The DMZ tour

Oh hey there blog...It’s been a long time...

Awhile back (September 4th I think), we got to visit the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. We booked a guided tour through www.adventurekorea.com, which included a bus ride, lunch inside the DMZ, and access to the Dora Observatory, which is the closest any civilian can get to North Korea. There is actually a village inside the DMZ, famous for its ginseng and soy beans. The citizens here are exempt from military service because they live in sort of a “neutral” area, and you can only choose to move here if you marry someone already living here. From the looks of the dilapidated village, I don’t think many people are jumping at the chance to buy property there.

At the DMZ museum/visitors center we learned quite a bit about “the war that never ended.” We learned that over the last 40 years or so, the North Koreans have dug 4 underground tunnels under the DMZ to invade Seoul with troops if needed. We got to descend into the 3rd tunnel, which was a really long and steep journey underground, gradually getting colder and colder. The tunnels were narrow with low ceilings, and it was hard to imagine 100,000 troops being able to get through there in an efficient way.

At the Dora observatory, you can see over the border in

to North Korea. The mountains were almost completely devoid of trees. We were told they have deforested most of the country to sell the lumber for much needed cash. There is also a “propaganda village” inside the DMZ, that is visible from the observatory. No one lives here, but the village is freshly painted and maintained

nearly every year and serves as a “front” to observers, portraying North Korea as prosperous and thriving to onlookers.

Our last stop was Dorasan Station, the last stop on the South Korean rail line. This is designed to be the stop that will hopefully one day unite the North and South Korean rails. We bought actual tickets to Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea,

but of course were not allowed to board the train. Still, it’s a pretty cool souvenir. We used our tickets to get out to the train platform to take some pictures just as one of the trains was arriving. Surprisingly it was a pretty empty train. I guess Pyongyang isn’t one of this year’s hot travel destinations =)

All in all it was a really great trip. We got to meet some really nice fellow travelers and learned a lot!

Namsan Tower/Insadong

Writing a blog in retrospect is tough. After thinking that we'd finally caught up with ourselves, I realized that we've overlooked a few cool adventures. Our trip to Namsan Tower (also called Seoul Tower), our visit to the Insadong neighborhood and dinner with a Korean family.

I'll start with Namsung Tower. Namsan Tower is located on Namsan Mountain, just outside of Seoul. It's a communication tower that slightly resembles the Space Needle, if the Space Needle were constantly under construction and surrounded by traditional Korean swordfighters (I'll get to that part in a minute). One can ride a cable car up the mountain to the tower, but we chose to brave the city bus with our friends Zach and Hyunju to save on cost and to see the neighborhoods. Riding up a steep mountain in a racing bus was probably just as thrilling as the cable car!

The air at the top of the mountain felt incredibly fresh, probably due to the fact that we'd been inhaling city air for the past month. Though we could still see the city, it felt very removed. We arrived in time to catch a choreographed sword fight in the traditional manner, in which men wielded mighty swords and shields in a dance to dramatic music. I took way too many photos (check them out on our Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjheartandseoul/).

My favorite part of Namsan tower is the locks. Couples visit Namsan to place locks around the tower to symbolize their love. When I was in Venice (shout-out to Gaby) and I saw the locks on the bridges I about died from cuteness overload, so finding that Seoul shared this tradition was quite exciting for me. Of course, I talked Tyler into buying a lock, which we placed on the "lock trees" surrounding the tower. Now there will always be a piece of us in Seoul!

After busing back from the

tower, we spent the evening in Insadong, a more historical area of Seoul. Where Insadong begins and ends, we can see a glimpse of Korea's past mixing with the present (one of the many ways that Korean culture is so interesting). Many of the buildings are from the Joseon Dynasty (remember Gyeongbukung Palace?), as well as loads of cafes and art galleries . Tyler and Zach hit the batting cages, where Tyler hit a zillion homers. We strolled through the market before we dipped our toes in the stream - refreshing after a long day of walking! Then we had dinner with HyunJu's parents, marking our first taste of American cuisine a la Korea...Bennigan's! Seriously, salad never tasted so good.

NANTA

Last night we attended a NANTA performance. The show is a musical comedy with lots of very intricate drumming, dancing, juggling, etc. We've never seen The Blue Man Group, but we imagine this show is very similar to that mixed with Hibachi cooking. The story is about a group of chefs who have to deal with the manager's inept nephew joining their cooking crew. They drummed on large barrels of salt and kimchi as well as on their cutting boards with knives. The show was pretty amazing and really funny, as cabbage, onions and carrot pieces flew into the audience. We were lucky enough to sit in the front row, and Jenny got pulled up on stage to try some of their soup they had literally "thrown together." Our friend Hyun Ju was also chosen to go up on stage and she participated in a dumpling making competition while wearing a large chef’s hat. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures in the theater, but here is one of Jenny and her fake marriage on stage.

The performance was in an area of Seoul called Apujeong, which is nicknamed the Beverly Hills of Korea. We could tell this wasn't just a rumor when we saw Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and other imported cars lining the streets. We ate dinner at a cool little Mexican Restaurant in the Gangnam area. Their bar was a converted taco wagon-esque contraption that looked like it had just been parked right in the middle of the restaurant! Sure, we had just eaten Mexican food the night before, but it’s so hard to come by in these parts that we just couldn’t resist when we found this place =)

NOTE: The night before, we had FINALLY found the Mexican food place near where we live that we had searched for 3 times with no luck. After getting a makeshift map written on the back of a napkin or something, we found Dane’s Mexican Grill. We heard the margaritas were legendary and were so excited that we ordered them without looking at the price. As it turned out, they were 10 dollars and served in a tiny martini glass. Oh well, at least the food was good and reasonably priced. We got a picture with Dane, the owner, who is Korean but lived in the US for many years and spoke English fluently.

FC Seoul

Last weekend we went to a FC Seoul soccer game with our friends Zach, Hyun Ju, Nick, and Song Ye. The game was held at the World Cup Stadium which we had previously visited, but this time it was jam-packed with people wearing red, singing fight songs in unison, and blasting their vuvuzelas (kazoo-like horns). We did our best to join in on the chants we could decipher. FC Seoul is a club team, but has a player that was chosen for the World Cup team this year. They ended up winning 2-1 in a very exciting game.

Honggik University Area (Hongdae)

One of our favorite areas of Seoul thus far is Hongdae, a young and lively place with a vibrant art and music scene. It’s pretty close to our ‘hood and every time we go we stumble onto something new and interesting. Our first journey to Hongdae was in search of a legendary bar shaped like an inner ear (which we couldn’t find) brought us to a park in the center of the area where many musicians and artists were performing. We caught our first punk show in Korea, as well as a beat box-master, a drum circle, a creepy dude performing yoga in the bushes and many other foreigners.

Now, when I say Hongdae is close, it still requires two subway transfers and about 45 minutes of our time (at least until we figure out the bus, which will take about half the time). So we hopped the subway back home, only to find that we had MISSED the last subway that could take us all the way home. Without realizing our mistake, we hopped on the usual train only to be dropped off in Gupabal, which is one of the worst places to be stranded inSeoul. There is nothing there – mostly mud, apartments, and heavy machinery. The taxi drivers didn’t even want to take us home because Hwajeong was out of the way – luckily, we met an English speaker who helped us negotiate with a cabby. Home safe and sound
J

With our new knowledge of the subway, our next visits to Hongdae went much more smoothly. We discovered some lovely little cafes that played great music and had very interesting atmospheres. We found a puzzle café, where you seriously just put together puzzles, which we couldn’t stop in for long. Our most recent visit to Hongdae was the weekend of the

Seoul Fringe Festival, a week long event in which independent artists and musicians come together in the streets to put on collaborative performances and displays.

The Happiest Place in Korea (Lotte World)

Lotte World is Korea's equivalent to Disney World/Land. Half of the park is indoors, and half is outdoors. Inside, there are 4 floors of rides, games, performance stages, an ice skating rink, and a hot air balloon ride that circles the entire indoor park from the ceiling. We decided to go on the Friday of our summer vacation (July 23rd) to possibly beat some of the longer lines that appear on the weekends. The lines were still fairly long, but the rides were worth it. Jenny was a little disappointed in the 5 minute ride after a 2 hour wait for a roller coaster (especially since she closed her eyes the whole time and missed all the fun). We checked out a haunted house with a few Legends of the Hidden Temple style puzzle games that you had to solve before certain doors would open for you. Tyler was elected the leader by a group of terrified teenage girls, who pushed him through the maze to take the brunt of the ghostly assault. All in all it was a great trip!

World Cup Stadium/Sky Park/The Longest Walk of Our Lives

We arrived in Korea at the tail-end of World Cup madness. You could feel the excitement in the air as people donned red shirts and devil ears (the Korea team is the Red Devils) and stayed up all night to catch the matches. Ty and I weren't big enough fans to do that, but I guess we caught a bit of the Red Fever because we paid a visit to the 2002 World Cup Stadium, about 8 years late (Tyler: "We showed up to the game and no one was there!").

The stadium was enormous, and nearly completely vacant. We walked down to the field and even got to take pictures on the benches! Then we went below the stadium and saw the locker rooms and the practice room, where we frolicked on the astroturf.

From there we walked to Naeiul Park, called "Sky Park" because it's so high. The park was actually built over a trash dump! It was a beautiful park with lots of tall grasses, zucchini, squash, dragonflies, and the most spectacular view of Seoul and the Han River. The view alone made the hike totally worth it.

Here's where things got rough. We wanted to hit another park close by, but we weren't really sure how to get there. So we trekked on, and on, only to find that the park was nothing special. We could see the river at that point so we thought, why not take a stroll by the river? It was beautiful, no doubt, but we didn't factor in that the river is extremely long and no buses/subways stop close to the river. By this point our bodies were ravaged from hours of walking in the sun and heat. We went the only way we knew, back to the stadium subway station. A tiring day, but nothing gets us down.