Slackers in Dongdaemoon


Courtney and I showed up at the Slackers' guesthouse around 11am. Orc came later to drive us around. From left to right are Marcus (bass), Vic (keyboard and vocals), Glen (trombone and vocals), Orc, Dave (sax), and Courtney. Jay (guitar) also came, but Ara (drums) didn't get up.


We took them to Dongdaemoon for a look at the real Korea.

And by real Korea of course I mean mannequins.

For breakfast we went to a street food tent. The women who ran these things were pretty aggressive about getting us to come in. The food here was a little more "exotic" than I'm used to in Korea but the Slackers were brave and enjoyed it. We had pajun, which Dave termed, "tentacle pancake."



Vic got a big bag of cash to endorse Bodygay underwear.

The Slackers saw Chonggyechon. Considering how much it destroyed of the city, particularly the cool markets of Dongdaemoon, they thought it was kind of dumb.


When the Slackers saw this relatively small gate, they were blown away by it. I said we could take them to something much larger and we drew up plans to see Gyungbokgoong the next day, which were unfortunately cancelled.

Orc spotted another Korean skinhead.

Walking through the street markets. Jay bought a pair of bootleg shoes and messed up the bartering process by having all his money out in his hand. A mistake I never thought I'd see an American make.


We wandered by the pet market.

Jay told me he used to work at a pet store and he wasn't happy about how a lot of the animals were treated as disposable merchandise. Kind of like this market but not nearly as bad.



We did some clothes shopping but no purchases were made.

Up ahead is the grey market that Paul introduced me to years ago.

Dave admires a knockoff saxophone.

Orc is going to kill me if he sees this picture.

One of the old wrecks of Dongdaemoon. To me these sorts of places are far more a treasure than some stupid stream.


We stopped by this record store to see if there was any good Korean music. 95% of it was western stuff, but there were a couple shelves of lame looking '80s Korean stuff. Then my eyes adjusted and I realised the back wall was really a door into a much larger record store.

Thanks to Sidney's site, I knew the name of Shin Joonghyun, so I asked for him. The record store had the exact record seen through the link here, and we were allowed to give it a listen. It wasn't in the greatest quality, but the price? 600 000won, or about $600. Too rich for our blood. Vic found some records he loved.

We went out to look for the others.

I had time to try taking two pictures of Vic, one with his back to the sun and one facing it. To be honest, I think I prefer the first.

This picture below shows one of the sex stores in Dongdaemoon, so you have to click on it to see it. It's also in a larger size than regular photos so you can see the details.
DONGdaemoon

I'd never actually seen a Korean balance a tray on their head like this before.

On the way back to the van.

Orc uses this duck to soothe his temper when he's stuck in traffic.

Let's take a closer look at some of his tattoos.

This one was right between Hotel Couch and Hotel Captain Bootbois.

They needed some sleep before the show.

Driving through Gwanghwamoon. There's Yi Soonshin keeping an eye out for the Japanese navy.

And there's the riot police keeping an eye out for demonstrators. There were about ten buses in a row.



I saw this cute dog near the homestay.

Ara was up when we got back. I get the impression he's a fairly solitary person.

Jay tries on his new shoes.

Time to go to DGBD.

Please remember that these photos are all copyrighted to me. If you want to use them in any way, there's a 90 per cent chance I'll give you my permission, and be able to give you a copy with a higher DPI.
Copyright Jon Dunbar 2004

Photos taken by
Nikon CoolPix 4500
digital camera.