Urban Summer - the pool

Seoul has swimming pools for suckers who are stuck in the city or those who just can’t handle the traffic jams involved with getting out to the real water in the mountains.

This one we went to was just outside of Seoul heading south in Kyonggi-do province.

The pool is surrounded by tents – which are full of Korean families cooking pork. Swim, eat, swim, eat, swim, eat, etc. is basically the afternoon schedule.

One major difference I noticed at the pools here. The girls swim with their clothes on above their swimsuits. And….yes, the dudes wear the tighties. So apart from that disappointment, it was a fine afternoon.

It’s a family spot so we were spared any club-med-type antics, which was good. The point is that it’s so hot, you need to be in water and this thing happens to be bigger than the bathroom sink.

Every half hour, the lifeguards (there are hundreds of them) blow the whistles and kick everyone out of the pool. Then they go in with buckets of chlorine and big stir sticks. When the mix is ready, they blow the whistles and play resumes.