When I was in Korea in 1970 a bunch of guys went to the zoo in downtown Seoul. Getting there was part of the story, we were at the USO club which is in downtown far away from the base. None of the really nice uniformed cab drivers in shiny black new cabs would stop for us Americans. Totally the opposite of what we found at our base in the DMZ, everyone was nice and spoke English and the cab drivers would fight over the fares. Here in the big city we finally gave a Korean kid a nickel and he stood by curb and when the cab stopped he opened the door, and 5 of us ran out and jumped in.
Since our houseboy told us how to say 'take us to the zoo' and we knew it was only a few blocks away and maybe a 300 won ride, we were a little suspicious when were suddenly riding through rice patties and the metter said 900. Of course the driver spoke no English. Finally he had a flat tire and we got out as he cussed the car.
Now we don't know where were at, there was a small train station so we went and stood out front. A beat up Shinjin cab comes rolling up with the wobbly wheels. Shinjin is a Korean car similar to a Toyota, but they will not sell Toyotas there because they hate Japan. We say, take us to the zoo in Korean. He said, I don't know. So we said, take us to the USO Club, he said no problem. We ride along back into city and we go right by the USO Club and we yell, hey let us out. He said, no problem. About 5 minutes later he pulls up to the Seoul Zoo.
