Today’s hangover cure was coffee and french toast, followed by climbing a mountain and lying on a rock in the sun, like a lizard. Here are some things I saw on the way up.
Hot chilli peppers in the blistering sun…
A telecoms mast disguised as a pine tree.
At last something approaching my idea of summer is here. Almost every day since I arrived has been characterized by thick cloud cover, high temperatures and ridiculous humidity; the dullness broken only by occasional torrents of rain. July and early August is the height of the monsoon season in Korea. Whilst when you’re up a mountain this can have a marvellously dreamy, mysterious effect, for day to day urban life it can get pretty tiresome. So I was more and more pleased as over the past couple of weeks the clouds have gradually broken up to reveal blue skies and bright sunshine. There’s more of a breeze, the light is amazing, the stark modernism of Anyang suddenly looks great, and you can see the moon at night. Even the humidity has dipped, although the temperature in the sun has soared into the 30s…
Here are some sun-soaked pictures, from more hiking around Gwanaksan and a trip into Seoul (to pick up my Alien Registration Card – yes I’m now legit).
I don’t know what kind of bird that is. There were a pair of them. They sounded like crows, moved like magpies, but had tawny plumage, turning to a rust colour on the almost fur-like feathers of the head.
One thing that’s great about Koreans is that they know what to do to both enjoy and mitigate the effects of the weather. For instance, they will pitch a tent anywhere.
After whetting our appetites on a boat trip past misty headlands such as these, we headed for the Jagalchi fish market. I loved this place. I enjoyed it a lot more than the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, maybe because I didn’t visit after drinking sake with Ainu carpenters until 5am, getting up at 7, eating a McDonalds sausage and egg McMuffin SET before trying to look at raw and live fish and shellfish in a giant, dimly lit, wet underfoot shed whilst crazy Japanese guys driving mopeds and mini forklift trucks loaded with tubs of writhing octopus tried to run me down…
After only a short time in the job, last week my school closed for the summer half of the 2 weeks annual vacation holiday. To be honest everything still feels something like a holiday at the moment so I didn’t really feel the need for a bit, but I thought I should do some travelling in Korea so I joined my co-workers and some of their friends on a trip to Busan.
Now I was in Busan last September for a conference with my previous job (in fact that basically precipitated my whole move to Korea), so it was a little strange to be back so soon. I remember arriving with no expectations at all, allowing those expectations to be met, and then over the course of a week, slowly becoming fascinated with the place. On my final day there last year I visited a serene mountain top Buddhist temple and also took an interminable taxi ride across city to the airport, going right through the heart of the docks, with lorries carrying Maersk containers and huge pieces of industrial plant clogging up the road. Of course, given my fascination with infrastructure and industrial urban clutter, it was a journey I didn’t want to end.
Korea Change 