Battle of Daejeon

The following is a transcription of the plaques at a monument for the Battle of Daejeon on Bomun Mountain in Daejeon, South Korea.

"Summary of Daejon Battle

Behold this place is where United Nations troops, having come to a distant foreign land, faced the enemy and fought, waving the United Nations flag. They have departed, but their achievement will ever shine brightly here.

The Red Hored [sic] which started the war on June 25, 1950, swept like a tide over this land and dyed it red. At that time those apostles of peace, the United States 24^th Infantry Division, were the first to enter the war in order to protect South Korea. Major General William F. Dean, commanding officer of the 24^th Infantry Division, established his operations headquarters at Daejon and set up a delaying action to slow the advance southward of the North Korean troops, pending the arrival of the main force of the United States Eighth Army. The first line of defense for the delaying action was planned for Pyungtaek-ansong, a second line of defense for Charyong mountains at the vicinity of the Chonan area, and a third line of defense was planned for the Keum River. But Smith Company of the 24^th Infantry Division was defeated by the North Korean troops at Jookmiryong which was spearheaded by tanks, pushed southward like an angry tide, and on July 16^th the Keum River defense line was broken, Then the 24^th Infantry Division set up the final defense positions at Daejon and made preparations for pushing back the enemy advance. Seeing this, the North Koreans boasted “If we just capture Daejon, the resistance of the Republic of Korea Army and the United Nations troops will collapse.” As they spearheaded their attack with the elite 105^th Tank Division, flanked on either side by the 3^rd and 4^th Infantry Divisions, our soldiers engaged the enemy in bloody battle.

In particular, Major General Dean, commander of the 24^th Infantry Division, stood in the front lines leading the United Nations troops, and when the North Korean tanks entered Daejon city limits, he fired a 3.5-inch rocket gun and personally knocked out a North Korean tank, thus giving a boost to the drooping spirits of his troops. But it was not possible to stop the North Koreans with their superior strength in numbers. On July 20^th the United States 24^th Infantry Division at last withdrew from Daejon, retreated to the Nakdong River and prepared for a rally. By means of this battle in Daejon, the Division rendered great service toward the establishment of a firm battle line, and in two days of fighting it achieved the military results of many hundreds of enemy soldiers killed, and 15 tanks and 21 cannons destroyed. On the other hand, the 24^th Infantry Division suffered the largest number of high-ranking officers lost since the Civil War, and its commander Major General Dean., after breaking out of the encirclement, retreated south toward Keumsan, but met with the misfortune of becoming missing in action.

However, with the success of General MacArthur’s strategy in the historical Inchon Landing, the South Korean and United Nations troops defending the Nakdong River battle line together initiated a general offensive. Then the 24^th Infantry Division, seeking revenge for its earlier bitter defeat, rushed into the vanguard and crushed the enemy force defending Daejon. So, on September 28^th our lovely Daejon was recaptured, the tide of freedom again overflowed her broad plain, and it was almost as though the hills and streams were shouting, “Long live Korea!” Now the sound of gunfire has ceased, pigeons are on the wing, and the wild flowers bloom beautifully on this hill where we are erecting this monument to preserve for ever the record of the comradeship of the 24^th Infantry Division in its bloodbought [sic] military achievement. The United States 24^th Infantry Division—its name shall shine gloriously for a thousand years!

December, 1981"

"Monument Inscription

On this bright hill where freedom’s sunlight shines, this monument to glory stands sublime.

On June 25, 1950
The day the Red Horde
Swept down like an angry tide
You, the United States 24^th Infantry Division,
Lifting high the United Nations flag,
Came to our defense in the name of freedom,
Fighting to the death on Daejon’s broad plain.
Your blood, indeed, was shed upon this ground,
But still reverberates the battle cry you raised.

Apostles of freedom,
Standard-bearers for peace,
Upon the hearts of our countrymen
Your name is deeply engraved!"

Wise beyond my years

One of my kindergarten students was in a fight with a classmate. She was being sullen and refused to participate in class activities and would lash out at the offending boy in Korean occasionally. The time came for the class to go upstairs to the playroom for gym class and Ally (the offended) shut herself inside the classroom after everyone left. This sort of thing has happened with her before. I went back in and tried talking to her, trying to coax her upstairs. "But I'm very sad and angry. Luke and David are always touching me and the girls." I told her Luke makes me angry too but that we can't be sad and angry all day. We should try to be happy. And she said, "But Teacher, I'm a kid."

Yes, absolutely. One reason why I know I shouldn't make teaching children a lifelong career is that I keep wanting them to make rational adult decisions and take responsibility for themselves and I sometimes get really frustrated when they don't. Rationally, I know I can't expect that of them but I haven't been able to totally shake it yet. My immediate response to moody kids is to ignore them partially cuz I don't want to deal with them and partially because I think giving them attention is just perpetuating the behaviour.

But I mean, it's not always that they're acting out. Like with Ally, she was just pissed off at a jerky boy, for good reason. She showed me that I'm both right and wrong. They're more mature sometimes than I give them credit for, but they're just kids. They can be wise beyond MY years.

Sokcho and Seoraksan

October 3-5/08, Friday to Sunday.

I got to Sokcho no problem Thursday night, at like 1:30am. I went into a little motel behind the bus terminal, luckily they were still up. It was perfectly located for me and get this: 20 000w/night (~20 CAD). The room was small but with bathroom and TV and small fridge with water and Vita 500 (vitamin C drink). It worked out SO well. I stayed there all three nights.

So on Friday I just started walking. I had had vague plans but I woke up late and laid them aside a bit. I saw some beaches, and fishing stuff. There was squid drying EVERYWHERE. I saw some squid boats with the special lights. I even came across a little squid cleaning plant. Shallow concrete vats with ajummas sitting on pails cleaning squid. They have this specialty that I didn't try, it's squid sundae (sausage). Instead of meat and stuff stuffed in an intestine, it's stuffed in a squid tube. I came across some in a market but I had already had a feed of raw fish. I really wanna try it though. I did have a squid deop bap though, just squid and veggies in a spicy sauce with rice. I had to complete the squid cycle: live squid in tanks, squid boats and fishing gear, squid cleaning, squid drying, squid packaged for sale, squid eating!

I went on this 100-year old cable ferry across one of the harbours to this village which is featured in the hit Korean TV show Autumn of My Heart. Never heard of it. Ugh what a lame title anyway. The market I saw was pretty cool. Right on the port, dry fish vendors on the land side, live fish and food venders on the water side, alongside fishing boats. I saw this little out of the way something too. Probably an old scholar's house or small shrine of something. It was deserted and locked up. It was up a little hill through some old houses and near some military "don't come in here" place. Sokcho is really likeable: pretty laid back, on the ocean, fishing-ness, Seorak nearby. Korean Newfoundland maybe. Why am I working in Daejeon again?

So I walked all along the coast and then got a bus to Naksan (part of my earlier plan) which was like 10 minutes away. I saw a very small insectarium. And, one of the best temples I've seen in Korea. Bested maybe only by that one in Songnisan with the Big Jesus Buddha (Brad's moniker for it). It's on a hill right on the ocean. It's main attraction is a big white statue of the goddess of mercy. You can see the Seorak range from Sokcho and so you can from Naksan. There's a little shrine for her just down the hill a bit dug into the hill with a window so that when you are in there venerating you can see the top part of the statue: her head and shoulders, through the window. It is SO neat. That's not all. The main hall has a big gold Kannon statue (Kannon is the Japanese name, dunno what the Koreans call it) and six other multi-limbed and multi-headed deities, and many many small statues in gold colour and wood in behind and a gold coloured embossed scene of something or other I dunno but it's stunning. I took as many pictures as I could until they told me I couldn't. I'm a bad person but it was so cool.

Next day I slept in later than I wanted but I was ready to go at 8:30 but the next bus to where I wanted wasn't til 1030. So I went to a lighthouse. There were some exposed rocks with ppl fishing and magnificent waves crashing (nothing like Cape Spear of course) so I took some pictures and chilled out. I went up the lighthouse and got some cool pics of the town and mountains. Then I got the bus to Osaek.

Lonely Planet said the quickest route to the peak of Seorak, Daecheongbong, was from Osaek. I started my hike around 11:45. I had packed fairly light except the 2L of water. My GOD the first 1.3 km was HELL. I kept doubting myself, I didn't think I was gonna make it up, I kept stopping, I was worrying I was going too slow to make it back down in time to catch a bus back to Sokcho, I was cursing myself for not being fit, I was thinking how I've let myself go physically, I was thinking that if Brad were there I woulda pushed myself harder. But that was the worst. I was fine for the rest of the way up. I was wearing my waegukin (foreigner) shirt and good lord did the Koreans ever fucking love it. Every third person I passed the other way would comment and laugh about it, give a thumbs up, joke with me about it ("Are you a foreigner?" "Yes, how did you know?"...*points at himself* "Hangukin (Korean)"), they'd say "right on," "very good!" "wonderful!" It was a riot. I felt like the whole mountain was talking about me. I think they get that the joke is the redundancy but I think they like that waeguk is wearing a hangul (Korean language) T-shirt. You don't see that everyday.

I fell in with a couple from Daegu. He spoke English well enough, is an automotive engineer. She was cheery and nice, only spoke Korean though. They shared their lunch. I didn't have much to offer. Crappy kimbap. Didn't wanna insult them.

I reached the peak in about three hours from the trailhead. It was all clouded over so there wasn't any view. It's not that spectacular a peak, if you remember, unless there was a view I think. I got the pictures, built my inukshuk and flew down the mountain. I almost ran most of the way and didn't stop til halfway. Then I stopped and refuelled. Calves were getting shakey by then. I had recalled a story my coworker Jeff told me about a man he met on the Chuseok weekend on a mountain, can't remember which one, but near Chungju Lake. He had said it's best to go down the mountain like water, follow the path of least resistance. Easier on the joints and everything. So that's what I had been doing. But then I arrived at the pitch of hell again (I went up the way I came). I went over a bit on each ankle and that scared me into snail pace. It wasn't as hard as the way up but man it was hard. 1.3km of uneven rock stairs. By that point no one was passing anyone unless they had stopped. We were all taking our time. It was almost 5 o'clock so the light was fading a bit, which added to the anxiety a little. I was so relieved when I made it to the entrance and it was still light out. I duck walked a little down the sloping road. Very slowly. I got some hydration and ramyeon and got the bus back.

The colours were out alittle, especially near the top. But this particular trail was straight to business and there were no vistas to take pictures of because of the tree cover. I didn't mind because I planned to go to the more famous part with the bare rocky bits the next day. But when I inquired about the bus to Daejeon there was only one at 1145am. I didn't wanna muck around with many kinds of transpo and it had rained the night before I probably woulda had the same cloud issue and risk of more rain, and I may not have been able to make it anywhere the state my legs were in. So I took the looooong bus ride back, which turned out to be through a gorgeous mountain river valley most of the way and through idyllic farming villages. I was so proud of myself though. I made it up and down on my own steam two hours short of the Lonely Planet estimate. I really want to go back to Seorak to see the really scenic places and a temple within the national park but I feel like that'll be easy and I can do it anytime since the mountain and I have come to terms.

Visit to an Oriental Doctor

From my journal Sept. 6, 2008 (abridged):
Joy, my boss, took me to see an oriental doctor for my back. I was having pain and restriction of movement. She had to translate on the spot and go through a diagnostic survey with questions about my toilet habits, whether I sleep and digest well, whether I like to drink cold or hot water. Very different from home; not least in the fact that this was my boss being privy to this very personal evaluation.

So the doctor, once I went into his office, poked and prodded. It didn’t bother me, but he did touch areas where Western doctors won’t touch without alerting you to it and the intention, and receiving permission. Nothing scandalous, and always professional. Just different. I noted but was not phased that my boss was present all this time. The doctor did a bit of chiropractic, but not as sort of firm and assertive as doctors I’ve seen in Canada. He also used a hand-held massage thing on my back.

I was still having pain so he brought me to a table surrounded by a curtain and left me there for 10 mintues. This table, though was a massage table with little “fingers” moving up and down my back. Cool. He came back and gave me acupuncture. He used a few needles on my back but took them out quickly. Joy had told me before that he uses “medicine” on the needles. I assume it’s a mild topical anaesthetic or something. Then he turned me over and put two needles in each of my hands, two in each of my feet, and one on each calf. He left me like that with a heat lamp directed on my feet.

Soon a woman came and rolled up my shirt to expose my belly. She put some material over it, in a donut shape, and a towel over my hips. Then she brought this smoking circular pot thing and put it over my stomach, resting it on the donut thing, over my bare belly. It had burning herbs or incense but it wasn’t sweet-smelling. She pulled down an adjustable silver vent from the ceiling and put it over the pot to catch the smoke. I guess it was meant to warm my stomach in a particular way as well as provide some sort of aromatherapy. Some of the hot ash fell on me.

After awhile she came and took everything off, cleaned up the ash and took out the needles. Then she brought this big complicated machine. Picture the pneumatic armband they use to take your blood pressure but big enough to cover you torso. One by one a lateral tube (there were maybe six) would fill up with air thus giving a sort of squeezing massage/chiropractic. Pretty cool. And that was it. They took me out of it and sent me on my way. When I walked out I was almost in tears because my back felt no better. It only cost about $33 but I had been really hoping I’d get some relief. But after about 20 minutes I started to feel better. My back hurt less. They had suggested I go back for more treatment. A couple days later, I remembered a trick that my chiropractor in St. John’s showed me. She’d put pressure on a muscle knot for 60 seconds and it would loosen. I did this on the worst knot in my back and it worked like a charm. Such a simple thing.

I had tried to be prepared for anything, and take everything in stride. I found myself analyzing everything, with my very limited medical knowledge, in Western terms and not thinking in a Korean way, not accepting the Korean way. And I thought myself to be open-minded. I suppose my impression of oriental medicine going into it was not much beyond that “witch doctor” image. I didn’t quite expect a straw hut and rooster entrails but I didn’t expect a sophisticated pneumatic machine or special sensor to measure one’s aura. “Scientific.” They were playing Western classical music the whole time. Korea is weird sometimes.

The Church of God

Thursday, Oct. 9/08
I didn’t want to be combative and I didn’t want to argue. I was genuinely interested. I wanted to know more without attracting unwanted attention.

There was a knock on my door on Thursday night, around 8:30 I guess. I thought it was strange, since no one at work actually knows where I live except Jamie and Joy. Maybe it was them. Maybe it was Glenn or Krista. It was a couple of women with a survey. One look at the survey and I knew why they were there and they wouldn’t just be waved away. So I answered questions about what I believed about God, Jesus, and some specific Bible citations. The last question was something like “What do you want to know more about from the Bible” and the answers were even more constricting than the previous questions: the Bible is true, the existence of God, the image of God … Heavenly Mother… so I left it blank. They questioned this.

Them: “Have you studied the Bible?”
Me: “Yes I’ve read it. I was brought up Catholic so I’m familiar with that interpretation and I studied Medieval History and so have studied a lot about Christianity.”
Them: “Then you know about Heavenly Mother.”
Me: “The Mother of God?”
Them: “No, the wife of Jesus.”
Me: “Mary Magdelen?”
Them: “No.”

Wouldn’t you be intrigued? Is this some new feminist mother-goddess cult? God as woman? Genderless divinity? I should have known…I am in Korea after all. I had heard indirect comments about coworkers and friends being accosted by these evangelists. They are called the Church of God. They snagged me with a survey, spoke perfect English. I asked for reading material, they produced a Bible. Then one asked to use my bathroom and then we were sitting on my floor and I was being shown Bible passages. But not against my will. Like I said, I was interested. They were sly and not annoyingly pushy or preachy. They didn’t say until near the end they were Church of God, perhaps knowing their reputation among foreigners. And indeed had they mentioned it first off there’d have been no conversation at all.

So most of their evidence is semantic and metaphoric, and much of it comes from the Old Testament prophecies and from Revelation. They also pick and choose from Paul and stretch some Gospel stuff a little thinly. First off they are Christian. They believe in the Trinity and the death and resurrection, and transubstantiation, the whole bit. They believe that Jesus IS God, not just the Son of God, and this is one of many ways around the mathematical magic trick that is the Trinity. But each member of the Trinity has a female counterpart, a wife. The first citation they showed me was from the end of Revelations, something spoken to John by the seventh angel about “the Lamb and his bride.” They point out Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast, how heaven is like a wedding feast and wonder how can you have a wedding without a bride? They refreshed my memory of the basic structure of social interaction is the nuclear family, mother, father, and children. Without children there is only man and woman, and how can there be a Father without a Mother? They showed my sections of Genesis and other books where pronouns and possessive pronouns referring to God are plural, in the original Hebrew they assured me. This last thing of course is usually explained in terms of the Trinity, but given the other evidence, they must conclude that God was not alone at the time of Creation.

So according to Revelation and the OT prophecies which lay everything out so cleanly and clearly, they believe that after the Second Coming of Christ, the Heavenly Mother—the wife of God or wife of Christ or whatever—will herself be made flesh and come to Earth. This will be at the end of the Seventh Age (the Age of the Holy Spirit which is heralded by the Second Coming), and of course precede the Last Judgment soon to follow. It gets better. Guess what: Jesus has been and left again. In Korea in 1948. We are living in the Age of The Holy Spirit and we didn’t even know it. And within one generation from 1948, they figure about 100 years, Heavenly Mother will come as well. And the Apocalypse. But they didn’t dwell on the Hellfire at all actually, unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses.

They have an interesting symbolic theme regarding Passover which I found very interesting, theologically. The first thing is the blood. If you know the story of Passover you know it’s bloody. They explained that how does a mother who has lost her child early on recognize her own after many years but through a DNA blood test. So how do the Heavenly Mother and Father know their own but through their own blood running through us. (Oh this sounds juicy, please tell me how we’ve got a bloodline and who’s got it!) Through the Eucharist, though they don’t call it that, we can receive God’s blood and be recognized. (Darn, that was no fun!) They only take the body and blood once a year at Passover, which for them is fittingly the anniversary of the Last Supper, what Catholics call Holy Thursday. I think they said it was the thirteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar or something like that. There is of course the prophecies of Jesus being the ultimate sacrificial Lamb of all the lambs killed in the Jewish Passover tradition, and indeed Jesus was killed during Passover. Jesus thus made void that practice among others. The Church of God says this is the “new covenant” spoken of at the Last Supper, basically the abolition of Jewish Passover.

One more thing about Passover. The first Passover happened during the Exile in Egypt, where the Jews, God’s Chosen People, were enslaved. Moses said “Let my people go,” Pharaoh said “Hell no,” and God said “I’ma plague your ass” and sent the seven plagues. The last plague was the Angel of Death and the Jews were instructed to smear lamb’s blood over the door of their houses so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” them. Now true to his word for ever more, disciples who have been marked by blood will be spared from plague and disaster. These women told me that over a million people are part of the Church of God and apparently they have never had disaster befall them. Even the ones in America during 9/11 or Hurricaine Katrina, even the ones in the 2004 Tsunami, they said they were not personally harmed. Now don’t get me started about why that’s bullshit.

There are some key ideas of Christianity that they didn’t highlight at all but maybe that’s because they understood me to be Christian. They do not have female ministers but the ministers are allowed to marry. Tell me what kind of church that believes in a Heavenly Mother wouldn’t allow for female ministers? I don’t like the emphasis on and sanctification of the heterosexual nuclear family unit. I find it difficult to believe that this has much of a following outside of Korea mostly because of the Korea-as-the-New-Jerusalem thing, and I guess it doesn’t because like they said, “over a million” people.

They stressed the importance of getting baptized quickly, first thing, and *then* learning about everything. (Ahem) When I pointed out that I had been baptized in the Catholic Church they showed me a passage in the Epistles about some Jews having been baptized by John the Baptist and how that didn’t count anymore after Jesus because they had to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So I’d have to be baptized, they said, with the knowledge and acceptance of the Heavenly Mother. One of the women in fact said she was baptized three times in three different churches, chuckle chuckle, so it doesn’t matter how many times you are baptized, she said. (Bit of a pattern with her, is there?)

I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to my specific views on religion and spirituality in order to intone a creed for those who ask for a number of years. I like learning about religion, I like talking about it, I like experiencing it (for example attending a Baptist mass, or visiting a contemporary Buddhist temple). But I do actually steer clear of debate, with atheists especially, but also with any faithful. I ask probing questions more to to see if they can give me intelligent answers and satisfy my own curiosity, not for the purpose of their concession to any view I hold. (And I went nowhere near the issue of homosexuality and other such touchy subjects with my guests). But tonight I came to understand and be able to communicate something about how I think about spirituality. For the Church of God the way of salvation is to join the team and get others to join the team. You get on the team through baptism, and stay on the team through the Eucharist and evangelism. Lots of religions and sects and denominations are like that. This is not news. Some are more exclusionary than others. The other thing is about mindless ritual. Well, not mindless: there’s just plain too much mindfulness of it. It’s another way, along with joining teams, to convince yourself that you’re doing some good for yourself without actually doing anything. I don’t believe in life after death and I don’t believe that joining religious teams and having team meetings and performing team rituals is going to ensure any sort of benefit beyond a feeling of social belonging and, in the case of rituals, a sort of calming meditation.

Not revolutionary or particularly revealing to you; momentous for me to be able to begin to consolidate, understand, and be confident in myself. The conversation with the Church of God women was a catalyst I guess. They made offers about getting baptized and learning more (I don’t think they usual speak that long with anyone because they were almost at a loss when they finished preaching) and they invited me to a gathering next week at the church. I won’t go and I won’t answer my door for awhile unless I’m expecting someone. I feel bad for having led them to believe I was interested in becoming part of their church. I didn’t outright lie, I just didn’t show all my colours. My friend and former roommate Matt Sheedy was always talking about the importance of positive dialogue between representatives of different faiths. That was sort of the spirit I invited the women in with, but I failed because it was one sided. I assumed there would be frustration and negative feelings if I opened up about my non-belief and leftist social views. They may have been patient and reasonable if I had. They may also have spent more time on me, trying to plain old convert me to the Light of Christ.

Trip to Democratic People's Republic of Korea

NORTH KOREA (June 14-15 2008):

Brad and I did an organised tour with a company called Adventure Korea. All foreigners. Two bus loads full. We left Seoul by bus on Friday night and drove to the East coast, to Hwanjinpo beach where we watched the sunrise (nothing special, it was cold and rainy) and had breakfast. So I touched the Sea of Japan--er I mean East Sea. We got our "passports" sorted out at the Hwajinpo rest area along with at least 30 other buses of Korean tourists then went north a bit to the Goseong Inter-Korean Transit Office to go through security and stuff. Once through we had to get on our assigned bus and the huge bus convoy (like I said, 30 or so) drove out in assigned numerical order. We couldn't take pictures on the bus from this point onwards because we drove through a military area on the South side and we just aren't allowed to take clandestine photos from buses at all in the North.

We drove through the militarized zone on through to the demilitarized zone, being waved farewell by a couple soldiers. The DMZ was nocitably demilitarized. The coastline within 10km I guess of the DMZ on both coasts is lined with hard core barbed wire and some guard posts. The DMZ was disturbingly quiet and clear of any development save for the road and a railroad. I read in my guide book that the lack of human activity in the DMZ has created an accidental nature preserve, better kept than many in the world. They hope that when/if Korea reunites it will continue to be preserved. The DMZ if you didn't know is the no-man's-land between the North and South; it technically belongs to neither though there are some special farming villages within it, and Panmunjom is a town in it as well and these are under South Korean jurisdiction I think.

The crossing into DPRK was unceremonial and unmarked except for the guards at the road block and the occasional soldier standing at intervals along the railroad or in guardboxes at small intersections, each holding a small red flag which they wave to let you know to stop whatever you're doing and frig off. While the South Korean Inter-Korean Transit Office was new, modern and huge the North Korean version was four small hardshacks each with an x-ray scanner with its computer, metal detector and desk, all under essentially a big sort of tarp tent. Port-a-potties outside. Blasting over and over was this catchy, boppy, synth-y, drum machine-y, happy song which we found out later had something to do with reunification and togetherness. We had to go through security in order of bus number and within the buses each person was assigned a number as well. We didn't even show them our proper passports, we had these special cards with our photo, name, nationality, place of work, occupation, that kind of stuff. They stamped that (unfortunately no stamp for our proper passports except the South Korean "departed" and "entered" stamps from Goseong). Our guides kept reminding us that we had to take care of our "passports" because there was a fine if they were damaged. But we were also supposed to wear them all the time. One guy from our group damaged his somehow, like a little rip or water damage or something and apparently on our way out of the country the guard was "very upset."

So we were in North Korea. All the North Koreans we met had the small pin of Kim Il Sung over their hearts, the train station had a big portrait of him on the outside. We weren't allowed to take pictures as I mentioned, so I haven't any pictures of the small villages in the distance we passed or the people working in the field or the many many bicycles going up and down the dirt track a short distance off. Every so often there would be a guard post at a road junction which lead off to a village or military something or other. The soldiers hats look disproportionately large, and the soldiers, while mean looking, were rather slightly built. They told us that we shouldn't take pictures of anyone without their permission, but unfortunately no one seemed to want to oblige.

The first day we went to an area called Manmulsang. There was a heavy drizzle and a heavy fog but Brad and I went all the way up to the craggy peaks. It happened also at the hike the next day that many of the other foreigners only hiked part of the way, and I kept thinking if you know this is a hiking trip, and you know that you aren't fit enough or willing to do it, why on earth would you shell out that much money to mill about the base of a mountain, even if it is in North Korea. Go on the Kaesong day tour for that. The hike wasn't easy, though. It wasn't that high up but we were like mountain goats clinging to iron rails and ladders and stairs, dodging ajummas and adoshis (middle-aged women and men respectively, of a certain character), all shrouded in the mist. Near the top it got so that all you could see was the person behind and in front of you, the path below you and the rock beside you. Otherwise it was like we were in a cold, wet, white void. It was at the bottom of that mountain that I bought the postcards.

We got back to the tourist village and got settled into the hotel. This area, Onjeonggak, is owned and operated by Hyundae-Asan, a South Korean company. There is a small South Korean bank (incedentally the one I have an account with) some restaurants and a bar, and convenience store (Family Mart), a "Korea Sparkling" (South Korea tourism) duty free store, an auditorium, a hot spring, and a few hotels. They are nice hotels, with South Korean TV stations available. Fucking weird, this is. A little capitalist oasis surrounded by the simple calm of farmland DPRK.

After we got cleaned up and changed we headed over to the auditorium for an acrobatic performance. The Pyeongyang Acrobactic Troupe. They did a lot of the Chinese/Russian (as far as my limited impression goes) with spinning plates, bicycles, climbing poles, etc. Some of it was spectacular, some of it didn't dazzle me. Not that I could do any of it. *shrug* I'm glad I went though. They played that song from the check point. The ajummas were lovin it, waving enthusiastically at the performers.

We had some basic food court kinda meal because all the restaurants were booked up, made a reservation for the Northern style restaurant, bought some stuff at the duty free (candy, liquor) and had a bottle of Taedonggong mekju (mekju = beer). We went to bed early because we essentially hadn't slept for two days. We woke up early for breakfast then we were on the buses again to the Kuryong Pokpo (pokpo = falls) hike. As we left the tourist village the hotel and "Korea Sparkling" staff were all in a line waving to the dozen-or-so-bus-long convoy. Weird.

The day was clear and gorgeous this time. We had the option of doing a light walk around Samilpo lake as well, and some people opted for that. But again, we wanted mountains. There were relatively less people on the trails this time and the paths were wider so we could pass the slowbies. There were a few children's groups, girl scouts and taekwondo classes and that sort of thing, and a busload of particularly older people. The main route was a pretty easy climb, following a beautiful crystal clear, pale rock bed river with little falls and bigger falls and pools. We were told that we would be shot if we touched the water---no not really. We were told we would be fined if we touched the water, but that didn't stop the ajummas from bathing their faces and filling their bottles, and it didn't stop me from stealing a handful to taste. It tasted like water. I'm sure if I had had the guts to fill my water bottle I would have found it to be as sweet and wonderful as the spring water I had at Top of the World park in the Rockies. The main path ends at a pavilion with a good view of Kuryong falls.

We back tracked a bit and went off on another trail, more precarious, that took us up the water way even further so we could see where Kuryong begins to fall. It was there I built my tiny inukshuk. Not all the foreigners went up that high but they should have because the wider view over the mountains was stunning. Literally breathtaking.

There are a number of trails all over the place, but we had to stay on certain ones. There was always someone standing at junctions and branch-offs. It was interesting because they'd be decked out Korean style with the height of mountain hiking apparel--plus Kim Il Sung pin. We saw some workers, general labourers I guess, closer to the trailhead all wearing the same thing, which was also the same thing as the workers we saw randomly on bus rides along the roads or in the fields: something vaguely reminiscent of a Mao suit. These guys looked rougher. Also all along this hike were all manner of Korean and Chinese writing in the rock. Some were accompanied by sophisticated-looking reliefs, others looked like ancient graffiti, some were haphasard, some were official looking and probably just telling us to stay on the trail, or telling us a legend for that spot or the name of the falls, and some were just GIANT. These mountains have been a place of pilgrimage for a long time. There are a lot of Buddhist legends and sort of hagiographic stories that take place there. There used to be temples and hermitages and whatnot before the war. So that would explain a lot of the writing. But I don't actually know because I can't read Korean that well and Chinese not at all.

There were shuttle buses ready to take us back to the tourist area whenever we were ready. We still had a few hours before we had to leave to go back south, and we had a lunch reservation at Okryukwan the northern style restaurant. 'Ok' is 'house' I think and 'kwan' is pheasant but I dunno what 'ryu' is but it might be a kind of food. We had kwantang (pheasant soup). Pricey and pretty basic but delicious. Then we went to check out the big portrait of the wee Kim dynasty in which Jong Il looks much taller than he actually is, and less weird-looking. We could have our pictures taken by a staff member of the adjacent hotel. As far as we know it's to ensure we don't take an inappropriate or unflattering picture of the picture. So this either means they haven't quite caught onto photoshop or they haven't figured out how to get around it without enraging the money givers (tourists). I dunno. The picture turned out pretty good of us in front of the picture though. Only after the fact did I realise that we should have mimicked their poses but they may not have let us do that.

After that we mostly just strolled around. We did get a personal shuttle bus (only because we were the only ones wanting to go) to the seaside. I wanted to touch the communist East Sea/Sea of Japan. The shore was built up with hotels and things so there wasn't a good view but I touched the sea and we saw some small villages in passing, and workers fixing a sort of bunker, and workers in the fields and cyclists. Nothing jarring at all though. At the tourist village they had a big tableau of pictures from the past few years. They all had to do with some celebrations having to do with inter-Korean cooperation and brotherhood and solidarity. They were handing out little Korean flags (this is just the whole Korean peninsula in blue on white) but I didn't manage to get one. They had some photos covered up and we learned as they were uncovering them as we drove off in our convoy (as we had guessed before) that these had Kimmy J in them. Too bad. Woulda been nice to see them properly. That weekend seemed to be an anniversary of something to do with inter-Korean cooperation. Maybe the tourism deal, I dunno.

The way out was pretty much the same as the way in but backwards. The South Koreans were very concerned about illnesses on us, as they would be. The North Koreans as far as I know didn't check anyone's cameras for illegal photos. I figured they'd pick us apart, being foreigners.

I'm definitely glad we went. I'd still like to try to get to Kaesong and Pyongyang someday. The mountains were absolutely beautiful. Nothing like you can find in the South. There was a feeling of calm and quiet because there isn't so much development, neon, cars, etc. Idyllic in some ways. You're always thinking "communist this" and "communist that." And we would always make fun of Kim Jong Il under our breath. Brad and I watched some documentaries about DPRK; the one about the gymnasts, and a CNN one about clandestine video footage by North Koreans. To remind us.

I posted a BBC article on Facebook about how a South Korean woman was shot dead in the Geumkang area for being in a restricted area. It was probably by accident that she was there. This was about a month after we were there. They sent all the tourists packing and they aren't allowing anyone in for awhile. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7501126.stm

Anyway, there it is.

Mokpo/Jindo

Here is a story of a weekend in May. I hope to post some more stories once
I get them written.

"I'm in a PC bang (internet "room") in Mokpo in the southwest of the country. It's a long weekend because today is Children's Day. Why didn't we have that growing up I wonder? Brad and I and a crowd of other foreigners from Daejeon took the train here on Friday night right after work. We stayed in a motel near the train station. Brad and I had plans to meet up with our friend Matt Cooper who just arrived to work and live in Mokpo a couple weeks ago, to make our way to one of the many islands on the coast, and to go to Jindo island for their Mysterious Sea Road festival aka Moses March aka Sea Parting festival. Once a year the tide at low tide is low enough to expose a path to another much smaller island. The thing about Korea is that there are SO many people. It makes it hard to be spontaneous sometimes because everything gets booked up and full really quickly. Luckily we bought our train tickets a few days in advance, for there and return, because they are full up today. We tried to change our tickets to an earlier time. The boats out to the islands we originally wanted to get out to were booked up as well. But we met up again with the Daejeon foreigners who had found another island to go to called Oedaldo.

So we went out to that island. It's only a couple klicks long, a tiny fishing village type place with an outdoor pool resort type area that's only open in July and August. So the place was sparsely populated with tourists by Korean standards. We walked over to the beach. On the way I had noticed some women collecting some sort of shellfish from the shore so I went to investigate. They were some sort of oyster or something, all stuck onto the rocks. The women were cracking them open with hooks and scooping out the meat. I mean the rocks were covered with these things. After I watched them for a bit they offered us some. Raw. Yep. I love it actually. I've had raw oysters a few times in Korea and it's great. They usually serve it with this excellent red sauce. Anyway, these were like naturally seasoned with sea salt. Some university students we met later on offered me some as well.

The water was quite cold so we only waded a bit. Then a crowd of Koreans challenged the boys to a game of soccer. I was taking pictures and watching the little snails crawl around on the beach. Brad and I got the boat back to the mainland but the others stayed the night. We had already paid for the motel room again and meant to meet up with Matt. We ended up not meeting up with Matt. We had this excellent (but so spicy!) cooked octopus meal on the harbourfront while the table beside us had an excellent LIVE octopus meal. Yep. I haven't tried it yet but I wanna! We had a bit of maple soju (soju is the local ubiquitous poison, but not actually that bad to drink, and super cheap) and decided to climb Yudalsan Mountain. At night. It's lit up for most of the way. The view was amazing once we got up. There are a couple pavilions lit up and two painted relief rock carvings lit up as well, and the peak of the mountain (which you can't actually get to...safely). We wound our way down through tight little alleyway collections of houses hugging the mountain and walked back to the hotel.

Next day we went to the bus station to secure tickets to Jindo for later then checked out the National Maritime Museum. It seems Korea has some excellent underwater archaeology on the go, and excellent preservation/restoration methods. They've got two remains of shipwrecks from somewhere around the 11th and 14th centuries respectively on display as well as tons of beautifully restored celadon pottery (http://www.korean-arts.com/about_korean_celadon.htm) from the wrecks and other sites. Next we walked along the shore and saw some rocks that are supposed to look like monks with hats or something. They're cool rocks but not really monk-like.
We got a hold of Matt and arranged to meet. Brad and I had an excellent steamed crab meal (so fresh!) with a vinegar kind of dipping stuff instead of North American butter and garlic then we went for coffee with Matt. I knew Matt from MUN, we did some history courses together and we know a lot of the same people. We all took the bus to Jindo. We didn't have much of a plan.

They had a concert on the go for the festival in town, we ran into other foreigners from Mokpo that Matt knew. All the hotels were booked up so we decided we weren't gonna go to sleep, and were going to try to walk to the sea parting place. So the three of us went looking for this fortress wall that was supposed to be around somewhere in town (we did have a map) and ended up climbing a mountain. At night. The path was lit but it had been raining so there was this spooky mist everywhere. It's a rural area with old abandoned traditional houses, and little fields. At the head of the trail there was a spooky traditional lion monster thing statue. The trail was just straight up and completely deserted. We came to the top and there was a dirt road with lights continuing in one direction so we thought we'd try to get to somewhere that way instead of going down the slippery mountain the way we came. We eventually came to a really creepy monument with two rearing horse statues. There was mist all around and one yellow street lamp sort of light, and that's where the lights ended. It was so weird. We started to keep going anyway, but it was too dark and misty so we turned back and went back down the mountain, all the while discussing how we should deal with criminals, and freedom of will in those situations and stuff. Sort of random convo but not really considering the participants. I should mention that at this point none of us had consumed any alcohol.

It was only around midnight and we figured we'd get some beer and find a pavilion to sit under (it is legal to drink anywhere in Korea). We found some of our Daejeon friends again. They had a hotel room and had been offered a little room of their own at a bar nearby so we brought our booze there. But there was a bit of a foreigner crowd there of people we didn't know, and two of the girls were piss loaded and like spitting up (not puking...) their beer onto the floor, lolling around. It was kind of a bad scene. We ended up just sitting at the tables in front of the store where we bought the beer.

One of the drunk girls came out and sat with us. She's from Kentucky. Works in Daegu. She was whining about how the others she was just with told her they hated her, and how she tries so hard to be a good person, and she doesn't know why they hate her, blah blah blah. So we got her talking about something else. Matt's friends turned up again, and a couple from Brockville working in some place like Yoseong, or Yosun, I dunno, and a guy who actually works in Jindo town (we didn't figure there'd be an English school or anything there). We had bought a bottle of the local liquor called Hong ju because Brad and I like to try the local specialities of food and drink everywhere. It was GOD AWFUL.

We at some point learned that it's really far to walk to the sea parting, and we decided we were going to get a cab when the time came. A bunch of us went to the hotel room of the pair from Mokpo and we played cards until it was time to go. We made our very drunk way to the sea around 4:30am. People had gathered and were waiting. We were told that the tide would go out around 5, and our coworker Jeremy had actually seen the path around 430pm the previous day so we were set. The Koreans were waiting too, and as a general rule the Koreans know what they're doing. But we waited. And waited. And it began to get light. And the tide seemed to be coming back in. And I think I must have had more alcohol because I got drunker and don't remember really what happened next. Brad told me that Jeremy our coworker started knocking on peoples doors or something to ask for a ride back to town. He somehow convinced an Irish couple (I don't know the circumstances of their being there) to get out of bed and drive us into town. Brad paid them well. I was quite out of my tree and was stumbling and crying apparently though I'm not sure why and there is photographic eveidence which I later discovered of my biting Jeremy's leg because I didn't want to leave yet. We ended up in Jeremy's hotel room that he got with some of the other Daejeon foreigners and slept for a bit. Matt disappeared back to Mokpo I think. Jeremy and the others left to go back to the sea parting place to hang out or whatever and left us the room to hang out in until we went back to Mokpo (you pay for your rooms ahead of time so it was taken care of).

So Brad and I slept awhile longer and caught the bus back to Mokpo. And here I am at the beginning again. We tried to find a DVD bang (a place where you get a room to watch movies in) so we could sleep or something but the one near the train station was closed. So we've been watching youtube videos and doing other random internet things while Korean children blatantly lean over to examine my exotic internet wanderings and exotic ear piercing.

That was a long story. That was only the third night I went drinking like that since I've been here so my weekends aren't usually that ridiculous."

Well the weekend in Gyeongju was almost that ridiculous, and this upcoming
mud festival weekend is bound to be at least that
ridiculous.