Road Trip! (Day Six ~ Gwangju)

My next stop was the Gwangju National Museum where I only briefly looked around since a lot stuff was closed down due to ongoing renovations. I suppose timing is everything. I decided to visit the National Cemetery next. After the uprising, the bodies of the slain protesters were transported by garbage truck and buried in disgrace at Mangwol-dong cemetery . Here they would remain until 1997 when their bodies were exhumed and they were given an honorable burial in what is now known as the May 18 National Cemetery. Upon entering the cemetery you can see a large statue which represents a pair of hands holding the seed of democracy.

As I walked through the gates, the cemetery staff asked me to wait. After a few minutes a university student came over to me and explained she was an English guide and that she would be showing me around the Cemetery. Actually she’s the one who explained the significance of the statue. First she brought me to a place where traditionally you are supposed to pay your respects to the dead with 3 small offerings of incense. So I paid my respects to the fallen and then we visited some of the graves. She also explained that the dead here were buried sequentially, in the order in which they recorded to have died.

This is the first victim of the massacre, Kim Kyeong Cheol

We visited a few other graves. One grave was a student who was shot as she was coming back from the hospital after having donated blood. After visiting the graves she brought me to the cemetery museum where we watched a brief documentary on the events surrounding the uprising and looked at some exhibits from that time including bullet casings and blood-stained rocks. There was also a section profiling the people in charge at the time of the massacre. Though many live in disgrace now, a lot of Koreans feel that the law failed to adequately punish them for what they did. After the museum I left the Cemetery and headed back into Gwangju. In the parking lot a Korean family saw me walking by and invited me to share food with them. In broken English the father asked me where I was from and how long I had lived in Korea. Then whether or not I could speak the language. When I replied ‘hangulmal chogeum arayo’ they reverted to speaking Korean with me. There were two boys in high-school who spoke a little with me at their fathers request but were generally shy. I told them I understood that it’s their vacation and they didn’t have to worry about it. A lot of kids over here study English in School and after school as well so getting extra practice in when they’re on vacation with their family isn’t really a high priority. We took some photos together, some on their camera and some on mine, then I left them to their vacation.

I left the Cemetery and starting looking for a motorcycle shop. It has already been close to 500 kilometers since Taean
and that means it’s time for an oil change. I found a spot close to the bus terminal. I left my motorcycle with the shop owner and went looking for a PC bang. This would be a good chance to charge my cell phone and camera batteries. As I was looking around it started to rain. First just a few drops, but I could tell this would be big. Sure enough it poured and poured and poured. I had to buy an umbrella in the first convenience store I could find and then luckily I found a PC bang almost immediately after. Nothing amazing happened here, I just emailed my girlfriend and family to let them know the trip was going well. After that I was researching different places I could visit in Korea. In particular I checked out Wolchusan National Park and Jindo Island, my next two stops. By the time the rain stopped it was too late and too wet to do any more sight seeing.

So I went back to the bus terminal. It’s a really convenient location. There’s a department store and Movie theatre joined to it. After some shopping I went to CGV to catch a movie. The only English options were Harry Potter and Transformers. I had already seen Harry Potter and there was no way in hell I was watching Transformers. That a movie could be so bad and still make so much money is surely a sign that the apocalypse is approaching. Instead I watched the Korean horror/comedy ‘jaw’ about a giant killer warthog. Most of the language was well over my head but the physical humor and jumpy scenes were all pretty good. Especially the crazy woman in black, I think she stole every scene she was in. Once the movie was over I went to a nearby jimjjilbang to get some rest. Tomorrow I’ll be travelling to Wolchusan national park.