Heart and Seoul

Greetings,

Last weekend we continued on with our series of weekend trips by heading off for another visit to Seoul. On Friday evening we took an over-night bus and arrived at 3am. The reason for this was simple: we had booked a tour starting Saturday at 7am, and had no choice but to endure the dreaded red-eye.

We booked our hostel and specifically chose one that had a 24-hour reception. When we arrived in Seoul we got our cabbie to call the hostel for directions (there's no such thing as a simple address in Korea), but there was no answer. This really should have been an indicator of things to come, but being eternal optimists, we pressed ahead and told the driver to go to the subway station nearest our hostel.

(Read in voice of Rod Serling) Imagine a place so removed from reality, where rules cease to exist, and commonsense takes a backseat to the unexpected. Ladies and gentlemen, you have entered the Twilight Zone...do do do do do do do do do do do do...

Anyways, unfortunately for us, instead of arriving to a 24-hour reception, we arrived to a darkened doorstep with nary a hotel worker in sight. What we did find was an old Korean woman asleep on the floor of what appeared to be a living room. After unintentionally waking her up, she in turn woke up the "front desk" guy (except there was no desk in sight), who apparently had no idea why we were there. After trying to overcharge us he showed us to our room and provided the quote of the weekend by responding to our query "bedding? what is this bedding?" True story. To help you avoid this situation should you find yourself in Seoul, we've provided a pictorial review of Happy Road Guesthouse....


Moving on...the main reason for coming to Seoul was to see the DMZ (the heavily-guarded border between North and South Korea). Our tour set out from the city at 7am and we arrived at the US military base just south of the border an hour or so later.

Here we are receiving an informative power-point presentation from a US soldier - the main purpose of which was to make sure none of us dumb tourists started World War 3.

After signing a form stating that we didn't hold the US Army liable for any injuries or deaths due to skirmishes, kidnapping, or random tourist beatings, and after affixing our nifty visitor badges, we set off down the road to the JSA (Joint Security Area). For those who don't know, the JSA is the area on the border where the two sides come to have talks, and was the location of the 1953 armistice agreement.

Now, we joke around on this blog, but this was actually pretty heavy. Our soldier-come-tour guide reiterated about 20 times that we were not to point or make gestures of any kind, or to fall out of formation while walking, or the tour would be immediately cancelled. Apparently the North videotapes everything they can see from their side of the JSA, and it's fairly serious if they catch tourists from the South doing anything that could be construed as "communicating" with the North. Needless to say, a fair amount of stress followed as we both realised that we just love pointing to stuff (especially Shayne as this is his signature move).


Here we are about 20 metres from the border. The building on the other side is in North Korea. The blue buildings in the foreground straddle the border and are used for joint talks.


You just gotta love digital zoom. Here's probably the best shot of a North Korean we're going to get without going into Pyongyang. In his left hand you can just make out the binoculars he was peering at us with only moments before. (Jo's note: I really wanted to point at this guy!)


This is the concrete divide that marks the actual border within the JSA. You'll note that this shot was taken from the north. Yes, we made it to North Korea - we were only 5 feet inside, but it definitely counts.


Here's one of the South's soldiers, staring down the North (but only when tours are about). He's half-way behind the building (to make himself less of a target), and he's in the taekwondo stance with dark sunglasses to intimidate the enemy. Forget the enemy, we were intimidated! Note the bottom of his pant legs - they're filled with ball bearings from the days when the North outnumbered the South, so that they would sound like a larger fighting force.


Here's a self-portrait of us in North Korea. It counts I tells ya!


Here's Jo trying not to laugh (Jo's note: nervous laughter), imitating the Korean soldier. It looks like fun, but this was just after instructions that this guy will "put you to the ground" if you so much as brush past him, or try to move behind him. Also a little nerve-racking is the door behind him - which is the actual reason he's there. This door leads to North Korea and at various times the North's army has tried to come in while a tour was going on. No incidents this time though.

After leaving the border site, we headed for a look-out station, where we could get some good pictures of the North. We could tell which side was North Korea because the hills were completely barren, while the South's hills were covered in trees. Apparently there's a wee bit of a fuel shortage up north, and the wood has long-since been harvested for cooking and heating. Sad.


Here's a shot of "Propaganda Village" as dubbed by the South. This may well be the tallest flagpole in the world and the flag alone weighs 600 pounds. Apparently the buildings below are unoccupied...it did appear a little ghost town-like.


This is the Bridge of No Return, where the POWs were swapped after the armistice. Apparently the POWs were lined up and told to go to whatever side they wanted, but that they could never go back....hence the name.

After a visit to the gift shop (there's always a gift shop - even at the most hostile border in the world!), we headed out of the base to check out the "3rd Infiltration Tunnel", a tunnel the South discovered the North digging towards Seoul in the 70's.


Unfortunately they didn't allow any photos to be taken inside, so you'll have to make do with this shot of the entrance and a little imagination. It was really long, dark, and tunnel-like if that helps.

After getting back to the city, we found another (way better) hostel and gave our friend, Soon Tae, a call (you'll remember him from such blog entries as our first trip to Seoul). We met after dinner and headed off in search of a place to relax with some beer and to catch-up with each other.


We rejected this option - one of a series of tents serving copious amounts of seafood to hungry patrons. The stall-keeper didn't want her picture taken, but as you can see her customers were more than happy to oblige.


We eventually found just the right pub (after rejecting a few more for being a little too fashionable...we were in jeans and hoodies, after all). Here's Shayne and Soon Tae enjoying a tall, cold one.

The next day Soon Tae joined us again, and we set off to check out some more sights within the city limits. Not on the itinerary was this public work-out area, a common-place sight in all Korean parks.

Here's Soon Tae putting Chuck Norris out of a job: it's a lean, mean, workout machine.


Here's Jo demonstrating the poor man's elliptical.

Well, after that brief interlude of levity, on to more heavy stuff: Seodamun Prison (pronounced suh-day-moon).

Before going past the front gate, we should give a little backgrounder. In 1910 Japan officially annexed Korea, and they were soon building prisons to hold the growing dissident movement. What can't be said with enough sobriety is that the Japanese occupiers held political prisoners in brutal conditions and tortured them regularly. Seodamun prison has now been turned into a museum to pay tribute to those who stood up for their country's freedom and paid the ultimate price.


The prison was chilling even in its design. The wards radiate from a central area so they can all be observed at the same time. Here's Shayne and Soon Tae exploring one of them. During the height of the occupation, the cells on either side would have been packed so tightly with prisoners that they had to take sleeping shifts due to lack of space. In the summer, the evaporated breath and sweat in the air was so heavy that prisoners could barely see each other.

Here we are in one of the solitary confinement cells. These would have been totally dark when someone was in them.


Here's a shot of the outside of the prison building.


On the edge of the property we discovered this watch tower that appears untouched since the 1945 surrender.

I don't think we can say enough about this place and how disturbing it was. It really brought to life for us conditions under the Japanese occupation - something we had never even heard about before coming to Korea.

After the prison, we headed over to the War Museum...apparently we couldn't get enough of the heavy history lessons this weekend. Here's a couple of the cooler exhibits...

A Korean warrior's outfit.

A five-barreled gun.

Shayne and I taking 5.

After taking in some military history, we moved on to the Korean War exhibit.

This is probably one of the only pieces of modern art that we've come across that makes sense. It's a tear-drop made up of dog tags, wrapped in barbed wire.


Around the main Korean War room, there are exhibits for each of the countries that participated in the war. Here's the one for Canada - yup, looks just like us.


After 2 hours wandering around the museum we were a little stir-crazy. We headed outside to the gallery of military equipment, and Shayne and Soon Tae demonstrated their manliness. The only difference between the two of them is that Soon Tae has likely actually trained on one of these, and Shayne has likely used one in a video game (all Korean men do 2 years of military service).

Well, that's our trip - and likely our last one - to Seoul. Now we feel like we know the city a lot better - and we were really happy that Soon Tae was in town to hang out again.

Tune in next time for our trip to Gwangju - sight of the 1980 massacre of protestors - and find out why it is that Shayne and Jo just can't get enough of the heavy stuff.

Cheers,
Shayne and Jo

Wanna' Bang?

Greetings

Well, we've been busy crossing things off our to-do list and today we have a real doozy for you (yes, a doozy. Who doesn't love a good doozy?).

The Koreans truly love their rooms (bang, in Korean). You can find singing rooms, board game rooms, study rooms, hang out rooms, hook up rooms, and even bobbing for apple rooms (well, okay, I made that last one up. But it would be cool). They also love DVD rooms, which as of last week, we've finally experienced.

DVD rooms are simple and they're basically a cross between a movie theatre and your living room. You rent a video and then you watch it in one of the provided rooms (complete with a big screen, surround sound, and a lot of privacy...wink, wink).

In fact, DVD rooms have become a sort of underground love spot, if you will, for young couples in Korea. Most young people here live at home and under the watchful eye of Ma and Pa, so these rooms have turned into a refuge of privacy in this over-populated country.

Anyway, on with the story.

Here's a shot of the outside of the DVD room (the building is about ten minutes from our place):



K1 DVD Bang was the lucky establishment we finally decided to try out. It's located right above the "sexy bar". But that's a different blog for a different day.

But before we could go inside we had to walk the gauntlet of yummy vendors.

Mmmm boiled corn, silkworm pupae, and chestnuts...together at last.

After getting our fill of street food we made the climb to the DVD room.

That's shot of the selection. While slightly smaller than a Blockbuster video store back home the choices weren't bad overall. It had a nice mix of Korean, English, and greasy Russian porn titles. For those of you keeping track we went with 'Babel'.

Here's a shot of the long walk to our room:


The odd lighting makes you feel like you're on a spaceship or in a really bad horror movie.

The set-up in the room was actually pretty sweet. A large screen, nice speakers, and a faux leather bed/couch (with an easy-clean wipe-down surface).

See what I mean? That's pretty cool.

Notice the blackened windows? I just hope our disinfection of the furniture before sitting on it went far enough. Just kidding, the place was pretty clean.

There, ya have it. The big screen in all its glory.

The idea of a DVD room is pretty good. I can see the attraction they hold and would definitely be interested in using one again.

The only problem is that they end up costing more than an actual trip to the cinema.

But for an 18 year-old Korean I suppose that's a small price to pay for two hours sans mom and dad.

Cheers

Shayne

Has anybody seen my Big Extra?

Greetings

Jo and I made a long list of all the famous Korean sites and establishments that we want to visit before we leave and this week I'm proud to present to you with a real gem.

Korean cuisine is world renowned, and perhaps no place further epitomizes that than the traditional Korean hamburger joint "Mec Doh Nal De".

Or as we westerners would say:


Ah yes, who doesn't love a trip to good old McDonalds? Oddly enough until the other day we hadn't yet visited a McDonalds in Korea. But we figured that we might as well visit one and see how they compare to back home. McDonalds is famous for offering the same menu choices worldwide, but they usually contain some sort of strange local contraptions as well. Once in Maine I almost ordered a lobster burger but chickened-out at the last second.

Anyway, I was hoping to find a Kimchi burger or maybe a dog burger but alas, fate was not smiling upon me.


For the most part the menu was "same-same" (as the children would say). Sure there were a few local items but nothing that made me slap my face and say "well, slap my face and call me charlie - look at that!"

Jo was a little more daring than I and decided to try some local fare. She ordered a Bulgogi burger which directly translates into "fire meat" burger. Bulgogi is amazing and one of our favorite Korean foods, so we were a little skeptical about how the McDonalds version would stack up.


Here you see our food. Can you spot the odd man out yet?

My favorite item to eat at McDonalds (and probably the only thing I actually like) is the Big Extra. I don't know if they still sell these back home as I haven't been to a McDonalds in quite a while, but they definitely don't here. They do, however, sell something called the "Big Tasty". It sounded similar to the Big Extra (and a lot like those movies HBO shows late at night), so I decided to order one and give it a try.

As you can tell the "Big Tasty" is mammoth-sized. This bad boy was probably the biggest fast food burger I've ever seen. I think it would even beat that Monster Carls Junior used to sell. (Jo's note: hmmm, sound familiar? The biggest one Shayne's ever seen.)

Unfortunately it was nothing like the Big Extra and contained lots of strange items. It had salsa? Who wants salsa on a McDonalds Burger? I just want some secret sauce (a little miracle whip left in the sun) and a few grams of lettuce and tomatoes, that's it.

Jo's Bulgogi burger left a lot to be desired too. Aside from the fact that it looked like ass, tasted like ass, and smelled like ass, it was also pretty damn small. They managed to ruin bulgogi, sweet sweet bulgogi.

I shall never forgive them.

If you paid close attention to our tray you would have noticed the following:

Corn...in a cup...with a fork.

Yes, for only a dollar you too could have some corn in a cup with mayonnaise and carrot chunks.

Hmmm, best to avoid if you find yourself in a Korean McDonalds.

I wanted to include one action shot of my giant burger, so here ya go:


I don't know if it was the size of the burger or my rapidly advancing old age but I just couldn't finish the sucker.


I'm ashamed of myself. I'm half the man I used to be (quite literally, in fact).

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this rare look at such an exotic Korean restaurant.

Next time I'll just stick to my Kimchi and rice.

Cheers

Shayne

From Busan, With Love

Now that the weather's warmed up, and we're beginning to feel the pressure of our impending departure date, Shayne and I are off to see Korea on a series of weekend trips. Our first stop: a second look at Busan, Korea's 2nd largest city.

A view of our hotel at night. Don't be fooled by its ultra-classy exterior, because this is what is known as a "love motel". These joints are strewn across all Korean cities, and if the name isn't enough of a clue, they are where otherwise respectable Koreans meet for clandestine rendezvous, wink - wink. Shayne and I had to check one out.


Check out this bad boy! Yes, that's faux red leather...and it's round!!


Shayne was most impressed by the remote...allowing the patron to control everything from the comfort of bed... from the air conditioning, to the lights, to the tv...yes, even the tv.


Anyways, after checking into the hotel, it was time to go check out the "public" side of Busan. Here I am at Haeundai Beach, perhaps Korea's most famous. Even with the chilly weather, there were scads of beach-goers. In August you can barely see the sand.


I guess the beach is also popular with gulls...no doubt encouraged by naive but well-meaning people like these having fun hand-feeding them french fries. Admittedly I wish I had something to offer them too. heehee!


Here's Shayne with a view of the boardwalk.

Next it was off to the acclaimed Busan Aquarium, handily located right on the beach. We're suckers for a good aquarium.


We took this picture just because he looked grumpy (Shayne's note - that and it looks just like my old man).


No, these freakish spider crabs aren't starring in the latest sci-fi horror flick, they're on the menu at your local Korean eatery. Not this guy, though...he's going to live out his days looking at humans through the tank-glass...and maybe eating that mangled-looking starfish to the left (do they eat those?).


Next was the jellyfish exhibit, which was wickedly lit-up with various-coloured lights. These guys were majestic, slowly moving through the tank with 6-foot tentacle trails flowing behind (Shayne's note - This really is one of the coolest photos we've ever taken. Props to Jo).


By far the coolest thing in the aquarium was the giant, walk-through shark tank. Here's Shayne looking up at a stingray swimming above him. It was quite amusing watching little kids shriek when Jaws slowly swam up to them.

After all the fun of the aquarium, we thought we'd take it down a notch...or twenty...and visit the UN Korean War Cemetery. Apparently it's the only UN-run cemetery in the world.



Here's the front gate.


There's not too many graves here, as most of the Americans were repatriated to the States some time ago. But it's still enough to give one pause. Over 500 Canadians died in the Korean war, many of which were our age or younger. (Shayne's note - It was truly a sobering experience to see how many people died in the war over here).




Here's the Canadian monument....to be lighthearted for a moment, it seems that we really do look friendly everywhere. Seriously though - an American monument would probably have a few stolid GIs, but we put a soldier surrounded by children. It was a really touching monument.


Here I am looking at some of the names on the Wall of Remembrance. It's always a shocking reminder to see all the names before you...just going on and on and on.

Well, after paying our respects, we headed across the city to Beomeosa Temple (Buh-muh-sa), one of the largest in Korea.

I've gotta say that my favourite parts of Korean temples are the gatehouses. They always have these cool, colourful statues inside. I have yet to educate myself as to their exact purpose, but it seems that the original architects poured all of their creative spirit into these particular sections of the temples. But at Beomeosa, I was in for a double-delight....these guys!....

"Smeagol led the nice waygookins to the gates. Orcs always watches. Orcs never gone."

"Nasty tricksy waygookins...I hates them!"

"But waygookins always kind to Smeagol."

"Kills them! Kills them!!"

Anyways.....here I am in front of what Shayne thinks must be the oldest stone pagoda in the world (Shayne's note - who's to say that it isn't. Ehhh? who's to say?).


Here's a modern touch to the stone lantern that would make Al Gore proud. God bless compact-fluorescent light bulbs.


Cherry blossoms, old world temple buildings, and mountains...postcard perfect.

And what you would expect to find at a temple most...monks! Thankfully, these guys were friendly and happy to have me take their picture.


Here's Shayne standing next to the man he'd like to be. It's hard crushing someone's dreams.

After two days of sightseeing, we headed back to the bus station to catch a ride home. Before going, though, we spotted a crowd of older Korean men playing Chang-gi (Korean chess). It is with this image that we leave you...


Until next time,

Jo