A Korean travelogue on (India)

Over these cucumber slices with the chilli dip, our friend Soo Min was telling us about this book she was reading.

The book is titled “Chi-gu-pyul Yo-hang-sa”. Yo-hang-sa means traveller, but I’m not sure about Chi-gu-pyul, I think it means “distinct”. While I can read Hangul, my vocabulary is very small. Corrections welcome. (A commenter Dan pointed out that it means planet earth.)

A famous Korean poet wrote the book. He likes India a lot it seems. He travelled there and met some gurus and holy men.

Here the author talks about train travel in India. I like the colourful little drawings they have for each chapter.

Suddenly, Soo Min started talking in Hindi. We were wondering where she got the words from. Then she showed us this page where the author is trying to do some last minute shopping before the train leaves. He goes to buy a Frooti from one of the vendors on the platform. (Frooti- a popular mango juice sold in a tetra-pack). He can speak some Hindi. Like Korean, Hindi is a phonetic language. The author gives the Hindi phrases.

Mujhe frooti dijiye (please give me a frooti)

The vendor takes his time searching for the drink. The author, worried that the train may leave asks the vendor to hurry

Jaldi Jaldi dijiye (give it to me quick)

The author manages to get his drink and run to the train.

While there are many western writers who have written about their travel adventures in India, there might be a few Korean, Chinese and Japanese ones too. Would be interesting to translate them and see what they feel about India.