We find ourselves in downtown Seoul - a bit like immersion therapy before returning to LAX and our lives. Neon lights, big screen TV's, music thumping, ice cream, Starbucks and department stores. Much like being screamed at rather than spoken to.
It's an interesting contrast. Seoul is modern, the roads paved and well-marked, buildings rise tall and straight. The landscape is well-tended, green and manicured. It's layout is thoughtful. Whereas Petropavlovsk, the urban center of Kamchatka, is hap-hazard and confusing. Ugly concrete apartment buildings abound in varying shades of blue, brown and gray back-lit against aging Volcanos. Bags of trash, old tires and plastic bottles collect by the side of the road. Even potholes are ignored. Their increasing size causes traffic to swerve into the opposing lane. But of the two, I prefer Russia's Far East - its complex simplicity, its people and even its blemishes.
It was extremely sad to leave Yelizovo, our home base for the last 27 days. If I could have stayed in Kamchatka I would have been okay, but here in Seoul, I am anxious to return home and get to work on articles and photographs from the last month. We left with the promise to return and even the promise to collaborate with the people we met to help build a low-impact and sustainable backcountry ski tour industry on Kamchatka.
It's an interesting contrast. Seoul is modern, the roads paved and well-marked, buildings rise tall and straight. The landscape is well-tended, green and manicured. It's layout is thoughtful. Whereas Petropavlovsk, the urban center of Kamchatka, is hap-hazard and confusing. Ugly concrete apartment buildings abound in varying shades of blue, brown and gray back-lit against aging Volcanos. Bags of trash, old tires and plastic bottles collect by the side of the road. Even potholes are ignored. Their increasing size causes traffic to swerve into the opposing lane. But of the two, I prefer Russia's Far East - its complex simplicity, its people and even its blemishes.
It was extremely sad to leave Yelizovo, our home base for the last 27 days. If I could have stayed in Kamchatka I would have been okay, but here in Seoul, I am anxious to return home and get to work on articles and photographs from the last month. We left with the promise to return and even the promise to collaborate with the people we met to help build a low-impact and sustainable backcountry ski tour industry on Kamchatka.
2 comments:
You describe PK very well. Why is it that such a dirty town is still so romantic and appealing? Why is it that those grumpy Russians are so darn lovable?
I learned to ski at the slopes in yelisovo. one-dollar lift tickets, shashlik and Kamchatksy #1. And it's hard to beat the view from the top in winter...wow!
Try the ice cream! My mother and her husband loved the Korean ice cream while they were there for two years on a church mission!
Miss you, Sharon
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