Photo Journal: Gyeongju Part I

I arrived in Gyeongju on May 3, 2006, not certain what I would find. I took a late bus because I had been through a job interview earlier that afternoon. The bus journey was quite uneventful, except that it was a four hour ride with no bathroom. Naturally, I had to go, even though I had not had any liquid for hours. It would be a very Korean thing to do - take a four hour bus-ride without stopping - the Koreans are very stoic about suffering. Fortunately, two hours into the trip, we stopped at this waystation. You couldn’t miss this tourist kiosk, that’s for certain:

Tourist Kiosk 


When I arrived, I noticed the bus station was not terribly well-lit, and it was clearly a more interesting part of town. The characters one might expect to meet in such a place are the same no matter what part of the world you are in; at 10 p.m., things looked a bit dodgy. I scanned my map, and discovered I had gotten off at the wrong bus stop; there is the Express Bus Terminal and the Intercity Bus Terminal. I got off at the Intercity, but my map was for the other one. My Korean wasn’t up to “bus terminal” but the lady at the bread counter indicated that it was a LOOONG walk. The scale on my map was missing, so after calling a friend, I asked a taxi driver where my hotel (x marks the spot) and/or the other bus terminal was. He pointed vaguely in the opposite direction for the bus terminal, then peered at my map carefully, using the headlights for a light. He asked his colleagues, but no one could tell me where I needed to go. Korean streets don’t always have names.

Frustrated, I began stumbling to the “love motel” row behind the bus station. I grew increasingly uneasy as I wandered through this part of the city; it was very dark, and the “ladies” had already left their “calling cards” propped up on the steps of the motels. One particularly garish hotel caught my eye. “Oooh, over the top,” I thought absently, observing the plush velvet stairs decked with photos of the local delicacies. I passed it, crossed my fingers, and went down a side street. I found myself back where I started, at the Intercity terminal. Two university-aged students came and offered their assistance. I never got their names, but one of them had a crazy tie that clashed nicely with his rock t-shirt. The other one zigzagged ahead down the street, leaving us in his dust. Suddenly he shouted, “Yo gi oh” (over there!). It was the “over the top” love motel with the stairs. If I had just looked up and read the Korean sign, I would have known that. So much for problem-solving.

With much smiling and bowing, the boys left me (probably wondering about my reputation!) on the steps of my love palace. The staff turned out to be very pleasant, and actually remembered my reservation – a rarity in Korea, as Koreans never plan ahead. The room was small, but well-appointed, with a large screen t.v., a wide bed, and “his ‘n hers” hangers. There were at least three boxes of Kleenex “for clean-up” in the amenities, “special” lotion, bottled water in the fridge, but alas, no condoms. When I flipped the light switch, the room was bathed in a glow of blacklight! After some fumbling around, I discovered the actual light switch!

There was one “Korean porn” channel, and, in my ever increasing interest in sex ed. in Korea, I decided to take time to see what it was about. Korean “porn” is actually quite tame compared to cable t.v. fare. Let’s just say if any of my students came across it, they would still be quite mystified as to “where babies come from.” This has a lot to do with censorship in Korea – T and A, but no frontal nudity below the waist. Actually, I’m not sure how anyone can get their jollies off this stuff as the “performers” are not remotely attractive even by Asian standards, and the videos are shot at peculiar angles. I flipped across a “shower scene” where the camera spent quite a bit of time on the lady’s legs; this would have been fine, except her legs were blotchy and scarred. Even so, the cameraman used as sexy an angle as he could. The women also tended to be a bit on the plump side, and, as I have mentioned before, overweight Korean women have CELLULITE. The men were exceptionally skinny, a fault which usually gets a man ribbed and ridiculed by his mates. A bigger and more cushioned body type is preferred by the ladies.

But maybe that was the point, a common man gets a woman, any woman. In many of the scenes, said woman was intoxicated to the point of compliance. Korean men are very shy unless intoxicated, what does this say about the women? As Westerners, we are horrified by the thought of a woman being taken advantage of in this fashion; American women are prone to cry “Rape!” at the least provocation. This is not a bad thing by any means, but it puts men in a certain position of powerlessness. Generally speaking, Koreans are introverts, and not prone to make waves; their powerlessness lies in their inability to communicate what they are REALLY feeling. It is only when the defences are down “after hours” that deals are made and broken between Korean business men. Maybe the same can be said about sexual relations.