A soul mate in Seoul
A soul mate in Seoul
Layla
After climbing Lotte Tower on the 12th June I was arrested and left in a legal-limbo whilst been homeless in Seoul. A owner of a barbershop/bar called Blkmarkt gave me shelter by allowing me to sleep on his sofa for a number of months. During my time I stumbled across the love of my life: a Korean girl called Layla, here is my story:
On the 20th July, at 2:30am I left the Blkmrkt bar, alone in search for a techno rave in Itaewon. Upon my journey, a Korean girl called Layla caught my eye and so I felt compelled to go and speak to her. We spoke and then exchanged contact details.
3 days later we met up again and whilst walking together we listened to the same music with one headphone in each of our ears. We were listening to music from her phone when she randomly picked the same techno song that I had been playing on repeat whilst climbing Lotte Tower for 4 hours straight! This song is not a mainstream techno song… it has almost 20k plays on Spotify and I would never reveal the name of it publicly, it would be like revealing a component of a secret recipe.
I choose this song to listen to whilst climbing Lotte Tower because it has a very dark melody with a pounding rhythm with very subtle changes in its tune. They are war drums, made to invigorate the listener into action and I can totally resonate with the mind of the artist who developed it. For someone to like/know this song is very unique, it takes a very particular set of ears.
Layla picking this song was very much a calling from the universe, I needed to explore this by getting to know this girl, it was my duty.
After spending time with Layla it soon became apparent that Layla had an attraction to taking risks like I do. So I took it upon myself to take her on her first crane climb… a 180m crane in a city just outside Seoul called Uijeongbu-si. It was special for me to share my world with her, the synergy of experiencing the moment together certainly enhanced it. Likewise, confronting extreme danger allowed me to trust her even more. She showed me her soul by demonstrating the will power to control fear in a pressured situation.
I narrowly avoided going to prison for climbing Lotte Tower and I also had no visa whilst I was staying in Korea. I tried my best to keep myself below the radar despite climbing over eight of the highest cranes in Korea. When I took on the highly secured construction sites in the central business districts I would have Layla as my personal spy, she had a direct influence in helping me succeed in my missions of climbing and not getting caught. Layla was at the base of the construction site giving me up to date information on the ground via a phone call whilst I would listen through headphones. She was able to tell me the exact location of the security, when I should move and when I shouldn’t. It was abundantly beautiful to have my pursuit not only enhanced emotionally but to be enhanced productively as-well.
During my 6 months in Korea, Layla and I explored every techno club throughout Seoul, climbed all of Seoul’s highest cranes, climbed and slept on the highest mountains and explored different islands within Korea. It was extremely fulfilling as we left no stone unturned and upon leaving the country I had 0 regrets.
One of our most eventful experiences was when we went to a 72 hour techno/trance rave at Beton, Brut Iteawon. After surviving that, on no sleep we took a bus to the Seoraksan mountains where we climbed its tallest mountain: “Daecheongbong.” We didn’t have a tent or spare change of clothes, but we had decided before that we would sleep on top of the mountain, our mission was to fulfil that aim. When we reached the top of the mountain it had gotten dark and a storm had rolled in. When it rains in Asia, it pours and that’s exactly what we experienced: wind, rain and lightening. The idea of sleeping on top of the mountain started become far less attractive to me, but to my surprise Layla was overwhelmingly committed to do so. Amongst the storm and the dark we found shelter amongst 2 rocks, we placed our umbrellas on each side of them to try shelter out the rain, nevertheless we still got rained on heavily throughout the night. Wet and cold with no sleep… embracing a moment of suffering.
At sunrise we walked down the mountain carefully as we tried to not slip on any rocks, we left the national park and walked in the rain to closest town. We took bus to Gapyeong where the sun began to shine and slept on an island called Nami.
Similar to the crane experiences, it is very apparent to me that sharing very intense emotional experiences act as a catalyst to a deeper connection. You can’t have pleasure without suffering and you can’t have glory without pain. Been on the top of a mountain in the middle of storm far from home was incredibly special to me.
Written by,
George King
The Shard climber
Read the background to this story HERE: http://shardclimber.com/virtus-blkmrkt-screenprint/
Read the story of my Lotte Tower stunt here: http://shardclimber.com/lotte-tower-attempt/