Seoul and a trip to the DMZ, JSA and Third Infiltration Tunnel

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We decided to combine my work trip to Korea with a bit of a holiday as it's one of the few Asian countries (depending on your definition of Asia) we haven't yet explored. Our flight from Melbourne to Seoul included a brief stop over in Sydney; we arrived at the gate for the second leg of the trip just as boarding was commencing...perfect timing.

After another 10.5 hour flight we landed in Seoul, grabbed our bags and hopped into a taxi. About an hour later we arrived at our hotel in Sinsa, which is on the southern side of the Han River. After checking in and dropping off our bags we headed out for a walk around our hotel. Our hotel was located nearby Garosu-gil which is one of the main shopping streets in Seoul. After walking around for a while we headed back to our hotel to take advantage of the free soba noodles they offer as a snack and then went to bed.

Day 1 - Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon Hanock Village and Changdoekgung

The following morning we set out to explore some of the historical attractions; first stop was Gyeongbokgung.which was the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty. We arrived just in time to see the end of the changing of the guard ceremony; after which we purchased tickets and headed inside to explore. The vast majority of the original palace buildings were destroyed by Japanese occupation and / or the Korean war, though a few original buildings do remain. A large number of the buildings which had been destroyed have been reconstructed in the original style. The buildings were nice, though we both thought the palace complex would have been nicer with gardens throughout rather than the gravel open spaces. My favourite part of the palace was Hyangwonjeong Pavilion which is constructed on an artificial lake.

After Gyeongbokgung we made our way towards the Bukchon Hanok Village. Bukchon Hanok Village is a neighbourhood where a large number of the houses are constructed in the traditional style. We wandered around the streets for a while and then made our way towards Changdeokgung.

Changdeokgung is another of Seoul's four main palaces; it is UNESCO world heritage listed and is considered by many to be the most beautiful palace in Seoul. We purchased our entry tickets for the main palace and then headed inside to scope out the Secret Garden. Once inside we discovered that the only way to see the Secret Garden was to purchase an additional ticket and join a guided tour. I had previously read that it was well worth the extra cost so we purchased a couple of tickets for the tour. We had about an hour before the tour was due to commence so we explored the other palace buildings which easily filled in the time.

The Secret Garden tour was very popular, we joined a group of approximately 60 other English speakers and headed into the Secret Garden. The Secret Garden was used as a place to rest and relax by the royal family. There are lots of pavillions and buildings scattered throughout a lovely natural style garden full of maples and other lovely trees. The guide constantly warned us about how strenuous the next section would be but neither of us found it difficult at all (I think she could do with getting a bit more exercise..). The tour was well worth it; the gardens were really lovely and both of us decided that we much preferred this palace to Gyeongbokgung.

After Changdeokgung we made our way back to our hotel to enjoy the Japanese baths. After a bath we headed out for a healthy dinner of fried chicken. We managed to navigate our way through the entirely Korean menu and ordered a whole fried chicken, a portion of garlic a salad, a beer and some soju. I expected that the soju might turn up mixed with something, but no..it came with shot glasses. It actually went quite nicely with the fried chicken (which was incredibly tender and absolutely delicious).



Day 2 - DMX, JSA and Third Tunnel tour

For our second day in Seoul I had booked us onto a DMZ, JSA and Third Infiltration Tunnel tour. We ran from our hotel to the subway station through torrential rain...and then ran through the torrential rain at the other end until we arrived at the tour meeting place by 7am as instructed. By the time we arrived we were both completely drenched.

The tour departed at about 7:30, and fortunately the rain eased up as we drove north from Seoul towards Camp Bonifas which is the United Nations military post on the southern edge of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Our passports were checked by an American soldier on the bus before we transferred to another bus and were driven into the compound.

After a short ride through the base we arrived at a building and headed inside for our briefing. The briefing was a 20 minute PowerPoint presentation on the history of the Korean war and the situation / events since. It was delivered in a very matter of fact way by a soldier who had clearly presented it a lot of times beforehand! After the briefing we hopped back onto the bus and were driven through the base towards the Joint Security Area (JSA).

The JSA is the only section of the DMZ where the North and South stand face to face. The silver / grey buildings within the complex belong to the North whilst the bright blue buildings belong to the South. Once off the bus we were lead into a massive building which the South constructed to host reunions between separated family members from both sides (which has never actually been used cause the North won't let its citizens into it). Once inside we were given instructions to stand in two lines, not gesture at the North Koreans and follow the soldier in charge of our group at all times.

Only a few minutes later we were lead out of the building and all of a sudden we were standing only 10 meters or so away from soldiers from the North. Unfortunately they marched off behind a building pretty quickly so we weren't able to snap any photos of them. Once outside we were given a description of the buildings and the other group was lead into the meeting room which is half in the north and half in the south whilst we had the opportunity to take photos (in a certain direction only) and look at the buildings belonging to the North. Unsurprisingly the South has a massive number of cameras installed around the compound...a large number of which face north.

After about 10 minutes the other group left the meeting room and it was our turn to go inside. Once inside we were given a brief description of what the room is used for (meeting between North and South unsurprisingly!) and were informed that both countries have microphones in the room which are on at all times. After this we were able to look around...so of course we headed straight to the Northern side of the room and can now both say we've been to North Korea! We spent the next 10 minutes snapping photos and looking around before our time was up and we had to leave...definitely one of the weirdest experiences we've ever had!

From the JSA we went back to Camp Bonifas and picked up a 100 North Korean Won note from the gift shop for 5000 South Korean Won which means we paid 6AUD for 15 Aussie cents (totally worth it!). From there we were driven back to our tour bus and headed off to Dorasan Station.

Dorasan Station is the station from which trains from South Korea used to leave and enter the North. Theoretically if trains ran between North and South Korea (and if the North was slightly more friendly) you could travel all the way from Seoul to Lisbon in Portugal. The South used to regularly run trains from Dorasan Station to the Kaesong Industrial Complex which is an industrial estate the South ran in the North to help their Northern neighbours (and take advantage of the cheap labour no doubt). The South temporarily closed Kaesong when the North did a nuclear test in January 2016, and no trains have run since then. The Kaesong Industrial Complex contributed 30% to the Norths GDP so no doubt the closure is hurting them.

From Dorasan Station we headed to our lunch stop, a very uninspiring restaurant located within the DMZ which all tours seemed to stop at. The food was unimpressive but plentiful. After lunch we went to the Dora Observatory from which we could use the coin operated binoculars to get a closer look at the propaganda village, the massive North Korean and South Korean flags on either side of the DMZ, the North Korean countryside and a real North Korean Village (and a villager!). Our tour guide told us that behind the innocent looking mountains on the Northern side there were hundreds of missiles pointing directly at us...

From the Dora Observatory we went to the Third Infiltration Tunnel. The tunnel was an 'abandoned coal mine' the North used to use...which was interesting considering the mine was through granite (and hence would not have coal in it)... Little wonder the South believes it was a tunnel the North was constructing in order to attack Seoul... At its closest point the tunnel was only 44km from Seoul; it was discovered in 1978 when the South detected an explosion and then proceeded to bore holes until they pinpointed the location. This tunnel is one of four which have been discovered and is the one located closest to Seoul. Unfortunately we had to leave our camera behind (not sure why...if the North actually did build it surely they know what it looks like!) before we made our way down the very long and quite steep descent until we reached the tunnel which is 73m below ground. The tunnel was small and tunnel like...we walked all the way to the end where the South have built barriers to keep the North out and then retraced our steps and started the long climb back to ground level..

After the Third Infiltration Tunnel we hopped back on the bus and headed back towards Seoul.Once we arrived at the tour company's office we decided to catch the subway to the Women's War and Human Rights Museum. Unfortunately due to Google Maps limited functionality in South Korea (the government has a lot of content censored and blocks directions) we didn't end up finding the museum but did walk through some streets which probably haven't seen tourists before (for good reason).

For dinner that night I decided to introduce Scott to Din Tai Fung which is a restaurant chain I discovered in Singapore, and then again in Hong Kong. We ordered dumplings, egg fried rice and kung pao chicken; everything was delicious! The restaurant was located in Gangnam so after eating our delicious meal we went for a walk through the streets around the restaurant. The very busy streets were full of people shopping, chatting and eating. The area had a great atmosphere and was definitely worth checking out!

Day 3 - Seoul City Wall, War Memorial of Korea and War Museum

Our first task for our third day in Seoul was to get some sim cards for our phones. Evidently this was harder than it should be as not all phone stores in Korea can sell to foreigners. The closest store to our hotel was at Seoul Central station which was about a 25 minute ride away...so off we set. After a few technical difficulties we finally got both the cards working and then hopped back on the train and set off towards Hangsung University Station which is near then Hyehwaman Gate.

After arriving at the gate we picked up some lunch from a nearby convenience store before setting off along the wall. The total length of the wall is about 18.6km long; the majority of the wall has been restored and is now a popular walking trail. The wall passes along the peaks of the surrounding mountains so is not a particularly easy walk but is well worth it. Along the length of the wall are small signs which show your location...which was fortunate as, after climbing a fairly steep section,I realised we'd been walking in the wrong direction...

We retraced our steps and continued walking in the correct direction. At this stage we were walking alongside the wall as apartment buildings and houses had been constructed on top of the location of the original wall. Eventually the wall reappeared and we walked along beside it.

When we reached the Malbawi Information Centre we filled in forms, handed our passports in to be checked and were given passes to access the next stretch of the wall. This section passes behind the presidents house (known as the Blue House) and past military installments so photography is limited. The walk was very steep in sections, but was very enjoyable. The views over Seoul were fantastic. By the time we reached the top of Bulguksan (342m) we were both fairly sweaty and happy that we wouldn't be walking up anymore! The downhill section was very very steep and I was definitely glad that I had done some research beforehand and discovered that walking in the direction we had (anti-clockwise) was slightly easier than the opposite way! We definitely wouldn't have enjoyed walking up those stairs!

After the wall we grabbed some kimbap for lunch and then headed to the War Memorial and War Museum. The War Museum covers the war history of the Korean peninsula as far as records go back. We covered the ancient history fairly quickly; the museum had a high level summary of the main events at the beginning of each period which presented the Korean history at that time with events in the Eastern and Western world which was great for getting an idea of what else was happening in the world at that time.

After the ancient history we made our way to the Korean War section. This section was very interesting and quite well presented. I'm suspect there was a slight hint of South Korean propaganda throughout due to the numerous references to fearless South Korean troops and so on. We spent about 2 hours at the museum before heading outside to check out the tanks and planes on display in the gardens surrounding the museum.

Dinner was a disappointing meal close to our hotel; after which we headed back to our hotel for a bath and lazy night.



Day 4 - Namdaemun market, Myeong-dong and Sinsa

We started our day with a trip to Namdaemun market. We were hoping to find a large fresh / weird produce section, but unfortunately the market largely sold the kind of stuff you'd normally see at a $2 shop!

From the market we made our way to the home of Korean cosmetics / shopping; Myeong-dong. There are so many cosmetic shops...if you miss your favourite store there is no need to double back because there will be another branch of that same store within the next 150m. Scott thoroughly enjoyed his time in Myeong-dong...he loved loitering by the front of cosmetics shops waiting for me to finish looking so he could leave! Eventually I took pity on him and decided we could go to a mall instead...

At the mall we headed to the basement area to check out the food section. There was so so so much kimchi as well as various other unidentifiable treats. We opted for some fried rice for lunch which was quite nice, though definitely didn't represent the plastic food model we selected it from..

After lunch we made our way back towards the hotel where I left Scott in our room and headed out to explore Garosu-gil, the shopping street near our hotel. I picked up some Korean cosmetics before heading back to the hotel to read for a while.

That night we headed back to Gangnam for dinner. As the Korean restaurants tend to specialise in one type of dish we had decided that it was best to choose what we wanted to eat and find a restaurant which is famous for that type of dish. We chose a jjimdak restaurant. Jjimdak is a chicken stew with veggies and sweet potato starch noodles. There were three options for spiciness, and given that all the Korean food we'd had so far was very mild we opted for the mid level. When our dish arrived it was definitely spicier than everything else we'd had so far in Korea but was quite nice.



Day 5, 6 and 7...

The next three days I had to attend a conference, but Scott was able to explore Seoul some more.

On the 5th day Scott went to Yongsan electronics market and then back to the War Museum. That night I met him near Gyeongbokgung Palace and we went to have ginseng chicken soup (samgyetang). We ordered one normal chicken and one black chicken, which is a special breed with black flesh. We couldn't tell the difference between the taste of the two dishes but apparently the black chicken is supposed to have added health benefits. The soup was nice though a bit bland.

On the 6th day Scott went to Noryangjin fish market and then to Apgujeong. That night we had some more fried chicken for dinner which wasn't as nice as the one we'd had on the first night.

The following day Scott had a lazy morning and then went to the airport to pick up our hire car. I met him at the airport and we then headed off to our next destination Gyeongju.

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Photos

View from Dora Observatory
If you look through the haze you can see the North Korean flag