trains.

i'm meant to be researching and studying for my design project. but instead i have the strongest urge to put up this post i've been drafting in my head.

trains.

in singapore, train rides are just... almost unavoidable. you dont love it. some dont hate it. most just live with it. i personally do my utmost to avoid it. and almost succeed! the wonders of a tertiary buspass... :)

my point here, though, is that. train rides are long, silent (if in a carriage without a pack of students or children), monotonous (for those without a good read or good music)....

hell. food and drink aren't even ALLOWED. for good reason too. we already have piss-smelling lifts. we don't need rotten-food-smelling trains. :)

well. i've had some encounters on trains in quite a few countries. london underground is.. heat-stroke-causing in summer, (probably) butt-freezing in winter. switzerland trains are marvellous. nothing more i can say. hongkong mtr is efficient, with even blinking light indicators to show the stop you're at. bangkok btr(?) is.. fast? a tad confusing in the station circulation. dont think i ever took the train in australia. nor malaysia.

the korean metro however... has since (since arriving here and my first use of it on the 20th of july this year) become a major topic of discussion for us singaporean students here on exchange.

one can do just about anything one wants on the korean metro. possibly all except smoke?

to list down all the incriminating incidents of how interesting and fascinating the korean metro is would kill me. it far exceeds the number of meals ive had here in korea. :p there are, however, a fair few examples that i think will suffice. :)

CASE STUDY 1:
when i say you can do just about anything on the train here in korea, i MEAN just about anything. and people REALLY DO DO just about anything. this includes selling CDs of classic korean ballads.. whilst blasting one on a portable transistor as advertising for your product.. and shouting above the blasting of your played product to inform potential customers (albeit busy reading the newspapers or sleeping or chatting amongst themselves) of the deal they're missing out on should they choose to forego this wonderful opportunity.

some others come around selling men's socks.. the.. arab sheikh kind silk(?) socks.. in two shades: black and grey..

picnic mats. HUGE. printed straw on one side and silver on the other.

torchlights. small. convenient to carry, with a clip. though.. when clipped to anything, looks like the lights on the top of miners' helmets..

well.. there are tonnes more yet. i just can't seem to summon them to the forefront of my thoughts. :) so yes. you can just about do anything.. like. sell stuff.

* * *

CASE STUDY 2:
then there's the controversial topic of preaching and evangelising.

freedom of speech is something advocated everywhere... in many countries all over the world. most people are, however, still hesitant to speak of political or religious issues. yet... the christian population i've encountered here in korea are all mighty believers and preachers and recruiters.... i've had a woman (previously seated down on a bench under a pavilion in school) jump up and walk over to me saying something in korean before realising i'm foreign and swapping to english and asking if i've heard of God.

this does not escape the jurisdiction of "Things You Can Do on the Korean Metro" mandate.

whilst on the train one time, exhausted from a long day at work (eventful for me, not so for some others) and full of dinner, most of us were fast asleep on scattered seats. even with my earphones plugged into my ears, blasting keane's under the iron sea album, i got awoken by some shouts... that didn't sound friendly.

two guys, GROWN men, were standing (almost confrontationally) at one end of the carriage we were in.. by this time all eyes were either dead shut (asleep) or on them. and one was dressed respectably in a grey jacket suit while the other was.. in brown slacks and a tee.. both were in a disagreement.* and being the kaypo singaporean i am, i was resolved to find out the topic of discussion between the two koreans afterward.

*one does not need to have full understanding of any one language to discern a friendly discussion from a plain disagreement.

so that's just what i did. after the train ride, i rushed over to the side of my korean friend and sought the answer to my question.

it turned out that Grey Suited was preaching about God and Christianity at the end of the carriage, and this is done quite alot. No harm done there. most passengers would just switch on their selective hearing and focus on whatever else they wanted. unfortunately for Grey Suited, he preached at the end of the carriage where Brown Slacked sat. Brown Slacked (obviously NOT a christian) got offended by what Grey Suited had to offer in his judgement on the world.. or rather.. his relaying of God's judgement on the world and what would happen to those who do not answer to His call... and asked him (whether politely or not i haven't a clue) to vacate his present position and to seek some other point of proclamation. this evolved into a heated "discussion" and resulted in two redfaced koreans. Grey Suited, obliging and moving off, and Brown Slacked not budging and chasing him out of the train, with shouts of some Korean adjectives.. probably best left unrevealed.. :)

i bet another factor was involved. Brown Slacked might have been drunk.

* * *

SO. only two case studies and already this post is getting toooo long.. well then. briefly. other examples include having a couple of drunk teenagers exposing fellow peer's newly bought boxers, waving them in the air, then whacking one another hard on the head; a lady throwing up beside me; meeting a singapore PR korean lady seated beside me; having a wacky looking guy (all artisty with the black beret on the head of long grey hair swept up in a ponytail and with a beard) seated next to me take a page from a newspaper and sketching floor plans on the page's empty spaces; having a 1.5hr train ride drag to a 2.25hr train ride, with the additional duration being spent stuck in the middle of an underground tunnel, surrounded by a horde of people itching to get to work, and having your oxygen supply dwindle to the point of your glasses fogging up just from breathing normally.(apparently there was an accident or someone died?)

ooh ooh ooh!!! the MOST important thing. the ONE time i saw the single most DASHINGLY CUTE korean guy seated adjacently opposite me.

yes. that pretty much sums it all up. trains. :)