Another month down

I went to Seoul on Wednesday to meet up with a couple friends and visit North Korea. Steve and I had to find a hotel and after wandering around for a while found what looked to be a nice place. As we were approaching it we saw a sign for another hotel and decided to check it out. It led us down an alley, then down another alley, and then finally down another one. When we got there it looked pretty dismal and shady. It was cheap so we took it. It is a place that would normally be used for prostitutes and their moneymakers, but it didn't phase us too bad. It appeared that they didn't change the sheets very often (if at all) and the bathroom had a big hole in the wall that was partially plugged up with a towel. You could still see into the other room's bathroom if you so inclined to. Sadly Steve won the floor so I had to sleep in the bed. I skipped on the pillow and used my jacket. I also slept fully clothed so as to minimize contact of the bed to my skin.

Before we went to sleep we headed out to watch Apocolyptico (sp?). I don't know if you have seen this but it doesn't have any English in it, just subtitles. We didn't know this until the movie started so Steve and I had an interesting time trying to figure out what was going on.

The next morning we met up with Rachel, an Irish girl that I met while teaching at the "camp". We piled into a minivan along with a German, and an Aussie and headed out to the border. With our first tour guide we went to some bridge and saw a bunch of flag/banners (you can see them in my pictures. We also saw a short movie. The movie was interesting but lame as well. At one point a cartoon butterfly flew around the screen and a bad child actor tried her best to point at it. I think there was some stuff about the war between the Koreas but all I remember is that damn butterfly. We were then led into a museum where our guide told us not to read anything because we can find it on the internet later.

We then went to a long tunnel that the North Koreans built to invade the South. The North said that it was a coal mine but it went straight south and had no coal. The North tried to show that there really was coal by painting the tunnel black. It didn't work too well. Later the North said that it was the South that was building the tunnel to attack them. After the South opened it up to tourists the North demanded some of the profit because it was theme that built the tunnel... you see why we are having problems with this country? Anyway, the tunnel was built for little Koreans so I and the rest of out group had to hunch over most of the time. No pictures were allowed in the cave and in a lot of other places as well.

We went to another place where a Korean with a London accent showed us, out of a giant glass wall, some interesting things about the North. We couldn't take any pictures. When we went outside there was a yellow line about 20 feet (6 meters) from the edge of the viewing platform where you could take pictures. At the edge were binoculars where you could look over at the wasteland that is the North. Not so sure why we couldn't take pictures from there though.

After a hearty lunch where I think I insulted the owners for questioning their prices we went to the border in a much larger bus with a bunch of Japanese tourists and a different tour guide. We were given forms to sign and were warned again and again not to take pictures or to point or make silly faces. Alcohol is also banned. While we were waiting at one checkpoint there was a bus in front of us for quite some time. Eventually we pulled around it and headed on our way. We later found out that one of the passengers had some alcohol on his person so the tour was canceled for the entire bus. The reason we needed a new tour guide was the first one lost her certificate because one of her charges did the same thing. Morons.

We finally got to the famous spot where the North and South soldiers stand 10 feet away from each other and stare. Sadly the North soldiers weren't out that day (maybe it was too cold) so the South soldiers were staring at nothing. You can see by the pictures (if you go to the link on the right) that the soldiers don't look so nice. Our tour was almost canceled because a Swiss tourist couldn't follow directions and didn't leave her camera case behind, the guard was kind and didn't kick us all out. We snapped some photos and were quickly ushered out. After a few more photo ops we headed back to Seoul.

All throughout the tour our guide was giving us tidbits of information through her broken English. One tasty gem was that if the Koreas united they'd be the 3rd world superpower (not the super power of the 3rd world), right behind the US and the EU. I guess she forgot about a few others.

Personally, after seeing how Korean organization works while at the camp, I would be a bit distraught at the thought of Korea having too much power. Also, Koreans don't seem to know where they live. I've said before about how people always try to open my apartment door, well, while I was staying in a dormitory at the camp someone actually walked first into the sitting area of our room and then just opened my bedroom door. I thought it was my roommate but nobody came in and when I checked I saw our front door slowly swinging shut. I know it wasn't the roommate because she was asleep in the next room. We had a proper lock put on our hallway door the next day (as our other one only locked/unlocked from the outside). The next evening the girls above me where in their sitting room when a Korean girl just walked in walked to the kitchenette opened some drawers then walked out all while saying nothing. Who are these people!?!?!?!?

Don't forget to check out the pictures!!