To say that Pyeongtaek has grown would be an understatement. And it's still growing!!! Thank you, citizens of Pyeongtaek for your kind acceptance of an old, bald stranger from your past.
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| I walked so many kilometers for fruit. |
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Don't drink soju unless you want to puke orange. But if you're going to drink soju, this is the real soju. The green bottles are for boy men and girl women. On the morning after, look at the bottom of the bottle cap. That is exactly how you feel. |
Well, I made it back one more time. One of the biggest changes is what somebody tried to explain to me in the fairly recent past, but I couldn't grasp it until I saw it with my own eyes. The main drag from the late '70s is now Anjeong-ri Rodeo Street. What was the Main Gate back in the day is now a walk-through gate leading to Rodeo Street. I saw plenty of soldiers and civilians pass through the gate on their way to lunch in the ville. There are a number of different drive-through gates now that the base has grown.
If you used to ride your bicycle around the base like I did, some of those towns no longer exist. I visited the remnants of Daechuri, site of the Daechuri Protests, probably in January 2007. It was a long, cold walk out to the remains of that town, where protesters' signs still hung. In the end, they lost--or they won. Compensation was paid out to residents, and what was Daechuri is now inside Camp Humphreys' perimeter.
P.S. Thanks to the kind gentleman, possibly a government employee, who so kindly gave me a ride back to my hotel that late afternoon in January 2007. All of us who were there know how cold and strong The Hawk blows right through your layers there in Anjeong-ri in January.
Photos below are all from 20220817.
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| Still a few old school buildings remain. |
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The drive-through gate closest to the walk-through gate. This is where the #20 K-6 bus drops you off. |
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| 2022 walk-through gate = late '70s main gate. |
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| Anjeong-ri Rodeo Street |
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| Happy Mountain (Nongseong Fortress) |
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| Happy Mountain (Nongseong Fortress) |
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| Another old school building still standing. |
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| The red peppers will always be... |
I arrived at Incheon International Airport on 20220816, Bird Nest Day. (Anniversary of the day you leave your home after high school.) From the airport, I took a bus to my old stomping grounds in Pyeongtaek. The extent of my visit was the bus ride out of town. I can report that Incheon still has plenty of mud flats when the tide is out.
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I got the Cashbee Card, which has worked for all buses and taxis, but not in most convenience stores. It's possible that the Tmoney card is a better choice. |
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| 20220816 |
Quite a good rain here in Gangneung City, Pine Tree City, The Healing City. I managed a five-kilometer walk in the early afternoon when it was raining softly. In the hard rain of this evening, I got only as far as the 7-11 around the corner. That was enough. Nothing wrong with sitting in a downtown Gangneung motel room with the window open listening to the rain.
We all knew the rain was coming. I bought my size 280-mm EVA PVC sandals at HomePlus yesterday evening in preparation. As you can imagine, they smelled like petroleum when I opened the bag. They still smell like petroleum after a couple of walks in the rain. Maybe the petroleum is inside me now. As always happens with new sandals for all of us, I've got a big blister, this time on my right little toe. That could be a good thing. My right foot has been hurting bad, and maybe the pain will move from the bone structure to the blister. We shall see.
I will forever be unable to forget that line from the Talking Heads song Life During Wartime: "I got some groceries / some peanut butter / to last a couple of days." I think about that line all the time in Thailand, where peanut butter toast is one of the staples of my existence. Here in Korea, my peanut butter is 오징어 / dried squid. Pro tip for young travellers: Always have some dried squid in your backpack as emergency food. Don't let your stock get down to zero. Old Grizzled has spoken.
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| 20220830 |
At some point, that new town where you couldn't find your way to the laundromat despite excellent directions becomes a town where you're staying for a while. You've pushed against the edges of the town: north, south, east, west.
You freaked them out a little bit in the villages and fields. That's okay. They must learn just like those farmers in the Pyeongtaek rice fields back in the day. The old bald foreigner? Pay him no mind. He means no harm. He just walks around--slowly, with his damaged foot--examining damn near anything and everything.
Don't ask him where he's going. He doesn't know. He just keeps taking small roads through the forest until he gets lost enough. Then he finally gives up and heads in the direction of town.
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| 20220829 |
A lifetime of medical research has revealed that I should not eat fried chicken, but eat it I did on the night of 20220826--and the morning of the 27th and the night of the 27th. Yes, of course I should have thrown it away after the first night. But I'm on the road, and I accidentally bought too much, and it was food substance, so I kept going back to it. Each time I was richly rewarded with massive gastrointestinal effects.
Not only me. All the people in this nice town who happened to be in my vicinity were also affected. At the tourist attraction, on the street, and in the supermarket, air quality havoc was wreaked upon the unsuspecting. All I can say is, "I am sorry. I am truly sorry."
So put it in the books. A couple days of gastrointestinal distress-pretty much self-inflicted--while on the road. If you choose to be a cheap bastard traveller, this too can be your fate. For me, today is a brand new day.
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| 20220826 |
You may recall a previous post about finding a laundromat. In that post, I wrote the following: They gave me great directions: "Just walk straight up there and turn right at the convenience store." I walked straight up there and straight up there some more, and there was never a convenience store.
Yesterday, having moved back to a different motel in the same area downtown, I noticed a convenience store remarkably close to the location that the students had referred to. I thought that was kind of odd, but interesting, so I turned right and walked a couple of blocks. Nothing.
Today, eager to avoid another walk across town to do laundry, I went to the nice ladies at the train station's tourist information desk. After some discussion, they produced for me an excellent map that only local people could have prepared. They even added a nice touch about a supermarket on the corner before the laundromat.
So I followed their map, which took me right to the supermarket, and just past the supermarket was the laundromat. The signage was a bit more subdued than what I consider normal, but the laundromat was there nevertheless. It was just where the motel owner told me to go. It was just where the student girls said to go. Following the principle of Occam's razor, I have no doubt that I walked right past that convenience store when I was following the students' directions on the evening of 20220820.
And that, my friends, for better or for worse, is how I map a new town.
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| 20220825 |
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| 20220821 |
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| 20220822 |
When you've only got a fruit knife, it necessarily becomes a multi-tool. On this trip, I used my made-in-Japan, stainless steel fruit knife for the following.
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| 20220823 |
Please don't get me started on the reason why I don't have my trusty Gerber Dime mini multi-tool with me. It's because the Americans are afraid of their own shadow. In fear, and for the sake of pretend security, they won't let me take it on a plane. The knife blade is less than four centimeters!!! Let it be known throughout the world that this decision by U.S. authorities is bureaucratic dumbassery at its worst.
I guess it was my dream that the air wouldn't get bad until mid-January. I got back right at the end of the rainy season, and the air is...
