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