Please Pass the Scissors

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My old roommate Dan has been living in Korea for 3 years now so a trip to Asia wouldn't be complete without a visit to his new hometown of Busan, South Korea. 2.5 hours on a plane and 5 hours on a bus brought us to this port city in the south east of the country.

The first thing to note about Korea was the hospitality....probably due to the fact that Dan met us literally as we stepped off the bus, brought us back to his apartment, fed us food, and stuffed us full of rye! We ended up at "Thursday's Bar" on the beach and they served deep fried spagetti and curry popcorn.

Although having visited the largest and busiest fish market in the world in Tokyo, Japan, we were very excited to have dan bring us by Busan's fish market. The first thing we noted right off the bat was this market was less chaotic, but it arguably had more character amongst the vendors. Giant octopus and squid were laying right on the street, still moving in a lot of cases. At other stalls, you could have the Ajumma (old lady) pick out your exact fish, and have it killed and cut sashimi style in front of you for lunch. This market was definately more nitty gritty than what we have seen up to this point. By the way, ever wonder how to kill an octopus? The most defining moment in the Busan fish market was witnessing an octopus (which we presumed was a pet to the lady whose smock it was clinging to) being turned inside out and head ripped off for the customer to take home with them, yum yum! We caught this all on video and hope to post it soon.

We were treated that afternoon to authentic korean-style cooking (by Dan's girlfriend, EunJu) including Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew) and Bulgogi (marinated sliced beef, fried); this was arguably our best meal while in Korea. This meal ended up being just a warm up for Korean BBQ later that eveing. We met up with a few other of Dan's friends and went to a hole in the wall place to enjoy Pork Galbi (Pork Short Ribs marinated in a Korean style Soy Sauce) which came with many side dishes and lettuce. The most important thing to know about dining in Korea is that it is almost a cardinal sin to ever pour your own drink; you must always make sure everyone else around you is taken care of first. While throwing the pieces of meat on the grill literally "in" the middle of the table (heated by hot charcoals), we wondered how we could be expected to eat such large morsels without any "normal" cutlery; enter the scissors! You actually cut the meat up with a pair of regular kitchen scissors!

The next day, after a beautiful ride up the mountains in Busan, and stopping off for some BulDalk (Bul means fire and Dalk is the word for Chicken; this was extremely spicy and the song "ring of fire" was going through our heads the next morning) we hopped on the KTX (high speed train which reaches speeds exceeding 300 km/h) and headed to the country's capital of Seoul.

No tour to Seoul would be complete without a visit to the DMZ (demilitarized zone), so off we went. The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half. It is 248 km long and approximately 4 km wide, and is the most heavily armed border in the world (shout out to Wikipedia!). Evidences of recent war like barbed wire fences, land mine areas and large anti-tank walls (huge blocks of concrete filled with dynamite that are ready to blow in case North Korean tanks were to infiltrate) flank the route to the 3rd infiltration tunnel (our first stop along the tour).
To date there have been 4 tunnels found by South Korea which have been arguably proven to have been dug by the North Koreans in order to make surprise attacks into the South Korean side. The 3rd infiltration tunnel that we visited is the largest of the 4 and was estimated to be able to transport 30, 000 troops across the border in an hour without detection if it was ever put to use. When confronted about digging the tunnels, North Korea tried to cover it up by telling South Korea that these were old coal mining tunnels that are now abandoned. After further invesigation, South Korea did in fact find coal dust lining the tunnel walls, but core samples of the rock in the tunnels revealed that the rock was not the type of rock that exists in coal mines and that North Korea in fact "painted" the walls with coal dust as part of the cover up!
The second stop of the tour was a lookout post actually overlooking the 4 km wide DMZ. Because nobody has inhabited this part of the country for over 5 decades, it is home to many species of animals that don't exist outside of this area. The most interesting part about this stop however were the two large flagpoles sitting on either side of the DMZ. The first one, standing at 98.4 metre (328 ft) tall was built by South Korea in the 1980's. This obviously didn't sit well with North Korea so they responded by building an even bigger one on their side which stands at 160 metres (525 ft) and is the tallest in the world.
The last stop on the tour brought us to Dorasan Station. This station is the last stop along the train lines heading from South Korea into the North. Since December 2007, this rail opened up so that raw materials could be brought across the border into North Korea to be made into final products and then be shipped back into the South. Along with improving relations between these two nations, the opening of this line also created new jobs for workers on either side of the border and also linked the missing connection so that all rail lines stemming all the way from Europe, Russia, China and Siberia could now connect. Unfortunately on the day that we visited, this line was once again shut down by North Korea due to recent unease between the countries.

The final morning in Korea before heading off to catch our plane boud to Singapore, we were whisked off to a special Canadian treat; breakfast buffet at the Big Rock Brewery (an actual working brewery making the Edmonton-based delight!). Although there's nothing like ramen for breakfast (and endless meat cooked on a bbq for dinner) it was nice to have some good 'ol bacon eggs and maple syrup in the morning again!

Next Stop: Singapore!

Noteworthy places in South Korea:

* Thursdays for endless bowls of fried spaghetti and curry popcorn located right on the beach of Busan.
* Busan Fish Market located in Jagalchi area
* Big Rock Brewery in Seoul for an amazing breakfast buffet

P.S. We ran out of time to post pictures so check back soon!

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