Korea Journal Page Three Journal Page 1    Journal Page 2 Journal Page 3    Journal Page 4 Journal Page 5    Journal Page 6  This story is about the day Ivan and I decided to take a ferry ride along the coast near Busan.

"The Ferry Ride" The Yellow Sea is one bus ride and 16 subway stops from our apartment. One weekend we decided to go on the ferry for a tour of the coast. After purchasing our tickets we had about an hour to wait before the ferry departed which gave me plenty of time to watch other ferries come and go, bucking and sliding on the green swells. At one point in my life I was stupidly fearless of the ocean. I was cured of this one fine day on a lonely beach in Mexico when I found myself trapped between a series of giant cresting waves and sure that I was about to die. This is it, this is death, I'll never see my mother again...and only the miracle of a massive  rogue wave sweeping me into it's arms and depositing me onto the beach saved me from a watery grave. Ivan noticed that I had suddenly become quiet. I admitted to him that I was actually terrified to go on the cruise. He assured me that we were under no obligation to step a foot on the ferry; just because we had tickets didn't mean we had to go. I just couldn't decide if my intuition was telling me not to go or was I only feeling residual terror left over from the incident in Mexico. At the last minute I decided I could go. Although, upon embarking I immediately looked about to see where the lifejackets were stowed. Also, I started calculating how long it might take a rescue boat to find us should we capsize. On shore the day had felt warm. It was a different story out on the water. The wind seemed to wick every bit of heat from my body and I soon retreated to the enclosed area below where the waves crashed against the dirt and salt encrusted windows obscuring my view of the coastline...but, at least I was almost warm down there. Periodically Ivan would come bounding downstairs to see how I was doing. "Well," I said, "I'm doing better than that woman over there who has been barfing her brains out."  As for Ivan he was positively glowing with excitement and happiness. Finally, at long last, he was out on the ocean again! He couldn't get enough of the wind and the smell of the sea air while I huddled below praying for the cruise to be over. In my gross innocence I  thought the ferry would just toot along tra-la-la in  relatively safe and protected waters. It was with a sinking heart that I realized our ferry was becoming a plaything for bigger and bigger waves. What the hell were we doing? Heading to the open ocean and then on to China? I was n-o-t happy. And, I was powerless to change the situation. The other concern that was developing was the length of this ferry ride. Even accounting for the phenomena of time dragging when you aren't having fun, we should have turned around to go back a long time ago. Where were they taking us?

Eventually we entered into one of the many bays we'd passed.  We motored into the harbour past all kinds of ships, boats, and barges as we made our way towards a ferry terminal.  I asked Ivan, "Does this look like the terminal we left from?"  After examining the shoreline Ivan answered, "No, I don't think it is."  We hadn't noticed the ferry turning around or going down some canal but, we couldn't believe we were going to be dropped off at a terminal in the middle of what, for us, was nowhere!  As the ferry approached the unfamiliar terminal, we gazed at the buildings along the shore.  Where in the world were we anyways?!!  Once we docked everyone began leaving the ferry and, clearly, no one felt this was an unusual situation except for us. We had no choice but to file off with everyone else.   No question about it, this was the end of the line. This time there was no ramp from the ferry to the pier...everyone was just jumping over the gap.....everyone except for a frail elderly woman with a cane.  She could hardly walk and we wondered how she was going to jump over to the pier, which appeared to be rising and falling as the ferry rolled on the waves.  With no hesitation, two people on the ferry gently lifted her up to waiting arms on the pier and she was placed safely on dry land. Once we had disembarked ourselves we thought the best way to procede was to just follow our fellow travellers...since they were all confidently walking towards the city. Sure enough, after traversing a pedestrian overpass, most people went into a subway station.  It was easy for us to return to our end of the city from there.  Since Ivan has spent a lot of time sailing on the ocean, I asked him  if he had felt we were in danger at anytime during the tour. Even though I had been frightened, I fully expected him to say that we had been perfectly safe the entire way.  Instead he admitted that he had felt we were safe until we hit the more wild open water...at which point he happened to look into the wheelhouse and had heartily wished that the captain would put as much effort into steering the ferry as he was putting into checking his email!!  Yikes. This painting above is of apartment buildings in one of the bays we passed on the ferry tour. Each bay was full of new and massive apartment buildings which dominated the landscape. I just couldn't believe how many there were!! And, for some reason I found these the most shocking human-made structures I'd ever seen. My mouth fell open when I saw the first bay with it's tidal wave of apartment buildings and I was flabbergasted when each bay revealed a similar sight.  The buildings felt so aggressive and unnatural. One of our Korean friends, Park Hae Sool, saw all the sketches I'd done from the ferry of these apartment buildings and he said, "These buildings hurt the mountains".  Yes.  Korea Journal Page Three Journal Page 1    Journal Page 2 Journal Page 3    Journal Page 4 Journal Page 5    Journal Page 6