after our dinner and dessert, our group (from space group) left for the metro station. we took another route, a different route than the one we came from. At this time, it was already nightfall and dark, street lamps lighting up the street
the street lead uphill in a T junction, where we turned into the narrow street. Audi and mercedes are more common here, for we are at a richer man's district. apparently the president lives nearby.
It was dark and moderate cloud cover, the half cresent moon faintly glowing beyond the clouds. the street winds gently left, obscuring whats in front of it. the asphalt road is flanked by 2 rows of houses similar to singaporean's terraces or semi-ds. Well the difference is that this is not a pure housing estate, it has mixed use typology. Also, all the houses are of different built styles as mentioned b4... High walls and gates surround certain homes. 2 cars drove by us in a hurry, and the street was empty, less the cicadas or crickets that has been crying non stop since morning.
The first sensation of getting lost was at a fork, where soungwook jokingly comments that he don't know where he is. We just followed him, a 45 degree right turn, and in 30 paces another junction breaking to the right. A suv attempts to turn towards our direction, climbing from a pretty steep slope.
We turned into the steep slope down hill. it winds rougly 45 degrees left, our paces widened but slowed, the street opens up as we decends as more of the sky is revealed. We seemed to be further from civilisation despite being in a housing estate, as we can barely hear the comforting rums of the civilian vehicles, it is eerily empty, something like my house estate in singapore.
Where at least singaporeans tend to watch tv after 8, koreans either sleep or are not back yet, i have no idea. cars park at one side of the street, at the slope. almost every where is one way here.
Then, the down slope we are walking ends at a T. the front is fenced up, creating a cliff like atmosphere as the altitude drops sharply. There are no houses in front as they have all sunk in. our view broadens and we see the roofs tops of many houses in front. there do not seem to have any order, the houses do not have any obvious arrangement, something i cant decipher straight away.
We are at a downwards facing slope, with houses littering the entire surface. barely 100 m infront and 10 storeys down is a minor road that we may have came from, but partially covered by trees. further beyond is a typical skyline of soeul, and the tripod building can be seen about a km away.
the edge of the T road is an old metal fence, leading great distances and places either left or right. there seems to be a few creepy staircases leading down the cliff, but not very enticing. We took the left, there seemed to be more cars parked, maybe it smells better this way.
Which leads me to the deja vu event, I immediately recalled a dream i had years back with this familiar scene. A
downwards facing slope, houses littering the entire surface. Streets empty, I'm lost. Every turn is another junction. every junction either leads uphill or down hill, or just runs terraced. In the dream, the one lane junctions formed a grid, some roads are big enough for cars, some are more like back lanes. Houses are old like the 60s to 70s, terraced, pitched roofs. There are barely any cars parked. There is no one. It is daylight, maybe morning.In the dream my destination was down hill to the left, which is exactly where we are heading to in reality. In reality, we saw an abandoned rusty car which adds even more to the atmosphere. Down along the cliff there were junctions leading up, similar to my dream event.
In my dream, I was lost, every street is the same. I managed to somehow proceed to a 'canal', which is locked by a gate. The gate is old metal, rusty, menacing, grilles with spikes above. It wasn't too large, but it seems to deters one from entering the 'canal'The canal is a wide 'dried up' concrete 'river'. It has puddles of water, mossy, damp, darker than daylight. the gate is underneath a huge bridge spanning across. There used to be water, but there isnt water now. the other side is roughly 50 metres away. massive concrete walls continues the canal, the ground is dirty concrete, wet. I had to cross it.I climbed the gate which was relatively easy to pass. The reason I crossed the gate was unknown to me even now. I seemed to be running away from something or somethings. I had to reach the other side of the canal where there is another gate.As i recall there seemed to be more than a gate each side, in fact there are 3 or 4 on either bank.Crossing the canal wasnt as important as the reason i crossed the gate. I turned back and saw something which frightens me, perhaps it was something chasing me after all. I cant remember.In a sec i crossed the canal. What happens at the gate on the other bank? I cant remember, but seemed important. Perhaps the difficulty was crossing the 2nd gate. Or maybe something was guarding the 2nd gate. The first gate seemed easy enough cross without any doubt. Shortly after, i woke up. or maybe i cant remember the events that followed. Or maybe it has to be fufilled by reality, now.So back to reality. We skirted along the cliff, and i was thinking we might lead to a canal or something, and my destiny could be fufilled. we eventually found our way ( i eventually found where i was, actually we were never lost, but took an alternative route)
In the end there was no canal.
I was looking for answers, marc suggested that perhaps the canal at yongdap is the canal to cross. Yong dap was different, as it was more river like than artificial, there were no gates, there were water.
Nevertheless we crossed the takashi castle stream stepping stone obstacle course. nothing happened. (
like the dream, crossing the canal wasnt a key part. the canal was just a setting, a place, an atmosphere. The reason i had to climb the gate to cross the canal remains unclear. And what happens at the other side?)as we walked up the stone steps to the jogging track, i searched around for answers, signs or clues. as we walked towards the chin up bars, a little girl screamed, which alerted me. she was with her family and shrieked in surprise at a little white dog.
The first sign, I thoughtI was thinking, maybe seemingly random noticable events form links to the next, which could answer me.
At the chin up bars, a pedestrian walked his dog up the hill. It looked like the present which we gave marc, flying dog, hence marc immediately commented on it. It was white, it formed the second clue.
which leads to the third, the shadows. We hanged our bags on the lowest chin up bar. the street lamp created a long shadow on the floor, which looked like a skinny tall man slinging a bag, shoulders slightly hunched, head down. My hair stood up. This is crazy
The shadows fortunately or unfortunately led to nothing. one reason perhaps was that these 3 clues are just something i made in my head due to all that mess. maybe this wasnt the canal as i created this canal setting my self. Most importantly, there was no gate and no reason to cross the gate. i even took a detour for the stepping stones across yongdap river.
Maybe the time where i have to cross the canal has not came yet...
2nd model... rationalising it
3rd model is too flat for his liking. Looks more horrible than this though in the inside
kinda fourth. almost changed concept. but hey its cool. 'dynamic space'
New camera, canon A720 IS powershot. so some random badly taken pics (cost 195000 won, around $220 sgd)
My Dormitory (3rd floor, and no lift. wtf)
