d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 14 (2005-08-09) / Day 15 (2005-08-10) / Day 16 (2005-08-11) 
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Day 15: 2005-08-10 (Wednesday)
I wrote a short letter to Patrick trying to explain the situation between us, with a view that maybe he might be willing to talk about whatever was on his mind. He appeared not to be concerned about anything. I realised that there was very little chance of meaningful activity between us, so I had to make a difficult decision to separate from Patrick. He was already leading me that way, suggesting that I find somewhere better to stay.
He put all my luggage in his car, drove me back to the subway and left me there. So there I was at 상인역 subway station, at 0730hrs with nowhere to go and a lot of heavy luggage. I tried to call my other Daegu friends, but they did not answer; I assumed it was too early and they were probably still sleeping. After thinking about my options for about 30 minutes, I got an idea. I made a call to one of my best Korean friends, Spike (이건웅: Lee Keon Woong) in Gwangju, and asked if I could come and visit him for a few days. I explained what had happened with Patrick, and that I wanted to return to Daegu on Friday to meet Cho Bo Young and my other friends. I was not due to arrive in Gwangju until 6 days later, so this was a sudden change of plans, and I had doubts about the chances of it being acceptable. To my immense relief, Spike said it was OK, so I went back to Dong-daegu station and tried to buy a ticket for a train to Gwangju. I was told that the train would be much more expensive because there is no direct train to Gwangju; I would have to go to Daejon and transfer to another train there. The ticket clerk suggested that I catch a bus instead. She directed me to the bus terminal and I bought a ticket on the next bus to Gwangju. It cost me only W15,900. I left Daegu at 1040hrs; 3 hours after being dumped by Patrick.
The bus trip was a very emotional process for me. In a similar way to what I had experienced on the plane over Taiwan, I suddenly got very teary when we passed a sign with Gwangju on it. I was a little distressed and in shock over what had happened with Patrick, and, in the other extreme, very happy and appreciative of Spike’s acceptance of my unexpected change of plan. I realised just how valuable Spike regarded our friendship, and this overwhelmed me a little. I sent a few messages to Spike telling him how I was feeling, and he replied with good words of comfort.
As the bus got nearer to Gwangju, my emotions began to get out of control. On the side of the highway, the kilometre markers displayed lower numbers, counting down the distance to our destination. The bus arrived at Gwangju at 1416. I got off and looked for Spike, but I could not see him, so I made my way to the waiting area. Spike called me about 5 minutes later to try to find out where I was. He could not understand my description, so he asked me to give the phone to anybody who could speak Korean. There were about four girls in the seats in front of me, so I motioned to one of them to speak on the phone. Spike was obviously able to determine my location from what she said, because he told me to stay there and he would be there in 5 minutes. I had been able to control myself up to this point, but the prospect of meeting Spike brought on the tears again. I had not seen him for nearly one year, and we had shared many good times in Australia together. The anticipation was just too much for me to handle; I was so excited, and also still amazed at Spike’s generous offer to help me. When Spike found me in the bus terminal, I was an emotional wreck. After a few minutes, I settled down. Spike introduced me to his friend Yun-Ho (정윤호: Jung Yun-Ho), who said he was thinking about coming to Australia later in 2005.
It was raining a little, and Spike did not have an umbrella, so he went to buy one. We crossed the 16-lane road outside the bus terminal by pedestrian subway, and got into a taxi. After about 10 minutes in the taxi, we got out and Yun-Ho and I followed Spike to his apartment. Spike lives in Un-nam, a residential area about 12km west of the CBD of Gwangju. It’s a forest of apartment buildings, a very common sight all over Korea, but this was my first time inside one of them. All the buildings look very similar, except for the three digit number on the sides – this is the major method of distinguishing one building from another. The buildings are numbered in groups, with buildings 101 to 105 first, then 201 to 206 and 301 to 307, etc. The groups do not have the same number of buildings each – Spike’s building is number 601; the ‘6’ series goes up to at least 616; the ‘8’ series to at least 818 and there’s even a ‘10’ and ‘11’ series. So, there are a lot of buildings in this area. Most are 18 or 20 storeys, with 4 or 6 apartments per storey. I do not know exactly how many there were in each series, or even how many series there were; there were just too many of them. Some of the series were difficult to find, for example, the ‘7’ series are tucked away at the far end of the ‘6’ series, and you have to look hard to see them.
The three of us shared Shin Ramyun for lunch together and then I talked about some of the things I had done on my trip so far. I also brought out some of the CDs I had brought with me. Yun-ho was particularly interested in this, because he had heard from Spike about my music, and was keen to know more. He was also very interested in the MP3 discs I had made. I gave both Spike and Yun-Ho a copy of my Fav Trax audio CD, and I let Yun-Ho borrow a few MP3 discs.
After we had been talking for a while, Spike said he had to go to university with Yun-Ho. I decided to have a rest, so Spike showed me his bedroom and said I could take a nap on the bed. He said he would be back at about 2200 hours, because he had to go to a tutoring session after university. He also told me that his brother would arrive home around 1900, and his father shortly after that.
Spike and Yun-Ho went together to Chosun University, where they both study, and I lay down for a rest.
At about 1930, I decided to go for a walk to find something to eat and also to have a look around the area. Spike’s brother was home at this time, so I wrote a short, simple note to this effect and showed it to him. He appeared not to understand, and seemed to indicate to me that there was nowhere to buy food within reasonable walking distance. So, I delayed for a while, but eventually I went out for a walk anyway. I told Spike’s brother that I would be gone for about 1 hour.
I walked briskly in an easterly direction, towards the CBD of Gwangju (although this was 12km away and I had no intention of walking all the way there). After a few minutes, I had made it past the ‘5’ and ‘4’ series of apartment buildings, and found myself surrounded by neon lights. These were obviously the local ‘shops’, but alas, no supermarkets or takeaway shops were visible. Just the ubiquitous PC bars and roadside stalls selling fresh vegetables and all kinds of other household wares.
Continuing to head east, I came to a crossroad intersection and decided to turn left. I followed this road for a few minutes to the construction site of a new freeway, where I resumed my easterly course. The road I was walking along got rather narrow, and there were a few restaurants along it, but I baulked about going into one alone with my lack of Korean language. I came to a ‘T’, so I turned right, hoping to find my way back to the main road again. Instead, this street came to a dead end, but there was evidence of previous pedestrian movement beyond the ending point, so I ventured further and found myself descending a bank of soft earth. At the bottom, I found a gravel road which ran parallel to a railway line, and I could see the main road not far beyond that. I noticed that both the main road and the railway crossed over a river just a little further east of where I was, so I walked along the gravel road in that direction. The road went along the railway line, and then down to another road which passed under the road and railway. There was a ramp from this road up to the main road, so I followed that onto the bridge. I had a good idea of where I was in relation to Un-nam, but I wasn’t sure how far away I was. I had been walking for about 30 minutes, and I turned to walk over the bridge at my full walking speed of about 125 steps per minute (8 minutes per 1,000 steps). The bridge was rather long, not because the river was wide, but because there was a lot of low-lying land on the other side.
I continued walking for a few minutes in an industrial area until I realised that I was not going to find any food in this direction soon. Aware of the time, and knowing that Spike was due home in about one hour, I decided to make my way back. I was opportunistic and took advantage of a rare break in the traffic to cross the 8-lane main road onto the other side. I decided to count the steps back to Spike’s apartment. At about 500 steps, I reached the eastern end of the bridge; it was about 600 steps later that I walked off the other end. I came to the intersection where I had left the main road just shy of 2,000 steps. Then it was a quick walk past the neon lights again in the 2,600s, arriving on Spike’s doorstep on the count of 3,012. I had been out for just over 1½ hours and Spike was not yet home, so his brother let me in. I met Spike’s father at this time, but we could only use gestures to welcome each other, as we did not know each others’ language much. I went back to Spike’s room to have a rest while I waited for him to come home.
Spike arrived about 30 minutes later and asked me what I had done while he was out. I explained about my walk and he said there are not many places to buy food near his home. He was surprised that I had walked so far away and not gotten lost.
I had a shower while Spike prepared something to eat. Then we talked about what we would do the next day. Spike said he had to go to university again, but he invited me to come with him if I wanted. I thought that was a good idea, so I agreed with his plan.
I went to sleep in Spike’s bed, while he slept on the living room floor with his brother.
Day 14 (2005-08-09) / Day 15 (2005-08-10) / Day 16 (2005-08-11)
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