Ever wondered why North Korea is so hostile?
Because it doesn’t have a Seoul.
When I landed at Incheon Airport on a Thursday
afternoon for the third time in a week, I would actually be stepping out of the
airport onto official Korean soil (and you know how official I like my soil!) Unfortunately
for me, that soil was being pummeled by torrential rain. Luckily, the route
from the terminal to the train was covered. It would be awhile before I reached
the actual subway system. Incheon is a ways away from Seoul proper, out on the
water. Whereas Tokyo had the most populous metro area in the world, Seoul has
the most populous city proper. And the wildness of the subway system is a
testament to that fact. Buying single journey tickets was annoying, because you
have to choose which station you’re planning on going to and if you get off at
a different station you get beeped at and denied at the turnstiles. At least
that was my experience a couple times. And then there wasn’t a machine where I could
pay the fare difference like other Asian subway systems all seemed to have. I
think I just got unlucky with the layout of some particular stations, but
anyway, I managed to escape by going through the handicapped gate after someone
else did, and nobody stopped me. Winning.
I got off at Sinchon station. I had a map in my
itinerary of my hotel’s location with respect to the station, but of course it
didn’t match the map in the station, which wasn’t oriented north upwards. And,
as I learned after exiting the station, the map provided to me by the hotel was
inaccurate, missing some key streets and placing some points of interest on the
wrong block. I eventually found it after asking for directions from someone in
the area. It was nestled among several hotels and guesthouses. Welcome to
Sinchon Alpha Guesthouse! You can’t find us, but we’re here!
Luckily the rain had mostly subsided at this
point and I didn’t get absolutely drenched while lost. I checked in and got
shown the “hidden key” to the guest house, which was in the most obvious hiding
place. But then the bedrooms had separate locks, so I felt better. There was a
separate kitchen, fully stocked for cooking if I wanted, and a couple separate
bathrooms and showers. I quickly got online and started to upload pictures from
my trip so far, because Seoul also has the fastest internet in the world, and I
was definitely going to take advantage of it (although I really couldn’t tell
the difference between it and Tokyo’s; of course it’s very dependent on the
hotel’s connection and router quality, as well). I’m not sure if I really ended
up doing anything that night, besides planning my sightseeing for the next
couple days. I had 4 nights in the city; I figured I had plenty of time to be
lazy some more. Plus, the bed was big and comfortable. I also got an email from
work that said they were sending me to a different rig site this next shift, instead of
Vankor and that I would probably go on the 19th or 20th.
I was originally planning on returning to Vankor on the 18th, so this
gave me more time to chill out in Krasnoyarsk when I got back to Russia.
Awesome!
My first stop the next morning (ok, almost
afternoon), was a McDonalds. They had a burger that I had never seen before
(some bacon-tomato thing) and I got excited and decided to try that. I’ve found
that the greatest difference between different worldwide McDonalds food is actually in
their fries. I’m assuming different places have different fry suppliers, but
there also might be something going on in the preparation process too. I know
American McDonalds fries are good, because they’re supplied by Idaho Potatoes.
But where do these Korean fries come from? They just weren’t as good. Luckily,
they were blasting a Korean pop song and it was really catchy. Collin in Japan
was really fond of K-pop. I realized why. I liked it too.
Because the Korean War has come to be dubbed “The
forgotten war” by many (though how could you, with a show like MASH?) I thought
it only proper that I should visit the memorial and museum here, and make sure
I was up-to-speed on the war-time history of this little country. The memorial
was powerful and the museum also was very informative, although it seemed to be
very repetitive about the timeline of the war. They also documented all the
events of provocation by the North over the years since the stalemate that
halted the war, emphasizing that they were indeed “illegal.”
Anway, pictures are better, and I’m getting
lazier about writing.
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| Monument in Remembrance of the Korean War |
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| Soldiers surrounding the memorial |
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| Korean War Museum |
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| Another cool monument inside the museum |
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| Statue of Two Brothers: a soldier from the North embracing his brother from the south, and the crack symbolizing the great divide between the countries. Reminds me a bit of the American Civil War, where family members faced each other and classmates from Westpoint fought on opposing sides. |
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| Beneath the Statue of Two Brothers |
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| Cheonggyecheon Stream |
Then I wanted to see some more traditional Korean
architecture and I tried to go to Gyeongbok Palace and Cheongwadae, but they
were closed. Why close up on a Friday afternoon? Grrrr. But, here are some
pictures of the outsides…
And I also walked by the Hyundai and Kia
buildings. Yay, industry!
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| Hyundai, Hyundai, Hyundai! |
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| Kia building |
It looked like rain, and I was disappointed with
being disappointed, so I went back to the hotel, stopped and bought some instant
soup and a beer, and had myself a little feast while trying to figure out where
to go out on a Friday night. I decided I’d go to Itaewon, because that’s the
expat friendly neighborhood, and I had no Korean friends here that I knew of
who could go with me somewhere crazier. It was recommended that I should go to
Ho Bar, which is a chain throughout the city. I decided I would pre-game at the
one in my neighborhood. Then I would take the subway to Itaewon, where I would
try out this one club whose name I don’t even remember (it was supposedly
popular, but obviously didn’t make it into my memory) and if that was bad I
would go to a place called Helios, which was supposed to be more of a
west-style place. If all that was bad I would just wander around and find
interesting things. It was also recommended that I find a certain Moroccan
sandwich truck for the best drunken sandwich of my life. I planned on staying
out until the subway reopened after 5 AM.
I went to Ho-Bar and it wasn’t anything special. There
was almost nobody there, but I decided to stay and order a beer and a shot of
tequila. There was a guy sitting presumably by himself a couple tables away that
had ordered a bucket of beers and was steadily downing each one. I checked the
time on my phone, and I suddenly realized that I hadn’t changed the clock on my
computer and had gauged my leaving the hotel by that time, and I thought it was
an hour earlier than it actually was. I was going to miss the last subway
train if I didn’t leave now. I got to the station and I’m pretty sure I made
the final trains at each line I transferred to. I reached Itaewon and figured
that since it was well past midnight, I should go ahead and check out clubs. I
went to the first one I mentioned above, and there were only about two people in
it. This was nothing like any of the descriptions online. I turned around and
went to Helios, which I had passed on the way here. Sure enough, it felt like
just another standard American club. Nothing special. I ordered a long island
and then stood off to the side to survey the scene. I saw another white guy
(although they were more common here), and I unfortunately picked him to be the
guy I’d make friends with. He soon struck me as the type of guy that
girls would at first glance label a “creeper.” Not my top choice of potential wing man. First thing he said to me was something like, “You looking to get
some good pussy tonight?” He actually reminded me a lot of the guys on the
streets in Roppongi in Tokyo, except I knew he didn't have a bar full of with which to provide me. Anyway, he wouldn’t stop going on in the crassest
way possible about getting some action from girls here. He was really wasted, and I
even told him that he seemed pretty drunk and should calm down, but that made
him angry and he did the, “Noooo, you’re drunker than me!” thing, when in
reality, I wasn’t drunk yet. Anyway, he was annoying and wouldn’t shut up. He also kept trying to put his arm around me, like we were good buds. And
then he walked over and attempted to hit on a girl who immediately blew him
off. “They’re all bitches here!” he said. I ended up finishing my long island
faster than originally planned and really didn’t want to deal with this guy. I
ordered an AMF (adios mother fucker), which I hadn’t had in a long time, and it was the strongest
drink I’ve ever gotten from a club. I steadily drank it, while the creeper (his
name was Joe and he’s lived in Korea for 7 years) kept bothering me. I
eventually ignored him, finished my AMF, and started dancing. I never saw him
after that. Once I had danced for awhile, all the alcohol had hit me and I
realized that I was actually really drunk. In fact, I had not felt this drunk since my first week living in Russia. It was too early for this to be happening, so I found a food
truck with Egyptian food and ordered sandwich after sandwich until I was full.
I sat for a bit at some chairs by the truck, but then I didn’t want to be that
guy who passed out at the food truck, so I kept moving. I then came across a
motel that I could sleep in for only 20 bucks. It was one of those “love hotels”
that is conveniently located where the nightlife is for the sole purpose of
having a nearby place to get it on. This was actually a godsend. I was not confident
I would make it to 5 AM. I paid for the room, which was actually pretty nice for
only 20 dollars. More spacious than my rooms in Tokyo or Hong Kong, at least. I
promptly passed out.
I awoke in the love hotel at about 10AM with the
worst hangover ever. Damn you, AMF!!!! I
was in pain. Some sniffles that I had the previous day had also turned into a
full-blown cold today. Sick and hung over. Great. I returned the room key and
wandered back to the subway and made the painful journey back to my original
hotel. I went to bed as soon as I got there.
I awoke several hours later, feeling less hung
over but definitely sick. I didn’t think I would do any sight-seeing today. I
checked my email and was informed I had to be in Ust-Kut on the morning of the
20th. Which meant that I needed to be in Krasnoyarsk on the 19th,
because it was a 20-hour train ride between the cities. In the midst of trying
to get my train tickets ordered, though, I was informed that they had just
pushed up the mobilization to the 17th. This meant I had to be in
Krasnoyarsk on the morning of the 16th. I was lying ill in a hotel
room in Seoul, on the afternoon of the 14th, and they were only
telling me now that they needed me to be somewhere 36 hours from that point?? I
tried to tell them this might not be possible, but the manager said to make it
work, that they needed me. Why me? I do not know. They were sending me to a
field where they are even less tolerant of English-speakers than Vankor…
Unfortunately, the pickings are rather slim for
getting to Krasnoyarsk from Seoul within 36 hours (no, really????), and I had
two options. One was to leave the hotel that instant, and fly a combination of
China Southern and some other things from Seoul to Harbin to Vladivostok to
Khabarovsk to Krasnoyarsk, and I would make it there by the evening of the 15th.
I would have done this, but the China Southern site wouldn’t let me book on
their site unless I was a member, and when I tried to become a member, they
asked for my cell phone number for verification, and then they said it was
invalid (US phone number, maybe?) so that idea was shot. The only other options
were getting to Moscow and to Krasnoyarsk from there, and flights from Moscow
to Krasnoyarsk on Aeroflot (I wasn’t about to book anything else because they’d
go from different airports than Sheremetyevo) are not very often. This would
get me to Krasnoyarsk at 6:10am, and my train would depart at 8:20am. I would
only have a 2 hour window in Krasnoyarsk to get my stuff, which was in company
housing and required a key that I would have to get from the office, and then
repack my clothes for the rig, then get the key back to the office. There was
also the half hour drive from the airport to town. Oh geez. Not to mention I
didn’t have any other employee friends in Krasnoyarsk at the moment who could
do any of the above errands for me to make life a little easier. I decided
that, in the event I wouldn’t have time to get my stuff, I needed to do my
laundry now to have clean clothes for this remote rig. I had passed a 24 hour laundromat
not far from here when I was lost, and I went looking for it. So here I was, on
a Saturday night in Seoul, getting to do laundry, and suffering from a cold,
which would not make the journey ahead of me any easier. The only upside was
that I would get more Delta miles for the Aeroflot leg through Moscow, and I’d
get to say they I actually have flown across Russia, all 9 hours’ worth.
I finished my laundry, bought some spicy instant
soup to help my sinuses, ate, and went to bed.
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