Well as you can imagine it has been a busy couple of weeks for us here in Ulsan. It has been great having all of these visitors and will be strange when it is back to just Dennis, Arnold and I. Last Thursday my mom and Aunt Lorna arrived in Korea from Japan. They had flown to Japan from Calgary and Vermont and had made their way down to Fukuoka to take the hydro foil to Busan where I picked them up. After a nice reunion dinner in Ulsan we had to get some sleep as in the morning we were heading to Seoul for the weekend. D was going there for work that weekend so we thought it would be great for all of us to go as well so that our visitors could see Korea's biggest city.
The ladies and I arrived in Seoul early in the morning, which gave us plenty of time to ride the subway to our hotel. We unloaded our stuff and hit the city. Our first stop was in Insadong, which is where there are lots of art galleries, attique shops, and neat things to look at. After lunch we decided to split up as we all had different tasks to accomplish. Miriam and I wanted to walk and shop and Mom and Lorna wanted to just look around and take in the city. We met back at the hotel around 6 to meet Dennis. Our room was upgraded to the club floor which meant we had access to the club lounge. This meant free drinks and food. Miriam, Dennis and I went out for dinner while Mom and Lorna chowed down on the free food. We had the most amazing Japanese dinner of sushi and sashimi, the best all of us had ever had. The food just kept coming and by 11pm we were all throughly stuffed!
The next morning we all woke up nice and early as it was DMZ tour day! The shuttle picked us up at 7:30am and we headed out to pick up the remainder of the passengers. That morning the weather was really foggy and over cast. After a 45 minute drive we arrived at the last spot before the check point into the DMZ, called Imjingak. Here we were to get onto a new tour bus that would take us over into the DMZ. This area was really funny because it was a huge parking lot and then there was a really terrible amusement park. Here is a picture of the park and to give you an idea of how bad the weather was.
Also at this point was the bridge of freedom which was used by repatriated POWs/soldiers returning from the north after the war.
We then got onto our new bus and headed of for the first checkpoint. Once at the checkpoint you must pull out your passport and show it to the solider that comes on the bus. It is very serious and we are told to never take pictures of the soliders and to be aware that we need to respect certain areas and not take pictures of them. Our tour guide was really good at ensuring that we all knew when we could and when we couldn't take pictures. He even told us how to get away with taking pictures at certain points we weren't suppose to.
The next stop was Dorasan station, which is the last train station in the south. It is there should the country re-unite. The train station was installed to transport goods back and forth from the north and south but North Korea stopped that. It is now only used for tourists. It is the cleanest train station you will ever see!
The train tracks do head straight to Pyeongyang, which is the capital of North Korea.
The next stop was the Dora observatory. Keep in mind how terrible the weather was and this is the location where you are suppose to be able to actually look into the the north, which was impossible that day. They did show us a video of what you could see so that was nice, but I think I will have to go back to see for myself. This is a picture of the observatory.
Our next stop was the third tunnel. The third tunnel refers to the third tunnel that the US found that was going through the DMZ and into South Korea. So after a very long walk we were actually able to go into the tunnel
The tunnel is very small so hard hats are a must, especially for D and I! I was walking at pretty much a 90 degree angle the whole time we were down there. I was happy to see the tunnel but equally happy to get out!
After the tunnel our tour guide took us to the Freedom Village, named Daeseong Dong. The residents here are Republic of Korea citizens are exempt from paying taxes. The draw back is that there are very tight restrictions for living there including a 10pm curfew. The residents are war veterans and not just anybody can live there. Here they sold DMZ rice, soybean chocolates, North Korean beer and Soju, and many other products from North Korea and this freedom village. The products from here are some of the best you can get in Korea. The soju for instance was 23% alcohol while the soju in the south is only 18%, needless to say we picked up a lot of that!
After that we headed back into Seoul only to be met by of course a traffic jam! The remainder of the weekend was great. We all did a lot of walking and sight seeing. We all went out for a lovely black pork bbq together, where we all drank hite and soju.
I had a great weekend but I am very happy to back in Ulsan with Arnold and Dennis. We are looking forward my mom and aunt arriving later this week so that we can show them around Ulsan. We are equally sad to see D's mom go home on Friday. It has been so great having her here and touring around with her!
I am getting very excited about my trip back to Canada which is quickly approaching. Can't wait to see most of you when I am home!
J
