Seoul & The DMZ

  

(Camp Bonifas and the bus that guided us through the South Korean side of the DMZ.)

 

(the fake town North Korea built on the border and their giant flag. I was hoping that the flag would catch a gust of wind and flip to the side, but no luck!).

(Wearing the special UN badge).

(Guard standing in modified Taekwondo stance with body half exposed to North Korea. He is only half exposed so in the case of gunfire he can easily hide behind the building. I can't imagine standing like that for hours. It looks so incredibly strange).

(Technically in North Korea!)

  

In the largest city of South Korea, only 50 km from the communist North Korea under Kim Jong-Il, I spent one week visiting family. We flew with the Hong Konger Airline, Cathay Pacific, and made it a half an hour earlier than the original 2.5 project hours from Taipei. The South Korea airport is in Incheon and has been named one of the safest in the world with its ultra-modern design. The curved white roof of the terminal looks like an airplane hanger out of a H. G. Wells novel converted into a transportation hub.

After a comfortable 40 minute ride in a limousine bus to the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, we were nearly to Mel's apartment. Mel's apartment is gorgeous with light wood floors, sleek-modern furniture, spaceous with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and nice views of the city from the large walls of windows. I couldn't believe how nice things could be after living in Guo Qing for the past couple months. She showed us our accomodation and we quickly headed to bed after a long day of travel.

Seoul is filled with lots to see, especially if you are a war-buff. The Korean war remains on many people's minds in the form of monuments, museums, news from North Korea, and newly built apartment complexes in every direction. There are city bus tours that allow you to get on and off at various stops around the city at a reasonable rate (approximately $10 USD for the entire day).

There are also tours to the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone) which cost around $44 USD (you can sign up at the USO near the Samgakji subway station (they run Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). Mel, Rachelle and I went on the DMZ tour and we would all highly recommend it. It was hard to fathom that relations between two countries so close to each other are still so incredibly tense. There were places we could and could not take pictures, but often we couldn't tell when the tour guide said we could or not. She was a bit confusing in English and shy. We changed buses at Camp Bonifas, and picked up Sgt. Walker, who gave the main part of the tour. We technically crossed the center line of the 4 km wide DMZ in the original negotiating room. There is a table down the center of the room indicating the location of the center line. When the original negotiations took place, each side was still sitting on their soil. North Korean and United Nations' guards watched us the whole entire time. Some moments were tense, even while posing with the U.N. guards (do not stand next to them in the wrong place or touch them, you'll get karate chopped, which is very scary! We almost had some first hand experience with this). The South Korean guards at the border are the most trained out of the entire military and are required to have a black belt in Taekwondo. While on guard they stand in a modified fighting stance with fists clenched to their sides.

Mel and I were being a tad bit goofy with our creative picture taking, and amid all of the tense protocols and seriousness, we were having loads of fun. We saw the 38th Parallel on many occasions, it was hard to miss. Often there were rusted posts that the North Koreans had put long ago with Korean and Chinese characters warning trespassers not to enter, and a giant wall installed by the Americans and South Koreans to prevent tanks going south on the other side. At one point you can see the 'battle of the flags' on either side of the border. South Korea was given a flag during the 1988 olympics and North Korea built an even higher pole with an even bigger flag. Their flag is rumored as the largest one in the world. There is apparently a fake town built by the North Koreans to entice people to cross back into North Korea. (I doubt many people have tried to defect from South Korea into the north). The opened the borders for a brief window after the Korean War to let people freely cross. 30,000 people went from North Korea to the South, and only 5,000 people went from South Korea to the north. I highly recommend the tour, because there are not too many places where you can see such vivid remnants of war safely.

I will have to do another blog post talking more about Seoul. But for now this is all I'll post on S. Korea.