I Didn't Know That

Whenever I send pics home, I’ll try to add an interesting fact about Korea (until I run out, I guess).

So here’s this month’s fact,

Koreans drink aloe.

I might be the only one surprised by this. But I know that in Canada, it’s a plant used for skin cream.

I tried it and it tastes great. They say it’s really healthy.
It must be good for stamina.
(that’s an inside joke – Koreans say that about everything in their diet)

July 17th - Korean Constitution Day

The rain came down hard on Seoul the past two days. The street flooded outside the apartment. I was stuck inside but it broke up the humidity so I like it. For over a month and a half now, the heat has been nearly constant, not cooling off at night. Sleep deprivation takes a toll if you don't start little projects.

So thanks to all those who have sent blogs to read through, pictures to look through, music to listen to and whatever. You may not realize it but I am probably your biggest fan.

Today is another one of those surprise holidays. This time I heard about it, then forgot. It’s Korean Constitution Day. Most shops are still open. People work through their holidays. The important thing is that school is closed. And I’ve got a chance to clean house and write home.

In Canada, if a holiday falls on Tuesday, taking the Monday in the middle off is a no-brainer. But no such luck. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea though.

As far as what’s been happening in Korea these days, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

North Korea is front page news everyday. But not the same way you read about it at home. That should be the topic of my next letter.

Japan is always a touchy topic here. The current gripe is Japan’s refusal to officially apologize for kidnapping Korean women during WWII and using them as “comfort women” to raise the morale of their soldiers. They also accuse Japan of intentionally omitting from their history books the atrocities that were committed in Korea.

As well, Koreans are going to vote for a new president in December and it seems that most of the candidates are facing charges for corruption. One related story is being called the “Korean Watergate” scandal. I like a good scandal, but these guys are lame.

Apart from these constants, everything else you read or hear about seems to relate to business. It seems to be the point of every story. Here and everywhere I guess.

Should Sound All Too Familiar to Capers

A billionaire in China hopes to buy an entire plant from Brazil and move it to China.

The 69 year old Yin Mingshan made his money selling motorcycles and wants the plant in Campo Largo, Brazil, which makes car engines. It is joint owned by Chrysler and BMW.

The plant has shut down and all 382 workers are laid off and awaiting the outcome. The Brazilian government has yet to make a decision on the matter.

The writer of the report sounded a bit shocked. But Capers will remember the fate of Sydney Steel. They really can pick up an entire plant and move it to China.

If the laid off workers in Brazil could see before/after photos of Sydney, Nova Scotia, and the massive empty stretch of earth in the heart of the city, they would be cleaning out their lockers.

Why CEO's are So Special

Eight Must Haves to Become Star CEOs

The LG Economic Research Institute details the top 8 qualities a star CEO should possess. In no particular order….
1. foresightedness
2. creativity
3. strategy “…after all, business is war…”
4. an engaging sense of human touch
5. a will to learn
6. energy
7. high morals
8. social responsibility

So this must be what they teach at Harvard.

Pyeong Chang

Pyeong Chang was almost the host town for the 2014 Winter Olympics. In the end, a spot in Russia was chosen. It was a sad story here. The news showed people crying. They had put a lot of work into the bid.

Coincidentally, this was the place where we rented a cabin for the weekend. Here, cabins are called “pensions”. They’re not backwoods. The roads are still paved and the grocery store is just a 10 minute walk. There are camp sites but so far I haven’t really seen or heard of anyone “roughing it”. For anyone living in Seoul, renting a room or cabin in a small town seems to be the way to get away.






For Koreans, the accommodations are important, but the greatest concern is the cooking and eating facilities. This was our cookhouse on the river. Inside there were two barbecues, three tables, tree stumps with cushions on them for chairs and a little cassette player blasting – you guessed it – the Carpenters Greatest Hits.

The family lives in the white home and they rent out the cedar additions. They meddle for sure but it a gracious host kind of way. They were friendly and generous.

The river is really moving and cold too. It reminded me of the Bow river in Calgary. Near the river, the air is clean and there’s always a cool breeze.




A plate of homemade kimchi, compliments of the house. The ajuma (old lady) also gave us the wenchan (bean paste).

Round One.

Korean brands. And a few familiar ones.

The green bottle on the left is Korean soju – a local poison. It’s the national drink of choice. It’s also used to clean the kitchen and bathroom floors. On this trip to Korea, I’ve officially said no to Soju. During the card game, some rules were broken. Sometimes you don’t have a choice.

Kyung Po Beach - Gangneung City

Hae Soo Yok Jang = Beach

Kyung Po is on the east coast of Korea. The beach is beautiful. But the typhoon hitting Japan could be felt enough that huge waves and scary undertows kept just about everyone out of the water. A lifeguard was running up and down the beach with a whistle, pulling people back.

The horses drew a crowd. Possibly the only animal not eaten in Korea, they're used to pull carts.

Always a sale on dried squid.

Sang Won Sa

The base of the climb.

This is “Kwandaguri”. It is sacred because during the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejo used to hang his clothes and hat here when he came down the mountain for a bath in the stream.

Along the walk, Buddhists add a stone to the piles at the side of the path and make a wish.

The final staircase. Almost there.

Sang Won Sa.

Construction of this Buddhist temple began in AD 662.

It’s remotely buried in the mountains. We had driven 3 hours from Seoul to a small town. This morning we drove a half hour outside the town to the park entrance, then another half hour on dirt roads into the mountains. We parked and hiked about a km up the hill. Not a difficult journey really, but I imagine that back in the day, even with a mule it must’ve taken months.

The shrine inside features two famous statues, not of Buddha but of a Buddhist Saint – Munsu, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. I’m not sure about the other. You don’t take photos of the shrine.

The statue is famous for the hairstyle on Munsu. The reason I’ll remember it is because apart from the crazy hair, he also looks like he’s playing air guitar – left-handed air guitar. And he’s grinning like he’s playing a solo from Dark Side of the Moon.

The Ceiling.

This bridge is made of hard packed earth supported on pine tree stilts.

Prince Tomohito the Alcoholic

In Japan, the 61 year old cousin of Emperor Akihito broke the taboo and starting admitting publicly that he’s a drunk.

The thing about drinking in Japan is that you never admit there’s a problem. Shameful matters aren’t usually discussed openly. So it’s been a shock to the nation that a royal prince has done so. And for me, this story is a classic.

One of the main reasons he cited for his drinking problem was the stress caused by the controversy over whether the imperial laws would change to allow a female emperor. Someone didn’t have a boy like she was supposed to.

Honorable Mention

Apparently the world recently voted online to select the “New 7 Wonders of the World”. The campaign to bring this list up to date was started by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. But funny enough, there are still only 7.

So the list goes…the great wall of China, machu pichu in Peru, chichen itza in Mexico, the statue of Christ the redeemer in Rio, the coliseum in Rome, the taj mahal in India, and Pertra in Jordan. The pyramids of Giza were given an honorary status.

Some of the losers in the contest were: the statue of liberty, the kremlin, the Eiffel tower, Rapa Nui – Easter Island. There was a shortage of online voters on Easter Island.

Stonehenge is apparently not one of the wonders of the world. Like most popularity contests, some pay attention and others could care less. Let’s face it, people just voted for their country anyway. I don’t care.

Unless we just treat the whole stunt like a conversation starter on things you have to check out. Now I’m interested.

I grew up wanting to see Stonehenge. I don’t know why. The most interesting thing about it, and coincidentally, the most boring thing about it (not for me, but those who voted, I suppose) , is the mystery.

One of the surprising things about Stonehenge was how few people were there to see it. We stopped and parked the car on the side of the road just across the street from it. Maybe I should’ve expected that. It was January and the weather was cold and misty.

I figure that if there were a tidy explanation for the whole thing, if you could insert your coin, press one for English, or choose your language, and listen to the five minute version of the how and why, to accompany your photo, we’d have had to park a mile away.

Like the pyramids, Stonehenge throws all world theories into doubt and reminds us that we’re learning but there are some stories we just may never know or understand before we die.

A mystery that can’t be explained by the principles of marketing. Or wait, maybe….No.

Another non-wonder of the world is the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain. The beauty lies within, not from afar. But here it sits on the hilltop, as seen from Sacramonte, a mostly gypsy neighborhood just across the valley.

The striking contrast between the rich and the poor, royalty and peasant, could be captured in just one instance, in a slight glance to the left and to the right, then as it can today.

A house just opposite the Alhambra,

The Alhambra sits sterile and empty – a showcase for travelers and photographers. While the run down neighborhoods that surround it are still lively, vibrant and full of spirit. The days are long and the nights are longer.

I did tour most of the palaces of Andalucia and kept the ticket stubs. You’re considered an idiot for traveling there and not seeing the big ticket items – the “must see” for the lonely planet backpacker. But what I’ll remember most is the back alleys, the hidden shops and all the things I found when I wandered around aimlessly and got lost – with my lonely planet book back at the apartment on the floor.

As far as the palaces in Andalucia go, one that I preferred to the Alhambra was the Real Alcazar in Sevilla. It’s less spectacular and misses the front page of travel books. But I thought it was hard to beat for a place to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

Whereas the Alhambra is most definitely a museum – get your photos and get on your way, the Alcazar is more of a public place where you can go anytime to just hang out in a royal palace, sit in the garden and read the paper.

I have notes full of facts and stuff about these places – buried in a notebook, buried in a box, buried in a closet, somewhere in Vancouver. Ie. I’m not looking for it today.

As long as we share info, we’ll find our way around. And when we get lost, all the better.

Saving Face in Tokyo

Don’t Vote Fujimori...Better Yet, Don’t Free Him

The Associated Press in Tokyo reports “Fujimori Accepts Offer to Run in Japan Election”.

Currently under house arrest in Chile and accused of a long list of human rights violations during his 10 years as president of Peru, you have to wonder how this might be possible, that he run for parliament in Japan this July. To steal a line from the late Bill Hicks, this guy carries his balls in a wheel barrel.

When I was living in Argentina – 1999 – 2001, Alberto Fujimori and the accusations against him were daily front page headlines throughout Latin America. Words like bribery, extortion, misappropriation of public funds, corruption, torture rooms, illegal imprisonment of political opponents, oppression of indigenous people - I don’t have the exact list - but all common phrases in the dictionary of Latin American dictators were associated with him. Of course, all of this is speculation.

I traveled to Peru while he was in power. There were many applauding his reforms - perhaps the business class of Lima. In the southern towns and villages, even in cities, such as Tacna, armed rebels were actively waging war, though it was overshadowed by conflict in Columbia. This was the explanation I was given for the five teenagers with shotguns riding at the front of our bus with the driver as we headed south from Cusco.

The man hunt for Fujimori’s number one henchman – Montesinos was a drama that spanned the entire South American continent and played out in the media like soap opera meets spy novel, complete with informers, car chases, cosmetic surgery in Venezuela and his eventual arrest in northern Brazil. Clearly, a popular man of the people.

Throughout Latin America Montesinos had been described as a monster. He was just ruthless and evil enough to carry out the orders of Fujimori, which only a monster could do, apparently.

As far as I know, Chile is not in the business of doing Peru any favors. Each has its own problems to contend with. But it seems that Fujimori was so notorious that Chile was pressured to “do the right thing” in the name of Latin solidarity. Peruvians begged for justice.

When I was teaching English in Vancouver, I had a few high profile students from time to time – one being a CEO of a large Korean company headquarters in Tokyo. He told me that he’d met Fujimori personally as they were often invited to the same parties and functions. So they had drunk scotch and sung karaoke together. He said he was a bad singer but that he admired him, as did the others, for becoming such a powerful man.

While I was in Japan, I often asked people about Fujimori. They knew the name. They knew he was a famous personality in Japan.

My worry is, all details swept aside, people will elect him in Japan. He plans to use his influence as a former president to portray himself as a man of experience and, worse yet, may use his imprisonment in Chile to his advantage, spinning the story to that of a victim of politics or prejudice.

You might say he has friends in the right places. But does this story even have anything to do with political ambition? Or is it about saving the face of a disgraced old man.

OIDO - The West Coast

Memorial Day June 6th was a school holiday but it fell on a Wednesday, middle of the week. I had no plans but wanted to make the best of it. We had to escape the city heat. So we took a day trip to the west coast – a town called Oido. It’s famous not for bikinis but seafood. What do Koreans do at the beach? They eat.

This hazy grey photo is exactly as I saw it. With the pollution, I suppose it’s never clear, but the weather turned against us.

On every map I have of Korea this is a bay, colored blue for water. But as far as the eye can see, it’s just mud. There are clam diggers everywhere. They can walk out about 1km. These mud flats reminded me a bit of going through Sackville NB back home.

Fishing boats sit ground in the mud, waiting for the tide to come in.

We looked for a spot to lay out our towel.

This pic is embarrassing but I have to include it. Here I am the typical idiot North American traveler. I’ve just bitten the head off of a giant prawn, chewed it for a bit and spit it on the ground. I need a beer before I puke.

I have to admit, the famed seafood restaurants lived up to expectations. The dinner we had was a bowl of soup with clams and assorted shellfish. It was excellent. But a beach without bikinis was still a bit of a let down. Next mission - the east coast.