Blogs from DMZ, South Korea, Asia
May 5th 2012
We were picked up just after 7am to start our ‘DMZ tour’ with VIPTours in Seoul. To be honest I was a bit skeptical when our tour guide was wearing 4 inch heels, pink and purple splatter painted skinny jeans, a jersey top, a bejewelled baseball hat and was so proud to be the same height as Lady Gaga. She proved me wrong and ended up being a great guide who was so interesting to talk to about South Korean politics and government. The demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is about 250 km long and 4km wide. It is the most heavily militarized border in the world! On our drive out to the DMZ there is a huge barbed wire fence and guard posts all along the Han River to keep out North Korean ... read more
April 25th 2012
We woke up early today for our DMZ tour. DMZ stands for De-Militarized Zone, the area between the North and South Korea that marks their boundary. The tour was supposed to start at 8am, but we were told that we would be picked up at 7:25am. While we were having breakfast, our tourist guide came in our guesthouse and told us that he was picking us up… at 7:05am! So we quickly finished our breakfast and packed our things. My Mom was really angry with the tourist guide because she doesn’t want to be rushed. But we got to the tourist bus just in time. It was raining very hard and Mom was worried on how we can get by with the tour. Good thing she brought her umbrella, but she said she doesn’t want to ... read more
January 2nd 2012
First, a belated Happy New Year! The last month was the one I had been semi-dreading—because of being away from family around the holidays. My friends here worked together to make the holidays as positive as possible, and I got to vicariously experience Thanksgiving and Christmas via Skype, so I did thoroughly enjoy all the holidays.They were as good as they could have been away from my wonderful family. This blog should be mainly about my visit to Seoul at the end of November, so let me tell you about that. Well, I had some grand sightseeing plans, most of which didn’t turn out. Friday, we basically just had beers outside the convenience store while it rained (actually, it was enjoyable anyways because of the company), then ate at TACO BELL. Yes, it was exciting to ... read more
February 16th 2011
Editors Note: I want to make it clear to all readers that before you read this, the opinions and comments expressed are solely my own, and they are not to be given serious thought as extensive critiquing. In lighter terms this is just my point of view and some observations that I found about the DMZ and JSA Tour. I am very fortunate and very lucky to be on such a tour and hope that people can go see the DMZ and JSA for themselves to formulate their own opinion. Today is finally the day we get to go to DMZ and JSA. For those of you who may not know what those are, the DMZ or “demilitarized zone” is the 4 kilometer “buffer zone” between North and South Korea, two kilometers for each side. The ... read more
August 9th 2010
A few things I've done over the passed few days... Visited the DMZ, short for demilitarized zone, right along the 38th parallel running from coast to coast. Ironically it's the most heavily militarized border there is with Korean, American and UN troops guarding the perimeter at all times. Many incidents around the DMZ have happend since the 1953 armistice such as shootouts, guerrilla incursions, and secret tunnels built underneath for an eventual invasion by North Korea. The only way there was to book with a travel agency, which I did back in Seoul. The day of, we took the bus to the border, passing major roadblocks, guard towers, and mine fields. Sadly there are loads of mines on both sides of the dmz. Then we went to see the special train station built by the south ... read more
July 23rd 2010
When we planned out our trip we knew that India, China and even Mongolia were going to be the major highlights of our 82 day journey around the world. Admittedly, South Korea was on the itinerary mainly because it was the most sensible choice as it was close to China, in the right direction towards home and was somewhere I haven't been yet. Neither of us knew a whole lot about Korea and really had no expectations at all of what we would encounter. After two weeks in this country we are both fantastically impressed in multiple ways and Korea definitely claims the status of unexpectedly brilliant. The differences between China and Korea we found to be staggering, in multiple ways. The Korean people are by far the friendliest we have encountered on our entire trip ... read more
July 14th 2010
I went to South Korea with the determination to go to North Korea. I met someone on my travels who said that if you go to North Korea through the south its like going to Niagara Falls and saying you went to Canada. I saw his point, but I really didn't care. As it turns out there is a way into North Korea through a Beijing tour company Koryo. After adding the extra cost for being from the US and being required to fly in and out and not being allowed to see the countryside the trip would cost $2000 for five days. I decided that I would wouldn't do either of the tours that actually go into North Korea and would have to settle for the DMZ tour, much to the pleasure of my family. ... read more
May 27th 2010
They make you pay to get a cart at the local Walmart type store (Emart). The motivation behind this I’m guessing is that you’ll bother returning the cart where you found it if it gives you your money back. Nine cents ain’t getting that cart pushed back. I’m also more likely to push that bastard home and leave it on the side of my house like Dan Goodrich used to do back in the old neighborhood. Elections suck in the US, tons of commercials on tv and such, but at least they don’t drive up and down your street at eight in the morning on a Sunday with loudspeaker trucks. I wish I was a Korean citizen so I could vote against these devils. Getting fit is easy, ingest less calories than you burn in a ... read more
May 23rd 2010
The Good: Weekend trip to Seoul, including the DMZ tour and the Lotus Lantern Festival. The Bad: Long weekend trip to Tong Yeong and neighbouring islands amid a weekend of bad luck and pouring rain. The Ugly: The weather - 3 days of non-stop pouring rain. Let's start with the good! 2 weekends ago we went to Seoul with Mara, Drew, James and Sarah for what we both agree was the best weekend of our entire stay in Korea thus far! Friday when we arrived in Seoul we met our Korean friend So Young, who just moved to Seoul for a job. She used to work at Mike's school and we were happy to see her again! We went to a Japanese restaurant and had delicious ramen noodles there (which made us excited for our upcoming ... read more
