together with her husband and son. We dined on traditional Korean bulgogi while her son showed me all his newest Power Rangers toys. A very warm home. A pleasure to be guests and we hope to meet again.

The rest of the day is ours to enjoy. We wander through the shopping district, browsing and checking each corner for a nice place to eat. A romantic dinner and a long ride home. This will be our last day in Seoul. Tomorrow we’re off for a semi-honeymoon to the southern island of Jeju! Finally, there’s a vacation at the end of this trip!

This is only our second time in Seoul, but it feels very familiar. A long walk through downtown brings back so many memories of our first visit. Wide promenades lined with skyscrapers followed by narrow, winding streets filled with shops and sellers. Along the way, we ran across a traditional parade of the “city watch” that went along the route of the ancient city walls to ring the bells signifying the opening and closing of the city gates, in ages past. As it just so happened, we were recruited to ring the bell six times, to indicate the changing of the guard. A lazy day, literally walking down memory lane.

In the evening, we met with Lavinia’s biological father. As with Seoul, this is only the second time we’ve met him. We settled in to a nice, long meal and more than a few bottles of soju rice wine. The conversation (and the alcohol) bore some new facts about Lavinia’s hidden past. Some facts were difficult to hear and, yet, others put some color into an otherwise grey sketch. At some points in the evening, I found it difficult to empathize with a man, given the choices he’s made. From how he met his first wife, to forging adoption papers, to having two more children, starting only 3 years AFTER giving away his first batch. This man, with all his difficulties, has managed to father four children and yet Lavinia and I, with our education, decent upbringing, stable income and promising futures wonder if we would make good parents and worry that we couldn’t offer a child what it truly needs. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, one thing was clear from the evening. Despite the Korean tendency to make the official story much cleaner than reality (i.e. forging documents and downright lying), underneath it all he’s an honest man, with a good heart. That’s what’s important, I suppose.

Sick, sick, sick. As it turns out, my stomach disagreed with one of the various raw things I wolfed down last night and demanded it leave the premises… immediately! As I knelt in front of the toilet heaving all the expensive delicacies into the the porcelain throne, I tried again and again to cut a deal with my stomach. “Listen, ol’ buddy ol’ pal. Here’s the deal, you see we have to catch a plane soon, which means I have to pack, carry, lift, focus and pass the quarantine screening all in the next two hours… just work with me. Stop vomiting for the next two or three hours and you can have all the pepto bismol and alka seltzer you want! Just stop it… for all our sakes!” Unfortunately, my stomach was in no mood to negotiate and stubbornly continued his house cleaning until there was nothing left and, without his bargaining chips, he was left to sit in the corner sulking for the rest of the day.

You know when you have a wonderful wife, when you’re at your lowest and can’t sit up straight and she… just… takes care… of ev… er… y… thing. She packed, carried, arranged, lifted, opened, called, paid and all the while made sure I was feeling as comfortable as possible. WIth a bottle of water and an airline sickness baggie, I made it to the airport on time.

We took the Mag-Lev train again from the city to the airport… 431kmh (268mph)!

Stepping into Korea is like stepping back into modern civilization. After a long trip through Indonesia and China with their emerging economies and conflicting identities, being in Korea is like being back in the West. Their economy has already emerged and their identity is well balanced between traditional culture and modern society. English is much more common and if someone speaks it, they speak it well, usually having studied either in the States or from an American teacher in Korea. And it’s so clean! After visiting a country with filthy hotel floors and the sound of spitting filling my dreams, we’ve entered a country where shoes are taken off before entering the home. Ahh… civilized!