On the Border of an uneasy ceasefire

On the 15^th of January I embarked on one of the Touristy things I wanted to do in Korea, but that said it is a must do. I took a tour through the Adventure Korea tour company to the Demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. This post is a little factual but I am hoping interesting, there will also be a number of slide shows to show off pictures.

I was picked up outside Hongik University Subway Station in Seoul at 09:30 and from there we had about a 40min drive to Tongil Bridge, the Military control line for the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom between North and South Korea.

For those of you who don’t know how it works the DMZ is a 4km wide 250km long stretch of the Korean peninsula. In the centre of this strip is a de-facto border with 2km on the North Korea side and 2km on the South Korea side. This stretch was established at the end of the 2^nd World War when things were still greatly heated between the US and the Soviets who supported South and North Korea respectively. Since then, this area has been the symbol of the tension that exists between Kim Jong Il (North Korean) leader and the rest of the world really. Interestingly enough the South Korean government is promoting the area as a tourist attraction and nature reserve in the hopes that it will become the symbol of unity between South and North should unification ever occur.

The 1^st stop once the checkpoint was cleared (where we were not allowed to take photo’s and had to hold up identification cards/passports so that the soldiers could check who we were) was Imjingak at Paju City.

This centre was set up as a memorial to the Korean war. Here I had a look at an old rusted Steam Locomotive and mulberry tree that were both retrieved from the DMZ and transplanted to their places of rest. From here you could also see The Bridge of Freedom – a railway line that crosses the Imjin River and allows supply trains to go through to North Korea once a week.

Visitors to Imjingak tie ribbons and flags with messages of piece to the fence that leads into the DMZ

From there we moved on to Lunch was rice, kimchi and a whole heap of Soy-bean products. The area inside the DMZ is very famous for its Soy-bean production.

Lunch

There are actually houses inside this joint security area and the people who live here do not have to pay taxes to the Korean government and male members of the families who live there do not have to do the otherwise mandatory army service that is required, because they pretty much have to live their lives as if they are in the army anyway. After lunch I had a very interesting chat with our main tour guide and he was less than complimentary about the current Korean government. He went as far as saying that “The president of Korean is not my president”. Apparently previous government administrations were seeking and achieving the gradual withdrawal of US soldiers from the country and as a result a decrease in a major factor that was fuelling the animosity between North and South.

Me with our tour guides

This administration however, is again asking the US for aid in keeping North Korea in check and thus the US withdrawal has been halted. This is something that our tour guide did not look on at all favourably. There were certainly some interesting opinions flying around.

Lunch was quickly followed by a visit to Panmunjeom itself, where we were taken into the 3^rd infiltration tunnel that was being dug by North Korea in the hopes that they could launch a surprise attack on Seoul. Thus far Southern forces have discovered 4 such possible infiltration tunnels, all of which were being dug from the Northern side of the DMZ with the aim of getting to Seoul. What the North did not expect was that they would have to dig (with picks and spades) and blast their way through granite and they primitive tools they were using certainly did not help them. The 1^st tunnel that was discovered was done so in 1974, the 2^nd in 1975, the 3^rd in 1978...

At the enterance to the 3rd Infiltration tunnel

...and the 4^th interestingly enough, only in 1990. That the 4^th was found only 21 years ago when the other 3 were found a minimum of 22 years before that, makes one wonder 2 things:

1.       How many more tunnels have they North dug?

2.       How far have they gotten?

The tunnel that has gone the furthest is the 3^rd tunnel which progressed 1600m across the DMZ but considering it was another 56km to get to Seoul it had a long, long way to go. As Tourists we were allowed to go 235m into the tunnel which was located 300m underground. At the end of the tunnel are 3 steel doors about 10m apart, which are sealed to prevent anyone from either side getting across.

After Panmunjeon we were taken to Dorasan Station which is South Korea’s northern most train station. It is from here that the supply train goes through to the North once a week and there is also a commuter train that takes South Korean people from that station into Seoul. I even got a joke stamp in my passport to say I was this close to North Korea

Our final stop was at the Ohdu Tongil Unification Observatory where we were given a glimpse onto North Korean soil. Well we would have had a glimpse had it not been for all the snow and haze. After that we made our way back to Seoul, safely returning from the DMZ!

For your humble enjoyment, I present to you my best work yet with Windows live movie maker - My DMZ Trip in 9min. I hope you enjoy it :)

Until next time fellow travellers - Tune in again to Geoff's Asian Adventure

A(nother) Day on the slopes...

Today’s adventure described herein was the trip Sandy and I took to the Bears Town Resort 50min away from Seoul

We decided to take this trip when we both found out that we would have Friday 07 Jan off from our winter teaching. I, in fact, had an entire week off of teaching, so I was defiantly up for it.

Why did I get the week off you may ask? Well, on Monday I arrive at Imgo Middle school prepared to impart my language on the sectors of students that I would be teaching. With my lessons set to start at 10:00 I get to the bus stop to get to school at 08:40, so that I would have time to make sure I was prepared. By taking this bus I would be at school just after 09:00 so I would have more than enough time to ready the class. 08:40 comes and goes and for one reason or another I am not on any busses heading towards Imgo. So I decide to stick it out and sit at the bus stop for the next 40min waiting for the next bus going my way.

It arrives so I hop on, expecting to arrive at school around at about 09:45. Not as much time as I had wanted but it was workable. Oh and I would be able to thaw my hands and face as it was -1 on this day , so I will arrive to school a little icy.

SUDDENLY I RUSH TO PRESS THE BUZZER TO GET OFF THE BUS – it is going the wrong way!!! Before I am too far off the beat and track I jump off the bus and figure if I start walking in the right direction I could jump on the next bus that comes past/I could grab the next empty taxi.

Long story short – I walked the 8 Km’s to school from the point where I got off the bus, in -1 degree temps, because as it happens, for the entire 50min that it took me to get to school, no bus or taxi came past.  I arrive 10min late – at 10:10. I am shown to a class of 5 - 3^rd grade girls and asked to teach and I will get to speak to Mrs Yoon (my 1 great co-teacher, (I have 2 useless ones as well)) when she is done teaching her class. After the girls had a little giggle at the 10min it took me to thaw my lips so that I could actually talk properly, we had a discussion about restaurants which became the lesson.

When finished, I go to the teachers office and (now this is why I had the rest of the past week off) am told that Winter camp for this week is cancelled because the Principle is nervous about students travelling because of the recent Foot and Mouth outbreak that recently struck Yeongcheon farm animals. I get to stay home.

Taking advantage of this, I had already booked a trip up to Seoul as I was going on a tour of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) (Basically a 4km wide stretch of land that that separates North and South Korea), I tag along on Sandy’s adventure of going snowboarding on the Friday.

Sandy had yet to go skiing or boarding, so she was desperate to take some of her free time to do that, so we left Yeongcheon at 07:12 on the Friday morning and got to Seoul at about 10:00, where after some confusion we caught a bus to the Bears Town resort to enjoy our day on the slopes. Aside from the train ride to Seoul, the whole experience was relatively cheap and we got a good 3 hours on the slopes.  



I had to unpack my whole bag, in the middle of the subway station, to find my Seoul Subway card



Rather than talk in intimate detail about the slopes and such here is a video about the day – sit back, relax and enjoy the pics and music.

That evening we headed back into Seoul found a motel and grabbed Pizza at a place called “Mr Pizza” which... ended up being a slightly tense meal due to their salad bar regulations but dessert mellowed the environment out and back at the motel for the night we settled into some good old fashioned TV watching. Sandy had found Discovery channel so we watched “Man vs Wild” where Bear Grylls...

...was teaching us how to survive in the Sahara desert. Good day all around, it was off to bed and early to rise as the next day I would be embarking on my Tour to the DMZ (Described in my next post)!!!

I have snow, I have a board – let's see how this turns out shall we...

Hi all! So it has been a little while since I last wrote with due reason. Thing have not been going too swimmingly for me of late. I had a bad case of flu over Christmas, which I duly spent in bed and it has been dreadfully cold over here for the last while which certainly has not helped my mood. In a nutshell I have been rather depressed and homesick for the last month or so, but I am happy to report: With some advice from some wise sages of Korean life and with the support of my wonderful girlfriend Sandy and my great friends Alan, Lisa, Marelize and Deborah, I am in a much more positive frame of mind as I head toward the 6 month mark of being in Korea. A great deal of my slow assent back to happiness can be put down to my New Year weekend on the slopes. This post hopes to illuminate all of your minds as to my 1^st experience of proper snow and what to do with it.

As briefly mentioned earlier the weather has been rather ghastly for the last month and a half. This of course is to be expected – it is winter after all. That does not, however do much to increase my enthusiasm for the scale of the cold that I have experienced (which I am in no way used to back home). To give you some idea: the coldest day I have experienced has been about -12C during the day and about -14 at night. The average by my completely unscientific guessing skills has been about 3-5C during the day and -3 to -8 at night. With this cold however, I have been exposed to my first experience of snow!

The 1^st time I had about a 20min experience of snow was one evening in early December when Sandy and I were walking to go get supper. WE GOT SNOWED ON! I duly stuck my tongue out and caught a snowflake on it – as is the cliqued thing to do J

My next experience was when I got to school and it started to, I guess, pelt down. The snow fall of those 3 odd days created rather thick snow and ice on the roads and the pavements. Watching the cars crawl through the sludge that had been covered in snow and then sand/salt (still unsure which-but either is used to make roads drivable) was a very enlightening experience. Cars even had snow chains around the tiers, which I was told was a little silly as there was not enough snow to warrant that, and that all that was doing was damaging the tiers. At the time of this mass snow fall I was still on the mend from my flu, so I have yet to participate in a snow fight or build a snowman.

During this period though, I got a message from Deborah saying that she was going on a skiing trip with Marelize and other from Daegu and surrounds. I emailed Marelize and the rest was just logistics – I WAS GOING SNOWBOARDING!!!! Oh... AND I WAS GOING OVER NEW YEARS EVE!!!! Below is a video-pictoral summery of my trip:

On Friday 31^st December 2010 I got up at 7am and caught my train (arriving@09:40) to Daegu, where I was meeting Marelize, Alan, Lisa and Jac (a friends of Marelize’s) at 10:30 to catch our train to Yeondong at 11:00. Having arrived in Daegu rather early I found a soft spot to sit, placed my earphones in and pulled out my book – “Good Omens” by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. 1^st to arrive and wait with me was Lisa followed by Alan and we then waited for Jac and Marelize who arrived at about 10:45. We climbed on our train and 1hr 20 odd minutes later arrived in a rather chilly Yeondong and climbed on a bus to Muju another 40min away where, when we arrived we met up with Deborah who had caught a bus from Daejeon.

See how cold all us South African's look!!!

It was good to see all these lovely people with whom I flew to Korea on 17 August 2010. It was definitely a lift that I needed. In life one meets few people who you just feel comfortable with and who make you feel at ease no matter the situation. I have been lucky to have met 8 such people in my Varsity years and now these 4 people along with Lauren (who stays in Ulsan) and Andrea (who is with Deb in Daejeon), not forgetting the people I am close to in Yeongcheon. It is in times like I was experiencing that you lean on those around you and I’d like to thank all these people for helping get my spirits back up.

In Muju – we climbed into 2 Taxi’s and drove our accommodation, called a Penshion (Essentially a rented floor of a house). It was really decent digs for the 2 days – 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a big lounge, 2 bedrooms and a balcony with a stunning view of snow capped mountains and a lake.



The Accomodation



The View

Decisions then had to be made. It was 14: 50 and we had not had lunch yet. So... do we have lunch or go to the slopes for some skiing before the slopes close at 16:30, to re-open at 18:30. We decide on lunch but due some urm... preferences we end up not having lunch and go straight to the Ski Shop to collect our gear. I had said I wanted to go snowboarding, as it sounded so much cooler and more of a challenge. I try on my boots a couple of times until I got the correct size and then claim some waterproof clothes for rent as I figured it would be awfully unpleasant if I had to trudge around in wet Jeans (due to the dampness of the snow). All kitted out we climb into the van and wait for the guys at the ski-shop to take us up to the slopes. It was a rather cramped 15min but we eventually get to the slopes in one piece and are told we will be picked up at 22:00.

We headed into a giant hall to put our shoes and valuables in a locker it is now closer to 16:00 so we decide to wait until the slopes re-open at 18:30 before we try our hand at anything. Instead we finally get something to eat. Where my 5 companions had chicken burgers I needed something a little more substantial so decided to get a bowl of Udong noodles...



Bottom Left: Kimchi, Above that: Pickled Radish, Above that: My Cinammon Chierro,
Then my Hot Choc and bowl of Udong

It was about double the price you would pay anywhere else for the same dish but I suppose when you have a monopoly on food you can charge what you want. I also bought myself a cup of hot chocolate and a cinnamon chierro for desert. The 2 hours that followed were very therapeutic for me I just chatted with everyone particularly with Deb and bitched about all the issue I was having. It was nice to get it all out and have such a sympathetic ear to talk to.  18:30 came round and we head off to the slopes - which looked Awesome under floodlights!!!

Staring at the big slopes we were not aware at the time that we had to buy a ticket to go up them but regardless of that, we all thought, “shit that’s high... let’s find a bunny slope to practice on first”. We all walk around for a bit until we find a sufficient practice area.

It was rather amusing for Alan and I, who were carrying our snow boards around, as we watched the skiers of our group, get there bearings on the skis. Deb was less than comfortable on her extended long feet, Marelize even fell over and it was like watching a turtle on their back as she struggled to get up. Later in the practice area, where I would unclip my boots form the board the skiers tried to keep their skis on and look awfully funny crab walking back up the slope.

Deb on her Skis

We all practiced for just over an hour and then went in for a break and a cup of hot chocolate. The break brought about talk of moving onto the grown-up slopes and then bodies started to drop out. Alan was not well, so he opted to stay inside and Lisa and Deb chose to stay with him, so Jac, Marelize and I ventured out to what we assumed would be our death.

After a couple of aborted attempts to figure out how much the ski-lift/conveyor belt cost to use, we eventually found that we could get a 1 go ticket which we duly did. We climb onto the lift and were a little concerned that we could fall off or drop out equipment when a safety bar came down.

We calmed down a bit and glided past the end of conveyor belt which ran about half way up the slope and my companions got a little worried as they believed we would get off at that point. We didn’t. Just after we cleared that error of belief up Marelize announces that she has dropped her ski poles. We look down and see nothing but there are no poles in her hands. We established (after a good laugh) that she must have dropped them just at the end of the conveyor belt. So we decided to just tell the lift operator when we got to the top of the slope.

Getting to the top of the slope was an adventure in itself! The lift get there and none of the 3 of us can figure out how to get the safety bar up. I got a little tangled in my board and Jac had his ski poles bent around his legs! The lift operator had to stop the lift to allow us to get off – sigh, silly foreigners who have no experience of snowing!

Jac bent back hi ski poles and then we waited... and waited... and waited... We ended up waiting for about 30min in the  -14C temp at the top of the slope but eventually Marelize’s poles arrived and we agreed to stick together on the downslope. I thought I would be the one going fast so I said if I go too fast I will fall over (as I had yet to figure out how to stop) and wait for the others to catch up. As it turns out, the slope was virtually like Ice and the skiers flew down the slope while I, through observation of more experienced Koreans, was able to mange my speed and even get my turning going! All in all it was a great 20min going down the slope. Jac got to the bottom so fast (as there were not very many ways for him to stop) he ended up waiting for me for 10min and then we waited for another 5 min for Marelize to arrive, who also through observation, had figured out a way to go down the slope in a slower fashion.

Covered in Snow Marelize and I hose ourselves down with an air pressure hose just to get the snow off and we then make our way inside to gather our things and head to the parking lot as it was 21:55. Our haste had no effect however, as our ride was not even there. After a couple of phone calls and 20min waiting in the cold, we find our ride in section 5 of the parking. We hop into the van and again we wait... and wait...

All in all we sat in the van 40min before we left to return our goods to the ski-shop. 1^st we were waiting for a Korean gent to come back from the slopes with his rented gear and then we waited for a car to drive up so that they would not lose their parking spot. It is now 23:35 and we are at the ski-shop hoping to get back to the Penshion before 00:00 so that we could see the New Year in but there were worries around that we would end up spending new year in the back of a cramped van. We end up getting back to our place at 23:50. As we pull into the driveway 2 more of Marelize’s friends arrived – Johan and Gerrit. Both gentlemen own cars. We were supposed to get a lift with these guys but about a week before the weekend Gerrit dislocated his shoulder snowboarding so that plan changed to train and bus. However they still joined us and drove through in Johan’s car and they arrived just in time to see in the new year after about 5 hours driving because of accidents on the roads. We were all eternally grateful to both of them as they bought us groceries for the next morning’s breakfast and what’s more they didn’t ask us to pay them back for them. Seeing in the New Year we had some wine, some vile Korean beer called “Cass” and some sparkling wine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Not much debauchery but loads of chatter and wholesome enjoyment. Having mixed drinks I thought it best to head to bed at 02:00 and woke up at about 09:30 later on New Year’s morning. Johan, Gerrit and Jac all left pretty early and that left the rest of us to enjoy some fantastically cooked scrambled eggs and bacon courtesy of Lisa and Deb. Thrown in some yoghurt, OJ and coffee it was a worthy 1^st breakfast to 2011.

We then packed up went back to Muju where Alan, Lisa, Marelize and I said goodbye to Deb and made our way back to Daegu via bus and train trips. Once back in Daegu the executive decision was taken to go out for supper and Lisa and Marelize lead the way to a place called “Poom rooftop garden restaurant”.

It was a lovely dinner. I had some pork fillets with rice, butternut and teriyaki sauce. That was what I paid for. Then there was what Korean’s call “Service”. This is in no way the tip you give to waitering staff in SA. No, no. This is what the waitering staff can do for you – without reward and tip. So we were each given a soup, garlic bread, salad, small 1cm³ coffee cake for dessert, and a desert coffee. I had a Mint Mochachino. All that was complimentary. It was great and a wonderful way to end our New Year’s weekend with great friends.

This coming weekend I am heading north again, for a spot more snowboarding and I am taking a tour to the DMZ. Wish me luck ;)

Stay tuned for more from Geoff’s Asian Adventure...