Kolea Update.

So I've been in Korea a week now. It was a rough start for the tour, I don't know if I was jet lagged or just plain tired, but I think I've finally caught up with sleep and am functioning fairly normally today. I've been able to explore some of the city around the hotel and the venue the last couple of days, not to mention eat some pretty delishshish foods. So here's some pictures thus far.


Once you're done staring at the bronze male butt, I want you to notice the man in the hat and the bronze woman sitting next to him. Behind the venue is a small sculpture garden that people collect in, including the crew. There is a big long wall that people will sit at during lunch or other points in the day and read, smoke or chat with their friends. After a week, we noticed that, often, the first place anyone will sit down is right next to the bronze statue of the woman reading a book. I thought it was funny to see is little Korean man sitting practically in the same position as the statue and reading. It happens all day long too, the entire wall, and everyone sits next to the bronze woman statue. Okay, you can go back to staring at the butt now.


Yesterday, Wayne, Mel and I went out in search of lunch. Right up the hill from the hotel we found an amazing Italian joint. It's super small, maybe 20 seats on the second floor. The kitchen is on the first floor and you walk up a super small spiral staircase to get to the seating. But it was excellent! I think we're going back there for dinner tonight. After that we walked down the hill to the shopping district pictured above. It's a huge maze of alleyways and tiny streets that are just packed with storefronts, selling mountains of crap. It's no wonder I love Asia.


Last night before the show, we walked across the street from the venue down an alley and found a traditional Korean "barbecue" house. And true to form, not a single person in the joint spoke a lick of English. But that didn't stop them from smiling at us and handing us a menu with pictures on it. We'd point at one thing, they'd shake their head and point at something else. Which we ordered because if they recommend it, it must be good. And it was great. As some of you may know, eating Korean style involves a lot of little plates and lots of kim chee, or pickled whatever. Kim chee is best know for it's pickled cabbage, but these people pickle everything. And then bring it out in a bunch of small dishes. The meat is tossed onto a conic pan sitting on top of a gas stove and it cooks right on the table, you simply take your chopsticks and pull meat off when it's cooked and grab what ever kim chee stuffs you like. The only thing you don't really share is the little metal bowl of purple rice (bottom of the picture) you sort of use that to catch all the little bits that fall off your chopsticks.


And finally, no Asia trip would be complete without a bowl of noodles. Next to the Korean barbecue place we ate at yesterday, is a small hole in the wall joint that just serves noodles. You've got 4 choices: Not spicy vegetable noodles, spicy vegetable noodles, spicy vegetable noodles with seafood, or spicy vegetable noodles with sausages. We had it for dinner two nights ago and we went back for lunch today. On both occasions I ordered the not spicy vegetable noodles which was still spicy. Mel ordered the spicy noodles on the first visit and spent as much time drinking water as he did soup. Spi-cee! The only thing I didn't like about the place is that everything came doused with nori, or seaweed flakes. yeeech. So when we went for lunch today, I asked the guy who didn't speak a word of English to not put nori on mine. I pointed at the nori in the picture on the menu and waved off a touchdown with my arms. He got the message and you can see above the result. Not spicy noodles without nori. Needless to say, Mel and I will be going back.

Food in Korea so far has been hit or miss. I love Asian inspired foods and while I'm here, I want to eat as much of the local foods as I can. However, I'm no Andrew Zimmern, and this is not an episode of Bizarre Foods. I'm not going to be eating beetles or eels anytime soon. I can't even stomach nori. But it just doesn't feel right to me to be in Korea and spend my time trying to search out American foods and restaurants. Granted, the Italian place and this German sausage house near the hotel have been great stops for after show foods. But I'm not like some of the folks on this tour who only eat what they recognize. They're missing out if you ask me.

More updates to come. I'm trying to remember to bring my camera everyday. Monday we are attempting to find a sporting clays course, an adventure I think I've been successful in sorting out. And on Wednesday of next week a bunch of us are going on the tour of the DMZ. We were trying to get on a tour into North Korea, but it looks like you have to apply for a permit 20 days before going. We just aren't here long enough. Damn.

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