DMZ

Alright, so one thing that most people see when they come to Korea is the DMZ. So of course we had to as well. With tension a little high in the area lately we postponed going but finally decided to book a tour a few weeks ago with a few other friends, Stephen, Elizabeth, and Jennifer.

If you are unfamiliar with the DMZ or The Korean Demilitarized Zone (한반도 비무장지대) it 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, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle. It is 250 kilometers long, approximately 4 km wide and is the most heavily militarized border in the world. I know, a beautiful place to go.

We booked an afternoon tour through VIP Travel. They picked us up at the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon and it took around 40 minutes on the bus to get to the Civilian Control Line of the DMZ. Once at the DMZ we visited Imjingak Park and the Bridge of Freedom where POW's were released by the north and sent back to South Korea. The bridge had to be built since all other ways across the Imjin river were destroyed during the war.

DMZ apparel for children available at the gift shop...

We then made our way to Dorasan Station, a train station built with many donations and with a lot of support from Hyundai (whose founder is actually a North Korean escapee). South Korea and North Korea had come to an agreement which would allow first freight trains and eventually passenger trains to pass into and through North Korea. This would have opened South Korea to be able to travel all the way to Europe by train. However after this very expensive and very nice train station was built the North reneged on their agreement and the train station is now a tourist attraction. You can actually take a train to Dorasan Station from Seoul and back but that is all.

List of all the people who made donations with hopes that it would
reunite them with their family in the North.


Map of what the train system would look like with access through North Korea

Next we went to the Dora Observatory where you can look over the DMZ and see the North Korean side where they have the tallest flag pole in the world (160m or 525 feet), ouuuu. They kept building it taller when they realized that South Korea's was taller than theirs and it got a little out of hand. It was actually pretty cloudy and foggy that day and we couldn't see too much, but there isn't really much to see anyways. There is a village where the flag pole is, but no one knows if anyone actually lives there.

There were signs all along the road warning of mines.

Finally we visited the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel and DMZ Theater. In the 1970's South Korea discovered 4 tunnels dug by North Korea to gain entry to South Korea with plans of sending troops through to invade. We saw the 3rd Tunnel, we weren't allowed to bring our camera so there are no pictures. Is is a pretty small tunnel with most people having to duck to pass through, no more than 2 people walking next to each other could get through. It is pretty deep and the tunnel that South Korea created to get down to the one made by the north is pretty long and steep. It was not a fun trek back up. There is a train that takes people down but our tour didn't include that luxury.

Elizabeth and Stephen, Jennifer was on the other side with me.

Busan, South Korea

As we are nearing the end of our time here is Korea, Don and I have made it a priority to visit the last few places that we wanted to see in the country. One of these being the second biggest city called Busan. We left on a Saturday morning and took the KTX (the speed train) there and returned on Sunday evening. The KTX travels at around 300 km/hr so it only took 2 1/2 hours to get there, saving us a lot of time since Busan is at the most southern part of the country and we live almost as far north as you can go. Once in Busan we made our way to the Love Motel where we had booked a room for the night to drop off our bag before heading out to make the most out of the short time we had there. For those of you wondering what a Love Motel is, well its the Asian version of a no-tell motel, but it is also a cheat option for people traveling. They are everywhere, if you have been following the blog you will know that our school puts up new teachers in a Love Motel until the teacher they are replacing moves out of their apartment. You can pick out a Love Motel by the discreet exterior. The entrances to the parking lots are draped with cords or flaps that look like the entrance to a car wash in order to hide the cars inside. The motel that we stayed at was actually very nice and much cheaper than staying at a western hotel.

Busan Station

Love Motel Room

We managed to fit in quite a bit over the 30 odd hours that we were in Busan. We began our excursions by going to Beomeosa Buddhist Temple. It was on a mountain, but thankfully easily accessible by car. We took the subway to the closest stop and then a taxi to the top. The area is beautiful and there were tons of people there just enjoying being away from the city. There were a lot of beautiful shrines, but we definitely enjoyed the different kinds of trees that we saw there as well.

After leaving the temple we made our way to Jagalchi Fish Market and then to Gwangalli Beach. The fish market is huge and is right next to the Busan Harbour.  You can buy both fresh and dried seafood there.  There are also spots where they will prepare it for you to eat right there.  I say prepare, not cook because most of it is eaten raw.

 
Gwangalli Beach is a really nice beach right on the edge of a city landscape. We were there for a couple of hours, just walking around and getting some dinner. We found a nice Italian restaurant that served non-Korean style Italian food, but just Italian food, which was nice. Don and I shared a pasta dish and a pizza.

While we were walking down the beach we found something that we thought was pretty interesting. We had noticed a huge stage set up at the far end of the beach and thought that maybe there was going to be a concert later on in the evening, but we could hear constant talking over the speakers that of course we could not understand. So when we finally made our way down to that side of the beach we took a look to see what it was. There were two guys sitting at computers on the stage with a big screen behind them and they were playing Starcraft, a computer game. There were hundreds of people sitting in front of the stage cheering and watching. It was pretty weird. Apparently it was the "Proleague Finals". I had always heard my kids talk about being a pro-gamer but thought that it was just a kid wanting to play games as a job, now I know.

On Sunday Don and I did the Busan City Bus Tour. It leaves from Busan Station and goes all around the city. You can get off at several different stops and get back on when one of the next buses come by as many times as you want. The tour buses are mostly double decker buses, which we knew from their website. However the pictures on the website show buses with roofs. The one that we got on did not have a roof, and it was hot and very sunny that day. Sooo when Don asked if he should bring the sunscreen, I guess I should have said yes. Oops.

Anyways, on the bus tour we decided to get off at Haeundae Beach, the most popular beach in the city. We chose to stop though because it is also where the Busan Aquarium is. The Aquarium is actually under the beach. The aquarium was pretty similar to the aquarium that we went to in the COEX Mall in Seoul. It was a decent size and there were a lot of different species to see. We enjoyed ourselves and it was nice to get out of the heat and the sun.

 People at the beach trying to not get a tan.

Upon exiting the aquarium we entered a food court. In this food court was an ice cream place that had Dairy Queen posters and menus and blizzard cups and everything. We were pretty excited not having seen a Dairy Queen since we were in China. So of course we took pictures and then tried to order a blizzard. But apparently this was all just there to tease us, as the lady said they didn't have any of that stuff. Booo, oh well.

The other place that we decided to check out on the tour was the UN Cemetery for soldiers killed during the Korean War. We are so glad that we went. It was beautiful. The cemetery was obviously designed with a lot of thought and creativity. They used plants from all the different countries that fought in the war throughout the cemetery. It was extremely well groomed and clean. The monuments were amazing to look at and set a reflective mood.

Although we only got off at the two stops, we were able to see much of the city from the bus. Busan is a nice city although not too different in appearance from Seoul. The biggest difference to us was the amount of pollution. It was much clearer in Busan and the outside of buildings seemed to be much cleaner as well. The tour bus took us back to Busan station where we had put our bag in a locker (locked using fingerprint recognition). We had a late lunch and made our way to the train platform where we caught the KTX back to Seoul.