The Secret Map
Travel Essays by Simon Slater
Category: Korea
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The following images come from a trip to Korea from my current home of Japan. It represents a nostalgic retread to a familiar city, my previous home – Seoul. I met the young ladies who comprise the heart of the collection at a tourist site and asked if they’d like to walk a path less…
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Neo Seoul, South Korea. 2047. The immigrant massacre of 2045 sparked an uprising halted by a titanic explosion that cast a dark, toxic cloud over the capital. Nobody knew for sure who gave the order, though most had an idea. In the run up to the blast, rumours had been circulating that underground Samsung labs had been engineering military weaponry…
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Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul. We were engulfed by a sea of yellow jackets and riot shields, some marching, others running. Most were strategically cemented in formations. It was a national holiday, ‘Liberation Day’, which marked the freedom from Japanese occupation. The massive presence of authority hardly echoed the day’s sentiment. We were passing through when, in the blink…
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Through the yellowing rice paddies in the heartlands of South Korea lies Hahoe, a still-inhabited ancient village encircled by a snaking river and hidden by the surrounding mountains. Kept authentic by a UNESCO listing, Hahoe and the surrounding area is famous in Korea as the birthplace of the Maskdance Festival, where every year people flock to this tiny…
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You step off the bus to see a lone ajumma waiting as the only passenger for the next ride out of town. You cross the road to see four sets of fishing overalls hung up next to a convenience store with a muddy inflatable raft propped up covering all but the entrance. Your motel’s on…
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“Chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change. It’s growth, then decay, then transformation. It is fascinating, really” – Walter White, Breaking Bad These were the prophetic words spoken by a then-chemistry teacher Walter White to his students. It preceded his lung cancer diagnosis and subsequent leap…
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“Escape through travel works.” Alex Garland, The Beach. I’d grown tired of it. Tired of the jostle and hustle and those countless faceless bodies colliding with me from every direction. Weary of the endless streams of traffic filling any empty spaces of my lungs which the dirty Beijing breeze hadn’t already blown in. I’d dreamed of living in Seoul for…
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Dear Mom, I’m writing you this letter because i’m going to Jeju Island today but I didn’t get to see you before I left. Hopefully you find this letter tomorrow when I’m there. Maybe my friends can message their mom’s to let you know i’m here. I wish I could bring my smartphone but you have hidden it…
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“Nothing is static. Everything is evolving. Everything is falling apart.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club. The above statement was made by the character Tyler Durden in the novel and film Fight Club. Nothing is static. Certainly not in Seoul, a city whose internal cogs move so rapidly it seems there is no brake lever. This concept…
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“A city isn’t so unlike a person. They both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. They see many faces. They tear things down and make new again.” ― Rasmenia Massoud, Broken Abroad Quickly, quickly. That’s the Korean motto. Things move fast in Seoul. In a country that restructured a post-war economy with unrelenting…
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No sooner had the final Autumn leaves fallen to their fiery death, than Korea’s mountains were zipped up in their powder-white body bags. Winter maybe the harshest of seasons, yet a freshly-laid bright natural blanket offers further splendor to old spiritual areas such as Bongwonsa on Mount Ahn, It’s sad to think of how much Buddhist architecture was destroyed…
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Like stars, leaves express themselves to their fullest before death. Like the cherry blossoms of spring, Autumn in South Korea is a glorious sight to behold as nature burns with a bright orange, yellow and red flame before the raw, cold winds course through the peninsula. The sociable periods between the sauna heat of summer and the icy depths of winter can seem…
The Secret Map 