Blogs from DMZ, South Korea, Asia

We set a 5.30 am alarm for our trip to the Demilitarized Zone and were in Reception awaiting collection bang on time. Unfortunately, Reception took a phone call to indicate the trip organisers were running late, though only by ten minutes. Ho hum. We were first on the bus so managed to bagsy the front seats. We stopped at various other pick-up points where feeder buses brought in more travellers, often after lengthy waits. Our driver clearly didn't like hanging around but our guide, Gemma (I'm pretty sure that wasn't her real name!), was quite relaxed about it all. In the end the bus was reasonably full and Gemma gave us all a potted history of the N and S Korea split and the various moves to re-unite the two countries. You can look up the ... read more

Nachdem 1945 mit der Kapitulation Japans der Zweite Weltkrieg beendet worden war, wurde die Provinz Chōsen, welche dem Gebiet des seit 1910 in das Japanische Kaiserreich eingegliederten und kolonisierten Koreas entsprach, von den Siegermächten entlang des 38. Breitengrads in zwei Besatzungszonen aufgeteilt. Der Süden wurde von US-amerikanischen Truppen besetzt, der Norden kam unter Kontrolle der Roten Armee. Als 1948 zuerst im Süden und wenige Monate später auch im Norden Staaten ausgerufen wurden, die Anspruch auf die gesamte Koreanische Halbinsel erhoben, eskalierte der Konflikt 1950 zum Koreakrieg. Im Waffenstillstandsvertrag wurde 1953 die Einrichtung einer entmilitarisierten Zone vereinbart, die beide Staaten voneinander trennt. (Wikipedia) Im Zeitraum von 1974 bis 1990 wurden insgesamt vier Tunnel gefunden, die vom Norden aus unter der DMZ in den Süden gegraben wurden; um im... read more

Hyundais ready for shipment filled the Port of Incheon as we arrived in South Korea this morning. It was a little chilly when we walked to our bus this morning for our tour but the sun was shining and there was no smog from China. When we arrived at the DMZ area we were surprised to see rides and gift shops near the Freedom Bridge. We used the restroom facility there and then reboarded the bus to go to the DMZ third tunnel. We were warned by our guide to take pictures only from behind this yellow line on the observation deck. The line was four feet from the wall and had view finders that were in the way. After taking our photos we approached the wall and obeyed the rule until a huge group of ... read more

While intense and intimidating, I did not find the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) the scariest place on earth so called by former President Bill Clinton. I took a USO sponsored tour to the DMZ a few days ago and was actually kind of surprised how calm it appeared. After a US Army briefing, we were escorted on a bus from Camp Bonifas at the DMZ boundary right through to Panmunjeom which straddles the military demarcation line (MDL). Each country has 2 buildings right across the MDL (called the Joint Security Area, or JSA, here) and we could enter one of the South Korean's where there were 2 South Korean soldiers on guard: one standing across the MDL; the other was entirely in North Korea. We then proceeded to checkpoint #3 which, through a demarcation oddity, is ... read more

This story really starts before I even get to South Korea. At the end of September I booked myself a two month trip to Bali, Indonesia. I specifically chose to fly Korean Air, and paid a bit more for the privilege, because I enjoyed flying with them so much before. I was scheduled to leave at 11:50 pm on Tuesday the 23rd and arrive on Thursday the 25th with a 12 hour layover in Seoul. At 1:30pm on Tuesday I got an e-mail from the third party website through which I had booked the tickets "your flight is no longer operational, would you like to reschedule to Thursday the 25th or cancel your booking for a full refund? Please respond ASAP" W.T.F. I wanted neither of those things, I wanted to leave when I was scheduled ... read more