Korea Day 9 - Cheongju (Thanks Betsy!)

We left the hotel early in the morning, guided by the indomitable and indispensable Betsy once again, and driven in an elegant private taxi-van (Jumbo Taxi) . We went south across the Han River, and then west along the river before turning south once again and into the countryside. The entire trip was on big highways, although once we got past the thousands and thousands of tall apartment buildings that make up the greater Seoul area, we emerged into mountainous landscapes with full autumn colors on the trees, and wonderful glimpses of farm life, small villages, occasional pagodas, cemeteries (dome-shaped tombs), and so much more. There was tons of new construction happening, and we also noticed that much of the food is grown in plastic greenhouses, which cover huge portions of the landscape, even around the big apartment buildings. On the highway we saw plastic men used to direct traffic, full-size mannequins dressed in traffic control clothing and holding blinking light wands urging us to merge left or right. No humans needed to stand on the highway all day - just use a robot!

The Craft Biennale at Cheongju (about 2 hours away) was so dazzling. It was held at a giant exhibition area, like a fairgrounds, with huge buildings full of the best international "craft" work from around the world. Here are our giggling greeters!
There was also a performance stage, with continuous music, dance, and folk performances, as well as numerous places to eat. Also booths for shopping for ceramics, textiles, jewelry, toys, etc. We all felt that what we saw was so imaginative, breathtaking and inspiring. We were there all day, just stunned by the high level of the art work. There was an entire show from Canada, an entire building of book arts, an entire building where winners of an international competition were showing work in glass, textile, wood, fiber, ceramic, jewelry, as well as huge and wild installations, and on it went! We saw about 6 buildings full of art work. WOW! We were not allowed to take photos of any of the work, so today was a thin photo day for me. Here's a photo of a charming paper-maker who was demonstrating his techniques in one of the outdoor artisan's booths.One interesting thing here is that health is such a HUGE focus all over Korea. Yesterday, when we arrived, we all had to walk one-by-one past a body temp sensor, to make sure we did not have a fever. People who did were pulled over and individually examined before entry was allowed. Next we had to sanitize our hands, and then we were issued face masks. This has been true again and again in Korea. And most buildings and most bathrooms have ultra-violet hand sanitizers at every door. Another notable thing is that most public parks have circuit exercise courses in them where people can work out on every variety of exercise machine as they take their daily strolls.We also noticed that Saturdays seemed to be casual dress days for men, but fancy dress days for women. Many women were in full-out designer outfits, to die for, and men were in traditional Korean attire.Here's are some views of downtown Cheongju, very colorful!
We got back to the hotel at about 6 pm, and after regrouping, went out for more "chicken and beer" at an eatery behind the hotel. Betsy also ordered fish cakes, something I've seen all over from the street vendors, skewered various shapes of fish cakes served in a soup. Yummy! For a final hurrah, before collapsing into a coma, we walked down to the Cheonggye Stream, a waterway, which is kind of like an artistic canal that runs through Seoul. It is below street level, has walkways along both sides, and light shows, lighted rocks in the canal, waterfalls, shooting fountains, stepping stones, music playing, and hundreds of people strolling. Betsy explained that this is a popular place for people to come and kiss and hug at night, and we saw many young couples demonstrating. It was all clean as a whistle, nobody doing drugs or drinking, no hassle, just a joyful evening walk in a joyful city. Love it here! Thanks again, Betsy, number 1 tour guide and all-around terrific person!

Korea Day 8 - Samcheong Dong

We slowed our pace today and took a long, leisurely walk through the Samcheong Dong neighborhood, north of our hotel and set in the foothills of the mountains we see from everywhere in the city. This area is quite upscale. Traditional single-family homes are perched on steep hillsides, overlooking the modern skyscrapers of the city. We climbed up small alley ways, and gazed at tile roofs, beautiful stone walls, elaborate doorways, and persimmon trees covered with bright orange fruit. Many homes had views out over the Gyeongbok Palace, which we saw yesterday, and across to the Namdan Tower. There are also many stores and galleries and small museums scattered throughout this area. I'm posting just a random scattering of photos from the day.



We've only seen two dogs in eight days here, but we did see this little fellow.... kind of sad to never see any doggies.


These school children were painting in the Gahoe Museum of folk arts, where we stopped for tea and a visit. We also visited the Han Sang Soo Embroidery Museum. The Chicken Museum was unfortunately closed, and the Owl Museum was farther up the mountain than we were willing to walk, alas.








We had a challenging lunch, and it was one of those moments when we had to just take what was brought to us. Some of it was delicious, and some of it was difficult. Later in the day, after walking miles to find some ice cream to console ourselves (we did!) we came back to the Frazer Suites for a rest, some eventual dinner in the neighborhood (not as challenging!) and a good game of Spite and Malice. One of the things about tonights dinner was that someone ordered chicken teriyaki with noodles. The dish arrived covered with small pink flakes all over the top of it which were all waving and wiggling. We were not too amused, fearing that there was something alive on there (it happens, we're told). But it turns out that it was shredded fish just blowing merrily in the steam from the hot dish. Not all of us eat fish, so I've been taking one for the team and eating the fish dishes, or in this case, picking off the fish flakes so others could get to the chicken below - but today (it's now early Saturday morning) I have such a taste of fish in my mouth, feel like a pelican! The photo below shows another view from our apartment here, looking straight down at the stone sculpture store 12 stories beneath us. Tomorrow we are up and out early in the morning for an all-day trip out of town to the Craft Biennale. It's a 2 hour cab ride from here. Wish us luck!

Korea Day 7 - The view from here!

Here's the view from our hotel room, or half of it! It is about twice as wide as this really. Today we started slowly, had a swim and a hot tub, a leisurely breakfast, and then a stroll around a new neighborhood to the east of our hotel. It was colorful and full of working people getting busy with their jobs. At one corner we rounded a bend and found another gorgeous temple, all painted with people attacking demons, and lifting huge rocks over their heads, and fighting off a wide assortment of evils.






We returned to the hotel at 11 and once again met up with our guardian angel, Betsy (she is Wendy's adopted daughter). Betsy has been the most amazing helper, thinking of wonderful places to take us, bargaining with vendors and translating when necessary, and teaching us so much about Korean culture and language. She is brilliant and fun to be with and we are so lucky that she has taken time out of her busy life to give us some time with her. Today she took us to an upscale neighborhood full of gorgeous restaurants, shops, and galleries. It felt a bit like being in Carmel or Santa Barbara! We had a great lunch together before Betsy had to take off for work.
After she left us, we went across the street to the Korean Folk Art Museum, and the Gyeongbokgung Palace. The exhibit in the museum was so interesting and beautifully put together. It showed all aspects of ancient life in Korea, how people lived in previous centuries, with stunning artifacts, documents, maps, clothing, tools, and so much more. The palace was huge, but mostly a reproduction of what used to be something grand. The grounds and setting, however, were stunning! And we began to see the first autumn leaves turning.



At 5 pm we went to meet a well-known Korean fiber artist, Chungie Lee, whom Daniella knew about. She took us to an art opening, where a young fiber artist, Cho YeRyung, was having a solo show. Everyone there was so kind, and then suddenly they insisted that we must come along to their celebration dinner in a nearby Insadong restaurant. So we went, and had our first very traditional meal, sitting on cushions on the floor, drinking rice wine and another wine made of "red berries" (delicious), and eating many amazing and unfamiliar foods, beans, rice, chicken, fish, and so many more, bowl after bowl of stuff appearing on the table. Our hosts were charming and funny. The man who paid the bill was the brother of the artist. He owns a business selling industrial metals for architectural exteriors, and travels all over the world. He regaled us with stories of places like Uzbekistan and Holland, and his complete lack of love for Italy (imagine?!). There was so much we didn't understand, and Wendy and I got the giggles very badly and couldn't look at each other for the first half of the meal. Our legs were like badly folded sticks when we finally got to get up and leave. But it was unforgettable and so generous.
After that, good night!

Korea Day 6 - All Circuits Blown Out!

We have, of course, hundreds of photos. It is so difficult to choose just a few to show you on this blog, but here goes! We started the morning slowly. Daniella did a little shredding and pasting in the living room of our apartment, setting up an impromptu studio there.
Then we set out into the streets. On the way, I decided to get my shoes shined in a tiny booth on the sidewalk. While sitting in there, I noticed that the shoe-shiner was watching TV in his closet-sized space - a talk-show about prostate cancer, with vivid drawings of cross-sections of the human body, with syringe inserted .....
Our destination today was the Domdaemun Market, a vast shopping area - not for tourists, but for buyers of textiles, fabrics, accessories like buttons, lace, fur trim, beads, zippers, and for clothing both ready made, and made to order. For starters we went into a department store, multi-level, but it was full of very lovely booths, each from a different vendor - it was called Dootah Market. There were 7 floors there, one of designer fashion, one for men, one for children, one for shoes and purses, one for jewelry and accessories, one for sportswear, and a food court on the top floor where we ate the hottest food to-date in Korea. Yikes, our eyes were tearing up, noses running, and yes, it was also delicious! This poem on the store front caught our eye.Next we entered the most mind-boggling complex of buildings. Without exaggeration, I would estimate that many buildings were 5 city-blocks long, 5 stories high, and a full block wide, just PACKED with vendors of every imaginable good made of textiles. And there were at least a dozen buildings this size. These are suppliers for other vendors, kind of like a wholesale place, although you could buy one of anything, no problem. First we walked through dozens of booths for scarves, hats, socks, sweaters, mittens, childrens clothes, towels, blouses, dresses, belts, jewelry, dresses, hats, coats, and so much more. Spaces were tiny and crammed tightly together. The aisles went on forever. Many people were squeezed in, bargaining over merchandise to stock their own stores or street booths. Here's Wendy looking at hats.
Yesterday I mentioned the bathrooms in Korea. Today we went into one of the most stunning yet, in that department store (yes, I'm jumping around, get over it!) First, it had a giant picture window with fabulous view. Here are the elegant sinks and the tile in the bathroom was some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Toilets had heated bidet seats, kind of a standard in many places.

This coulple eating lunch at an outdoor table on a rooftop was part of the view from that bathroom window...
as was this old fort (?).
After lunch, and after we felt that our circuits had already been blown out, we walked across an avenue that was split by a beautiful stream with fountains, right in the middle of all that textile commercialism. We spent another hour or so in a huge, multi-story building full of nothing but fabric, vast seas of it, stretching out in all directions before us, floor after floor of the most beautiful, exotic, and colorful textiles. Finally we had to get out of there, so we went out into the streets again.

In this neighborhood, the streets are teeming with activity. Street vendors line the sidewalks on both sides of the streets, in front of shops selling every kind of item, cookware, hardware, rope, sporting goods, you name it, you can find it here (however nothing like electronics or gadgets - this stuff is more traditional, for homemakers and tradespeople). We walked randomly, going in and out of shops, and watching the vibrant street life. We saw no other "foreigners" all day and attracted a lot of attention from the locals as we strolled along, all of it friendly. People would come up and ask us "Where you from?" and then giggle when we told them!We thought maybe we had better get another suitcase, after all this shopping. Whaddya think, Judy, will this one work?As is we hadn't seen enough, we then entered the Gwangjang Market, a covered building, once again as big as several city blocks, filled with alleys, crossroads, and multi-levels. This was like stepping back in time, to an older and more traditional Korea. The center aisles had big wooden tables and benches, where people were eating the most amazing stuff. We tasted the popular mung-bean pancakes, but opted not to taste the pig snouts, cheeks, ears, trotters, brains, or blood sausages that were displayed in abundance. The aromas were incredible, and we walked here, with our mouths hanging open, for a long time before heading back to the hotel.








Our day ended with a meal, in our apartment, of take-out assorted dumplings, and another night walk out into Insadong. Delicious!