I'm a Seoul man, do do doo, do do doo

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Well not really, we're really doing a bit of Seoul searching more than anything else.............

Meanwhile back at the ranch.............

So Seoul huh, that'll shock your system, for sure (as my new dutch mate says, all the time. I dinnae ken his name so I just call him 'Dutch Guy', he doesn't seem to mind).

We were speaking to some dude in Australia about Korea, he said he went to Seoul and lasted a day before getting the first flight out, his reason was that it was dead big and busy and noisy and polluted and that but we though that after being in Japan for the month before that it would be a breeze, WRONG!

It is brutal, huge, noisy, polluted yeah, and it stinks, big time. It really hit us for six when we arrived, it's kinda like one huge ghetto, some bits are better than others, but none are great. It's a real shock to the system for us as I suppose as this (and maybe Fiji) is the first time we've been to a country that is really underdeveloped, it's not better or worse than anywhere else, just different, and harder to live day-to-day.

Seoul, in parts, is also like one huge army base, there are millions of soldiers around here, South Koreans, US Army, US Marines, UN peacekeepers and even NATO troops, that doesn't add to it's appeal either and there are loads of Americans civilians here too, either teaching English or just as part of the Armed forces civi-street, it's kind of like a big Arbroath. I didn't just compare Seoul, home of the 1988 Olympics, to Arbroath did I? Scratch that last comment.

So we're not huge fans of Seoul but we did go on a mental day-trip to the South/North Korean border and toured around the demilitarized zone (DMZ) which was pretty awesome, the coldest point of the cold war and still the most heavily fortified border in the world, and they take it deadly serious, as you would I guess when your 'neighbour' has an army of 3.5 million soldiers, some 12% of the population, murder.

All the roads leading around the border have these huge structures, built like bridges over the roads, that are actually packed with dynamite ready to blow if the North ever do invade, and boy have they tried.

When we toured the DMZ they show you some 'infiltration' tunnels that the North have dug all the way from Pyongyang, one of them, the 3rd infiltration tunnel is 2m wide, 2m high and 1635m long that stretched over a mile into South Korean soil. The sneaky commies also painted the tunnel, made of granite, black to look like coal so if (and when) the South Koreans found it the North just said it was an old coal tunnel that had been there for donkeys years, dinghies, pity about the dynamite that was found all around the joint.

We thought Fiona had taken a hit when we toured the tunnel, it's real low in places so you have to wear a hard-hat, a couple of times in quick succession Fiona banged her head against the low roof of the cave and went down like she's been shot, rolling about and everything, "I've been hit, we got a black hawk down" and that, she was murder, talk about paranoid......

You get real close to the Northern troops, you can see them through binoculars pointing their rifles at you, tip-top, you're not meant to take photo's but I got a sneaky couple in before I got caught. I don't know if that's the reason that our tour guide nearly killed us on the way home as we was annoyed that I kept snapping away but he was a mental driver. At one point he decided at the last minute to take slip road of the motorway, he then changed his mind and pulled back on to the motorway but got stuck half way and we ended up running in to a pile of cones before screeching off the slip road anyway, not teckle.

We also took a trip to the Seoul World Cup stadium, the largest capacity football stadium in Asia (68,000). It's a cracking complex with a cinema, swimming centre, huge shopping mall, the works, and the stadium is top class as you'd expect from a modern one like this. Me and Dutch Guy had a good wander around, it was totally access all areas on our self guided tour and a great way to spend an afternoon seeing behind the scenes at a huge ground like this.

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Photos

Andrew and Fiona flank a South Korean soldier
at Dorasan Station, the last stop before the North Korean border.

Fiona makes a run for communism
one last hurdle to cross....

Families split by the border
a memorial to the divide that has hurt millions of Korean families.

War, what war?
South Korean soldiers take a load off, fag break.

Freedom Bridge
The new one on the left replaces the last one that was blown up. I don't know why it's a freedom bridge though as it only goes to the top of South Korea.

A country divided
whose people are trying to push it back together, a unified Korea?

The cavalry has arrived.
stop it, this is a serious situation.

The North, the flagpole marks the start of their country
North Korea doesn't have any trees, that's how you know where the South stops and the North begins. Oh and that huge army presence.

The tour guide who almost killed us
Pick a lane, any lane just don't hit the bollards in the middle..... too late.

Next stop North Korea...
North Korea next station stop.
One day maybe, with it will come a direct rail route from London to Seoul

Last army base in South Korea
can you spot it through the camouflage?

Seoul World Cup Stadium
Home of FC Seoul and the opening ceremony of the 2002 World Cup.

Behind the goals
at Seoul World Cup stadium, only there are no goals, it's pre-season.

Along the touchline
at Seoul World Cup Stadium

Andrew in the dugout
in Dick's seat, at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

The players tunnel
at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Andrew the gaffer
in the managers chair at Seoul World Cup Stadium.