Episode 32: In Which DFM Climbs Some Cliffs And Scares Some Mosquitoes

It was the big climbing trip today.

I took the 45 minute subway ride over to Ace Climbing Center for a 9:00 AM meeting time.  We packed up our gear in the back of the gym's Hyundai mini-van, and then crammed seven adults in and set out on a 2-hour drive to the climbing crag.

It was the first time anyone from the gym had been to our intended destination, so we had to stop at a restaurant and ask for directions when we neared what the SatNav said was the end of the journey (I hate Sat Nav, but that's another post for another time).  It's tough to tell its  height from the picture, but the restaurant had this really cute puppy that couldn't have been more than eight inches tall.

Eventually we found the road-side turn out and set off on a hike to find the climbing site.

After one hour, we finally reached base camp and unpacked our gear.

Alvin and his wife and I were going to start warming up on some nice looking routes, but Choi (pictured above, testing a hold) kept tearing off the rocks on his harder route and told us this wasn't a good area to climb.

Instead we moved to a different part of the wall.  In the past I've climbed in the Canadian Rockies and the first bolts always seem to be around ten to twelve feet off the sharp boulder strewn ground.  Here at this crag though, the route setters placed the first bolts much lower, around six or seven feet off the ground, for which I was quite thankful.  Plus, the ground was sand, so even if we did fall before we made our first clip we had a nice soft landing.

Perhaps it was a result of less initial stress, or that I was now more experienced, but I found myself climbing much better than I have in the past outdoors.  I did not get a chance to climb any PB grades this time, but the routes I did climb were done smoother and easier than I've ever been able to climb before and at the same difficulty rating too.

There also seemed to be many mosquito nests on this cliff face too, but the mosquitoes knew better and stayed away from me, lest they make me angry... they wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Ji-Hyeun and Choi both made valiant attempts at this unconfirmed route that Choi estimated to be about 5.12b, but fell just short.  Click on the picture to blow it up and see how close Ji-Hyeun was to making it to the final chains (both she and Choi fell shortly after this point).

Eventually we had to head back and face a long, slow drive through rush-hour as what seemed like a thousand different Koreans all had the same idea to go to the same place at the same time.  Before we got to the car though, Choi picked a few choice rocks from the beach of stones that may eventually become set in clay and drilled onto the Ace wall as new climbing holds

Choi had planned to take the whole group out for dinner afterwards, but Alvin, his wife, and myself all had to teach early in the morning, and I still had to pick up groceries as I had completely exhausted my food supplies the day before in preparation for the move.  Furthermore, I had developed a head cold and lost my voice.  Teaching the children tomorrow is going to be a real battle.

Episode 29: In Which DFM Travels To Suwon To Meet A Man He Met On The Internet

In one of my earlier posts (Bar-barians) I mentioned a body-weight training website that had a great forum.  On this forum I met a former Canadian from Newfoundland, James, who has been teaching and living in South Korea for about 8 years now.  We had communicated numerous times, but today was the day we had set to finally meet in person.

I took the 1.5 hour subway to Suwon and met James at the train station.  After exchanging mutual disbelief at how an Internet forum could bring together two people from opposite sides of the planet, we went out for some lunch.

I told James that after my Busan pizza experience I only ate Korean food.  We found a Korean restaurant in the train station and I ordered some beef and octopus bibimpab, which is rice and a bunch of vegetables and egg all mixed together in a really hot stone bowl, plus the beef and octopus of course.

  

After lunch we went to a local workout park and demonstrated some of our pet skills.  James set a new PB today with 10 consecutive muscle-ups.  I made 27 dips - my highest number in about five years - and blistered up my hands quite badly, but I also held my best flag ever and skipped four rungs on the monkey bars.

After our workout James and his family took me out to a local restaurant where we had yet more Korean food.  This meal consisted of chicken slathered in hot sauce, some tteok, kimchi, and all sorts of other vegetables mixed together in a big frying pan at our table.  There were also some hard-boiled swallows eggs and other interesting articles in the side dishes that were delicious.

After the meal James took his kids to a nearby park, but James and I did most of the playing.  We tried to monkey walk up steep slanted poles and jump large gaps between different bars by swinging our legs to gain momentum and then trying to release our first bar and sail through the air to grasp onto the second bar with both hands simultaneously.

After we dropped his wife and kids off back home, James took me to the Suwon fortress where there were miles and miles of 16th century fortress wall on which you could walk.  The wall goes for at least a good 15-20 km, if not more, and wraps all the way around what used to be the city I presume.

Of course, we couldn't miss an opportunity to work out.  There were steep steps we would hop up on only one-leg, and then bear crawl down.  In this picture James is doing a handstand (it's tough to see, but he's in the bottom-right).

After a good 45 minute walk we went back to James' place where we watched videos of experts doing amazing body weight tricks.  James capped it all off by showing me a video of a man doing a one-armed muscle-up.  It is by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

I was going to head back on the late-night train, but James offered me a room at his place for the night and a ride to the station in the morning.

I even got my own dressing table, so of course I had to accept.

James and his family were great hosts, and I really can't thank them enough.  My trip to Suwon was better than I could have imagined.  Thanks James.

Episode 24: In Which DFM Comes Face To Face With A Man Eating Beast And Fish Learn How To Drive Cars

Wow, it's been a few days since I've posted.  My Internet went down again and so I was unable to update you on my adventures.  Time to make up for it, because today was the day I've been planning for all month - the day of the big shark dive!

I got up at 6:00 AM to catch an early morning KTX train to Busan.  The KTX train travels at speeds up to 305 km/h.  When it was first built it cut the time of the trip to Busan from Seoul down to 1 hour 50 minutes (from about 5 hours).  But, since its creation more and more stops have been added and the the trip now takes roughly 3 hours.

The train is a lot like flying in an airplane, but a bit less comfortable and only half as fast.  However, it sure beats taking a bus and it costs about the same price as a taxi to an International airport from the center of a big city.

My neighbour for the trip to Busan was Joseph.  Joseph is a bit of an anomaly in that he managed to pick up a perfect North American accent for his pefectly fluent English, without ever having lived outside of Korea.  Joseph was on a business trip this morning for his company which franchises English schools.  Joseph was nice enough to give me a strip of his pastry, since I did not think to bring anything for the trip, and he also spent most of the trip explaining to me the history of Korea from the invasion of the Mongols to the beginning of the Korean War.  Don't think he was boring me though, I was fascinated and kept begging him for more information.

I severely underestimated how long it took to get from Busan Station to Haeundae beach by subway.  Quite soon I realized there were far more stops than I anticipated, and that I was not going to make it in time, so I jumped off and tried to catch a cab.  I got in the first cab that stopped for me and tried to do up my seat belt  There was only a strap with a hook, but no catch though, so I just imagined a seat belt.  

The cab driver did not speak English, but he was so happy with my infinitesimally small amount of Korean and that I was Canadian that he phoned up (and woke up) his daughter, who had studied in Canada, to talk to me in English.  This has happened to me quite often since I've come to Korea and it is always awkward for both parties.  

The taxi driver then realized that I was speaking Seoulese (people in Busan speak a different dialect of Korean than do those people in Seoul) and decided to "correct" my Korean with some impromptu lessons, but I couldn't understand a word he was saying.  He got me to Busan Aquarium though, and that's all that mattered.

The Aquarium is located right on Haeundae beach, which is a beautiful beach in a beautiful area of Busan, which is itself quite a beautiful city.

When I was dropped off I was five minutes late.  I couldn't see any signs for the diving, and when I went to the front desk to ask where the shark diving was I was told that there was no shark diving.  Undaunted, I went over to the Information Office and was told that I should go under ground.  I went underground and someone pointed me up a set of stairs, but these stairs just led back out onto the beach.  Eventually, after twenty minutes of searching, I finally found someone  who could direct me to the course, which was in fact at Busan Aquarium.

After filling out the requisite paper work and watching some training videos the other four divers and myself got on our wetsuits and goggles and went over to the training pool.

On the way over we saw a separate pool of about eight Lemon Sharks swimming around.  Lemon Sharks are about 9 feet long and are aggressive hunters and they had been separated because they were eating the other animals in the aquarium.  These animals cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and the Lemon Sharks had caused an entire species of stingray to "disappear" from the aquarium as well as having torn the fins of and scarred the bodies of a number of the Sand Tiger Sharks.  The aquarium had put a number of giant tuna fish in to attract the teeth of the Lemon Sharks instead, but Lemon Sharks are smarter than that and did not touch the tuna.  We were actually one of the last two groups to ever see the Lemon Sharks, since they were being shipped to Thailand on Monday (this happened on Saturday).

This is my diving team.  Michael, the instructor, is on the left, and then there are Takayla and Jake from North and South Dakota (not sure whom is from where), Justin from Baltimore, and Maggie from Pittsburgh.  All four of the Americans are English teachers near/in Busan and probably had a much easier time getting to the aquarium than I did.

Justin teaches at a school for the children of rich parents.  Many of his students are the children of doctors or lawyers and are rather spoiled.  One of his students is the daughter of a Korean professional baseball player.  His classroom is wired by CCTV and the housewife mothers spend all day scrutinizing his teaching in the viewing room.  As stressful as that sounds he seems to have adjusted admirably and was very excited about the dive.  I was happy to hear from him later that two of his students were visitors to the aquarium that day and had waved to him through the glass.

We took pictures of the dive with Michael's underwater camera, but since they aren't up on the website yet I'll just show some of the best pictures of past dives with a few extras I found on the Internet of some of the other animals we saw.

The Sand Tiger Shark, which I shot afterwards through the glass from the outside looking in.  The Aussies, whom regular readers of this blog know are XXXX rated, only refer to this as a Grey Nurse Shark.

Lest you thought I was lying about being in the aquarium with sharks.

This is a picture of a Green Turtle, over some coral reef in Hawaii.  The Green Turtle was my favourite animal in the aquarium.  Apparently it is rather aggressive and thinks that every diver in the pool is going to bring him food.  Michael put him in a holding pen behind us while we were training, and when I was not being instructed I would turn around every chance I could get to look at the turtle who was always staring me right in the eyes and/or snapping its mouth at my face.  Being close enough to have my fingers (or nose) bitten by such a majestic creature was really exciting; it made my hair stand on end and my heart race.

This is a diver from another group, but I had a very similar experience myself.  After lowering down into the giant tank (a round tank of roughly 30 yards diameter and 8 meters depth) I knelt down to wait for the other divers.  While I was waiting I was welcomed by a curious Grouper fish.  This species of fish has been caught in the wild and found to have an entire human inside of its stomach.  Today it thought it would swim over and come within about two feet of my face.  I was so excited I forgot to breathe and thought something was wrong with my respirator.  How can a fish be big enough to eat a human, you ask?

This is how.

Obviously I didn't take this picture myself, but this is an exact reenactment of my first minutes diving in the aquarium, except I was on the other side of the glass.

After diving I was starving, so Maggie and I went over to an American pizza restaurant to indulge in some "Western food."  Back in Canada I used to love pizza, but after eating so much fantastic Korean food with its exceptional spices and exotic flavours I found pizza quite bland.  Maggie said that she used to love bacon but found it disgusting when she went home after her first year of teaching in Korea.  I'm going to go back home in a month and not be able to eat anything but rice.

After pizza we went back to the aquarium and our shark diving experience counted as admission to the aquarium as well, so it was "free."

These piranhas look like they've already finished their last meal.

Catfish are called "maggie" in Korean, so Maggie insisted on taking some pictures.

This Jackass Penguin (that's its real name) spent all day diving down into the water to look at the guests.  It was quite a hit with the children.

One of  the highlights was when I got to hold this real live sea urchin in my hands at the petting tank.  Maggie said that it was rare to find an urchin that still had all of its quills.  I guess they tend to get broken off by all the people handling them.

"Do you know what that sound is, Highness?  Those are the Shrieking Eels!  If you don't believe me, just wait.  They always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh!"

What do you get for the fish who has everything?  How about a car.  Hyundai shows what the inside of James Bond's Lotus should have looked like after he drove out of the lake in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Best day of the trip so far by a long shot.  If you're in Korea make sure you head to Busan for the shark diving experience.  You can find more information here.

Episode 21: In Which DFM Gets Some More Gifts And Eats Some More Free Food (A Good Day)

Today the plan was to climb with Perry at Ace and then go to his house afterwards to meet his wife and have dinner.

I stopped by the school I always walk by on the way, to see if my little friends were there, but instead there was a big Middle School soccer game going on.  The black team had players who were much smaller, but they were very quick and played well as a team.  From what I could see they were winning.

I did meet a couple of other young boys who came up and talked to me.  "Hello.  Where are you from? ... I am from Korea."  That's a pretty standard set of phrases around a hagwon in Korea.  These boys were much less... wild than my other friends, but from what I could glean the boy on the right side of the picture likes basketball while his friend on the left is the big soccer fan of the duo.

I tried to take it easy at climbing today since I planned on climbing the next two days as well.  Instead of my normal hard bouldering I just worked on some of the longer endurance routes.  Someone brought in some delicious home made bread again, and here you can see Choi helping himself (he had to get some before I came in and ate the rest).  Ji-Hyeun is in the background giving the "Victory" sign.  Everyone in Korea thinks that Korea won the war by driving out the Japanese, while everyone in Japan thinks that they won the war by conquering the Koreans in the first place, so... V signs all around!  

Everyone was rather impressed when Perry told them I had eaten hungeo the other night, and as a reward (or just because he's Choi) Choi gave me a special ShamWow type towel with a picture of him climbing on it (I had expressed interest in the picture earlier).  There was also a climber who had to have been in his fifties at the youngest, but still had a six pack.  I love Korea.  I love this gym.

Perry's wife made us a lovely meal consisting of food sent from Perry's parents who are farmers.  There was some rice, four different kinds of kimchi, two different kinds of pork (they tell me it was pork, but it flaked off the bone and tasted like lamb if you ask me), and some tofu.  "Sadly," there were no fish heads, but none-the-less it was delicious.  For desert we had strawberries and pear slices.  I made a real pig of myself and ate at least 75% of the fruit tray.  (Did I mention that I love fruit?)  Of special note was that for the first time I had some wine that wasn't made from rice.  Perry's 15-year-old daughter is living and studying in China, and she sent back a bottle of the best Chinese wine - made from grapes!

I mentioned in my last post that Perry was multi-talented and well traveled.  I found out today that he's been to China, Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, England, and France, and those are just the countries I can remember.  He says that one day he hopes his youngest daughter can go to high school in Canada.

After our meal, Perry took me for a stroll down a traditional Korean marketplace near his home.  Perry told me that this is a place foreigners never visit.  One of his friends worked at an Oriental health store.  His name is Kil Min Soo, and here he is holding up one of his favourite products - top of the line Korean Ginseng.  Mr. Kil heard from Perry that I had eaten a lot at his house and thought I might need some help with my digestion.  He prepared for me a special Korean tea called ssanghwacha (cha is tea in Korean) that was made from pine cones and actually tasted quite good.  I'm not sure if it is working, but I sure don't feel like I just ate half of Perry's home anymore.  In fact I think I need to eat again.  My Korean film maker friend from last night is going to have to make a film about a foreigner who ate all the food in Korea.  They can call it The Host 3 (apparently there is already a sequel to this Korean blockbuster about a foreign made monster that rises out of the Han river and starts eating Koreans).

On the subway ride home, some man came over and sat by me and started telling me that he had written over 1000 books, and that in Canada he has his own Medical College at a Canadian University, and that he developed a bus for traveling on ice, because ice is a big problem in Canada.  I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but I think he needed a shave and a change of clothes.

Tomorrow Perry will let me know if his wife will let me stay.  He said I made a good impression (I even brought a gift!) but that his wife was very worried about her poor English skills.  That's the thing about Koreans, and especially Korean women:  They are forever appologizing for their English, even if it's perfect.  Keeping the ol' fingers crossed... and not just because I jammed them in a tiny crack whilst climbing.

Episode 15: In Which DFM Enters A Korean Climbing Contest And Has Some More Korean Food

Today was the big Ace climbing competition day (well, not big, just for fun, but big for me).  I had already been to Ace before so I thought I could find my way  back easily.  Somehow I got lost in the multi-floored subway station and could not find the right exit.  I took a guess and wound up in a neighbourhood I did not recognize.  I started walking in a random direction and pretty soon I found the street where I should have been on.  A nice break indeed, since to double back and go inside would have cost me another dollar.

I purposely made a wrong turn and stopped back at the school I had visited the first time I tried to go to Ace.  My two little friends were there and they recognized me right away.  They showed me a Korean game that is essentially Chinese Checkers but played with humans.  One player starts on one yellow dot, and the other player on a yellow dot on the other side.  The players take turns jumping along the lines to the next intersection.  The winner is the player who gets to the other side.  If you can knock the other player over, you win!  This is a game we definitely need in Canada, but since our country is soft and lacks discipline, it won't happen.

After playing Korean Bodycheckers, the boys told me they were hungry.  I said that I was hungry too, and since we both agreed that jjinpang was delicious, we set out  with some other children in search of some jjinpang (remember, I've been searching for jjinpang for over a week now unsuccessfully).  The boys and I did not have any greater success finding jjinpang either, so we eventually settled on some ice cream.  Now, I had bought the same cone back in Itaewon for $1.50, but this cone only cost $1.20, and the boys got it for $1.00.  When in Korea always shop with a Korean.

I got to the competition early so that I could warm up and there was a table of various Korean treats waiting for me.  Most of the treats were slightly sweetened Quaker Rice Cakes in various shapes, but there was also some home made bread (delicious) and Ji-Hyeun had saved me a dumpling (mandu).  There were a number of Koreans enjoying the snacks and watching a Star Craft tournament that was being televised.  Perry said that a little bit of food would give me energy, but cautioned me against stuffing myself (like I was doing) because it would make me tired.  In Korea you always listen to your elders, so I took his advice and went to get changed.

The competition was a slightly different format than what I am used to.  Everyone who registered was placed in a category based on various characteristics like age, sex, experience, skill, etc.  Then five teams were made, each with a diverse composition.  Our group had one expert climber (the guy in the red), two intermediate climbers (Perry, in the grey, and myself), and two women (the woman in blue is looking at our other climber who just ran off to try a problem).  Other teams had a different blend.

There were five stations with four problems each.  One problem for Expert men, one problem for Intermediate men, one problem for Recreational men, and one problem for Women and Senior men (they did the same problem).  That's 20 problems, and apparently Choi (the owner) had made 19 of them himself.  Ji-Hyeun told me she had made the other.  Each group gets a score card and has roughly fifteen minutes to gain as many points as possible.  Each hold in the problem has a point total attached to it, and climbers are awarded that score if they reach that hold.

There were some incredibly ripped, incredibly strong climbers at this competiton.  Check out the back on this fellow.  I assure you he had the front to match.  Additionally, the rock he is holding on to is made from real stone and was hand chiseled by Choi himself and then screwed on to the wall.  There were dozens of these Choi holds in the gym, and I spent a good amount of time staring in awe at each of them.

This woman was very strong and was placed in the same category as me.  She did not embarrass herself either.  I had wanted to see Ji-Hyeun climb too, but she had to work.

When all was said and done not only did our team finish first overall, but I placed first in the Intermediate Men's category.  I told Ji-Hyeun that next time I would need to go in the Expert category since I found the Intermediate problems a little too easy (I was placed there by Ji-Hyeun, it was not my idea).  It's a big jump to Expert though, as the Intermediate routes were all around 5.11, while the Expert routes start at 5.12 (my limit) and go up to 5.13 or higher.

After climbing, the entire group of us went out to have dinner.  This is the same place that Choi had taken me last Friday, and I hope he made a reservation because we easily took up half the restaurant.  I was most honored when I arrived, because everyone was there already and Choi had saved me a seat right by himself.  When I came in the door he frantically waved me over to his side.  In this picture we have Thomas and Jasper up front.  Alvin, an English teacher from South Africa, is in the blue shirt.  I do not know the three Koreans to the right of Jasper though, but that is of course Choi with the big grin and the soju at the back.

I had a wonderful time dining with my new Korean friends.  Today was a big day for me in other ways too, in that for the first time I was able to communicate to non-English speaking Koreans in broken Korean.

Choi is a great man, but he's also quite the character.  He introduced me to a Korean woman who spoke very good English, and although he was talking in Korean I could tell from his sheepish grin that he was up to no good.  She later told me that he was trying to play match-maker and set us up.

I've said it already, but I'll say it again.  Big day.  Tomorrow I go out with Lee Young San from the bath house.  I should have more good stories from that, so remember to keep checking in.

Episode 10: In Which DFM Does Some Korean Hiking And Eats All Sorts Of Foods For The First Time

One of the first people I met when I went to Ace Climbing Center yesterday was a man named Kim In-Paik (I call him Perry, because that's his "English name").  He mentioned that he was going hiking at Gwanak-san the next morning and I asked if I could tag along.

Hiking on the weekends is like driving during rush hour.  Swarms of people could be seen all over the subway stations wearing Norwegian knee-high wool socks and with every conceivable type of hiking aid imaginable, all heading towards one of the 25 mountains in and arround Seoul.  This picture is just of the back end of a mob; there are more up in front of the pack and a lot coming behind me.

Of course there were myriad workout parks.

Even when the trail split off in many directions, there were still enough people to make sure you could never get lonely... or a have a moment to yourself.

 

Along the way I saw the last ice of winter and the first flower of spring... look closely, it's there.

About halfway up the mountain, Perry, myself, and Perry's two friends, Ji-Sun and Young-Joo (I have no idea if that's how you spell them, but that's my best guess) broke off from the herd to have some lunch.  Ji-Sun and Young-Joo whipped out all sorts of ingredients and Perry had brought a small propane-fueled camping stove and accomanying cookware.  We had oysters cooked in some sort of batter, pickled rice shoots in soy sauce, a very similar soup to the one I had yesterday, and dubu kimchi (sounds like "tow-go gim-chee") with daeji bulgogi.  In English that's tofu kimchi with pork.

Perry brought along a small bottle of Chinese wine with which to have a toast.  In an effort to sample everything Korean (Chinese wine sort of counts) I had a very small cup (you can see it in the picture next to the normal sized clear plastic cup).  My report is that Chinese wine tastes like Robitussin.  It's quite powerful, and will clear your head up right away (it'll clear it right off if you're not careful).  Perry is a big fan of the wine and seemed to think that drinking a little wine was good for keeping the body warm, good for learning a new language, good for curing any illnesses, and good for solving just about any other problem life throws your way.

To pass the time and keep warm, Perry and I would climb on the boulders surrounding our lunch site.  Perry would also tell me many Korean parables and try to teach me how to speak Korean.

Warning:  Korean joke coming.  

A man is walking along in the mountains when he has to evacuate his bowels.  He covers up the excrement with a stone.  Another hiker comes along and has to evacuate her bowels as well.  She covers up the remainder with a stone.  After many years a hiker comes along and finds a large pile of stones.  It is a Korean tradition that when you come across a large pile of stones you kneel down and pray.

It's tough to see, but I thought this picture was hilarious.  It was inside a public washroom at the bottom of the mountain, on a condom dispenser.  Inside the condom are two small smiling children.

Perry thought I was very brave to come to Korea by myself.  He himself had traveled to Thailand and could understand how difficult it was for me.  He said that he liked my spirit and offered me free room and board at his house.  He also offered to show me around to places that are so traditional even most Koreans don't know about them.  Since I still have two weeks left at my gosiwon and I enjoy the free rice and kimchi (but not enough to stay another month), I told him that I would take him up on his offer at the beginning of April.

A final note on Korean hiking.  Korean hiking and DFM hiking are very different things.  Koreans like to take an entire day and commune with nature.  I like to take an entire hour and attempt to race to the top of the mountain.  I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I go hiking with Koreans.

When I arrived back in Itaewon I needed to go get some apples for my lunch the next day.  When I came up to ground level out of the subway station I was absolutely blown away by all the white people.  It was whitey central tonight.  I couldn't understand it.  I knew Itaewon was a tourist destination for some reason, but this was unreal.  Later I reckoned that it was just a typical Saturday night and all the English teachers and American soldiers had come out to get drunk, get in trouble and generally give foreigners a bad name... so, nothing out of the ordinary.

I did notice that while I can count on one hand the number of obese Koreans I've seen so far, I could only count on one hand the number of white people in Korea who weren't overweight this night.  It was unbelievable.  Besides raising the average bodyfat percentage of Seoul about 50%, white people partying in Itaewon are also loud and obnoxious.  It's no wonder racist Koreans hate us, we're a scourge on the planet.  I vow to never go out into Itaewon after 8:00 PM ever again so long as I can help it.