Who wants to holiday in North Korea? (Day 31 - Day 32 by Chris)

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Saturday 17th October 2015

We had booked a tour through a tour group we'd found recommended on Trip Advisor for a day trip to the DMZ. This tour wasn't cheap costing approx £85 per person, but was the easiest and most hassle free way of getting there and seeing the sights.

We left our guesthouse about 7am to take a 20 minute walk to Lotte Hotel (very plush) where the tour bus left from. We took the bus for 1 hour north out of Seoul towards the boarder with North Korea. On the bus, which was an English speaking tour group, we had a tour guide who gave us lots of information throughout the day on the various places we would visit and the history behind it. After the day was over Gemma and I had a long conversation about how one one-sided this visit seemed to be, in that during the whole day, there seemed to be quite a bit of propaganda thrown at us about the war between North and South and who was in the right. I don't think there is any question that South Korea wins hands down in terms of economic development, freedom of speech, human rights etc and the North is ruled by a tyrant, but our guide felt the need to cover this time and time again during the day, not by stating these facts outright, but by her actions, which I'll come to.

The DMZ (de-militarised zone) is a strip of land between North and South Korea about 2km long and stretches from coast to coast, east to west and is uninhabited by anything other than wildlife and plants, or at least most people believe. The area itself was created when the civil war between South Korea (supported by USA) and North Korea (Supported by USSR and China) came to a stalemate after 3 years of back and forth. Officially the 2 countries are still at war and just agreed to a ceasefire, hence the meaning of the DMZ. In fact the DMZ is the most militarised place in the world which makes the name the most ironic.

Our trip first started at a train station called Dorasan which is the most northerly train station in South Korea and their hopes are that one day, when the country is reunited this train station will take people all the way through to the northern part of the country, and more importantly it seems to them, connect South Korea with the intercontinental railway line, and you can one day travel from the southern tip of south Korea to the Northern parts of Scotland via train. We got the sense from this stop that South Korea are bitter that they are closed off, almost like and island because of the North blocking their way.

The next stop was to an underground tunnel which was discovered in the 1970s and is the 3rd tunnel of 5 to be uncovered. This tunnel starts in North Korea and tunnels under the DMZ and is one of possibly hundreds of tunnels that the south believe the North were constructing to eventually pop up in and around Seoul to kick start the war again. This tunnel is now a tourist attraction and has a little train that takes you down 62 metres underground. We had to wear blue helmets which I thought was a little too health and safety conscious, but it wasn't until we go down there that we noticed these were necessary. We got to walk approx 100 metres through the tunnel, crouching as the ceiling was about 5 foot high. It was funny to see a Korean guy in front of us whose helmet was too small and therefore stood up on top of his head, bang his head on the rocks constantly. haha.

We took the train back out and then headed to an observation point where we could see into the North. They had binoculars which cost 10p to use and we were able to look into North Korea in the distance and even saw 'Propaganda town' which is a fake town the North built facing south to show the South how prosperous the North is. The truth is, this town is deserted and most of the buildings are not completed with only the front being built.

Following the observation deck we had lunch and then headed to camp Bonifas, which is a joint Korean and USA army base within the DMZ. We were sat on the bus waiting for the United Nations representatives to come and collect us to put us onto a UN bus. Whilst waiting we watched some Korean soldiers playing baseball. It must be so strange for them seeing a bunch of western faces on a bus within their base about to go to the place they are there to monitor and ensure war doesn't kick off.

We took the UN bus after having our passports checked, to the JSA (joint security area) which is actually within the DMZ. Before entering we were all lined up facing directly North with our backs facing South. We were told we were not allowed to take pictures of the Southern side as this is a military base, but the North didn't matter and we were told, in almost military style, to stand to attention and take pictures when only instructed to do so. Our guide shouted "take pictures now" and we felt obliged to snap away. We were basically taking pictures of a Northern building which had a North Korean guide half in view behind a pillar. We felt this was just a jab at the North, saying we have no respect for you, look we've brought a bunch of westerns to ogle at you like animals in a zoo. Very odd

We then went into the JSA meeting room which is the only place that the North and South can meet face to face and is a is essentially a shed which is built half in the South side of the DMZ and half in the North. The boarder actually crosses right through the room. Within the room is a desk, again half in the North and half in the South. There were also 2 soldiers standing to attention who looked like Madame Tussaud statues. We were allowed to walk around the desk, and therefore enter North Korea until we were escorted back out and onto the UN bus which took us back to our guide bus. Possibly the strangest tourist attraction in the world. We were then taken to the gift shop where you could buy North Korean Wine and Ray Bans! again - odd!

That ended our day at the DMZ and we were then heading back to Seoul. We had dinner in a foodcourt connected to the Lotte Hotel and then went home to Skype family and called it a night.

Sunday 18th October 2015

Today is our final day in Seoul and we had little planned other than heading to the War Museum to get a better understanding of the Korean War. This was quite an informative afternoon and we were able to get a good understanding of the history behind the cause and aftereffect of the war. It all boils down to communism. Russia wanting it all over the place and the Americans being afraid of it. Its an interesting war to research so I'll leave that up to you.

In the evening we headed to an area called Garusa-Gil which is where we were in our first stay in Seoul for our drunken night out. We came here specifically for Korean BBQ which we were luckily enough to find. We sat down and had a lovely meal of some sort of meat with a beer to mark our end to Korea. We took the metro home to pack as we were heading to Shanghai, China from the airport early the next day.

South Korea has been fun. From the selfie taking youths to the angry aggressive grannies. We've seen some big cities and some strange little towns. Learnt lots of history and eaten lots of good food. I would happily visit again some day.



We thought we'd provide a brief summary to round up our trip so far.

SOUTH KOREA

* Number of days spent in the country = 13

* Number of towns/cities visited = 3

* Favorite city = Seoul for both of us

* Favorite food = Korean BBQ (Gemma) Beef Bulgogi (Chris)

* Favorite thing we did = Visiting the DMZ for both of us

* Best place we stayed = "24 Guest House" in Seoul

* Most unexpected = Staying in a pink, London themed Sex Motel on our first night in Korea (Gemma) and how tall the Korean men where. They were all at least 6ft 2! (Chris)

* Place we would miss next time we visit = Gyeongju for both of us

* Most unusual food we ate = Roasted chestnuts (Gemma) an icy soup at the buffet that resembled a slush puppy (Chris)



Just to catch up, here's a summary of Japan too.

JAPAN

* Number of days spent in the country = 19

* Number of towns/cities visited = 10

* Favorite city = Kyoto (Gemma) Tokyo (Chris)

* Favorite food = Raman noodles with gyoza dumplings (Gemma) Okonomiyaki (Chris)

* Favorite thing we did = Visit to Fushimi Inari (the big red gates Gemma) and walking through Shibuya in Tokyo (Chris)

* Best place we stayed = The apartment we had in Kyoto "CMM Kyoto Ekimae"

* Most unexpected = Japan has no bins but is still spotless! (Gemma) and the Sushi that was lined with a ridiculous amount of wasabi (Chris)

* Place we would miss next time we visit = The town of Kitakyushu (Gemma) and the town of Fukuoka (Chris)

* Most unusual food we ate = Okonomiyaki (Gemma) and Green tea ice cream (Chris)

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