This is another photo from my recent foray into Yeongdeungpo, the only place in Korea where I feel like I'm in "da hood" from the US. Night in "da 'Po" is pretty lively, with the only place in Seoul where I've seen traffic jams regularly at night (near the new Lotte CGV). People are out, the expansive red light district is open, and the drinking is heavy.
Here, I've walked down past the CGV, where the people and noise and the lights taper off to a lonely street. I hadn't felt so nervous walking around with expensive equipment since being back in Oakland before 2002. I was seriously looking over my shoulder the entire time. Back in the Bay Area, I used to stagger my camera bag, assuming that if I were to somehow forcibly part ways with my pack, I wouldn't lose my entire set of photo equipment and laptop. Now, I was thinking in those terms again, looking at the groups of ajummas leading young men into dark alleys, and pairs of thuggish men standing around looking like they had nothing better to do.
So these spooky busts of apparently caucasian people displaying really bad wigs were particularly scary.
