Ton van Zutphen on a discovery trip to Korea in Dec.15/Jan.16

Ton van Zutphen on a discovery trip to Korea in Dec.15/Jan.16

After Spain, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Turkey and Greece….this was the sixth trip with my girlfriend Biya….now to her country.  Korea remains exotic, inspiring, surprising, and absolutely beautiful with its people and scenery. We went to Jeju island and all around Seoul, the capital city, a huge area where 10 million people live. It is dotted with mountains/hills to walk in. As it was the Christmas season there were lights everywhere and the Cathedral and the older churches (all built by French missionaries late 19^th century and of the same look as the Cathedral in Bangui! / see my blog on CAR) were full of believers and visitors. The small stream with its sidewalks, passing through Seoul’s city center was delicately decorated and a busy place to be. Crisp air and cleanliness all over. Joy to the world…..

Korea…South Korea obviously, entered into my brains and stomach for the first time in 1994 when I had a taste of delicious, exotic Korean food in the famous restaurant ‘Arirang’ in Dhaka, Bangladesh ( I still recall with gusto the spicy green mustard and raw fish). And ‘kimchi’, the traditional national side-dish, is always on the table in every Korean family. This fermented  cabbage dish with radish, garlic, red pepper and shrimp juice was stored traditionally underground in jars to remain unfrozen during winter. It helped generations of Koreans to stay supplied with vitamin C and carotene. In my country we have the famous ‘Zuurkool=Sauerkraut’ made of white cabbage, and also pickled with vinegar and black pepper.  It used to be THE famous Dutch winter dish, accompanied by mashed potatoes and a large sausage smothered in fat gravy. Hmm…delicious the way my mother made it in the fifties. She even called me ‘Toontje Zuurkool’ when I finished my second or third helping J. Kimchi is the soul food of Korea…there is even a kimchi field museum that shows and documents 187 historic and current varieties…using cucumber, radish, ginger, scallion, garlic and so on. Per capita the Koreans eat 18kgs a year of this delicacy. And during the Vietnam war in which Korean soldiers participated in the thousands, the then President Park Chung-hee told his US colleague Lyndon B. Johnson that kimchi was vitally important for the morale of his Korean troops…so put it on the menu buddy!   In those days (around 1970), the American military just started to introduce their now infamous MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat)…and this must have been quite a shock for the Koreans!  Now read-up folks: Biya’s older sister in Seoul actually has a refrigerator, a large one that makes excellent kimchi. The various stages of fermentation of mainly cabbage and radish are regulated electronically and the fridge produces kimchi of different texture and tastes depending on type of vegetables used and fermentation time. So the family always has it fresh from its own production-line. Incredible but true. We in the Netherlands when a pic. is taken say…’cheese’…in Korea obviously one says ‘kimchi’!  Finally I prefer the kimchi that is still fresh and has been fermented only a few days/weeks. I guess my taste for the more ‘matured’ kimchi which is spicier and ‘hot’ has to be developed…and I trust that will come.

Interestingly the Dutch have created history in Korea. An accountant of the Dutch Mercantile Fleet (the infamous East India/VOC) Mr. Hendrick Hamel, based in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) was on a mission to Japan when his ship ‘De Sperwer’ crash landed in a storm on Jeju island in 1653. From the 64 shipmates only 34 survived and all were taken prisoner by the King. Coincidentally another Dutchman, also shipwrecked had been kept as a prisoner already for 26 years in Korea…name of Jan Jansz. Weltevree. The latter interpreted and it was clear there was no way back. According to the King it was the tradition in Korea not to allow foreigners depart that had arrived without permission. How different these days from those fleeing Syria!  This Dutch ‘colony’ of ragtag sailors had to live through many years of ups and down (work in the army, chop wood, beg, play the piper….) and finally Hendrick and 7 fellow Dutchmen fled the island in a small vessel after 13 years, and were able to reach Japan.  Hendrick wrote a book about his life in Korea which remained for over 200 years!!.. the very first,  detailed reference to Korea in Western Europe. Now, Koreans take pride that Hendrick has made their country known to the wider world. In Korea the word ‘Hamel’ stands for courage, perseverance and enterprise…words that also reflect the character of the Koreans themselves. The site where Hamel shipwrecked on Jeju island is a memorable one. An exact beautifully painted copy of the ship has been built sporting a museum on-board with the original ship’s journal. Next to the ship and close to Hamel’s statue is that of the second Dutchman that became an icon in Korea: Guus Hiddink, football trainer of the famous Korean-Eleven that made it to the semi-finals in the World Cup in 2002…and then lost against Germany.  And of course Guus is also ex-trainer of PSV Eindhoven, my football club in the Netherlands, of which my uncle Martien van Zutphen has been the President for many years in the seventies. I just joined the ‘Friends of Hamel Foundation’ in Hendrick’s  birth town of Gorinchem in the Netherlands where his family house has been restored with funding from the Korean government as well, and was inaugurated by the Korean Ambassador in June 2015.  Thus, as a Dutchman in Korea, one is in good standing!!

Overlooking the bay with 'De Sperwer' 

Guus and Ton

Then my special friend Biya and I share the passion of walking…long walks, mountain walks, walking along coastlines, up the mountains…..through the forests, fields and meet the flowers in all their colors and fragrances, see the sun coming up and setting down over the valleys and waters. That is Jeju island for you! With a Mediterranean climate this island is walkable along the famous Olle Trail. Initiated by Biya’s best friend, ex-journalist Suh Myung-suk the Olle Trail connects hundreds of villages through lingering paths, offering the beauty of this island with splendid vistas of the seashores at every corner. 21 Trails with an average length of 12 kms. take you to the prettiest parts of the island.  We managed to do 6 of them and while on Jeju island I experienced many for me ‘exotic things’…like the day I learned how to suck crabs; always different sorts of seaweed for breakfast/lunch/dinner (although Biya reduced my food intake to two and a half meals per day L); everywhere the genuine smiles of the Koreans, windiness as in the Netherlands back home, cooked mackerel and many fish I never ate before,  shell fish I never knew existed, I saw women coming out of the sea after harvesting seaweed, drinking the light Korean liquor that goes with the meals, passing through tea plantations and praying together while visiting a replica of the Via Dolorosa at the  large Catholic retreat center on the island; then walking and smelling the markets and seeing all this really exotic food! I never had soooo many tangerines in my life than during those 5 days on this island. Wow…what a place! Myung-suk soon became my friend as well and as a walker herself, she had actually finished the Walk of the World a couple of years ago (www.4daagse.nl). So she is in my good books of course. The three of us, Biya, Myung-suk and me plan to walk the ‘4daagse’ in 2017 together!  Yes, while writing this now and memorizing bits of those days of beauty, passion and living life to the fullest, Jeju island is good for the body and mind.  Definitely to recommend.

Myung-suk, Anton, Biya

Finally a note on the famous pair of trousers I bought…

Firstly…’Youngone’ is a Korean company I saw producing quality sports clothing already in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1994….the CEO, accompanied by the COO and both good friends of Biya, invited us for lunch in perfectly arranged surroundings. Later, I had the opportunity to stock up on some high quality and professional sports and mountaineering apparel. Use it all the time now in Turkey (Ankara was minus 7 degrees C during the day all of last week in January). There is sort of a fusion dynamics going on in the clothing industry…and the Korean customer leads I believe: many people wear very good looking sports/leisure clothes during the day, except for going to the office of course. In particular water resistant trousers, with stretch belts and made out of wool and Gore-tex elements, with reinforced paddings around the knees…I found a pretty good looking pair of Mouflon, Xtreme Trail trousers, flashy green colored zips with inside Burberry look finishing’s….for 9 USD (10.000 Korean won) …in a local market. In fact Biya as usual did the bargaining.  It cost me less than one buck to adjust the width in Turkey and …now wear them all the time. And my lady will buy me another pair…blue-ish one…..she promised.

KOREA is simply 2 thumbs up:  Um Ghi-Chuk !!!.       And this demanding boy is soon to return.