Seoul Train - Part II

The subway system in Seoul is something. The network spider-legs off in all directions with some stations receiving 3 different trains. Transferring at these stations is like Spadina station x 5. They have moving walkways to speed you and over 10 million Seoul residents along, but it's still an ordeal. The system itself is easy to follow. You just look at the map at the ticket booth and your destination will dictate what price you pay. The most I ever paid was 1,400 won ($1.60 Cdn).

The sad part is, I never got a seat.

Not once did I ever get a chance to sit down.. The subway was always full, so it was standing room only for me. But this gave me a great vantage point to view the TV monitor suspended from the ceiling. It would display commercials, but my favorite was the informative "What to do in case of..." spots.

They showed various situations in which most cases you should call 119 (Korea's version of 911). In one case, they show a strange looking bag sitting on the tracks. A man on the platform spots this and quickly calls 119 on his cell phone. Obviously, the spot expects EVERYONE to have a cell phone, and so does all of Korea. Not having a cell phone is preposterous. I didn't have a cell phone for my first two months here and the Korean people I met were puzzled by this. It seems owl letter carriers haven't caught on here like at Hogwarts.

Then, the doozy of all "What to do in case of..." spots came on.

The situation:
Everyone is sitting calmly inside the subway car when suddenly, a large leather-jacket wearing Korean (who resembled Sammo Hung) jumps up and starts shouting maniacally. In one hand he has a lighter ignited with a good amount of flame continuously gusting out; the other hand is wielding a non-labeled, 2 litre water bottle. We're to assume that this is no innocent water. Oh no. It's lighter fluid, I'm sure.

This was not a campfire smores moment. This Korean meant business.

But don't panic! The video was quite informative. It showed step-by-step what to do in case an obese, leather-jacket wearing Korean decides to have an indoor barbeque on a subway car.

What to do:
To diffuse the situation requires three people. Fortunately, the subway cars are always full, so three people - no problem. Person 1 (sitting behind the flaming assassins' right-hand) is to jump up, grab his lighter arm and extend it backwards, away from the bottle. Person 2 (sitting behind the flaming assassins' left-hand) is to jump up, grab his 2L lighter fluid bottle arm and extend it backwards, away from the lighter. Person 3 (anybody behind the flaming assassin) is to jump up and dial 119 on his cell phone.

The end.

All will end well if you (and two other noble citizens) follow the procedures above. The subdued flaming assassin's indoor cook-out will be completely quashed according to this video. What's scary is that the previous video spots showed possible, likely situations. So, what goes through my mind is this: Just how often does a chunky, flame toting Korean jump up in the train for a "What to do in case of..." video to be warranted??

The other thought I had was this: If both arms are extended backwards, couldn't the lighter and fluid still make contact behind his back?? After all, yoga is very popular in Korea, so maybe even an overweight assailant could connect the two behind his back, then *WHOOSH*.

Nonetheless, I'm ready to do my part. Courtesy of a very helpful video.