Seoul and the DMZ

So we’ve said our goodbyes, closed up the apartment and left Shanghai for good. We’ve reflected on our time there in previous posts so I won’t dwell on the sentiments.

From China we left for Seoul, South Korea on November 8. I can’t tell you what a relief we felt when our plane lifted off the runway. We were free from the hardships of China. After a pleasant 2 hour flight, we landed in Seoul and made our way (via the worlds longest and most stair-ed subway system) to our hotel, the Bee Won Guesthouse. It was a shabby but welcoming place with exceptionally small rooms and a modest price. We spent the next several days poking around the tranquil city of Seoul. The tourism commercial that we frequently saw on Discovery channel in China used the tag line “calm yet exciting” to describe the city and it was actually pretty accurate. Even at rush hour, the city didn’t seem overcrowded or frenetic. The streets are often lined with trees and everything, including the air, is very clean – a world of difference from our gray and polluted former home.


LINK TO SEOUL PHOTOS

After a couple days of seeing the city (and doing our best to appreciate Korean food), we took a day trip to see the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the border with North Korea. Unfortunately, the tour to Panmunjom (the UN area with the famous blue negotiation buildings was booked) so we went to the very tourist friendly observatory instead. From there we could actually see N. Korea and the fake villages constructed at the border to feign affluence and success. What a strange country. A nearly completely hermit society with a personality cult for a leader who has only ever uttered one publicly documented sentence. Work camps, starvation and oppression are a way of life there, but the people still talk of Kim Jung Il as a demigod. Bizarre. I have to admit that I’m morbidly curious to see it someday.

LINK TO DMZ PHOTOS

Anyway, we left Seoul the next day and headed for the land of the rising sun – Japan. More soon.