Korea – Seoul – Here we come!! » Backpacking in your 40's

Korea – Seoul – Here we come!!

Carol August 23rd, 2016

This is the year for high speed trains, first Taiwan and then Korea! We took the high speed train from Busan to Daegu (dropped off big green backpack, washed laundry) and then went to Seoul. The Seoul and Busan train stations are very nice.

DMZ (Demilitarized Zone): This will be the closest, I will be to N. Korea. According to the tour books N. Korea is the least visited capital in the world, which makes sense after you think about it. In order to go to the Panmunjom/JSA (Joint Security Area), you have to reserve ~1.5 month in advance. It is one place where you can stand on both the N. and S. Korean at the same time. We took a last minute tour to the DMZ, which included the 3rd infiltration tunnel (1 of the ~20 tunnels N. Korea dug under the DMZ, S. Korea has found 4 tunnels), Dora observatory, Dorasan station (last train station before entering N. Korea), and the Nuri peace park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Russia_border
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93North_Korea_border – I forgot about the boarder btw China and Russia and N. Korea.
http://www.earthnutshell.com/the-worlds-most-dangerous-border-a-tour-of-north-koreas-dmz/ – This is an interesting article on a tour to the DMZ from N. Korea.
Driving to the DMZ, there are wire fences along the Han river and military checkpoints near the DMZ.
Observation tower: The view is not very clear, but you can see the N. and S. Korean flag poles and their respective city in the DMZ.
DMZ Museum:
3rd Tunnel: You can’t take a picture of the tunnel. At the entrance you put on a hard hat and walk town to the tunnel and the 1st wall.
Dorasan Train Station: The guide stated that the founder of Hyundai Motors, Chung Ju-yung, enabled the negotiations and development w/ N. Korea (He was original from N. Korea). The station is very nice and hasn’t been used in ~ 10 years (According to Wikipedia all of the trains stopped traveling btw. N. and S. Korea in 2008).
Korean Re-unification: Korean re-unification is a strong theme at the train station. The water wheels represent the different provinces in N. Korea. Germany gave a part of the Berlin Wall. We will see this theme at the Peace Park. There a many N. and S. Korean families that have not seen each other since ~1940’s. Interesting side note: It is interesting to see the Berlin wall in the open, where people can touch it. In the 2 places in America where I was able to view parts of the wall, the wall was enclosed in plexiglass (to ensure people do not touch it and it may potentially have asbestos)
Nuri Peace Park: This park is large and we only saw a part of it. We saw the memorial, ribbons, observation deck, and part of the DMZ zone.

Leeum Samsung Museum of Art: This museum uses Samsung Galaxy for self tours within the museum. The nice thing about the technology is that it uses sensors to start and stop recording vs pushing in numbers. I think Kris had more fun w/ the recording device than the museum.

War Memorial of Korea: Here is the official web site link.

Deoksugung Palace(changing of the guards, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art):

Bukchon Hanok Village:

At the bottom of the stone steps, there is a town that has Hanok style restaurants and nice art stores!

Meet Kris’s friend, Eric! We tried a lot of street food and Bingsu (Korean version of shaved ice – I think Taiwan has the best shaved ice so far!).
This bell looks like the mascot for this town. You can find him everywhere.

Itaewon: Basically restaurant and shopping row. If you want international food, this is probable the best place to eat. We went to Brazilian BBQ to celebrate the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and to Mexican restaurant the next day – Kris missed Mexican food! Avocados are very expensive in Korea.

Hongdae: This ares is near Hongik University and by the Hangang River walk. We got into Seoul late and decided to go to the Bampo bridge to see the water show, but we got there late and missed the water show. The river walk is full of people in every age group exercising or socializing late at night.

Yeongdeungpo-gu: This is the administrative district of Seoul. This is a hospital near a senior center and park. There is sophisticated bike locker – we are not sure how it works but it looks like the bike rack rotates. It was Kris’s friend’s birthday! Happy Birthday Olivier! We don’t have any pictures of him, but we have empty plates with his birthday cake!!