Hoods 2 - Itaewon, etc.

Bosco (white shirt, right, by tree) waiting to cross a street in Itaewon (streets don't really have names). If the hood is looking particularly westernized, that's because this is the international zone (a round-eye ghetto of sorts). It got a big face-lift right before the world cup, so it's currently clean and pleasant. But again, it's one of the zones of concentration so typical of Seoul. A place where foreigners can go and be the dirty, uncivilized maniacs they are outside the sight of everyday korean life. The area off to the left of the photo is commonly known as "hooker hill". top bottom
Bosco plants a big old snog on colenel sanders. The exact sort of behavior the Koreans are trying to isolate themselves from. This is probably a good time to talk about the evils of soju. Soju is a low-intensity sweet potato vodka. By "low intensity" I mean it's 25% alcohol. However, it can and is drunk quickly and contains big bang for the buck. Of course, there is "quality" soju. But I'm sure the people I saw power vomiting in the subways or falling flat on their faces in the streets were drinking the 1800 won a pint plugyournose and downitgoes variety. [W1800 = $1.50] If you work 16 hours a day, that doesn't leave you much time to get you're drinking in, so the working stiff gets to the point... Taste? I'd describe it as one part sake, one part moonshine. top bottom
Itaewon police station. Right at the bottom of Hooker Hill. What I find amazing is that all the art work and symbols for the Seoul police are done in this big-eyed cartoon style... If they're trying to be taken seriously as a fierce peace-keeping machine, then somebody's got a screw loose in the marketing department. Far cry from the actual dudes, who are pretty much no-nonsense rat bastards. top bottom
And if the cop shop in Itaewon wasn't fluffy enough, there's always the one in Insa-dong... Of course, Inda-dong, being the artsy-craftsy zone, gets it's own mural instead of the standard issue sign. top bottom
Chongno Tower. An exercise in crazy contemporary architecture. top bottom

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