Dispatch from Jeju, Day 2

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Beautiful view overlooking Jungmun beach.

I went exploring yesterday and being from a high altitude area, I didn’t reckon with the Mombasa-esque humidity in Jeju. Nanyuki, my hometown is 1970 AMSL and highest point in Jeju is 1950AMSL The result – I had a terrible headache at night. This was not helped very much by an over enthusiastic family a floor below mine who were giving themselves a fireworks display at night. Under normal circumstances, a little boy lives in me and I like the fireworks but yesterday was not one of those days and the headache had completely killed that boy. Thankfully, the fireworks didn’t last long and Maria, the kind of owner of the Family Pension and Resort where I am switched on the pool foundation which from my room simulates rain and I was off to dreamland. I still woke up with a headache but a bottle of cold water (which I should have had plenty of in the first place) and Tylenol cured the headache and I was up ready to go set up our Zeitz Foundation stand and see more of Jeju before the real exhibition starts tomorrow evening.

The Koreans sure know how to beautify their bridges. Imagine this on Nairobi river at the Riverside roundabout.

Everywhere you go in Korea there is strong influence of religion but the people are surprisingly modern. As a matter of fact, Korea looks like a country on steroids, everything is fast and the attention to detail is amazing. I was walking near the convention Centre and there was a group of Korean workmen giving hundreds of pots of flowers by bridge a Korean version of Extreme Makeover and their dedication and attention to detail is amazing. I am handicapped by my limited Korean (I am bragging by saying limited, it is nil) and I would have loved to chat them up but they smiled politely and asked if I wanted a picture by the bridge.

I had chance to explore by foot a few attractions near the convention Centre. First was the Iconic Seonim Bridge which calls you from far with its convex design and metal statues (obviously with a religious meaning) and from where you can observe the magnificent Cheonjiyeon Waterfalls. The waters are crystal clear and I must say the late Hon. John Michuki (immediate former minister for Environment) would have loved Nairobi River to look like that. I am a believer that we can still do it and make it an attraction just like here. I made my way to the bridge and for the first time since I arrived, someone spoke to me in English for longer than a sentence. Two Australian Chinese tourists were happy to chat with me and I was equally happy to temporarily quit sign language for about 20 minutes.

The iconic Seonim Bridge

At the statue of five Blessings

First stop was at the statue of five blessings. This foundation symbolizes the five blessings of longevity (tortoise) wealth (boar) honor (dragon) love (mandarin Duck) ad sons (carp). I was reminded to pick a blessing of my choice and stand in front of the animal symbol and in a weirdly similar Kenyan script, throw coins in the lucky bag, and I would receive that blessing. Thankfully they have stated that the coins gathered here would be used to help Korea’s under-privileged but they say in my hometown -once bitten by a snake, even a piece of rope makes youjump. And having recently seen Mwende twist her mouth to crazy angles, I didn't throw any coins and moved on to see the bridge. However, I pray for honour , thank God for my son and daughter (sorry girls, you are not among the five blessings) and pray for longevity to see my grandchildren. Wealth, I trust God will make my ends meet.




I went down to the falls and just like in Kenya’s Thompson falls at Nyahururu, the cameramen here insist on taking a commercial picture even though they can see clearly you are carrying a camera yourself. My limited (say non-existent) Korean and my Swahili refusal – hapana, sitaki, asante sana mzee – made things easier and I enjoyed the trip down to the falls and a breeze that reminds me of why I am in this job in the first place. To conserve nature and bequeath future generations what our forefathers bequeathed us.

The Waterfall

On a side note, it is quite difficult to buy a sim card here in Jeju. Today, I made for the Jungmun City Centre in search of a store selling SIM cards and phones. I found one named Olle and I must say that they even though they have the phones they are like Safaricom in 1999, they bundle the phone with a card as sell it as "Offer"and it is therefore useless because I have to unlock it when I get to Kenya. My hypothesis was also deconstructed when I inquired about the prices for phones. You see, I had assumed that this being the land of LG and Samsung the high end phones 9LG Optimus and Samsung) would cost slightly less than in Nairobi but I was rudely reminded by the price tags (and a dude who speaks no English) that when they say high end they meant Korean high end (per capita GDP $31,700 vs. Kenya’s 476.88 US) not Kenyan. I never bought the SIM card as my phone is not compatible with 1900 MHz frequency used here in Korea

This is easily a village road in Jeju.

To imagine that this country’s GDP was at par with Kenya in late 1960’s and early 70’s is very depressing for a patriot. We have the resources to develop our country and we have attractions that many other countries do not have. For the life of me, I cannot understand why our leadership fails to harness this potential but we are in another season of speeches and chasing the wind and we (keeping my fingers crossed) might actually get a leader who understands what the bigger picture is.
In some ways South Korea is like extension of the US but less arrogant and brash but still with grandness in the scale of the roads, the engineering ambition ad patriotism. Definitely something we Kenyans need to embrace. On that roads note, I would like to note that in the grand scale of things here, our newly minted Thika road would not qualify as a superhighway. It is a good road but it is not a superhighway. It doesn’t really present difficult engineering hoops to jump and when you see what Koreans have done with their roads you begin to get an idea why we should be on double speed to develop infrastructure if Vision 2030 is to be achieved

I am done pontificating for today and I need to go organize for tomorrow and make sure that people understand that in order to ensure sustainability we need to have a balance of Commerce, Conservation, Culture and Communities. That is the message that I have brought to Jeju, our 4C’s approach to sustainability and if you are attending the congress don’t fail to pass by stand 087 for more.
I am still investigating the three abundances – wind, rocks and women and three shortages – thieves, beggars and gates. So far the rocks claim is true, wind is a lot especially at night and unless I am mistaken, I am seeing as many men around here as women (or what do they mean?) I must confess, I haven’t seen a gate yet (other than at ICC Jeju), no beggars (they may have locked them up Nairobi style when we have guests) and thieves, I think I need to buy a policeman a few beers and get a drunken confirmation or confession.