On The Wings Of Korean Love
Sarah says:
We have been taken under the wing of the entire country of Korea. It’s not just the Love Motels that have kept ‘On the Wings of Love’ painfully stuck in my head for the past three weeks. Now, I know that everyone always says about the places they travel to, ‘Oh, the people were so nice.’ Heck, tourists have even been known to say that about New Yorkers, maybe to the chagrin of the New Yorkers? Or is that just me buying into the NY image myself. In any case, Koreans take the cake, or more appropriately, the kimchi.
Lonely Planet comments that the Koreans are the most kind and generous people and it has been our pleasure, and wonder actually, to experience this generousity to a somewhat bizarre extreme.
We began noticing immediately that our new hosts tended to take the kind gesture to new levels. For instance, when we inquired about a place for dinner from our hotel manager on our first night in Seoul, she not only recommened a place but walked us there, placed our order for us to the non-English speaking staff and virtually tucked us into our table and made sure we had everything we needed before leaving us on our own. If we could have hired her as our official restaurant translator for the duration of our touring we would have as, just as we expected, most restaurants have no English menus or even food pictures. However, no need to survive purely on 7-11 seaweed wrapped rice three times a day for these travelers! We have met plenty restaurant staff more than willing to flick through the bilingual food section of our Lonely Planet to point out which of the dishes listed they serve.
Busy commuters in the subway not only stop and offer to help us but often accompany us to ticket counters and translate for us. While waiting at a bus stop, a cute old couple shared their cookies with us and while standing in a crowded metro train car, another elderly woman kindly patted the empty seat next to her in the ‘Reserved for the Pregnant and Elderly’ section, inviting me to sit down.
Seattle is very much a tourist destination and our tourists may be experiencing the kind of language barrier we’re experiencing here and would surely appreciate a random act of kindness from a local. But in my oh-so-busy day to day life, I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t always offer help to couples agonizing over street maps and I certainly don’t share my cookies with tourists at bus stops. These few examples may, indeed, offer Koreans as viable candidates for the honor of nicest citizens but an interesting blog entry they don’t necessarily make.
We aim to entertain here folks so watch as I up the anty a bit. An innocent trip to a Baskin & Robbins took the generosity thing to a whole new level. Firstly, I should note that we have seen very few westerners outside of Seoul and despite their TV having CSI Miami and Law & Order, we have been gawked at like aliens in nearly every town we’ve visited. Mothers will urge toddlers to wave to us, hoards of field-tripping middle school kids will yell ‘Hello’ to us and then giggle hysterically when we respond. And even adults will plant themselves in our path to say hello. I’m beginning to wonder if they think we actually star in CSI Miami. So we may have been a bit embarrassed but not altogether surprised when, as we entered the B&R, all the patrons turned to stare, adolescent girls covered their mouths and whispered to each other and braver pre-pubescent boys practiced their Hellos to see if they would work. On our way to order, we passed a table of 3-4 couples, perhaps in their early fifties, about to finish off an evening out together with ice cream cones. Before David and I knew it, one from the group, a quite handsome distinguished looking gentlemen had come over, was shaking David’s hand and was welcoming us to Korea. He then insisted on giving us an ice cream cone, a lovely huge waffle cone filled with scoops of B&R’s best. I tried to politely refuse but it was clear that the polite response, the only acceptable response was to accept the ice cream cone with a ‘Kunsamida’. The man was then so happy that we had said Thank You in Korean that he gave David a great big hug. Then his wife and their friends all cheered, everyone cheered, and David and I went to a nearby table to enjoy our waffle cone. It doesn’t take a lot to do something nice for someone else and maybe, I dunno, maybe the next time you see two backpackers outside an ice cream shop counting their pennies, maybe you’ll buy them an ice cream and make their day, too. This next story, however, still has us perplexed.
One fine day, David and I took a city walking tour that led us through alleyways and up hillsides to a lovely and remote temple high above the city from where we enjoyed the splendid views…..of a storm coming in. Before we could scurry ourselves back down this hill, the heavens opened. We hopped from tree to tree for protection but eventually ran out of trees and were huddled underneath a Buddhist gate that was barely keeping us dry when, just as Mr. Big always greets Carrie, a beautiful shiny lovely black sedan pulled up along side us and a rear window lowered. Another handsome, older gentlemen in the driver’s seat offered us a ride down the hill and without hesitation we accepted. I felt positively sloppy and dirty in this man’s car, it’s been a long time now since we’ve ridden in such finery. During the drive down the hill towards the metro station below, he apologized for not speaking English and we apologized for not speaking Korean. He stopped to let us out, we thanked him with the only Korean word we know. Only this time, instead of earning us a hug, the man handed David $10. David, a bit shocked and confused, tried to refuse, of course, but just like a grandfather, he shoved the money into David’s hand with a kind of, ‘don’t be silly, boy, just take the money’ expression. We were flabbergasted. We ran for the shelter of the train station, watched the man drive away and stood for several minutes contemplating what had just happened. It was a very bizarre feeling, as if we had just met an angel. Or a very nice and wealthy Korean grandfather.
I have just one final anecdote to share. It doesn’t contain an act of generosity, exactly, but it does contain love and cheer. There is a train that runs up and down the east coast of South Korea. It is called the Sunshine Train and it is painted in bright happy scenes of a sun and the ocean and happy birds. All the seats on the train face out to the ocean and the staff all dress up like giant chipmunks. It’s a regular service train, David and I simply needed to get from one town to another and found ourselves happy recipients of the Sunshine. You can’t help but feel happy as the televisions in each car telecast the next car’s passengers to you and you wave to each other.
We leave Korea today for China where we think we’ll meet up with our old friends barter, barge, spitt, shove, elbow, cheat and overcharge. However, Lonely Planet warned us that Never-Smile and Reserved Stoney-Face live in Korea and we never met either of them so we’ll have to just wait and see.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Sounds like Korea is a lovely country, with lovely people. Enjoying the posts now that y’all are back on the road again!