A taxi driver in Seoul

Saturday night I went near Itaewon to drink few biers with two colleagues, Holger and Koen. On the way back, as usual, we took one of these very cheap taxi that you can get here. But this time it was different. As soon as we got in the car, we found ourselves in a sort of disco: psychedelic lights on the car back, vinyl discs glued to the interior of the roof, photos of singers and writings glued on the car doors and everywhere around. Furthermore two quite large screens were placed one on the dashboard and the other one just in front of the backsits. The taxi left immediately. The driver looked different from the korean stereotype. Large mouth, thick lips, curled air. He asked us where we wanted to go and he showed us some compact streams, the ones used in a video camera. He asked us to choose one. On them there were the names of many rock bands. ACDC. Bryan Adams. We choose the ACDC.

The taxi was running faster than the speed limit, as usual in Seoul, and we had no belt. The driver put the stream into a recorder set between the front sits and immediately the screens lit up. The concert started, the volume was huge. Obviously he had installed specially powerful speakers in front and on the back of the car. Seoul was flowing behing the car windows while the ACDC were dancing like fools. It was a great open air concert, on a huge field. When we arrived closer to our destination, the driver changed the tape and put "Bryan Adams". It was not the same, but it was great anyway. The driver could not speak english very much. Sometimes, while he was driving, he looked above and laughed. Before arriving he opened the dashboard and showed us some plasticised copies of news articles telling about him. On one of them he had put the head of the "Herald Tribune", but it was not true. I found the original, it is at the bottom of this page, but it does not matter. In fact I think that the New York Times should really write an article about him. When we arrived we had to pay the usual price of Seoul. He gave us a little piece of paper with his telephone number, he let go a great laugh and left for another adventure. 

If you come to visit me, we will call him together!

One day in Suwon

It is several months now that I do not blog. Two children are like four, somebody told me. I do not agree, but certainly two parents for two children means no free time. 

Anyway today I write it, quickly, so forgive my mistakes. On Saturday we went to Suwon, it is a nice town only one hour from here, very different from Seoul. More traditional, maybe a bit more provincial, but it retains more the fascination of a less modern Korea. Always many cafe's, but also old traditional restaurants with excellent and fresh seafood. 

Suwon had its greatest glorious time at the end of the eighteen century when the korean king unsuccessfully tried to move the capital to this small place. Although he failed they have built several kilometers of a wide walkable wall. Certainly not comparable with the chinese wall, but still quite impressive. The remnant walls are about 6 km long. With two children we could not walk them, so after lunch we went to see the old center of the "imperial" city, which has been in fact reconstructed 40 years ago, but is anyway quite nice. 

When we arrive at the train station of Suwon, two scary figures welcomed us. And as soon as we arrived to the old city, we found that they were playing a battle with ancient costumes and swards...

In front of the entrance of the old city.

While looking for a place where to have lunch, we saw a tiny water stream... I marvel at their idea of moving the capital here, where there isn't any river! Some say that there are many lakes here, but we did not see them. 

We found this marvelous traditional restaurant. Very small, we were the only customers. We ordered their best meal, a giant soup of meat and and seafood. It was traditional, which means that it was really really spicy!

The meat was the best one, close to the bone and we had fish and seafood. The red color is not tomato,  it is chili! 

The women at the restaurant were just happy of babysitting Renee. But she did not want to stay more than 10 minuts faraway from the mother. mmm... 

Filled our stomach, we went back to the old city where there was one of this classic traditional shows. We saw them already 3-4 times, although they look quite similar one to the other this was the best one.  

One element that never misses in these shows is the man walking on the rope. It is really interesting because the figure is always the same. He starts playing the role of who cannot walk on the rope and slowly he improves until he perfectly executes extremely difficult figures. He also speaks and complains all the time and the people, who obviously know that he is just pretending, find this terribly amusing. It is fascinating as well that the difficult exercises are nearly always the same. Maybe there is a school where they learn that, or maybe it is a very precisely defined figure, as Arlecchino or Pulcinella in Italy. It is something that I have to investigate better. 

Inside the old city there is a wide choice among many activities. One of them is the traditional tea ceremony. A classic, yes, but I have to say that it is a pity that one can so rarely find it in Seoul.

And yes, Marlen has learned by her-selves to make the "V" like the people here in eastern Asia!

This is how it looked like an "imperial" meal!  Fruits, fishes, meat, seeds and flower decorations.

There are also many child activities. In this one Marlen could make paper starting from some suspended plants solute in water.

Renee sleeping in her baby carriage alone in the middle of this huge (imperial) square... 

Finally we have spent our last energies playing on the ground of these carved figures in front of the entrance.

and finally back home!