DAG 70: Goodbey seoul and the DMZ

I got my second "lost in translation" moment when i am sitting in the hotel cab that drives me to the begining of mnt Fuji. Remember how the movie ends up with Bill Murray sitting alone and the Jesus and Marychain songs starts. you feel the loneliness. The only thing missing now at this particular moment is this track. I just have left korea a couple of days ago and without my friends i feel a liitle bit out of order. When i left Korean soil i just shed a tear. This country and all the korean people welcomed me a lot, it felt like leaving home. Above all i made some new best friends during my stay. I think i will miss Sunghee, Markus and Jeong Nam a lot. I think i travelled 2.5 weeks with Markus and he was great to travel with. He even could read the korean signs, so that made taking busses for me very easy. In the meantime i have another Japanese story to blog, but first still some things that happened in Korea.

The first part is about the DMZ tour Markus and me did. The DMZ is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The zone is 4km wide and strechtes out from the east till the westcoast. Although it is heavily guarded by both sides and millions of landmines, a tour for foreigner tourists run up in to the zone. Offcourse forbidden to Korean people and 39 other countries (most of them are muslim). Our group is two tourbusses big and this is not the only cooperation that does the DMZ tour

The DMZ

There is only one highway connecting the south with the north. All the bridges make part out of the anti tank defence system, happily pointed out by our korean tourguide mr Kim. mr Kim looks like he walked straight out of a bad american eighties spymovie. Not only his strange american accent but he doesnt also waste a second to tell us how poor and how bad the living in North Korea is. He tells us a dozen sad stories about the hard life in the north. The north and south try to hook up. South korean built some factories in the north and because there is a shortage of energy the south also deliver the electricity. mr Kim tells us that the north korean workers dont make any money, because the north korean workers are heavilly taxed. Also only former military are able to work in the factories. And that is how bad life in the north is, emphasizes mr Kim again.

Recently there is also a railway road connecting the north to the south. It is only oused once during the opening. One train could make the trip.

When we reached camp Bonifas in the so called Joint Security Area, we have to changes busses and the tour is taken over by the US army. " in front off them all" is the motto of the soldiers living here. To make sure this is serious business we get a small debriefing (do not make gestures or contact towards the north korean soldiers!) we also have to sign a paper that we know we can get injured or even get shot.
Making part out of this silly tour (almost unbelievable but they also got a giftshop here in this military base, selling dmz shirts, baby military suits and ofcourse korean sweets) makes it hard to get the feeling that the situation here is still tensed. In the eighties there were still some incidents and american soldiers get killed by an axe, the so called axe murders. Our guide points out the building on the north korean side which still held the axes, the so called north korean peace museum.

The tour is too big to mention everything. We see the south korean farmers village (freedom village) in the DMZ and the north korean village on the opposite side. You guess, that village is called propaganda village by the tour. It seems that nobody lives here, but thir flagpole is 40m higher and the flag is much bigger. according to our guide the flag needs to be lifted by 50 people. It is also to big to wave in the wind.

The tours end up at the Dora Observatory. Visitors can catch a rare glimpse of the reclusive north korean state through binoculars (it will cost you one hundred wonn for a couple of minutes) from the 304 square feet, 500-person capacity observatory. We can see north korea third biggest city Kaesong. We are lucky it is a clear sky and we can see the 20m high statue of Kim ill sung.

Taking pictures is only allowed in the restricted areas. The area is way in the back that taking a picture of the north isnt possible. Actually the whole tour feels like one big provocation to the north. I cant rid of the feeling that i am watching monkees here under the all seeing eye of the military. This feeling gets bigger when mr Kim and our busdriver starts a karaoke of happy birthday and wedding songs for some passengers, just before leaving the barbed wire zone. How akward but maybe just a little bit stranger you also can do this tour from the north side. I am wondering how the north tells us how bad and poor the living in the south is and how they calls the south korean 'peace village' (i guess propaganda village)


more korean stories after the dmz pics.

our tourguide mr \kim in front of the gift shop at kamp Bonifas.

Markus and me, traveling save in the dmz with our visitors badges

]

This ROK soldier has to stand like this for 3 hours! The middle of this building is

the border between north and south.

ROK soldier. Not a north korean soldier. You can get on a picture with him.

The north koreanvillage propaganda village. Look mom our flagpole is bigger.

Pissing in the wind on a higher level.

looking at north korea from the area where it is allowed to take pictures.

SEOUL

I am a little bit behind with my blog, so thats why this is a big post.

My travel through korea ends up in Seoul. Because of my experiences in Tokyo, i was a little bit afraid that this 10million city was also getting on my nerves. But like Korea it loved Seoul. Its starts with this tradional and quiet guesthouse i stayed in. This was an excellent and quiet base for my visits in to Seoul. Above all Seoul isnt like Tokyo one big shopping mall, but there are many small art galleries, musea, theaters and venues. The city is vived because of the many students that hangs out in the city. I saw many performances from modern dance to one funny b-boy performance (korea is famous for its outstanding b-boy-ing).

I was lucky to be joined by Sunghee again. She was such a good company and fun to hang out with that time flew and before i knew it i was allready sitting on the plane back to Tokyo.

One of Sunghee friends Jeung Nam took us to his favorite sites and art galleries.

I think i eat almost all the korean food there is (also liked the varies kinds of streetfood) But most of all, i liked the korean "bang". Bang stands for room and there are varies kinds, like the jimjillbang (kind of sauna) the pcbang (like a internetcafe) dvd bang (a small cinema where you can enjoy movies on a large couch also ment for the korean dating course) and ofcourse de noraebang (a karaoke room just for singing. can you believe it no drinking involved. Koreans like to sing! Sunghee, Markus and I went after drinking some dongdongju (the fine korean alcohol) singing some great eighties/nineties songs like Nirvana, Abba (the SOS song sounded great or was i drunk?) Metallica, Billy Joel and our all time favorite girls just wanna have fun. How comes that these songs are stuck in my mind. We just had one hour to sing but the owner keep us giving us extra minutes. were we that good? Sunghee can sing really good. but probably all korean can, because of this Noreabang.

I know what i am going to do with all my spare rooms when i come home: turn them into bangs.

Just enjoy the pics because its too much to tell. Within a couple of days i am flying to Australie. Can you believe it. It snowed in Seoul, in Australie its 34 degrees at the moment!

like the Mogwai song: Yes! i am a far way from home

Seoul by night

Going wild in the Noreabang

I remember i sang more songs in my dream that night.

I might sign up for the next edition of popstars ;)

Jeung Nam, Sunghee and me during a concert in a small bar

but Korea is all about food. Even when you go out drinking , the alcohol comes with a lot of fine side dishes.

i really love this culture.

I left Seoul with snow. This is the guesthouse i stayed in

The rooms lay around this beuatiful courtyard.

it is located between two beautiful palaces.