1.11.98

Unbelievable day yesterday. It’s like I go for months doing next to nothing and then BAM! I do it all in one day. We met the tour bus at Yongsan Post Office, where we always meet it. It departed late for Chong Wa Dae (Presidential residence) area. Along the way we picked up one other guy, making the group total 10 people for one big bus. Near the residence there are a couple of police checkpoints, at each of which we had to stop and explain our purpose. The police guys took notes. In front of the residential compound we visited the park where the former President, Pak Chun Hee, was assassinated. It wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. Just a pile of rocks and a sign I couldn’t read. The park used to be President Pak’s "party area". Guess after his wife died he felt lonely and held ragers every night. The current President, Kim Youngsam, decided it should be returned to the people. That’s cool. Then we visited a museum where gifts presidents had received from other presidents were on display. Woowee. The best part of the tour, by far, was the hike up Inwangsan. I thought the hike might be kind of boring and difficult, but it was one of the best things I’ve done here. The whole deal with Inwangsan is that the summit affords a fantastic view of Chong Wa Dae. So, the whole mountain has been closed off for many years and militarily fortified to prevent North Korean infiltrators from setting up shop and planning successful attacks against the presidential residence. It’s only been a few years since the mountain was opened to the public. At the trailhead, a soldier with an automatic assault rifle - no clip (whew!) and definitely not American-made - stopped our group and made our tour guide sign her name while he inquired about our intentions. Big guy. A little later on, we encountered a fortified position staffed by two police guys. They, too, made us stop while they asked questions, made the tour guide fork over her address, and then they radioed to someone and gave them the info. We had to wait until it was verified and then they let us go. They told her (the tour guide) that if there had only been a few of us they wouldn’t have stopped us, but ten people were too many to let pass. OK. So we started heading up. The whole trail was a stairway now, running adjacent to the ancient, but rebuilt, northern wall of the city. Modern sandbag reinforcements and concrete bunkers were spaced periodically along it. And on the other side ran big coils of razor (anti-personnel) wire. Don’t trip. Luxury homes sprawled from the north side of the old wall; the south side was characterized by thick trees. Every so often, I could see the movement of a soldier through the tangle of naked branches. There was snow on the ground and sometimes it was a little slippery. Still, the trail was all cement stairs. We were stopped again by another soldier with rifle. Later, two soldiers joined us on the trail. Being in better shape, they quickly disappeared up the steep stairs. Near the summit we saw them again; this time they were headed back down carrying a big thermos. Ahh, so that’s what was so important. The summit was spectacular. You could, indeed, see right down onto the President’s house. There was a larger outpost up there with more equipment and soldiers. I nearly tripped over a gun mount and hurled myself over the side of the mountain. Looking down at the hillside, it was easy to see positioned soldiers walking around in the cold. The soldiers at the top left us alone, but they did ask one guy who had hiked up alone to show them his citizen ID card. Wild. The whole thing was incredible. I am just fascinated by the military presence here, and its cohabitation with civilian life. This trip was almost as exhilarating as visiting the DMZ. It’s so easy to forget that this country is technically at war, but moments like these serve to remind. What is it like to grow up familiar with the accessories of war? Oh, the view from the top would’ve been spectacular had the pollution not settled in over the city for the day. Even though we were only a mile or so (as a magpie flies) from city center, we couldn’t see any of the buildings through the brown fog. It was disgusting. After walking down all those steps, Dave and I left the group to have lunch in Insa-dong. While there, our friends John and Catherine showed up out of the blue (or pollution haze) and we chatted with them over bibimbap. Dave and I still had time before meeting new arrivals, Kathy and Paul, for dinner, so we headed over the Lotus Lantern Zen Center to see if there were any classes I could take to learn more about Buddhism. We ended up having tea with a monk from Bangledesh. I didn’t intend to stay so long, and I really wasn’t prepared to talk with anyone, but he had brewed tea and we were obligated to stay. He was nice, of course, and mentioned that the cold winter in Korea was difficult for him. He said he doesn’t ever want to go out in the cold. He’s only been here nine months. We met K and P and took them for dinner at our favorite tubuchongol place. It was so good and they liked it too. Afterward we went to Macondo and watched the beautiful people dance to Latin music. The place brews their own stout which we had to try: Pretty good for Korea, but a little too much of a bite for stout. I couldn’t collect my free beer because the guy who handles the internet stuff wasn’t around. Guess we’ll have to go back. Felt comfortable with K and P. There are so many similarities between them and us - like, that they are also from Seattle and we have mutual friends. It kind of eliminated that whole "stranger" phenomenon. They brought in their surface shipment a shitload of beans (all kinds) for us. Man, you gotta appreciate that. And we do. So, I’m sitting here on a Sunday night. Yesterday, huffing it up the mountain, I was so overtaken with the excitement of the military stuff juxtaposed with the benign hike that I thought for sure I’d write this really cool, thoughtful - maybe even profound - entry. The truth is that I woke up this morning feeling ill. I think maybe I was dehydrated. All the hiking, walking around the city, the pollution, and the really low humidity was too much. Dave felt exactly the same way. I’m still feeling a little ill, but a lot better since the recent trip to Baskin & Robbins and the timely Pizza Hut delivery. Been drinking water all day. So, you know, I’m disappointed that I’ve lost all those cool feelings; that I can’t crank out an awesome reconstruction of the whole day. Instead, I’m just pretty much jotting down the days events. Blah, blah, blah. Can’t even scan pictures ‘cause the soldiers wouldn’t allow picture taking.

future past index