The Gwangyang Gambit

So Chuseok is here and it's a big deal here in Korea. With there being tons of travel and it being a long weekend, the plan was to spend a nice evening in Gwangyang with some friends. Not a hard task, not very daunting, or was it?

The plan: Take a taxi from Suncheon to Gwangyang and arrive at the String Bar for a pot luck dinner.

The outcome: Standing in the rain.

The story: Despite some pre-departure complications that delayed our departure, my friend Ali and I finally left Sidae at approximately 7:50pm. We headed over to the Kim's Mart to gather up some goodies for the pot luck dinner. As we were leaving we ran into anther friend, Mike and invited him to join us. All was good. A little behind schedule perhaps, but still good.

A Lovely Night with a Shooting Moon

So we catch a taxi and give him the onl directions we have: Gwangyang - Jungma dong - String Bar. The taxi driver nodded profusely and said something that sounded positive. So we were off.

It turns out that the driver has no idea where the String Bar is once we are in Gwangyang. He takes us to the Jungma-dong district, tries to find out where the bar is from some taxi drivers from Gwangyang to no avail. So we decide to simply get out and wander on our own.

After wandering the four square block area where we were dropped off, which had numerous bars, we were left with nothing. We tried asking a few people but they didn't seem to know of the String Bar. Just as we were about to ask the taxi drivers lined up along street, a couple of young guys say hello to us in English.

Why not ask them?

So I do. They talk a bit in Korean, and then tell us to come with them. They take us to a parked SUV, in which is two other guys. The two that we were talking with tell the guys in the SUV to get out, and for us to get in. The driver takes us to a different area of town about a two minute drive away up the main drag and starts going down some side streets. A couple of cell phone calls later, we stop in front of a place that he says is the String Bar but it's closed. So he takes us back to where he picked us up and recommended a bar for us before leaving.

The three of us look at the bar, at the bag of food we've been carting around this whole time and decide that the Mini-stop patio is good enough for us. So we retire to the corner store, a few beers and our own pot luck dinner on the street corner.

The Gwanyang Night Life

Us Enjoying the Night Life

After a few beers, it starts to rain, leading us back to Suncheon.

The Gwanyang Gambit was a failure, but not markedly so, as beer, food and friends help to salvage any situation.

***

This story leads me to another story involving a night out and the kindness and generosity of Koreans.

A couple of weeks ago a few of us are wandering around looking for the Elvis Bar. With incorrect directions we are left with few options and no cell phone. We find a family outside a restaurant and ask if we can use their cell phone (I have yet to see a Korean without a cell phone - in fact it's hard to walk a block anywhere around here without having the opportunity to buy a cell phone). He lets us call, but when we can't get proper directions he takes over the phone and starts speaking Korean with someone. He's having a great time, his family seems to be enjoying the whole situation as well. He flags down a taxi for us, tells the taxi driver how to get to the Elvis Bar and the night is saved.

All thanks to the kindness and generosity of a Korean stranger.

I'm sensing a recurring pattern.