Seoulscapade

A quite moment at the graveside, complete with traffic jam up top.

It’s become the routine for Sunah and me, when celebrating Chosuk and the Chinese New Year, to begin the day at 4.30 am and to get home around 10 pm. This Chosuk was no different. We were out of the house by around 5.20 am, heading for the main street to hale a taxi. It was still dark. Other guys like me were walking around, dressed in suits, looking for taxis. We were lucky. A taxi fortuitously appeared as we were walking through the dark street of our local market place.

We got to the Express Bus Terminal in good time and were in our seats with 10 minutes to spare. It was wise to have booked seats some days earlier, as the bus was full. The bus pulled out of the terminal and headed past LG Xi, a massive apartment complex being built near Central City. All I could see out of the window were gray half-finished apartment blocks and cranes from one end to the other.

The morning was foggy in certain areas, and as we passed the wealthy Pundang area outside of Seoul, enormous apartment complexes loomed in the haze. I’m always impressed by the scale of apartment developments in Seoul. Already, in some areas, you can drive as if through valleys of concrete canyons; more and more, towering apartment blocks are becoming a feature of landscape wherever you go. It’s quite surreal.

Another thing impressed upon me at about this time was the traffic heading out of Seoul. We were relatively free of it in the bus lane, however, for everyone else, it was pretty much like peak hour all the way to Cheonan. This was an ominous sign, although I didn’t think it out of the ordinary at the time.

When we got to the brother’s family’s house around 7.30 am, the ancestral table with its spread of food was being organized. The ceremonial rituals began at 8 and were over soon after. We then had breakfast. By the time we left Cheonan, it was at around 9.20 am, just a touch later than usual. The trip took about the usual time, though, 2 hours, and we were entering the cemetery at Gumi, where the father is buried, around 11. 20 am.

One sight that unsettled me before this was a dog truck parked by trees and large bushes. It was in some town we passed through. Its rear was stacked with red steel cages, about three high, most of which housed a doomed dog. There were a variety of breeds. Three men stood over by bushes away from the truck, all with serious expressions, one or two smoking. I did not like the look of that scene at all. We passed on without my being able to get a better look that might have eased fears I had. But I thought about those dogs during the day, about how they would probably be dead before the day was out.

The crowd at the cemetery was the biggest anyone had seen in the 10 years they had been visiting. As we drove up the hill through the cemetery, it was bumper to bumper. This was another ominous sign. My wife reflected that, since the Chosuk break was extra long this year, more people had time to make the trip. That meant more people were probably out there on the roads this year.

It wasn’t too bad in terms of space at the graveside, as you can see in the photo, but the place wasn’t designed for the amount of cars turning up.

The grave visit and the ceremony and light picnic was all over by around midday. A dog could be heard incessantly barking throughout down by the entrance car park. It was locked in a shed or some enclosure, barking at the constant flow of people and cars going by on this one particular day.

The short half hour visit to the grave is the pivot about which the whole day turns, the main reason for almost a whole day of traveling. After the visit, it was just a matter of getting home.

We started for home in light traffic, stopping off at a rest stop to have a quick lunch. Usually, we would visit an aunt at this time; however, her sons are feuding and so we will not be visiting that aunt any more. After lunch we drove on at speed until about 2 pm. At that time, we hit the first traffic jam, even though we were out in the country. It was something like this news image, taken the same day:

It started a few kilometers from the expressway to Cheonan and it took us about half an hour to get clear of it. At one point, I noticed roadkill, perhaps from the night before, and, by the pile of meat and hair, it looked to have been a large dog. I couldn’t figure it out: this portion of the road had rail siding on the right, beyond which was a steep slope, and on the left was a high concrete road divider. It was a farming area, with buildings off in the distance, here and there. So, where did this dog come from and what was it doing on this practically inaccessible section of road? Another dog mystery to perplex me, but not the last on this day.

As far as the eye could see . . . taken from our van.

Once on the expressway, we could use the bus lane because the the van we were in was an eight-seater. Most of the going was at a good speed. We whizzed by all of the regular traffic, and I could only reflect what a nightmare it would be to be stuck in all of that. It just went of for kilometers after kilometers after kilometers. And this is still out in the country!

I don’t think people can grasp what the traffic is like in Korea during Chosuk until they have seen it or been in it. Today was a particularly bad day, as the earlier ominous signs had presaged. We hit another traffic jam outside of Cheonun, but fortunately, we weren’t stuck in it for long as we turned off rather than headed on to Seoul.

The above picture was taken at the turn off a few kilometers outside of Cheonan, which would have been about 100 kms or so from Seoul. Most of that traffic pictured was probably heading for Seoul, and I am not kidding when I say that it would have been like that all of the way. Their nightmare was far from over.

This was around 4.15 pm. We’d come about 160 kms from Gumi, and it had taken us nearly four hours, not including the stop for lunch. And this was only because we had been able to use the faster bus lane. Those who could not use the bus lane could probably add another two hours or more onto their journey. Wait until I tell you about the brother-in-law . . .

Back in Cheonan, we rested for a few hours before having dinner. Sunah’s sister arrived with her kids, but her husband, the brother-in-law, was still due. He’d been visiting relatives even further south than Gumi. He rang to say he was on the way after passing through Daegu. He’d left his relatives at around 2 pm and we estimated that he might arrive by 8 pm—a conservative estimate, as it turned out.

This is another news image taken on the same day. The right lane, obviously, is the one heading to Seoul.

My plan was Sunah and I would leave around 7 to catch the subway—I was definitely not taking the bus. On the bus, we could probably expect a three to four hour trip. On the subway, it’d be about an hour. Just after 6 we had dinner and relaxed until around 7. Before we left, the brother-in-law rang again. It’d been 2 hours since he last rang and in effect he hadn’t moved. He was still stuck in traffic in the same area he’d rung from 2 hours earlier! I felt so sorry for him.

It was a relief to get on the subway, but it was crowded, and this meant we had to stand all the way. We were in Seoul by around 9 pm and got off at what used to be called Garibong, near the clothing outlet district, or what is now called the Gasan Digital Complex station. It was good to get out and walk, when looking for a taxi, after standing for so long after a long day.

Here is where another dog incident occurred. We were up from the station and walking along a dimly lit sidewalk. With all of the clothes outlets closed, the area was pretty deserted. All of a sudden out of the dark appeared a sausage dog, running towards us, ducking in and out of nooks, and looking to and fro as he came. He had a harness on and obviously he’d lost his owner. What could we do? We couldn’t very well take him with us, and he wasn’t interest in us anyway. He kept running on, searching.

Sunah was upset by the sight, but I rationalized that the owner must be out looking for him somewhere in the area. However, I was also concerned by the dog’s plight. To better understand why, you need to understand that it is not uncommon for stray dogs in Seoul to end up on the dinner plate.

I reflected on this incident, as I often do when I see signs of distress around Seoul, that I can’t be the only one to witness such things. And if I am not, things like this are happening all over. But added to this is how the day had been punctuated by ill-fated incidents that concerned dogs, and similar things were perhaps happening all over as well. Also, on previous outings, I had often been pained by the lonely figure of a large dog, as I mentioned in an earlier post—chained near a dog box, in the same spot year after year, by that auntie’s place. What is it with these celebratory days and dogs in misery or distress?

We arrived home around 10 pm, as predicted. My wife called her brother’s house, and she was told that the brother-in-law had not arrived. He was still out there on the road stuck in traffic. I could only shake my head, but at least Chosuk was over for us for another year.

* * *

I’ve been writing all of this on the day after, but conditions out on the road are much the same. The shot below was taken today by a news services.

We rang the brother’s house again, and we learned that the brother-in-law had arrived there at 10.30 pm last night. Not surprisingly, he was exhausted and went straight to bed. He’d been on the road for around eight and a half hours and had covered just over 200 kms. We also learned that he and Sunah’s sister had left with their kids at 11.20 this morning—there was no way he wanted to face another traffic jam. However, they should have left a lot earlier.

My wife just rang them, but they are still on the road. After 3 hours, they’d only made it as far as Suwon, around 50 kms out of Cheonan. That means, at a guess, they are probably going to be on the road to Seoul, stuck in traffic, for another 3 hours.

I have no other word for it. It’s just madness.