Here is what we have done so far...
DMZ Tour
Thats right, folks, I have seem North Korea. I have seen North Korean soldiers and their flag - the whole thing. Well, not quite.
Mum booked the tour through the hotel, we are staying at the P&J Hotel which I am pretty sure is in Myeongdong. The hotel is nice, the staff are trying to be helpful but are failing at it.
We wanted to do a tour that went to the JSA area in Panmunjeom, which is the area in the DMZ where soldiers form both Koreas and also from the UN are in the one place and have meetings. It was where peace talks are held and I think its where the cease fire agreement was made. I was under the impression that we would see all this but when we got there it turned out we were only on the half day tour and it did't go there. So that was disappointing.
We did however go to the Peace Park, the 3rd Tunnel and also to the Observatory. If you ever come to Korea I totally recommend doing some sort of tour to the DMZ.
The Demilitarised Zone
Just a quick side note for those who have not been reading my blog (in that case welcome, and I hope you enjoy) and those who have not been paying attention I will give a brief run down on the DMZ.
The Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ, is the strip of land separating North and South Korea. The DMZ is 250km long and around 4km wide and is the most heavily militarised boarder in the world. Technically the Koreas are still at war, and the tension between them can totally be felt in this area. It has been this way since 1953 when the Armistice Agreement was signed, and its not changing any time soon.
Anyway, so we started at the Peace Park, which you can see North Korea from but not well. They have a blown up train there and lots of monuments talking about peace. Then we headed off to the 3rd tunnel. These tunnels are both amazing and ridiculous.
There are 4 tunnels all up that the South have found, which are tunnels dug out by the North to infiltrate and invade the South. They run under the DMZ from the North to South, and were found in different circumstances.
The first tunnel was found I think by a scout who felt vibrations or something. it is more shallow than the other tunnels. When it was discovered there was a bit of a shoot out and both Korean and American troops were killed.
Now the guide told us today that the rest of the tunnels were found with the help of spies in North Korea, but Wikipedia has said that the 3rd and 4th ones were found with the help of North Korean defectors... Who knows? Either way the other tunnels were found. They discovered them by pumping water down pipes and when the water flowed through the pipe they knew they found a tunnel. The 3rd tunnel is especially amazing as if it had been completed it would have allowed something like 30,000 troops though per hour plus heavy artillery. Scary though! And here is the ridiculous part - the North deny that they built the tunnels - they say it is propaganda from the South. Yet, all evidence in the tunnels says they were made from the Northern side. So THEN they said that the tunnels were disused coal mines. They even slopped coal all over the inside of the tunnel to prove their point. Yet the whole area is granite and there is no geological way that coal would be present there.
We were able to go into the 3rd tunnel and look around, but we were not allowed to take photos. Even bags are not permitted down in the tunnel. It was a wide tunnel, 2 people could walk side by side but even I had to bend over at some points (I am about 156 centimetres tall - barely 5'2) so it was a squeeze if you were tall.
Then we went to the observatory and looked at the North through binoculars. I saw the guard tower and it had North Korean troops walking around. they looked like they were just chatting to be honest, and some of the South Korean guys on the gate were joking and fooling around. I hear they are waaaay more alert and focused at the JSA. Looks like I will never know.
We also went to the station. They have built a station that can take passengers all the way to Pyeongyang (capital of North Korea) but it doesn't go anywhere. I found that quite sad.
Was it worth it? Yes, and this particular tour only cost 46,000won. And the tour guide was pretty good, he was funny and spoke English really well and was pretty cute - very tall for a Korean bloke. The company was VIP Travel. Look them up. But ask to do the JSA tour, it costs more but I think it would be worth seeing the extra area. I did smell a fair bit of propaganda on this tour, I wonder how much is true and all that. But I am unlikely to ever visit the North, especially since I am working here. I'm pretty tight with South Korea.
Another funny thing - South Korea make a heap of money out of these tours, especially the 3rd tunnel visit. North Korea caught wind of the whole thing, and know that tours are run and all that, and said they should get money from the tours too. Apparently the South said "Sure, admit you built the tunnels and you can have a slice of the pie". Lol, sif they will ever do that...
Kinda creepy to think that there are probably a heap of other tunnels out there. And the DMZ is littered with mines, so its hard to go searching.
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| Anti-Aircraft missile, and some mines |
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| There are live mines still littered through the DMZ |
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| North Korea! Somewhere out there... |
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| Train to Pyeongyang... Hopefully someday in the future a train will actually come |
Gyeongbokgung Palace
I will need to consult a guide book or some of my pamphlets to get the real download on this place, but to sum it up its a palace that was used in Joseon Period but built earlier in the Chosun Period. I think. It has been used on and off since something like 1394 so its pretty old but I think it was in really good condition. In saying that the Korean Government really love their National Treasures so they are preserved really well and are fixed up all the time.
I really liked this palace - the grounds were huge and the whole place was open to guests. Some of the building you were not able to enter but you could look in from the outside and get a really good look. The old kitchen area was closed off but it is being restored.
Entrance to this palace cost a whopping 3000won. Basically $3 AUD.
And right outside the gate is the Korean Folk Museum which is free entry. We wandered in to that, not really knowing what is was, and because of the holiday they had all these cool stalls set up and lots of cultural things going on. There was heaps to see, and it was all FREE! And busy! But Seoul itself is quite... I expected sooo many more people and a heap of traffic. I guess its all because of Chuseok. Suits me!
The palace grounds are huge, there is a wall around the whole thing but a lot of the outside is gardens and lakes. The main buildings are set up like the Forbidden City in China, which seems to be a common trend in Asian palaces. The one I visited in Vietnam was set up the same way but on a much smaller scale.
This palace had a heap of inner and outer walls and heaps of inner buildings. There were guide books in English and they ran guided tours in English every few hours. They also had tours and books in Chinese and Japanese. It was a really awesome afternoon, made even better by the fact it was so cheap. We then caught the subway back to the hotel and now we are chilling out here waiting to go to dinner. (Note - at the time of writing, we were chilling. As I am waiting to post this until I put pics up too, by the time you read I will be chilling back in Songtan.)
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| Throne room |
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| This spot was beautiful! |
I have no idea what we are going to eat tonight but I will start taking photos of my food again so you can see some food stuff. And I will add that too. Tomorrow we will head off to Busan on the KTX which is the super fast train... I will be the judge of super fast...
I love being a tourist!
Till later,
xoxoxoxoxo
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