new video.

"Rain, rain" or "May you live in interesting times"

So, it was my first vacation week since I've been here.  I had a bike tour planned with the goals of seeing the DMZ and completing my tour of the east coast, but was warned that we were due for some epic weather, so instead of heading to Chuncheon where I was supposed to stay with a newly acquainted acquaintance (Robb Kerr) and his wife (name unknown) directly after work on friday, but with the warnings in mind I decided to wait till saturday to make up my mind. 

First thing saturday I hit up a travel agent to see if there were any last second deals out of the country.  I found something to Manilla for $800 but decided that that money could be better spent elsewhere later. So I started my trip a half day late......

But that will be the subject of my next blog, because I've received a few emails from folks who had seen some news items pertaining to the weather here, I decided to put up some quick photos or you all.  

I returned to Seoul after 5 days to find that being on the east coast had actually afforded me some sunshine and minimal rain.  From the bus I took from Uljin,  I noticed that the Han was covering my bike paths on the south side of the Han,  but not only were they covered but all I could see was the tree tops.  This was fairly stunning, because the bike paths are not down at river level.  So that was my first hint that something was up.   I was unaware of exactly how much rain had fallen on the west side of the mountains.  But Kenny, my coffee shop guy, told me that in two days they received half of their total yearly rainfall.  I'll repeat that.   While I was gone, Seoul received one half of its total yearly rainfall in TWO DAYS!  Something like 77 cm.  

Since I only arrived in town to catch the tail end of everything,  and also tired, hungry and chaffed from my 440k trip, I wasn't fully aware of everything that was happening, so I didn't get to wade into any submerged subway stations to record the damage or anything fun like that.  Apparently Gangnam station, which was reopened literally within the last two weeks after a 4 month renovation was flooded.   The renovation basically turned the entire station into a shopping mall that just happens to have a majorly busy subway stop below it.  There are probably 100 brand-spanking-new little shops in this station

I can't remember what it was like before because it's been under construction for the basically the entire time I've been here.  It just so happens that it is in the top 5 busiest metro stations in Seoul and it's in a concrete valley between four hills.  Needless to say they had to shut down the trains for a period of time.  

Luckily Ricki Millevolte  (the "Bently" to my "Wilson" if you will) was on task. so I've loaded a few pictures of hers that I retouched to my liking.  And you can read about these photos on her blog by clicking on her name/link above.   

Thanks Ricki.  So on to my photos a day or so after the main event.

Some of these photos won't mean anything to you because you have no frame of reference for how high the river is normally so I'll attempt to point out a few things.

The lamp posts are the center of a bike lane on the
 North side of the Han that I frequently ride on

Note the basketball hoops

Oksu station.

So here's where I'll try to put some things in perspective.

If you look at the top of the sign above....

Now check out the relative heights of the same type of path sign on the south side of the river.  With my ape arms extended over my head like that, I can just barely touch an 8 foot ceiling with my fingers.  So add another foot or so and then you have an idea how submerged the paths on the north side are.  The day I visited the river, the water level had receded quite a bit, leaving the bike paths caked in mud.

This is a picture of a freeway bridge paralleling the river.  If you look closely at the pylon you'll see a depth gauge....

Time for a little more perspective.

The water here is at 11 meters.  The pylon is wet up til the 12 meter mark.  And for those of you who've forgotten how high a meter is..  It's .914 of a yard.  So if I were standing on that water like Jesus I'd come up to the 13 that you see there.  


Bee boop boop beep bbeepboop (that's the noise my brain makes when calculating)


The river was 39.4 feet higher than it should be....   


I heard there was some flooding in the U.S. this year, so I'm sure you're unimpressed, but I haven't seen it up close like this since I went to Missouri after the '93 flood, to clean up, so it's a big deal to me.  


Just before I left on this bike trip I was researching points of interest that I might like to check out, and one thing popped up in my guide book (thanks again Chris & Millie).  The Peace Dam.  Read about it here so that I don't have to explain.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Dam


Anyway.  I didn't get to the Peace Dam on this trip,  I will in the near future.   But this gives you an idea of why they built it.  


Enough yakking.  Here are some more pictures.  Hope you like 'em.

Just keep in mind that these floating restaurants are usually 39 feet lower.  When standing on the bike path (which you should never do because it's aggravating to bikers) you are looking down on the top of them.  I'll take some "after" pictures in a couple months just to compare.

Of all the days to forget my Neutral Density Filter.....   Doh!

Stay dry, and cool everyone.