Korea for Golden Week!

Afternoon people,

I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather. It’s so nice to go to sleep at night and no wear the hat/scarf/glove combo! However, I’ve been warned that the monsoon season starts soon!

People in Japan are “recovering” from Golden Week. I use the word “recovering” because at the end of April, the country is inundated with thousands of travelers who are making the most of their time off work. The most popular destinations are Disneyland, Kyoto and Osaka! It is, without a doubt, Japan’s busiest period. However, other parts of the world such as Asia and Europe are affected by Golden Week as Japanese tourists (and their cameras) flock there to see the sights . Believing that Golden Week would be too hellish to spend in Japan, I went to South Korea for the week!

What an amazing country. It’s very similar to Japan yet very different. The people even look the same but are slightly bigger/taller (the Japanese always call them fat!) They seem to be a lot more direct and say what they think whilst being very friendly/helpful. We spent the week touring the major port of Busan, the neighbouring town of Gyeongju (ancient Silla capital), the DMZ zone and of course, Seoul.

Busan was your standard attractive port city. We were lucky to stay in Nampo-dong which was buzzing every night and home to the Gukje market where you can find anything at a cheap price. However, it made a nice change to be able to shop without something rushing up yelling ,“I give you good price!” During out time there we paid a visit to the UN Cemetary for all those who died during the Korean War (800 British soldiers were buried there). It was beautifully designed and a fitting tribute to all those who perished. We also saw lots of beautiful temples and festivals in the city the huge Jalguchi fish market (even saw a dead maiko shark), Busan Tower, took a cable car up the local mountain and went to Asia’s largest hot spa. It consisted of a huge room full of bathing pools, heated marble floors (much better than Japan’s heated tables) and saunas where you can watch TVs and DVDs while you sweat it out!

We saw lots of UNESCO World Heritage sites, most of which were situated in forests/mountains. After a while they all start to look the same but one of the coolest things we saw were the Silla tombs in Gyeongju. These tombs are huge mounds of earth and resting places to Silla royalty. All around the city you can see these mini hills. Apparently the logic behind it is that they were very difficult to rob. The only way of penetrating the tomb and not causing to collapse, was to dig from the top which would be noticed immediately. The rest of the city was beautiful and lots of Japanese tourists of course. Seems you can never escape the Japanese and their cameras!

We tried lots of Korean food which is really good (if not a little spicy). It was also strange to be eating with steel chopsticks, a little trickier to use than the wooden ones! The Koreans are extraordinarily proud of their national dish kimchi, a sort of fermented, pickled vegetables (v popular in Japan). Some jars of kimchi are left for years to ferment! We also had traditional Korean BBQ and made fools of ourselves frying the lettuce and cutting it up instead of using it to roll the chicken in! Korean food comes with a lot of peppers, onions and garlic which made a nice change from Japanese food! I know what you are all thinking but no! I did not eat dog meant. Yes, we saw a lot of dogs but we did NOT see them in a burger! Judging by the vast numbers of dog parlours, S Koreans seem to be very fond of their dogs. Apparently dog meat is only for sale in some very old (and expensive) restaurants and even then it is frowned upon.

Seoul was an amazing city! We took the new KTX high-speed train and arrived in the capital in 2.5 hrs. We saw a beautiful palace (Gyeonbukgung for anyone wanting to go to Korea) It was very odd to see the contrast between the old temples/palace buildings and the modern skyscrapers. We also saw the Independence Gate (the Koreans celebrated their independence in 1898) and numerous Korea War memorials. The highlight of the day however, was the cable car up to Seoul’s mountain Namsan and looking over the city. At night we saw Korea’s National Treasure no.1 – the Great South Gate and went to Namdaemun night market full of food stalls, bits and bobs etc. It was also cool to see the Olympic Park and World Cup Stadium. Lots of the city had been renovated for these competitions including the construction of a huge indoor entertainment complex “Lotte World” complete with an ice rink! It had been a long time since I’d gone ice skating and it showed!

One of the reasons that I like Seoul so much is because it has lots of pretty streets and parks and temples tucked away in the big city, unlike Japan where it is very rare to see grass/parks. The night markets are also really fun as they are bustling with people, open 24 hours and sell anything you could possibly want!

Probably the most interesting thing we did in Korea was a tour of the DMZ. Special tours are held twice a week which take tourists (certain nationalities like Iran, Afghanistan etc. are banned from participating) to Panmunjeon and the Demilitarised Zone (although the number of soldiers surrounding there seems to suggest otherwise) north of Seoul

Before participating I had to sign a document basically stating that if I was shot, I couldn’t hold the government responsible. We were also cautioned against gesturing at N.Korean soldiers and dressing inappropriately as they don’t want the N.Koreans using pictures of “scruffy tourists” as propaganda. The most interesting part of the tour was the JSA (Joint Security Area) which straddles the demarcation line between North and South Korea. North and South Korea soldiers are stationed there at all times facing one another. If you look at the photos you can see that the S. Korean soldiers wear sunglasses at all times to appear more “intimidating” to the enemy and that N.Koreans are filming tourist groups in the hope that someone will make a fool of themselves. No one has been allowed to cross the demarcation line since the Axe Murder Incident where two American soldiers were killed. However the conference room straddling the “border” is the only room where S. Koreans/tourists are allowed in North Korea and vice versa. All telephones are bugged and there is nothing of value in the room except flags of the UN countries. A few years back N.Koreans stole them and blew their noses with the s. Korean flag and shined their boots with the American flag after George W.Bush held talks with S. Korea in 2002.

The American soldier who gave us the tour said that N.Koreans frequently try to goad S. Korean soldiers and provoke a reaction. Therefore the North Korean hut in the JSA is labelled the “monkey house”. The solider says that they never retaliate but I’m not so sure. We caught our first glimpse of North Korea from one of the viewpoints and saw Kijong-dong, aptly named “Propaganda Village” as no one lives there and huge speakers broadcast Kim Il Jong’s voice continuously. It is also home to a 30m flag and 180m flagpole making it the world’s largest. The villages on the S. Korean side are actually inhabited and are tax-free havens for citizens although they live under strict restrictions such as daily curfews.

Wow, that was a lot of information about the DMZ. I just thought it was really well organized and gave you a good idea of the current situation between North and South. It’s so interesting and yet so sad that the two Koreas are now enemies and that reunification does not seem to be a feasible prospect any time soon.

So now I’m back at work (yawn) and realizing that I only have 3 months left! Things are the same as ever in Susami but the forthcoming weekends are booked with fun things to do! In fact, when I was Korea some other JETs went to to Susami to see the famous Inobouta Derby. Every May people flock to Susami to watch pigs (Inoubouta is a mix between a pig and a boar) race each other! All my kids are still talking about it at school. It looked like a lot of fun!

I’ve just finished uploading my Korea photos! You can either use these two links below (more photos uploaded on them) or click on http://realtravel.com/member-m4294665-sara_fj_brayshaw.html　which is my new travel blog. My other site has been experiencing some technical difficulties so I’ll be deleting it soon! This is the website I’ll be using to upload photos/blogs etc from now!

Korea photos:

http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091935&l=ceb63&id=193105082

http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091924&l=48439&id=193105082

Well I think that’s enough for one day!

Love to you all,

Sara

xxxx