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| south korea |
| buddha's birthday |
| Buddha's Birthday was on May 26th, 2004. Three days earlier, on the 23rd, was the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul. Kate, Rachael, Allison and myself all made the trip down on Saturday to party it up in Seoul, before the festival and parade on Sunday night. |
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| The night started out innocently enough. After meeting up and taking care of the hotel in Yaksu, we headed to Itaewon for a few beers at a rooftop patio. Kate showed up a little bit later and the party commenced. The patio was nice, well at least it was nice being on a patio. There was a view of Itaewon's grungy old buildings and off in the distance you could see the mountains surrounding the city. Everyone was in a good mood. From the patio, we went to Outback for dinner and then to Helios bar to get things going. After some drunken meanderings and stopping to pet these very cute white bunnies being sold on the street, we headed up towards Hooker Hill and Polly's Kettle to wet our whistles even further. Below is one of the many fine establishments one can visit on hooker Hill, "Dream." |
| Kate, Rachael and Allison doin' it Korean style at Helios. |
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| The first Kettle was sexy! |
| But, by the second...and then the third and fourth, we were done! |
| Mmmmm...I love Kettles...mmmmm! |
| Some GI's were slutting it up with this poor Korean girl on the dance floor...typical Polly's. |
| Are you hungry? TRY Polly's Ramyun. It's Fucking gooD!! Only 3$ Tell to Bartender. |
| DON't take those pictures. If you do, I will Fuck U up. Polly. |
| This big guy on the left was sitting at Polly's by himself drinking Kettles on the rocks out of glasses. I thought I'd try and cheer him up. The MP's (bastards) showed up late in the night with the Korean Police to settle some sort of dispute that night. It's such a weird experience having these people in army fatigues police the bars. I wasn't too happy with them, they kept asking me not to take their picture. In my drunken stupor, I started yelling "What are you gonna do? You can't do anything." And they couldn't and I took half a roll. |
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| Kate had managed to pick up a few strange men in the bar. One of them had followed us out here and was trying his luck with Allison. Please notice Kate in the corner, she is tanked. I was making everyone wait while I snapped pics of the MP's to make them angry. Her other "lover" in the yellow shirt bought her a rose and then followed us, like a little doggy around Itaewon. He came with us to Gecko's Bar and was attempting to hide from the MP's checking for soldiers out past curfew. Kate had a big conversation with him over on one side of the bar, while Allison, Rachael and myself drank on the other side.We eventually had to all jump in a cab and race up the street, much to the confusion and dismay of our cab driver, to escape. That's when Kate showed us something, something none of us were expecting to see. That's all I'll say.. |
| "Young man, do you know it's past your bedtime?" |
| -- "I'm sorry ossifer, I must've lost track of the time." -- "Poh-toes opsoyo!" |
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| After, a long crappy sleep, we woke up early in the afternoon on Sunday and went to Insa-dong to find out what was happening for the Festival. |
| An artist painting a portrait. |
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| Hangeul tree root covers down Insadonggil. |
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| Some crazy ajeoshi playing the accordion. |
| It was incredibly hot that day and these performers were covered from head to toe. |
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| We made our way to Tapgol Park and found people preparing for the parade that evening. Tapgol Park was filled with colorful lanterns. Attatched to each lantern is a prayer to Buddha expressing peoples unfulfilled hopes. There were also ajummahs making 'lotus-flower' lanterns at a stand. On the left is a picture of Rachael, right before she is about to wash a boy Buddha statue three times. For doing this, we all recieved our own lanterns ad a little bit of good karma. |
| Tapgol Park - Prayers to Buddha blowing in the wind. |
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| The Lotus Lantern Parade |
| We found a nice uncomfortable spot on the street as the sun was setting. Unfortunately, the crowd pushed out front to the right of where we were sitting and I could only get photos of the parade straight on or from the back as it passed. Some of the floats were amazing, very intricate designs in coloured paper. It went on for almost three hours, in fact, we had to leave before it was finished to get back to Gangneung in time for work the next morning. |
| First, the Buddhist monks. |
| Then ajummahs in hanboks. |
| Many white elephants. |
| Very realistic dragons that were breathing fire and smoke. |
| A bell and temple. |
| Ancient warriors. |
| The Next Day |