Up first on the tour was the Bridge of Freedom, where POWs of each side were exchanged at the close of war. Not much to say about this particular area, other than there was obviously a lot of history and emotion and lives tied up in this place, so I spent most of my time there walking around trying to tap into that and try to understand anything that went on there many years ago. I also tried to avoid the hordes of loud, pic-snapping, annoying tourists and just enjoy the calm and beauty of the area, but that's not terribly profound, so lets just ignore that aspect of it. Some pics of the Bridge and surrounding area:
And just for good measure here's a pic of my Dad and I at the bridge. We must be super excited about something. We probably just found out our lunch is going to be just rice and kimchi or something. So excited. Really.
One amusing tidbit about the area was that one of the railway bridges off in the distance was built by the CEO of Hyundai to help facilitate aid deliveries to the North. Supposedly, the story goes that as a young man growing up in what is now North Korea, he stole several of his father's cattle and fled into South Korea (during the Korean War, I believe). And now as a ungodly wealthy and powerful man, he returned to build this bridge and gave 100 heads of cattle to the North as an apology or something. The bridge:
From the Bridge of Freedom, we moved on to the Train Station to Nowhere. That's not what its really called, but nowadays, for all intents and purposes it is. And given the events of the last week or so, I don't figure that to change anytime soon. See, South Korea is so adamant about reuniting with North Korea sometime in the future and becoming a united Korea again, that the South has built a gorgeous, brand spanking new train station right along the border that will (possibly in the future) connect Seoul to Pyeongyang. But since the Koreas are not united and not on the best of terms at present, this very expensive train station and its accompanying track sit empty and completely unused. Well, I shouldn't say that, as there are 2 trains a day that head to this station, but nobody takes as there is absolutely no reason to go to this area. There is nothing there, minus the DMZ tours for tourists. And you thought the US was bad with its throwing away money on useless projects (well, it is). Now the pics:
No pics of the station, cuz well, it looks like every other train station in existence. They did have a cute little display from when G.W. Bush visited for its official unveiling 2 years back and featured the script from both Bush's speech and the Korean President's speech. Sure, I could only understand about 1 in every 5 words of the Korean Pres's speech, but I'll still go out on a limb and say it was more eloquent, better written, better delivered, etc than Bush's. But thats not really saying anything is it? As you can see in the last pic, this station will be the gateway to a train system that stretches all the way to China, Russia, and even Europe. Too bad there's still that country to the North mucking everything up. Hmm.
Next up was the observatory on the very edge of the DMZ. Unlike the other observatory from the other DMZ tour I took, this one wouldn't allow for pictures to be taken at the ledge, looking out onto the DMZ, because there were actual troop placements and encampments that are to remain undocumented. On the previous tour, as it was located in the middle of nowhere, 4 or so hours away from Seoul, there was little activity in the DMZ. The terrain was a flat, quiet, and exceedingly pretty marshland/prairie with no human activity. We were told there was a North Korean post on a hill way in the distance, but we couldn't see it. Hell, the most activity we saw was when the south korean soldiers below us started making the big "I love you" hearts with their arms to the ladies in our groups. At this observatory, only 30 minutes from Seoul and where the troops are most strongly positioned, the view was quite different. The land was very hilly and the military presence was very obvious. You could easily see the South Korean outpost on the hill in front of you, as well as the North Korean post just a little further off. Intense. Here's the pics, although you can't see anything:
Our last stop on the tour was the tunnel made by the North Koreans in which they could sneak troops and such into South Korea. I think the North still claims that it is just a mining tunnel or something like that, but they are full of shit and obviously nobody believes them. In total there were 4 tunnels that South Korea found, but this is the most popular to visit, due to its proximity and the modern amenities South Korea has added for tourists. The other tunnel I went to a year ago was just that, a tunnel. However, this tunnel had an elevator installed for people to travel down to the mine and for those who legs are okay, they paved the road going down as well as carved out more headroom so tall folks like myself don't smash their head every few seconds. The tunnel itself was still untouched, meaning 6 foot something me had to do a lot of crouching. They didn't allow pictures down in the tunnel, but really it was just a tunnel. Not much to see. We did snap a picture after exiting, while still wearing our safety helmets:
Once back in Seoul, we quickly collected our things and caught the train to Busan. Well, "quickly" for us on this vacation, meaning not very quick at all. But by the time we got into Busan and had dinner it was already 8pm or so, meaning it was 2 hours past my Dad's bedtime, meaning he was gonna get cranky. And he certainly didn't like me "fucking around instead of finding a hotel room" (his words). I was planning on having us stay at a place near the major beach area of Haeundae. The place turns into a zoo on the weekend and prices for hotels (even the love motels) goes way through the roof, but I figured as it was a Tuesday, we could find some good deals. Wrong, wrong. And all the running around looking for hotels wasn't making Grandpa Bob very happy and he let me know. Eventually I just decided to head over to the beach the gang and I had stayed at last time as it was less crazy and much cheaper. And sure enough it worked out to our benefit, as we ended up in the same hotel as last time I was there and the price was still damn good.
The next day (Wednesday the 11th) we slept in real late and when we finally awoke, we promptly went back to sleep. Or we may as well have, as there was nothing going on outside. Why? Well, take a look for yourself:
Yeah, that's right. While staying on the beach, we were subjected to a typhoon. It was a mild one that did little damage, but it certainly kept everybody off the beach. Blowing rain, mid 60s temperatures, no sun, and 40 mph wind will do that. So we sat in the hotel room until the rain finally stopped around 3 or 4, then decided to venture out for some sightseeing, as the beach was certainly out of the question.
We started out simply wandering around Songjeong Beach (where we were staying) and for the most part, we had the place all to ourselves. Granted, it was a Tuesday, but still the weather had turned the beach into a ghost town.
Like I said, the place was packed. Around the point from the bay where the beach was located was a small park and we wandered around there just because. Not really much to say, so just look at the pictures.
Our last stop of the day, cuz it was only 10 minutes by bus from our beach, was the Haedong Yonggunsa Buddhist Temple right on the coast. This place is famous for its great view of the sunrise, but given the weather, seeing the sun wasn't anything we needed to worry ourselves about. The temple was exactly as I had left it and I couldn't really ask for anymore. Just absolutely love that place. We wandered around a bit, grabbed some ice cream from one of the vendors, then watched as my dad about killed him self trying to open the damn push-pop type of ice creams. Always a treat to watch Bob put his engineering problem solving expertise to work in real world scenarios. Although, it does worry me a little that so many solutions seem to be "smash the damn thing on something" or "just cut the damn bastard". But I'm not an engineer, so I wouldn't really know. Just an observation. The ice cream vendor lady was convinced that I spoke really good fluent Korean after uttering a simple thank you and correctly asking how much the ice cream was. Amusing, but nowhere near correct. Not like I'm gonna turn down praise and adoration showered upon me, but still, who are we kidding here? Me? Fluent? Not likely.
Now for the pics from the Temple and then I'm out. Part 3 coming soon, so stay tuned.
Pics: See Facebook album "That's no earthquake, that be giants a rumblin" (number 1)
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