Korean Adventure

I arrive at Incheon Airport around 10:30am and head out towards the arrival gate. I spot Hak who is dressed in all black boots, jeans, and a t shirt. He had gotten off work at 6am and has not slept a wink. It’s been 3 years since he’s left the states, but it seems like no time has passed. We step outside to have a cigarette and it is a sultry 100 degrees. We quickly catch up about the past, about women, about old friends, and about painting. My t shirt is damp after being outside for 10 minutes. We go to the bus line to buy tickets back to Seoul. He refuses my money when I reach for my wallet.

Hak with some of his paintings for an upcoming solo show

“You are in my country, I don’t want you to pay for anything.” This would be a reoccurring theme throughout the trip.

The bus ride takes about 45 minutes and we arrive in his neighborhood in the Gangam district near Bangbae 3 station. He helps me check into the Kandansky Hotel and we head over to one of his friend’s BBQ restaurant a few blocks away. His friend, S____, is warm and welcoming and he brings out huge slabs of pork and chicken, accompanied with side dishes and a spicy crab miso. S_____ asks if I want any beer, but I say no. I don’t want to pop my cherry too early because it is going to be a long day, especially with the oppressing heat.

Street scene near my hotel

“I’ve heard a lot about hostess bars in Korea.” (Hostess bars are popular throughout Asian countries among businessmen. Typically, you sit in a private room with your party and a Madame will bring in lineups of scantily clad girls. You then will choose a girl you want to sit with you and your group. The women serve you drinks and entertain you, typically singing karaoke and playing drinking games. Other services can be negotiated with the individual girls.)

“Oh yeah, they’re great!” S_____ says while giving me a thumbs up.

Hak looks a lot less interested, he doesn’t drink or partake in much nightlife, his only vice being tobacco.

“Maybe we can check one out tomorrow?”

S_____ shakes his head no. “My wife would kill me.” He replies looking a little forlorn. “We can grab dinner tomorrow though and drink soju.”

I had heard a lot about these hostess bars and was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be to quell my intrigue. When we finish lunch, I once again reach for my wallet to pay, but S_____ refuses both payment from me and Hak. “No, No” he says waving his finger and pushing my hand away. “It was my pleasure and my treat.” I tell him the next meal will be on me and he shakes my hand and pats me on the back. “Any friend of Hak is a friend of mine” he states heartily.

After lunch, we head over to the art supply store in downtown Gangam which houses a megamall 30 stories high. It is Saturday and the place is packed to the brim with locals eating, shopping, and enjoying the AC. Hak is covered in piercings and I am covered in tattoo so people’s eyes tend to linger on us. We peruse the art store and pick up supplies and take the bus back to Hak’s house. 

Skyward view of the megamall

Walking back to Hak's with art supplies

We drop off our canvases and supplies and he introduces me to his mom. I wave and say “Hi”. He later tells me that it is the first time a foreigner has entered his home and that the proper way to greet any older Korean person is by bowing. I am a bit embarrassed, but he says that it is okay as I am not familiar with their customs. I ask him about the night’s itinerary and if we will be able to paint that night.

“I have to work later tonight, so we won’t be able to paint today.”

“Where do you work?”

“I bartend tonight from 6-3am in Itaewon. I think you will like it in Itaewon, it is more open and there are lots of tourists and bars and restaurants.”

We say goodbye to his mom and this time I make sure to bow. We grab a cab to Itaewon and we head over to Venue, the bar he works at. It is a little underground dive and smells of stale cigarettes and past mistakes. I feel right at home. It’s still about 45 minutes prior to opening so we hang out a bit and smoke some cigarettes.

“Sometimes I am worried that I will never make it as a painter.”

“I have those same worries.”

Hak sighs, “It is very hard here in my country. People don’t care about art and paintings.”

“I think you’ve already made it. Your paintings are good, no one else can paint like you and the most important thing is that you are still painting. Most people quit, most of the people we know from school have already stopped painting. We will make it big one day, we will make it and we will look back on these times and laugh” I say reassuring myself more than anything.

Other bar staff start trickling in and I go out to look around the neighborhood for a sketchpad. The streets are full of young hipsters, tourists, and American militarymen. The girls are pretty with nice features, they are all quite fashionable, thin, and incredibly pale. Hak tells me that about 80% of women here have had some sort of plastic surgery, typically on the eyes and nose.

I buy a sketchpad at a convenience store and head back to the bar. The bar is hosting a hip hop night and they have cleared all the stools from the bar except for one. Hak gestures to it and I take my seat. Dancers and patrons have already started trickling in and the tiny dance floor begins to get packed.

 Dream Team, some hip hop babes from the bar

“Do you want a beer?” Hak asks.

“Sure” I say handing him my credit card.

“Put that away.”

He hands me a Heineken and I take a deep heavy pull. I watch the crowd mingle and the dancers take turns showing off their skills. I start in on my sketchpad and go through three beers very quickly and move on to whiskey. I start feeling loose and start a sketch of the bar and dancers. I finish my drink and order another. I move onto a sketch for tomorrow’s painting. I finish my drink and order another. I get a little too confident and mess up a third drawing. I finish my drink and order another. My fourth drawing is a lot more deliberate.

Left: Drawing #2

Right:Drawing #4

A girl approaches me and introduces herself.

“Hello”

“Hi, my name is Daniel” giving her my hand.

She is Hak’s friend but it is so loud and so crowded that it is hard to understand anything. I feel a bit rude as I am still sitting on the stool and cannot stand up because there is no where to go. I feel

very much like getting back into my sketchpad even though she is cute. I just was not into it at that particular moment. We banter for a little while, but it is clearly not going well.

“It was nice to meet you, maybe we can grab dinner together while you are here.”

“Yes, that would be nice” I answer showing my teeth.

She smiles and waves to Hak and is gone.

I order one last whiskey and remind myself to not get too drunk because I still have to make the trek back to my hotel across the Han River. I tell Hak I am leaving and that I will catch him at his place tomorrow morning. Itaewon is crowded and rowdy on the balmy Saturday night. I hail the first cab out away from the craziness, through the streets, across the river, down through the avenue and turn into the little alley which sits the Kandansky Hotel. I head across the street to a random restaurant. I put a finger up signaling for a single guest and get seated.

One of the servers comes up and asks me something in Korean.

“Do you speak English?”

“No, Ni hui jian jong wen ma?” She asks surprisingly in Mandarin.

“Ni jien yi sa muh?”

“Niu roh tang.”

“Ok. And one Hite.”

She brings the beer and a small glass. I fill it and drain it, then pour myself a second and take my time. The beef soup comes out with rice and three small condiments. It is better than any Korean soup I’ve ever had in the States. I finish everything and finish the last of the beer and just sit for awhile listening to the din of glasses and silverware and foreign conversation. I do not feel lonely as I usually do when I am by myself in a new place. I go to the register to pay for my meal and smile at the lady and say thank you in Korean and she smiles back waving goodbye.

I walk back to to my hotel and go to my room. I clean myself and shave. I lay in bed with the AC blasting and call an ex girlfriend back in the states. I guess I was lonely.

“How is it?”

“Like a million degrees, jeans were a bad idea.”

“Do you mind picking me up some makeup? You can only buy it out there.”

“Sure if I get the time to, just email me what you want. We’re going to be painting all day tomorrow and I can’t make any promises.”

“Ok. When will you be back?”

“In about a week.”

“That’s a long time.”

“It’s not too bad, it’ll go by faster than you think.”

“I guess so.”

“Do you miss me?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got to get to bed, we’re gonna meet early tomorrow and I want to make sure I’m feeling well.”

“Ok, Daniel. Good night.”

“Good morning, I hope you have a good day.” (There is a 14 hour time difference between California and Korea)

I wake up the next morning and go down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. There are couples at every table, it seems that I am the only single person in the entire hotel. After breakfast I head out onto the Avenue and hail a cab. I show him the address to Hak’s house which I have scrawled on a piece of paper. I arrive and he opens the door for me, his eyes are heavy with sleep. I play with his dog whose name I forget but is the same dog as Lassie. His mom serves us sticky rice cakes and a thick soy bean drink which is not my favorite, but I finish it anyways. We smoke some cigarettes and head downstairs to his basement to our supplies and the purpose of my trip.

We set everything up and each take one of the larger canvasses.

“You ready?” I ask.

“Yes” he replies squinting throw the smoke curling up from the cigarette dangling on his lip.

We start and do not talk and do not plan, we just go with instinct as we have done before. We go through a single 3 hour session without a break until the paint is too heavy and wet and we are sticky with sweat and too tired to go forward. By the time we stop the sun is high overhead and the day reaches its boiling point. We step outside to get a breath. Hak orders a pizza on his phone.

“What happened to your last girlfriend?”

“We broke up 2 months ago,” he paused for a moment. “It just seems like I can’t make it past the 6 month mark.”

“Yeah, well I can definitely understand that, I’m pretty much in the same boat as relationships go. I mean it’s all good during the honeymoon phase, but once things start getting real, everything starts falling apart.”

“Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be with anyone else” he replies before taking a bite of pizza.

“Sometimes I think there’s just something wrong with me.”

Questionable fashion choices in Korea

We paint a bit longer after lunch but call it quits around 3. We’ve made pretty good progress and have started about half of the 5 canvasses we’ve planned on completing. We take the subway over to Myeongdong, a high end beauty and fashion district of Seoul. We are supposed to meet another art school friend over at a coffee shop. I order a cold brew and watch the crowd.

Streetview in Myeongdong

Art school nerds

M____ shows up and we walk around the neighborhood and check out little boutiques and stores. We decide on getting dinner at a seafood place which serves live baby octopus, which is something which I’ve wanted to try for a long time.

“Would you ever try dog meat?” M____ asks.

“Yes, I think I would try anything once.” (My mom has always said that if I were to ever eat dog meat, my own dogs would smell it on my person and they would never trust me again. I think this is just a superstition, but I’ve wanted to test its veracity.)

“My parents are going out to a special dinner tonight and own of the dishes is dog. If I had known you were coming sooner, we could have joined them.”

“Is it something they have often?”

“No, its very rare and only happens very occasionally.”

“Where do they live?”

“About 45 minutes north of Seoul. Next time when you are here, we will have to try some.”

“Would you ever try eating dog?” I ask Hak.

He shrugs and makes a face saying sure, why not.

The octopi arrive and they squirm feverishly like little worms on a plate. I struggle to pick them up with my chopstick and dip them writhing into the sesame oil sauce. The tentacles wiggle and stick to the inside of my mouth, I’ve never had to physically wrestle with something I’m trying to eat before. Overall paired with the soju and beer, I’m quite enjoying my meal. I get a text from my ex-girlfriend “You want to talk on the phone today?”

Walking to dinner #2 in Itaewon

We finish up the plate and talk more art and painting and about people who’ve started to gain fame and popularity from our school. We decide to walk off the meal and go back to Itaewon for another specialty dish, barbecued pork small intestines and pork belly. I don’t mind two dinner nights. “I can’t talk tonight, out to dinner with friends.” We get to the BBQ pork restaurant and order more beers, soju, and meat. There is a table of middle aged Korean men sitting next to us chattering away excitedly.

“Do you want to know what they are saying” M_____ asks gesturing to the table.

“Yeah.”

“They are talking about where to pick up younger women.” I look over and none of them are wearing wedding rings, although I do not know if that is traditional here in Korea. “They say the best place is at dancing lessons, like tango and waltz classes, because that way you get to meet them and touch them.”

“Wow, I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“Kind of creepy.”

“That or genius.”

Second dinner might be better than the first, but I am completely stuffed and barely able to walk. Hak takes us over to a bar where he knows the manager. “It’s a biker/tattoo bar”. And when we get there, every single patron and bartender is completely covered in tattoos. I order several white Russians and start to feel pretty good. Hak orders a coke and M_____ decides to go with the house special which is a long island.

“You’re playing a dangerous game” I warn him.

M_____ almost immediately gets very drunk and we head out to our final destination for the night which is a popular club up the street. It is very packed and most everyone is young.

“I’ll be your wingman tonight.” M_____ says.

“No man, your country, home court. I’ll be your wingman.”

We chat with some girls and joke around and mostly I feel bad for Hak who seems a bit bored.

“Daniel and Hak are very famous artists” M_____ says to a group of girls motioning towards us.

I don’t know if they believe his lies, but they smile and chatter and giggle amongst themselves. One of the girls takes a liking to me and we speak English for a bit and she asks to see my art. I show her my Instagram, but the white russians have crept up and the combination of the heat, drinks and two dinners are taking their toll. We chat a bit about traveling and what she’s studying in school (she couldn’t have been more than 20) and seems very much wanting for me to ask her out. I look at Hak and nod towards the door indicating that we should head home. I say goodbye to the girl and she gives me a hug and about 10 minutes later leaves me a message on Instagram.

We say goodbye to M______ and each take separate cabs back home. “I’ll see you in the morning” I tell Hak.  I wake up with a horrible hangover. Once again I head downstairs and all the same couples are sitting together eating breakfast and I am the only single person in the restaurant. After breakfast I take a cab over to Hak’s and we start painting pretty immediately. It is my last day in Seoul and the deadline looms.

We paint until we can’t paint anymore and then we paint some more. Hak’s mom makes us a cold noodle dish for lunch with two different types of kimchi. We take a break and walk back to my hotel so I can change and shower. I am having dinner with his family that night and I don’t want to look too haggard. We make the trek back to his house, check in on the paintings, and head to the kitchen and I meet Hak’s dad who greets me with a firm handshake and a broad smile. They do not speak English so Hak does a lot of translating. His mom has pulled out all the stops and there are over a dozen side dishes: cold noodles, spring roles, dried salty fish, rice cakes and on and on. Hak’s dad pours me beer after beer topped off with soju. He tells me to take my time and enjoy. His mom busies herself in the kitchen and doesn’t sit down for dinner until the boys are almost done. It is the best meal I’ve had in Korea and I thank her profusely after the meal. “My dad says that next time you come to Korea, you can stay in our home.” I smile and bow to them.

We walk down to the local coffee shop to use the wifi and reenergize for our final push. We are about 90% there and it’s mostly just touchups and varnishing left. We head back to the studio and paint until about 10:30 and wrap the paintings to be shipped to the US. As we clean and pack up, I tell Hak that I am taking a cab to the airport tomorrow morning and he says that he will pick me up and drive me there. We say goodbye and I walk back to the hotel.

I wake up the following Monday morning around 7am and head down to the restaurant, this time I am the only person in the restaurant. Hak meets me there and I head back upstairs to grab my luggage and his mom is waiting in the car out front. The streets are packed with early morning traffic and I thank God that they have picked me up this early because otherwise I would have been late for my flight or completely missed it. We take the freeway along the Han River and I enjoy the view and the banter between mother and son. They seems happy and I am thankful for my friend and for his graciousness and hosting me in his country. I am happy for the work we have done and friendship and for the life I am able to lead. We make plans for the future and I tell him that if we sell the paintings, we will set aside 50% of the proceeds so that we can buy Hak a plane ticket back to the US in 2017.

We arrive at the airport and I say goodbye to his mom and Hak walks me to into the airport. He walks me to security check and we hug and I thank him for everything. I make it to the plane completely exhausted and fall asleep the entire flight back to Taiwan.

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Currently there are 4 collaboration pieces for sale. 50% of proceeds will go to securing a plane ticket for Hak to come visit the US sometime in 2017. 

Purchase of a painting will include:

-An original, one of a kind signed collaboration painting

-Meet and greet with the Artist TBD

-An illustration from my sketchpad during my travels through Korea

-Self-satisfaction

Seoul Poppies 25.5x19.5 Mixed Media on Canvas 2016

The Girl from Itaewon 25.5x19.5 Mixed Media on Canvas 2016

Flowerhead 25.5x19.5 Mixed Media on Canvas 2016

Hiding Behind the Veil 39x31.5 Mixed Media on Canvas

Please make sure to not sleep on these paintings. Hak and I have sold every single collaboration piece we have ever made together. For all enquiries and pricing contact me at ddchen13@gmail.com Thank you for your continued support of my dreams and career!