Yin Yang Tattoo

 

 

 

Ron McMillan is an author and photojournalist who has been travelling since 1979. His first experience of Korea was as a part time teacher of English and full time student of Tae Kwon-do in Seoul in the mid-1980s. He began his career as a freelance writer and photographer during the run up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

During a decade based in Hongkong, he travelled everywhere from Afghanistan to Japan on assignment for magazines in Asia, North America and Europe, visited Mainland China nearly fifty times and made five 'tourist' visits to isolated North Korea. As well as appearing in
Time
,
Newsweek
,
L'Express
and the
New York Times Sunday Magazine
, his North Korea photographs seemingly made him quite unpopular in the Hermit Kingdom.

On his return to Scotland in 1998, Ron took on a domestic travel column for
The Herald
and wrote and photographed travel and business stories for magazines including the inflight titles of Cathay Pacific Airways, Korean Air, Thai Airways and Japan Airlines. In the Autumn of 2005, he spent five weeks in Shetland researching the first travel narrative to be written about the islands since 1869.
BETWEEN WEATHERS – Travels in 21st Century Shetland
was published in 2008 by Sandstone Press, and nominated for the 2008 Saltire Society Literary Awards.

Ron spends part of the year in Bangkok, Thailand, where a vibrant live music scene allows him to indulge his passion for playing blues harmonica rather badly.

Praise for Ron McMillan's BETWEEN WEATHERS: Travels in 21st Century Shetland

 

Above all, however, this is a book about people. Ron McMillan looks at Shetlanders with a sharp but affectionate eye and his style has a wit which makes reading this book a pleasure.

 

There is little to find fault with in this book – apart from one or two minor editorial errors and oversights. One is almost led to believe that Ron McMillan's own personality might guarantee that he would feel welcome in Shetland (or anywhere else). Nevertheless ‘‘Between Weathers'' is a well written, entertaining and informative book that will tempt readers to visit if they haven't already. Those who have, and those who reside in Shetland, will find much to enjoy – and learn besides.

 

Ron McMillan's meticulously researched writing has a highly developed narrative style and the easy good humour often seen in the work of fellow travel writers Bill Bryson and Pete McCarthy.

 

A fabulous, readable book from a relaxed and entertaining writer. Full of information, witty insight and a real love of these wonderful islands, it's a must for visitors to the Shetlands and for those who want to travel there in their imaginations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First published in Great Britain 2010

Sandstone Press Ltd

PO Box 5725

One High Street

Dingwall

Ross-shire

IV15 9WJ

Scotland

 

www.sandstonepress.com

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this production may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

 

Editor: Robert Davidson

 

Copyright © Ron McMillan 2010

 

The moral right of Ron McMillan to be recognised as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

 

ISBN-epub: 978-1-905207-53-4

 

Ebook by Iolaire Typesetting, Newtonmore.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

This book has been a long time in the making. In its earliest incarnation the manuscript was constructively critiqued by members of the Paisley Writers' Group, led then by novelist and Writer-in-Residence Ajay Close. My thanks go out to the whole Group.

Advice was sought and received from many friends, home and abroad. Fellow Korea-hand Mark McTague in Baltimore, USA, provided endless encouragement, advice and input right up to the final detailed proof-read, a task also kindly undertaken by Jay Kennedy in Glasgow. Welcome commentary and counsel came from David Kosofsky in New Orleans, Charles Martin in Seattle, Roberto de Vido in Yokosuka, Japan, Anton Fielden and Iain Millar in London, England, and Dennie Tunnicliffe in Fife, Scotland. In Seoul, Michael Breen did voluntary research and fact-checking, and Douglas McTague tramped Korea's capital in the depths of mid-winter with his video camera. Another friend from my Korea days, Jim Gardner, coached me on Global Depository Receipts and the Due Diligence process. Thank you all.

Cover design input from Chris Winstanley in Auckland, New Zealand, was executed beautifully by Latte Goldstein of River Design in Edinburgh.

 

NOTE
: This is a work of fiction from beginning to end. With obvious exceptions, characters and companies in the story neither exist, nor are based upon real ones. Where settings do exist, fictional liberties have been taken with their locations and layouts; likewise their clientele and staff are completely the product of my imagination. The K-N Group is
entirely
fictional, and is in no way whatsoever based upon any company in Korea or elsewhere, past or present.

 

LINGUISTIC PURISTS BEWARE
: There are competing schools of thought on the Romanisation of Korean speech. I never came across one that satisfied my own views on the accurate phonetic reproduction of spoken Korean, so I took the easy route: I made up my own. Any linguistic, grammatical and factual errors are of my own making.

 

I welcome feedback and/or enquiries:

 

[email protected]
    
www.ronmcmillan.com

 

This book is dedicated to Ae Shim and Shona.

Part One: Seoul, Korea 1990

 

Pushing midnight and the Hill is the usual weekend war zone, music bleeding from club doorways held open by battered beer crates. Hank Williams, Wham!, AC/DC – and Stevie Wonder, who just called to say
I love you
. The street runs high on alcohol and the pressurised din of the clubs. Bar girls screech welcomes to regulars and brassy whores yell sales pitches in shameless, broken English. Syntax doesn't count for much when you are touting ‘
ten dalla
' blowjobs.

Darkness turns the Itaewon shopping district into a neon-tinged labyrinth of nightclubs and restaurants and bars and brothels that feed the elemental needs of thousands of American soldiers, civilians and spooks from Yongsan Military Base. None of whom I belong among, but in Itaewon at this time of night, I feel
alive
.

Polarised by race, clusters of frighteningly fit GIs cut shrapnel tracks through the throng, intent on bar or club or short-time cathouse.

Four red-eyed white boys tumble from an army base Chevrolet taxi. The tall GI from the front seat calls out for contributions towards the fare while his friends laugh and skip out of range. He pays the Korean driver, shoves his wallet into the back pocket of his Levis and raises his arms in mock ire, just as his long step is broken by a jarring collision with a small dark-haired figure.

‘Man, why dontcha watch where – ' He swallows his anger as the little Korean with the withered leg and the tortured eyes backs away, one hand high in supplication, the other hanging low behind him. The GI shakes his head and calls out to his buddies, already climbing the steps to the King Club. ‘Dyoo see that crazy gook motherfucker?'

I take a swallow of beer. ‘Crazy gook just motherfucked up his night.'

‘Yep,' says Bobby, ‘the little guy's got balls.'

We watch him shuffle in the direction of the main drag. A familiar sight in Itaewon, he won't be on the street again tonight. For sure there is pain in those eyes, but not of any kind that the big GI would understand, and the brain behind them knows not to be around when the American discovers he no longer owns a wallet.