DMZ much more of interest than rebuilt palaces

---

As I settled into the "love motel", I still had a few more things to accomplish before leaving on Saturday -- shopping and the DMZ tour. I spent most of Thursday shopping on the south-side of the city. While the area I picked to stay is good for the evenings and dinner, there isn't much shopping around here, so I headed to another part of town. I still didn't have much luck. There were lots of luxury brand stores like Prada, Gucci, Boss, but not much else other than for teenagers. The department stores had tonnes of suits, but little in casual wear. I walked some of the sidestreets around the high-end malls, and I was able to have some better luck, but most of the clothes were still too trendy and too expensive for this 46-year old. I ended up buying a CK sweater just so I didn't feel that my shopping time was a complete waste.

It is an interesting shopping experience here. On top of having an overwhelming number of staff at department stores, the staff will also trail you around like a puppy diog, as I move from item to item. This isn't like shopping at the Bay.

In the evening, I went to the Nanta show which is non-verbal show that has been around Seoul for the past 10 years. It is very popular and the show has travelled around the world. The 90-minute show was entertaining. Even more so when one of the volunteers they choose was ME! I'm not sure why I always get picked as a voluteer for these kinds of things, but it is a bit too much for my liking. They dragged me up to taste some of the food they were cooking. The scene is set in a kitchen restaurant, with the help of the boss' nephew, the cooks were trying to prepare dinner for a wedding parting in one hour. There was a lot of goofing off in the kitchen, but everything came in under the wire. There was another purpose for bringing me up, as they need a groom for the wedding they were catering to. The other volunteer was an American girl. I didn't know that was the plan, but it only came to light at the end when they showed our picture up on the screen at the end of the play as the wedding couple.

I used a taxi for the first time to get to the play. This was quite a easy process. All the cab drivers have a GPS unit and both of my drivers spoke a bit of english. The frustrating part was moving through the traffic, which was particularly painful. Thank God for the subway... One cab driver even rounded down the fare! Tipping is not even part of the culture here.

Friday was the DMZ/Panmunjom tour. This was a full day tour and it was quite expensive at $125. I had no idea the that North Koreans were as aggressive as they have in trying to attack the South. They attempted building tunnels underneath the border and even had a few commando groups infiltrate South Korea during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. While there was 33 of us on the half-day tour of the DMZ line, I was the only one who went on the Panmunjom tour. This tour took us in the UN controlled area straddling the DMZ line. This is where all peace talks are held. Panmunjom is the village where the original amritice treaty was signed in 1953. There was a LOT of security to go through to get into this part of Korea. We also had an army escort throughout the trip. The DMZ line is the most fortified border on the planet. While tensions have eased, there was a real sense of drama in this area. North and South Korean soldiers stare across at each other here. The DMZ line that cuts right through some of the buildings. I certainly enjoyed this trip more so than the touring the rebuilt palaces. The symbolism through out this area was so overwhelming. Whether it was a train station going to nowhere, or the size of the flags on each side of the DMZ, to the size of the villages along the DMZ, it was all there to symbolize something.

I have come to appreciate on this trip how important density and mass transit is to a city. I personally need a city with denisity that allows people to fill the streets at nights. With this density brings people to the streets to eat, to shop, and to be entertained. These types of shops and services need to be concentrated to bring the people to them. All of this can't work with out the proper mass tranist plan, which needs to be focused on subways are light rail transit. Buses are difficult to figure out for visitors and eventually play a big part in clogging the streets.

Eating alone on these trips has't been as bad as I thought, as there is always lots of people watching. In particular, I have been trying to master the chopsticks after all of these years. I have spent hours watching the Koreans use theirs. I even came across a Big Rock Brewery last night... Go figure...

---