The summer is hot in Seoul but the beaches are quite far if you don't have a car. In theory Seoul offers a lot of possibilities, however swimming pools, surprisingly, hide few of the most curious aspects of the Korean lifestyle. One is that the Han River Parks (where most pools are) are rigidly open only from 1 July to 31 August, although, of course, Seoul is hot June, and reasonably warm in september! Here this was our desperate case in the mid of June, in front of a closed Han River Park.
When finally July arrived, we started to frequent several swimming pool. It was quite an experience. The pools themselves are similar one to the other, or better said they are all different from a european one in a similar way. This post is about one of our visits.
That day I noticed for the first time this strange "Poseidon" in our metro station (Nakseongdae), who was indicating the way to the pool. In fact Seoul Metro is full of such figures, and I would like to devote one entire post to them.
Arrived in Yeouido-ro, the island of which I wrote in the last post, we went straight to the pool. On the way the sky was very clean, much more then usual. I have later made a 360 degree view of river path, to give a (very quick!) idea of the landscape.
and an imperial pool only for the very little children (water depth something like 50 cm!). I entered in the water, and it was very warm... hopefully because of the heating, although I suspect something else...
When finally July arrived, we started to frequent several swimming pool. It was quite an experience. The pools themselves are similar one to the other, or better said they are all different from a european one in a similar way. This post is about one of our visits.
That day I noticed for the first time this strange "Poseidon" in our metro station (Nakseongdae), who was indicating the way to the pool. In fact Seoul Metro is full of such figures, and I would like to devote one entire post to them.
Arrived in Yeouido-ro, the island of which I wrote in the last post, we went straight to the pool. On the way the sky was very clean, much more then usual. I have later made a 360 degree view of river path, to give a (very quick!) idea of the landscape.
we crossed the usual bridge
and Marlen was in a very good mood
Right in front of the entrance of the pool there is a very special construction: the center of the largest Pentecostal church in the world, the Yoido Full Gospel Church, with more then 1,000,000 members. The strategies behind its astoundingly fast growth from its birth (1958) are amazing. Its founder, reverend Cho, has transposed cellular reproduction form biology to create the most most efficient way to spread a new religion.
In practice he initially divided Seoul in cells and instructed one pastor for each cell (cell leader), who had the task to "spread the verb" as much as possible until a certain number of followers was reached. At that point the cell was split in two, and the new cell was going to be led by another cell leader trained by the past leader. In this way the system has genetically selected the most efficient pastors and the church has grown up to its present number (1,000,000 members, lead by about 530 pastors). I find this story stupefying. Pastoral science.
Passed the religious temptations, we finally arrived at the pool. Quite crowded, as you would expect in Korea, but in the end... there are however several funny things. The first is that it is impossible to find a point in the pool where one adult does not touch the bottom of the pool.
I can guarantee that this pool is not crowded.
The weirdest thing is certainly that each hour, for 10 minutes, everybody has to leave the pools. Nobody can just remain in the water in this time. After that, every back in. I tried to ask why, but I really did not find any explanation. The justifications that I have gotten oscillate from the risk of "hypothermia" (???)...
...to just give a break to the lifesavers... but who knows?!?
The view from the pool is probably the nicest thing here for many...
...but not for the children. For them the hit is the water based playground, with a dragon, a tree and a flower
and an imperial pool only for the very little children (water depth something like 50 cm!). I entered in the water, and it was very warm... hopefully because of the heating, although I suspect something else...
Most koreans like to enjoy this pool as it would be a campsite.
Sometimes they have even a double sunshade. This helps to build a certain kind of privacy, I suppose.
However we could not really adapt (yet?!) to this aspect of the korean culture, and we choose instead to lay on the unbelievably available deckchairs on the poolside.
For lunch, people line up to get a meal. In most cases a typical korean soup.
Considering the scale of the crowd there, the outcome was not too bad.
Here I found one of the most original tattoos that I have ever seen... who knows where all the arrows bring?
On the way back a concert was playing in this unconventional amphitheater on the Han River. Unfortunately the batteries of my camera ran out while zooming in... you missed something: it was a concert of Hawaiian music, all played with banjos!!
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