Olympus Camera Blues

It's the end of May, 2010, and the big news in Korea is the tragic death of Different Strokes star Gary Coleman. The pint-sized hell-raiser was believed to have been reaching for another implement with which to bludgeon his wife when he fell from the chair he was standing on. All those years ago, Willis may well have been talkin' 'bout occupational health and safety, but Coleman clearly wasn't taking notes. And it's clearly too late now.

Yesterday I found myself seated next to a Korean-American who hated Germans: only in Itaewon! Perhaps I should have done the right thing and probed to find out where this random irrationality came from, maybe encouraged him to see something exceptionally prosaic and twee, yet true, like "not all Germans are the same." But it was hot, and I was tired, and he was a dickhead, so I just told him that I hated them too. Dickhead.

Then, later, while lost in the hills around Itaewon, some Australian girls I ran into pointed the way back to the main strip, where I had a beer with them and talked about vegemite and Steve Waugh. The twins also wouldn't stop banging on about their celiac disease, wedging it into every topic we covered (seriously, this is a skill I'd overlooked until then, and no I didn't know Steve Waugh had multiple dietary intolerances) but it was okay when delivered in that long neglected husky nasal accent that has you sounding like a cross Tom Waits and Jeannie Little. Oh, dahhhling...

I DID NOT WATCH THE BERT NEWTON SHOW ON SICK DAYS!!!!

The plan was to do the tourist icons of Seoul on foot, take the pictures, and later blog about it instead of spending the weekend in the pub. Conveniently (ahem!) - I mean alas - the battery of my camera ran out of juice within half an hour. Woof! So after the major palace complex at Gyeongbokgung, I glimpsed the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin and the Statue of the Hammering Man, ordered a cheap bowl of bibimbap and whopped out the old Lonely Planet, resolving to go searching for a pair of cheap sunglasses in Itaewon, the foreigner's enclave.

Oh yeah, and I could always cool off with an cold imported beer in a pub if the desire took me.



This is the main palace of Geunjeongjeon at Gyeongbokgung. It was the major seat of power during the Joseon dynasty, which stood from 1392 and ended with the Japanese invasion of 1910. It was rebuilt in 1865, after lying in ruins for nearly 300 years after the Japanese occupiers burnt it down. (Relations between Japan and Korea are still sketchy). Further to the north in the palace complex lies the structure Gyeonghoeru, a raised pavilion set on an artificial lake. Kings went boating on this lake, which strikes me as being a bit poxy, mostly because it is smaller than Lake Alexandra in Mittagong. Nonetheless, this pavilion looks remarkable at night. I know. I've seen postcards of it.



I aim to search for a retailer that will sell me another battery for my camera. My intention is to go back one sunny day and take pictures of these landmarks of Seoul. There really is some cool stuff here which is worth recording. The subway during peak hour is also something to behold.

Last weekend I took off with my friends Joelle and West (who I'm going to Thailand with - bring on August!!!) and checked out some of the more famous temples in Seoul. I think Bong-Eun-Sa was the best because of its tranquility amongst the madness of the rest of Seoul. The picture below is of the 3 giant Buddhas at Jog-ye-sa temple, right in the middle of Seoul, near Insadong. It was "Buddha's Birthday" on Friday the 21st so the temples were decked out in their finest.



See you next week! We have a day off for the council elections (known locally as the "erections") on Wednesday. I aim to do something constructive. Like go and take pictures of stuff.