Wrong.
What was the first thing that happened? Jamie lost her passport.
Let's rewind.
We woke up Saturday morning after four hours of sleep (I HAVE to get better at sleeping more before traveling) and went to Daejeon Station to catch the KTX to Seoul. Jamie had packed all her stuff since she would stay in Seoul until her departure on Tuesday instead of coming back to Daejeon with me. We got our tickets, boarded the train and arrived in Seoul without any problems, or so we thought. We were so pumped because we were finally going to go to the famed DMZ. And why shouldn't we be pumped? There'd be high security, a strictly enforced dress code, tension between the North and South Korean Soldiers and a sense of danger knowing that you're on the most militarized border in the entire world. We were in a huge rush once we arrived at the train station because we had to go to the hostel, drop off our bags and then take the subway to the Lotte Hotel where we'd be meeting for our tour. It was absolutely necessary that we have our passports due to the high security protocols the governments had put in place so people won't blow the place up. I digress. We took a taxi and were late to getting to the tour, but I had already called in advance so they were expecting us. We got to the hotel and when I whipped out my passport, Jamie reached in her purse to do the same...and it wasn't there. She, predictably and understandably, started to freak out and told me to go upstairs just to prove to the lady that we were there. So I did, but five minutes later, Jamie walked in looking defeated and announced that she had lost her passport. They would, of course, not let us on the tour, but also told us that we had to pay the entire fee for the tour even though we weren't able to go on the tour. Well that was a bunch of BS and Jamie, already angry because she had lost her passport, said that we should just walk out and not pay them a dime. They had already made copies of my passport though, so I was in a really tight spot. We negotiated to take a tour the next day to just the DMZ which only required an ID and nothing else. It wasn't high security, so we'd be able to do that without a passport. We had to pay right away though, so I gave her the money and we booked it.
Ugh. It was so stressful and I couldn't believe that Seoul had let me down once again. One positive aspect of my personality is that in stressful situations, I take charge and solve problems right away. I was cool, calm, collect Trisha and we were going to handle this problem so we could move on and enjoy the rest of our vacation in Seoul. Back at the hostel, we unpacked all of Jamie's luggage and searched for her passport. I think we both knew it was futile but we searched three times anyway. We didn't find it.
The best part of the trip was when we rode bikes around the Han River. It was so much fun and we were working out at the same time! The things that I enjoy the most in life are when I can exercise outside. This of course stipulates that the weather doesn't make me want to pass out after 10 minutes of being outside. The weather was gorgeous however, and our three hour bike ride was probably the most fun I've had since I've been in Korea.
Like in Busan, we happened upon this amazing festival/parade that had lots of music, people, dancing and floats. All the people made it impossible to navigate our bikes, so we both got off and tried to walk through the mass of people that crowded the pedestrian bridge. I hit a lot of people with my bike, but it was okay since that's what everyone here in Korea does. If they slam into you, they don't say sorry or look apologetic, they just keep moving on with their day as if you were an insignificant ant that they had just smashed. Jamie actually commented on this aspect of Korean culture after some old woman had just cut her off in the subway and said, exasperated, "I don't understand how they flip out if you don't hand them the money correctly, but are completely okay with slamming into other people and invading what little personal space you have while riding the subway." This was hilarious to me, but what can you do? We're in a different culture and we can't change anything about their culture, so...do what they do! I've cut off many Korean couples and felt pretty pleased with myself because I felt more "Korean." Haha.
This is a picture of some drummers that played music and danced around. It was so incredible and I was literally content to just stand there and soak in the fun, playful atmosphere. We had to leave since it was getting dark and we didn't know where we were, so we grudgingly rolled our bikes through the rest of the crowd and made our way back to the bike rental place. On a side note, we almost caused a massive bike wreck between six or seven Korean bikers when Jamie and I got lost and asked a biker at the head of the pack for directions. We both covered our faces as a biker fell over when he tried not to hit the sweet biker that helped us. Afterwards, it was hilarious, but in the heat of the moment...not so much.
That night, there was a fireworks display to celebrate Hangul Day and since Jamie is obsessed with fireworks, she really wanted to go to this roof top party to watch the fireworks. We arrived late and missed the fireworks, but ended up meeting three guys that we hung out with for the rest of the night.
We stayed out much later than we should have, so when we woke up at 5:30 the next morning for the DMZ tour, we were hating ourselves.
The DMZ tour was incredible, well let me rephrase. The tour itself left much to be desired, but the history of the DMZ, and the fact that we were finally there, was fascinating. Let me clarify, because it's somewhat confusing. We didn't OFFICIALLY go to the DMZ. The DMZ is actually this two mile stretch of uninhabited land. The demilitarized zone is only called that because there aren't any people there. It can't be a demilitarized zone if there are people there. Get it? So there's the two mile stretch of land - one mile on each of the Korea's and then another mile on each side, which is where we went. So no, we didn't officially go to the DMZ, we only technically did, according to our very confusing guide.
It's hard to describe what it was like, mostly because it seemed completely contradictory. Our bus drove through the DMZ and it was completely devoid of human life. It seemed we, and the rest of the people on the bus, were the only humans left in the world.
The first stop on our DMZ tour was the Dorasan Train Station. As we got off the bus, it was completely silent and almost peaceful, except for the fact that I felt like I had a sniper rifle trained on my head. When Jamie and I would talk, we'd whisper, as if there was something that we'd be interrupting if we were to talk louder. The station is not operating, but South Korea has hopes that it will one day run. The train station connects the two Koreas, but since North Korea won't let South Korea run the train, the station was absolutely lifeless. The point of the train station was to have South Korea send materials to North Korea via train, then North Korea would send back the finished product via the train.
This is what Wikipedia (and yes, I realize that Wikipedia isn't exactly the most reliable source) says, "On December 11, 2007, freight trains began traveling north past Dorasan Station into North Korea, taking materials to the Kaesong Industrial Region, and returning with finished goods. It was scheduled to make one 16 kilometer (10 mile) trip every weekday."
Our lovely President Bush was there at the opening of the train station, so Jamie and I felt that we needed to have a photo op with the Presidents. Overall, the train station really wasn't that spectacular, but was still incredibly interesting because it was like a ghost station...very weird.
North Korea is so dodgy and downright insane that it's absolutely fascinating, but more on that later. I read some horror stories in my Lonely Planet which I will share with you in a bit.
Next on the tour was the Dora Observatory, which would permit us views of North Korea. On the bus ride, the tour guide explained that the best way to identify whether I'm staring at North or South Korea is to look at the mountains. If the mountains have trees on them, then it's South Korea, and if the mountains don't have any trees, then it's North Korea. I thought the woman was insane, or there was some mistranslation between Korean and English, but when I got to the observatory and looked through the binoculars, the mountains had no trees on them. She explained that the North Koreans were so starved for food and heat that they chopped down all the trees to use them for food/heating. And this is why North Korea is the "heart of darkness" in Asia. I understand that there's a lot of lying going on between the two countries and South Korea probably says a lot of things about North Korea that are slightly exaggerated, BUT North Korea's communist party outlived communist Russia and has a reputation as being the least understood, and secretive/mysterious country in the entire world.
At the observatory, Jamie and I looked through the binoculars into North Korea. We could see guard posts with guards walking around holding their rifles. We weren't allowed to take pictures where the binoculars were. We had to walk back about 30 meters and take pictures behind the big yellow line that was being guarded by some friendly South Korea soldiers, which also made us feel like a photo op was in order.
The next stop on our turbo tour was the 3rd Tunnel. I was extremely apprehensive to do this portion of the tour and I blame the book Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. It's a WWI novel that takes place in France and one story line in the novel involves a man that builds tunnels into enemy territory. It depicts trench warfare in a horrifying light (because it was horrifying) and well, the descriptions of the tunnels and the "tunnel rats" basically freaked me out. I cannot find anything that scares me out more than to be in a confined space, on my belly, unable to turn around, stand up or breathe clean air ALL THE WHILE knowing that the walls around me could collapse at any moment and lock me into a grave, while I'm still alive. I want to go throw up now just thinking about it. Moving on, sort of. The tunnel was going to give me some problems, but I knew that I'd regret it if I didn't suck it up and just do it. We boarded the little monorail train that would take us about 300 feet underground and as we descended, my hands got sweatier and sweatier. Jamie was great support though, and held my hand the entire way down. What a pal! As the tunnel got smaller and smaller, the people on each side of me had to tilt their head towards me so they wouldn't smack their heads on the tunnel walls. Thank God I was sitting in the middle seat.
The climate in the tunnel gradually got colder and damper (there was water covering the walls which didn't help my state of mind. ("GREAT. We're going to drown in here"). We got off the monorail and started walking through the tunnel, and as I kept walking I became more calm and even laughed when Jamie smacked her head on the metal bars above her that were being used to stabilize the ceiling. Yikes! She was wearing a helmet though, so no harm done! We had to crouch most of the way, but at least we didn't have to crawl. The walls were also covered in concrete or rock so dirt debris wasn't falling on me while I was walking. All in all, it seemed like a pretty safe, sturdy tunnel, but still. It was underground and the walls could collapse around me AT ANY MOMENT! There have been four tunnels that have been found by South Korean/American military, but there's an estimated 21 tunnels that have been suspected to exist, but haven't been found. Crazy! Since Seoul is so close to the border, most tunnels have been aimed towards the city, and one tunnel in particular was big and wide enough to fit over 10,000 soldiers in one hour. Seoul, by the way, holds 45% of all the population in Korea, which is why it's such a huge target for the North Koreans. Once you have Seoul, you have the entire country, which is exactly what happened during the war, by the way.
That night, there was a fireworks display to celebrate Hangul Day and since Jamie is obsessed with fireworks, she really wanted to go to this roof top party to watch the fireworks. We arrived late and missed the fireworks, but ended up meeting three guys that we hung out with for the rest of the night.
We stayed out much later than we should have, so when we woke up at 5:30 the next morning for the DMZ tour, we were hating ourselves.
The DMZ tour was incredible, well let me rephrase. The tour itself left much to be desired, but the history of the DMZ, and the fact that we were finally there, was fascinating. Let me clarify, because it's somewhat confusing. We didn't OFFICIALLY go to the DMZ. The DMZ is actually this two mile stretch of uninhabited land. The demilitarized zone is only called that because there aren't any people there. It can't be a demilitarized zone if there are people there. Get it? So there's the two mile stretch of land - one mile on each of the Korea's and then another mile on each side, which is where we went. So no, we didn't officially go to the DMZ, we only technically did, according to our very confusing guide.
It's hard to describe what it was like, mostly because it seemed completely contradictory. Our bus drove through the DMZ and it was completely devoid of human life. It seemed we, and the rest of the people on the bus, were the only humans left in the world.
The first stop on our DMZ tour was the Dorasan Train Station. As we got off the bus, it was completely silent and almost peaceful, except for the fact that I felt like I had a sniper rifle trained on my head. When Jamie and I would talk, we'd whisper, as if there was something that we'd be interrupting if we were to talk louder. The station is not operating, but South Korea has hopes that it will one day run. The train station connects the two Koreas, but since North Korea won't let South Korea run the train, the station was absolutely lifeless. The point of the train station was to have South Korea send materials to North Korea via train, then North Korea would send back the finished product via the train. 
This is what Wikipedia (and yes, I realize that Wikipedia isn't exactly the most reliable source) says, "On December 11, 2007, freight trains began traveling north past Dorasan Station into North Korea, taking materials to the Kaesong Industrial Region, and returning with finished goods. It was scheduled to make one 16 kilometer (10 mile) trip every weekday." Our lovely President Bush was there at the opening of the train station, so Jamie and I felt that we needed to have a photo op with the Presidents. Overall, the train station really wasn't that spectacular, but was still incredibly interesting because it was like a ghost station...very weird.
North Korea is so dodgy and downright insane that it's absolutely fascinating, but more on that later. I read some horror stories in my Lonely Planet which I will share with you in a bit.
Next on the tour was the Dora Observatory, which would permit us views of North Korea. On the bus ride, the tour guide explained that the best way to identify whether I'm staring at North or South Korea is to look at the mountains. If the mountains have trees on them, then it's South Korea, and if the mountains don't have any trees, then it's North Korea. I thought the woman was insane, or there was some mistranslation between Korean and English, but when I got to the observatory and looked through the binoculars, the mountains had no trees on them. She explained that the North Koreans were so starved for food and heat that they chopped down all the trees to use them for food/heating. And this is why North Korea is the "heart of darkness" in Asia. I understand that there's a lot of lying going on between the two countries and South Korea probably says a lot of things about North Korea that are slightly exaggerated, BUT North Korea's communist party outlived communist Russia and has a reputation as being the least understood, and secretive/mysterious country in the entire world. At the observatory, Jamie and I looked through the binoculars into North Korea. We could see guard posts with guards walking around holding their rifles. We weren't allowed to take pictures where the binoculars were. We had to walk back about 30 meters and take pictures behind the big yellow line that was being guarded by some friendly South Korea soldiers, which also made us feel like a photo op was in order.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for a man in uniform.
Jamie and I got a little irritated with our tour guide because she was constantly rushing us to get back on the bus. There was still a lot to see, but because she was a time freak, we couldn't see everything or even take our time. It was very annoying and Jamie, unsurprisingly, said, "We spent a lot of money to come on this tour, and so I'm going to take as long as I want." The tour guide didn't bat an eyelash and kept ushering back towards the bus. Oh well.
The next stop on our turbo tour was the 3rd Tunnel. I was extremely apprehensive to do this portion of the tour and I blame the book Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. It's a WWI novel that takes place in France and one story line in the novel involves a man that builds tunnels into enemy territory. It depicts trench warfare in a horrifying light (because it was horrifying) and well, the descriptions of the tunnels and the "tunnel rats" basically freaked me out. I cannot find anything that scares me out more than to be in a confined space, on my belly, unable to turn around, stand up or breathe clean air ALL THE WHILE knowing that the walls around me could collapse at any moment and lock me into a grave, while I'm still alive. I want to go throw up now just thinking about it. Moving on, sort of. The tunnel was going to give me some problems, but I knew that I'd regret it if I didn't suck it up and just do it. We boarded the little monorail train that would take us about 300 feet underground and as we descended, my hands got sweatier and sweatier. Jamie was great support though, and held my hand the entire way down. What a pal! As the tunnel got smaller and smaller, the people on each side of me had to tilt their head towards me so they wouldn't smack their heads on the tunnel walls. Thank God I was sitting in the middle seat. 
The climate in the tunnel gradually got colder and damper (there was water covering the walls which didn't help my state of mind. ("GREAT. We're going to drown in here"). We got off the monorail and started walking through the tunnel, and as I kept walking I became more calm and even laughed when Jamie smacked her head on the metal bars above her that were being used to stabilize the ceiling. Yikes! She was wearing a helmet though, so no harm done! We had to crouch most of the way, but at least we didn't have to crawl. The walls were also covered in concrete or rock so dirt debris wasn't falling on me while I was walking. All in all, it seemed like a pretty safe, sturdy tunnel, but still. It was underground and the walls could collapse around me AT ANY MOMENT! There have been four tunnels that have been found by South Korean/American military, but there's an estimated 21 tunnels that have been suspected to exist, but haven't been found. Crazy! Since Seoul is so close to the border, most tunnels have been aimed towards the city, and one tunnel in particular was big and wide enough to fit over 10,000 soldiers in one hour. Seoul, by the way, holds 45% of all the population in Korea, which is why it's such a huge target for the North Koreans. Once you have Seoul, you have the entire country, which is exactly what happened during the war, by the way.
In its entirety, the only reason why the DMZ tour was so amazing was because it was the DMZ. The tour itself wasn't spectacular, and mostly gave me information that I had already learned through reading my Lonely Planet. It was still a life changing experience, mostly because I suspect that the DMZ won't exist forever, and I was lucky enough to go when it did exist.
The trip to Seoul, after the whole passport debacle, turned into a really great vacation. It just goes to show that no matter where you are, if you're with the right person, you're going to have a blast, no matter what.
We must go and do the real DMZ tour!
ReplyDeletehahah i love your posts. so entertaining. well im glad you had fun, despite the stressful situations!
ReplyDelete