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• Rob
• Chris

seoul2b DONE!

7 months (ish) 17 countries (kind of), and 28,306 Km’s spent driving, pushing, digging, sliding, spinning, skidding…avoiding donkeys, Iranian drivers, rabie’d dogs, bubonic plague infect little gofer things, camels, cows, bull’s, buffalos, giant eagles, headless chickens, pigs without swine flu and police in Kang,WonKee my 15 year old Hyundai Galloper bought for $1,500 and put on a ferry to Russia within 48hours of ownership…having sold Park, MinG my first car which turned out to be illegible for temporary exportation and later old to perhaps the stupidest Canadian I have ever meet.

So let me try and explain in roughly 1,000 words how Mafia mechanics, hitch-hiking sheep, Iranian prison cells became the daily diet of my way home to the you-K 2/3 accompanied by my buddy Rob.

It all started way back in the day when Pluto was a planet, the US Dollar was really really crap and Beef was a reason to push over a bus or 2. Me and my friend Robert Ian Scutcliffe, 6ft 4 and rather mean lookin decided that there was more to Korean than Cass and that there are numerous was off this calm but manic, sweet smelling yet stinky, polite and friendly yet bitter place, overwhelmingly trusting yet back stabbing and fear filled Republic…For me Korea was hilarious and a place I didn’t mind at all, Life was good and the living even better…but as fond of it as i am it is just a place among many others places in the world I am yet to not just see but to feel. For Rob well he’d had enough and didn’t like the fact that his boss was using a second account he told Rob to open up taking Robs bank book, card and pin number to ‘rest’ some money from the after school program that Rob earning men in suit untaxed Won.

So where were we oh yes…many jugs of Cass piss later’s we managed to form a master plan on toilet paper. On that toilet paper it said get a map…so we did…hanging outside our favourite bar ‘Family Mart’ with the sight of the world in front of us we were inspired to try the lemon cass …that didn’t turn out too good so we planned a route through as many places countries we had no idea how to pronounce.

At first we were going to do the journey without getting out of the car and only eating at our to be arranged sponsors MacDonald drive thru’s…later on we thought that this may not be the best idea and lucky too think back as the fist MacDonald’s we saw was in turkey. Some was west.

During this exciting time of planning Rob had to leave the country a bit sharpish and then later returned to sleep on my floor were he spent his days dedicated to building the website that we would use for the journey. I on the other hand waited out my contract at my beloved Gumjung middle school in Gunpo. In my lunch times I organised the many visa’s, car doc’s and playlist which we would need for the journey.

So WHY… Why do this trip at all and why not fly back or go somewhere nice… this question has been asked many times…and I can say me and rob never really had a reason why.. or just because …it was more like seeking the answer of How, how can we continue being the people we are….how can we get back to lives in the UK that we don’t really want and avoid dull pub chat of a most unpositive nature while being the possessors of widely accept passport and the privileged positive of being able to earn money in most places in the world… plus ‘WHY’, having been living in south Korea for a combined time of over 5 years ‘Why’ is a question we just didn’t understand any more.

So shilar shilar shilar…with much bitterness at the GUNPO car registration man who still to this day needs a slap…me Rob and seconded car Won Kee made it onto a ferry to a place that could quiet possible be the most opposite place on earth to images conscious happy happy joy joy cutesy Korea.

one little tip before I continue…if wanting to take a car to Vladivostok…don’t! Take the ferry to the Russian city below where you don’t have to wait for 4 days to get your car of the ferry having to pay the mean moody men of perhaps the most corrupt ferry port in the east.

I don’t know if you know much about Russian visa’s if you do then i don’t really need to relay the phrase I heard more times than days I was in the country ..’Russia…its differcult’…arriving 2 weeks late on our Russian visa’s due to the muppet at Gunpo city council car registration, and having acquired the local custom of bribe-rrrrry to get Won Kee off the ferry we had 7 days to drive through Siberia, one of the most desolate, cold and harsh places in the world…including the people. We soon understood that not only were myself and Rob a bit backwards in logical organisation but so was the route and timing of our journey…roads soon became an idea rather than a reality and what could be achieved in one day became the want not to live in a Russian prison…I’m not sure how many flat tires, interactions with the police and 360 spins we managed to achieve in the 6 days it took us to exit Russia but I do know the magnitude of what we were taking on went very well with vodka.

Already I’m at 959 words so I best sum up the 7months plus, 17 ish countries, $3000 plus repair problems with the car, split from Rob while Wonkee was in Turkey I was in Georgia and Rob + 1 were in Bulgaria…experience in the world’s largest Roma settlement, photographing IDP (refugee camps) settlements from the Russia Georgia conflict, Kosovo in general as a standalone experience upon hearing the everyday brutal truth of family and friends at war…and my favourite place out of the 17 countries, Iran…a truly unique country with a rich history stunning landscape…questionable but profitable political aims and all in all perhaps the safest and most friendliest place I will have the good fortune to go…so those very points shared and all that was inbetween with my steely determination to get Seoul2B to its rightful place having sold cloths, Ebay’ed Robs place in the car and posed as prince harry acquiring hitchhikers from many walks of life i’d say in so many words.

‘I’d love to do it all again…plus I didn’t get the runs once! How ace is that…happy days’

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalmost home

feeling excited and nervous to be close to englandshire…hope the car holds up and no other issues arise from getting the car into england are looked upon favorably…im a bit experience now as get from A to B but as me and Won Kee get to the west all kinds of things could stand in our way.

but hey, deal with it when it happens…that’s been a philosophy on a trip as long and winding as this…i say philosophy its almost the mantra and way of natural progression… [just hope it works in the un-natural world the west evolved in]

Kovsovo was a place i should let sink in for me to later talk about and Albanian history is another…Albania was a suprise i was exspecting a dodgy contrete jungle country with bad roads …as luck would have this things have change. the history shows that back in its day it was pretty much the te struture of north Korea maybe even worse, closed off from the world for 40 years.

i havent wrote a prober journal entry for awhile…i think ive been avoiding it, and can but it down to the idea that im getting none committal (if that is a word, im sure it is in the man dictionary) as i get close to the uk. I have the conflicting feelings that i dont want this journey to end but i do want to finish it…its been my life for 7 month so i think you may be able to understand where im coming from.

…anyway to less self aware issues i’d like to say even now as im 2 countries away that im having a bit of a reflection as i know im going to be busy when i get back…and can only think off all the people i need to thank,,,,,,,,,,,,so to all the people who have help to get this journey on its way for this i am happy to have the friends and family i have …old and new

seoul2b is almost in blighty!

in a poetic mood; letting the journey decide

…ive been a bit lazy in writing journal entries; and well im goin to be lazy again…but i thought i put a short text piece known as a poem i wrote all by myself instead;

i have my words and actions making my soul;
using the lives of the dead to sit in a crowed room
where time comforts me…hummmming the rhythm of words…
‘you where right’
there is no question of success here
when i can be an element of value;
in fire, earth, air and water maybe you can understand;
this is my face, these are my bones, see my teeth;
and know i am not alone.

- ‘the echo, i hope its working for you?’, 2009

Back on the road

Entering Europe with Kang Won Kee for the first time in a long while Seoul2B is back on the road.

In the time it took to get a second gear box repaired with parts being flown in from Korea to Kurdistan tough times rained down on the mental state of this thing called ‘Seoul2B.’ What is it? What does it stand for? and what does it mean to the two guys who created it?

All questions that were being asked when biting tongues and venting frustrations across the Internet at the 2/3 gearbox problem. Differing realities of what was achievable for 2 friends that worked together to get so far was the result from over 2 months of waiting for the gearbox to be fixed with Rob, Won Kee and I [Chris] in different countries from one another.

Money, love and the unknown were possible elements that made for Rob’s reasoning that it was the end of the road for him.

Fork in the road/Seoul2B season 2- (Entry from the seoul2b.com website)
March 10th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Rob and I couldn’t agree on ending our journey together largely out of practicalities resulting in a mutual look at what is best for us personally.

Often there comes a point where the practices take over from the idea … speaking for myself the idea and practicals for continuing are achievable.

In respect to Rob the idea and practicals are not a reality.
Having discussed with Rob we came to the conclusion to continue our journeys that suit our own personal aims.

I have chosen to wait with Won Kee going off emails from Turkey that tell me Won Kee is being repaired.

If that proves not to be so then i will attempt a border crossing with Won Kee into Georgia where they are more experienced with the kind of car Won Kee is.

I have a legal obligation to stay with the car and wish to resolve the legalities of our temporally exported car in more familiar surroundings.

If back in the UK with Won Kee I’m sure both Rob and I can find a suitable and fitting way to say ’annyeong kaseyo’ [Korean, goodbye] to our long time travelling buddy which has driven us to many amazing and a few not so great things.

Thanks for all the support we have received take care one and all and I hope to see you soon while keeping you updated on events.

Chris

To cut and run was not for me and legally not a good idea or so simple.

So what is Seoul2B for me now … in a literal sense its one guy driving back to the Britain from Kurdistan (east Turkey) where Won Kee and arguable Seoul2B broke down. Its the will of myself to do the right thing, to do what I said I would … to respect all those who have helped, supported, given up time, donated money for our charities and the charities themselves…and the reality for me that Seoul2B is achievable and the fact that Seoul2B is so close to being conclude makes me see no other reason to quit.

Currently I’m in Greece having pick up a varying mix of hitch-hikers from Kurdish Students to Canadian Backpackers. Rob’s departure had the knock on effect of doubling the cost and extending the time of the journey for what is humanely possible for one person to drive a day. So I’ve planned a route of money saving and minimum driving while remaining with the Seoul2B intention to seek out some adventure looking at how people live in not so recognised places.

Pending Won Kee’s forgiveness of being left alone in a foreign country on his own for over 2months and the strange noise’s coming from below the car the route will take me through Macedonia, perhaps perhaps Kosovo (without the car), Albania, Italy, France and Home hoping that Won Kee will hold together.

Picking Up Won Kee

Having gone a bit loopy after 3 day living on 2 buses from Georgia, where I had been setting down roots it would seem, with a part time job and a apartment, I made it back to the place where well, it all went wrong, Diyarbakir, East Turkey.

In the early morning I dragged my tired feet into the garage where Won Kee had been sat. In the garage with out speaking Turkish I answer many question from the curious mechanic’s about why there was a large rock and a workman’s hard hat on the back seat, a plaster on the windscreen and more than 2 licence plates.

Questions done and many cups of tea later I went for a test drive. Having had experience with similar repairs on that car I wasn’t so confident that all would be fine… and well as sure as I was was as sure as it turned out to be! … ‘Eh!’ I said to myself then looking at the mechanic in the passenger seat with a curious and puzzled look …

The electrics had died … the speed and rev gage where on 0 the memory of this happening in Uzbekistan and the subsequent police bribe to placed a speeding ticket for not knowing I was speeding came back to me…’ummm’ I muttered loudly point this problem out to the mechanic. Will I ever get out of Turkey? I thought to myself.

More than a little concerned but even more so a little bit tired than bothered I didn’t stress to much. Translated phone calls from Hyundai in Istanbul told me that the garage thought the car had always been like this….’Nooooo’ I replied with the blame later being put on the first garage which couldn’t fix Won Kee that resulted in Rob getting frustrated day after day trying to organise Won Kee to be towed to a new garage…long story short the next day I left…and left with a smile.

At the end of the old skill road and in the spirit of things I arrived from a 3 day drive through rain, snow and sun , from high in the mountains on winding windy roads. Won Kee and me made it to sea level at one time parking in an orchard by the black sea for a nights sleep.

Along the way I had been a school bus for 4 Kurdish students, a taxi for 2 Turkish Security men on their way into Ankara and a generally kind bloke picking up the odd hitch hiker breaking up 9 hours of driving one day, 7 the next and 5 the day after that…finally lucking upon Istanbul to enter Europe for the first time in awhile.

In Istanbul a truly beautiful city rich in all kinds of characters spinning their trade conversing in more languages that countries I have been too. I spent my time doing all that I could to get Seoul2B back in this great game … with funds low and money being the thing that could end all that was 2 Canadian backpackers up for a bit of adventure answered one of my notes claiming to be Prince Harry looking for loyal subjects to join him on his way back to see Granny.

Joel and Shaun from the Yukon, Canada all being good are joining me till Albania where they will head north into eastern Europe as I catch a ferry into western Europe … happy days.

There is still a long way to go but all in all things might just work out.

moustaches

…back into Turkey i was happy to be on the move but stll not confident that picking up won kee and driving off would be that easy.

first arrving back into turkey on a night bus i kicked about for a few hours waiting for my next night bus…i’d gone a little insane with lack of sleep for 2 days looking out on sunshine and then blizzerd…ah crap what weather would it be for a solo drive.

i got to the garage where won kee had been for over 2 months, the garage people were curious to see me an through broken english and sign language i answered questions on the car as they pick up the variuos objects that where inside…a big stone appeared to be the main thing that baffled them, as i mimiced jacking up the car and sliding the stone undernealth all was clear…after this and opening every door fielding questions and 7 cups of tea i was able to have bit of a test drive… the gears where heavy and noises that hadnt been an issue before now ate away at my confident to drive on through to istanbul…the other side of the country…the bus driver on my last bus said it would take 20 hours driving, having not slept for 2night, hungry and curious myself why the speed and rev gage had just died i could see that there might never be a time for me to leave this place called Diyarbakir in the heart of Kurdistan.

blame that the garage we first left the car at had been place and a translator on the phone in istanbul said to be that they though it had always been like that…no, i replied…any way long story short i was put up for the night bu ufuk…feed and put to bed…at 7am the next day i had 4 cups of tea before i left the garage around 8ish…

it felt good to be back but my driving was shite and handling of won kee unforgiving…well i had all the time in the world to apoligies to won kee and listen to how he wanted to be driven..music on and the sun shining,,, with a big smile i made my way out of Diyarbakir….my confients grow as i past the place won kee’s reoccuring gear problems start which saw tough time for me and rob and his almost girlfriend at the time. all that behind, i was happy and free in away…caged by money and my ability to blag i began to listen to won kee…in coaching in netrual made harsh sounds,,, 4th to 5th made a hell of a crash but after what i think was 9hours of drving i drove through half o turkey!

the day left me content…it had been sunny, i became a school bus for 15mins ppicin gup some stundents on the way to school and then as you do in turkey sit down with old men an thier moustaches smoke and drink tea…maybe 20 or so of these fury men wanted their picture taken and for me to drink tea with them…little was said being that i have no clue how to speak kurdish or turkish…but as always i got the reaction of this is kurdistan not turkey that echos these parts…goobyes and a few hours later…more tea, i was having a break taken a few photos when a shepherd using the international jest of ‘do you want a cuppa with me and family’ made directed me to his house…cheese bread and 7 cups of tea later after photographing his and i think a few others family member, i pasted the sun shine and went on into the snowy mountains… havening not slet or spoken english for a while in the last few days i went a bit odd…and have contiuned in that way as i talk to won kee and think how to get my self home in one piece and maybe with enough money to buy a kinder egg when i get back!

Gamar Joba; an unintentional visitor

Georgia Today article - dyslexically written …I blame American English for the spelling mistakes, but the bad grammar well thats down to me not being at school the day they taught that…

I had no intention of heading to Georgia on my way back to the UK from a life in South Korea…but curiosity and fate had it this way.

I didn’t really know much about Georgia, I’ll re phase that, I had no idea what to expect from Georgia… is it Asia, is it Europe or is the Caucuses its own continent? I had no idea, but what I did know is what most people outside and far away from the country know.

In August last year Russia and its military forces came to visit. I’m guessing that’s why at the Turkey-Georgia boarder, I watched two border guards finger their way through every page of my passport…after they had already put every page under the UV light only for them to repeat the process radioing another border guard to come have a look, and then from what I saw, began pulling at the pages examining the bind and caressing my creases. My only guess is, they think I might have pages missing or it’s a fake, any way I held up the bus I was on with this curious British passport of mine. What kind of country would I be entering? I thought. A country with the realistic possibility of more conflict…what kind of country and what kind of state would this country, that I’m getting stamped into be in?

In the early morning I found myself in Tbilisi. A city of beauty, amplified by the rich feel of history, and the creative battle young Georgia has with ‘the self’, music, dance and art forming a new identity. Flags have changed and so have the need for sweet smelling revolutions.

Initially, I can’t help myself and talk politics, as that seems to be the stable diet of conversation; amidst khachapuri, khinkali, lobio, and my personal favorite Georgian wine.

What I can reflect is what I have heard from the people. There is a saying in the English language that ‘to really judge a man [or country if I can be so bold] is to see how he fall’s’. I’d like to take that saying away from Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili for now (TV footage shows he doesn’t fall well), and give it to the people who fell from the outcome of the August conflict.

A few weeks ago I visited the IDP settlements near the villages of Tseronvani, Kurvaleti and Gori. Listening to people who have lost their homes, family, and income, living in the shadow of men in high places and themselves in daily hardship, I felt the overriding sense of resilience. This resilience came through above anything else, least of all political talk when hearing how these people called IDP’s, came to be in the units they are now residing.

In the settlements I heard mixed opinions of blame, hardship and life. I was invited to visit the bombed house of Gia, a former villager of Tkviavi. In his windowless, cold, damp front room with no electricity, and cracks so wide I could put my finger in them, running down the walls of his old life, he got out a bottle of homemade wine, bread and cheese. We proceeded to toast the future and the ongoing nature of life for Georgians and unintentional Englishmen.

Also a few weeks ago, it was the one year anniversary of Badri Patarkatsishvili, Imedi TV owners, death. I had no idea he died in Briton. There are many things that I have no idea about involving Georgia and the UK…the singer Katie Melua, for instance who I believe lives in London, being Georgian.

I’ve recently found out that Katie Melua’s song writing partner wrote the theme song for the children’s TV show ‘The Wombles’, which I use to watch when I was a kid. ‘The Wombles’ are some kind of mole like, small, furry animals who talk and live in a park in London. And as the song went… ‘They made good use of the things that they found, things that everyday folk left behind’…in short; keen environmentalists. This leads me to a particularly negative element of life outside Tbilisi, which I hope will change.

On a marshutka, weaving through the stunningly amazing landscape of the mountains to Mestia, I witnessed general consent that, the bin for all the plastic waste which had accumulated on the 12hour journey, had its rightful place in the stunning natural beauty I had come to see. Plastic wrapper after plastic bottle was thrown out the window to my disbelief. “Oh well” I thought to myself, shaking my head, all in good time, things will change.

In my time observing contemporary Georgian culture, I have become fascinated with a TV show called ‘Cell Number 5’. Where, a singer who used to be masked is protesting against the president, stating that when the president leaves office he will release himself from his reality TV imprisonment.

This ex masked man reminded me of the masked main character from the movie ‘V of Vendetta’. The two men in question have similar undertones to their political aims.

There’s a line in the movie that says;

‘…artist use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up’

This quote seems to fit the contemporary Georgia I am visiting. Contemporary Georgia is for me a country that has a deep voice. Tbilisi appears to be the gut of that deep voice, while the backbone of identity lies in the mountains and village people of a farming nation…resilient, overwhelming hospitably and trusting. And no doubt a great place to intentionally or unintentionally visit.

Seoul2b season 2:

…bit of a messy time best kept short in terms of Rob leaving. I’m of the thinking that it can be put down to love, what has happened and what will happen. Robs in love with someone we meet because of this journey and I’m in love with the journey itself, and a car.

Enough said.

Cake

…today i ate cake

A letter to Richard Branson

Dear Sir Richard Branson

I’m thinking we have many similarities we are both men, we both eat and we have both taken a risk or 2.

I’d like to tell you about my latest risk if you would care to read on that would be greatly appreciated… I had a dream to get home a simple dream and an easy dream I’m almost there but i have run into a stop of bother, you see i started my journey home starting from south Korea where i lived and worked as an English teacher…no big thing but as this email is about similarities i should also mention I’m dyslexic and it was bit of a risk each day to not get found out but my desire to do the job to fund my journey home was greater than my English ability.

we had many troubles leaving Korea with our car and that was only the beginning of the fun <—another similarity of us both, fun over and beyond adventure…well i fear this email will take too much of your time and mine the Internet is an expensive thing when semi on the road with no money to repair your car or the finance to drive through Europe when that money is obtained…

so it is with luck, not so much a similarity of us both but an attribute that i hope this email finds you and inture you can have the similar thinking to me — wouldn’t it be an advance to all if i sponsored these guys

yours faithfully

Chris Barrett