Photos from the land of Mourning Calm

---

These are a few photos from my time in Korea. Having lived there for so long it's hard to write anything about the place shorter than a four volume book. It's such a land of contradictions and extremes. You love it and hate it, often swinging wildly between the two emotions several times in a day. I'll write something here once I get my notes into order, but I'll let my pics do the talking for now.

---

Photos

The most boring job in the world
This guy's job, if I guessed correctly, is to hold up a sign and stare off into space without moving a muscle, and in particular, ignore potential customers. He didn't even turn his head in the hour between when I first passed him and taking his photo. I checked his pulse and breath rate, both of which were normal for a person sitting for eight hours doing the work of a rock.

Rigid for organs
Koreans are good at finding a cause and doing something totally incomprehensible to support it. Immolation is one of the favorites because it gets you on TV and ends a no doubt pointless existance. These two ladies, clearly saner than many televised protestors, are trying to bring attention to the practice of live organ harvesting (a most worth cause), which is rampant in some parts of China and India, by doing nothing. They moved less than the guy holding up a sign, even after I told them my best jokes and tickled them under their chins, although I did detect a very slight shudder when I did my strip show routine.

A modern mum
The young chick in the centre is actually the mother of these two kids. Who knows? Maybe the end of the Era of the Ajuma is in sight!

School friends on a burial mound
It may seem normal to see two middle school kids sitting outside enjoying the weather, but the chances are that their friends are all in an internet cafe playing games and haven't been heard from for a week or more.

Pulkuksa Templa
The most famous temple in Korea is very nice, just like every other temple in Korea. This is one of the shots you get on postcards, labelled "summer" so that you don't confuse it with the other three of the same shot, because one of the unique aspects of Korea, as anyone will tell you, is that it has four seasons.

Buddha the headhunter
I swear that this fat smiling Buddha has a bunch of heads in that sack he's carrying. It may be far fetched, but no more unlikely than Buddha atually getting that fat on his legendary one bowl of rice a day.

Cutie pie
Korean kids. I could shoot them all day. But I only had my camera.

Another cute kid
We, expats in Korea, always wondered where on earth the rude, badly dressed, purmed and dyed ajumas come from. Surely not from here!

Ajumas at work
These spritely women climbing over the fence after a day of gardening in the park are all over 60! These chicks are tough. A million North Korean troops armed to the teeth don't particularly scare me, but 100,000 of these chicks could take Washington, burn it to the ground, and be back in time to cook dinner for hubby.

Oldie
She must be at least 90. I can't imagine what my face would look like if I went 90 years without smiling.

Kids
They are sooo cute. Where DO ajumas come from?

Korean beauty
Expats are always complaing about Korea, so why on earth do so many guys stay there for year on end?

Calligraphy
Every once in a while you will see someone that makes you say, "What wonderfully cultural place this is." It's rare and it's passing, but it's nice when it happens.

Old guy
This is what old orientals are supposed to look like. He was a nice guy to speak to as well, although I couldn't understand a word of his dialect.

Mask festival guy
I was expecting this sort of thing at the mask festival, although what really surprised me was that he was still smiling after taking the mask off. Festiva indeed!

Young lady?
Girls in Korea, like this one, become young ladies in dress and stature, but are really still middle school kids for ages after a leaving school. Charming, disarming, intruging, and often vexing.

Three ajumas smiling
It's rare to see ajumas smiling, and heartwarming to experience. When one spends so long bottling up a smile with a cemented on scowl, the smile really is beautiful to see when it escapes.

Lover wanted
Like many English signs in Korea, "Victory" on her brow and "Lover Wanted" on her cheek are somewhat incongruant, but seem no more unusual to a foreigner here than anything else you experiece from day to day.

What a dude
This guy was a dude. He was an official at some ceremony and intoxicatingly happy even before he started drinking. I had a big smile on my face after sharing a couple of sojus with him. (He insisted - what could I do?)

Mask dance
What you see at a mask festival.

Mother and child
I find few things as beautiful as a mother and child, especially in Korea where the bond is far stronger and more important than anywhere else I have been.

Comments

[tim]

great
very interesting, more stories please

[John]

Yeah c'mon Peter, just trawled through your stuff from beginning to end, and now the public demand more! lol

[pkeusgen]

Stories coming
Watch this space. A brief overview of my trip to Kyongju coming up. You may even get a mention!!

[Albert]

Great site
Hello Peter. I just checked your site. it is very professional and a lot of fun to read! Also the photo's are breathtaking! When you ever publish a book of your travels, I look forward to buying one. I'm the dutch guy who was on the 4 erhh 3 days komodo track. God bless en enjoy your travels

[pkeusgen]

Books are in the pipeline
Thanks Albert! Great to hear from you and sorry for taking so long for the Komodo blog. I've printed a book on Nepal, am waiting for the artwork to be completed on my Myanmar book, and am now in Laos finishing my Laos book. Dunno where I'll sell them, but will let you know! Cheers mate.

[anonymous]

not yet an update?
When do we get to see a new update? Its been a long time since we saw an update. I'm curious man! I hope you're doing fine there. So long pall.

[albert]

what, still no update!???
hello peter, how's life? i reckon that you're still travelling, but unfortunately we don't see any updates anymore. Please come with updates from your stories. About how you're doing, where you've been and what you've seen (with photo's). If you don't update, i reckon you found a wife and settled down, waiting for the first baby to arrive :) lol. Keep the faith, Albert