On North Korea...and Dogs, Yum

Sorry for leaving everyone for so long without updates.  We:ve done a great deal of travel with limited internet access, and so I am recounting what I can remember from the last couple weeks...I promise more prompt updates as I go forward--I think Mongolia is about as remote as I am going to get.  (I hope.)  But first thing first, Korea.  I flew into Korea and met my parents at the Shilla Hotel.  It:s a hulking, elegant, black and grey slate and marble cavern of a hotel--it:s one of Korea:s finest and where my father stays for business, but I think my Mom aptly described it when she said it felt like a Mercedes dealership.  Korea:s done a remarkable job building itself up--it was neat to see what everyone calls an Asian tiger firsthand--and hard to imagine that after the Korean war there wasn:t a single intact window.  Now the place teems with traffic and has skyscrapers.  It:s modern but still dirty--not as modern as Hong Kong but in a couple decades it will be a first-rate city.  There economy has already reached a point such that there is an established upper-class that:s very self-aware.

Waching this circus in the lobby for three days was interesting.  First, everyone wears black or grey and everyone is always dressed up.  This is a country in which I saw four Hermes botiques coming from the airport.  I felt like a total scrub in my jeans and thermals while Prada and Gucci in black and charcoal went clacking by.  And no one stands in the huge lobby, everyone is always off somewhere, so if you:re an American tourist you]re likely to be standing alone in a sea of black stone and suits and recessed lighting.  Consumption was highly conspicuous; the Koreans seem to love the S-class,--of course, only in silver and black.  Anyhow, the Shilla was great, except for $10 for five minutes of internet, which is part of the reason I didn:t write sooner.

Team Madsen to the DMZ

The neatest thing we did in Korea was to go to the DMZ.  We began by taking a tram a couple hundred feet down into a rock tunnel about five feet high--the North Koreans dug it under the border so that they might be able to move 30,000 of their men within striking distance of Seoul, covertly.  It was discovered in the seventies and is the fourth tunnel the South Koreans have found so far--and they:re always on the lookout for more.

Then we moved on to Camp Bonifas, which is the Camp at the center of the DMZ (actually in the DMZ).  Only citizens from some countries can go...and you can:t wear ripped jeans or point because you are within thirty feet of North Korean soldiers, who will take pictures of you and use you as propaganda--either saying that we don:t have enough money for new jeans, or that we are pointing to get over to the glorious land of North Korea.  We actually got to go into the negotiating building that stradles the border, and because I went to the end of the building I have been, technically, in North Korea.  It:s an area of high tension--there are scuffles every now and again--the North Koreans hacked two Marines to death in the seventies because they didn:t like the fact that the Marines were cutting down a tree in the DMZ and defcon levels were raised...so we were warned to behave.  It was truly a fascinating experience--there are all sorts of anecdotes about one-upmanship, from who has a bigger flag to who has a bigger villiage to who gets to use the buildings when...

We spent the next day in the markets looking at the food.  There:s a lot of pickled goods in Korea--kimchee, the spicy pickled cabbage that:s famous, plus all sorts of fermented vegetable, bean, and fish products.  Typical meals involve barbequing meats at the table and then eating them with some of twenty side dishes that have been brought out.  The markets had all of these sorts of pickles, and spices, and stands where you could get food...I wanted a beer (the beer is cold but nothing special) and so I crashed one of the stands.  The woman offered me food in Korean and I thought what the hell, I have a pretty strong stomach, and so I got little fried fish and some sort of meat that was soft and red, and noodles.  It all tasted a little weird but it was spicy and hot and I had a beer...and then I took off to find everyone else, who had already gone off further down the market, when I saw a stand filled with skinned dogs.  They were more or less whole, a couple were split in half , and they ranged from lab size to doberman size.  It didn't really bother me too much, though the thought I had eaten dog did.

The last night we met some of my father's friends from business and had a pretty sweet Chinese meal.  It seemed like every course had shark fin or abalone or crab--we must have killed fifty sharks between the twenty of us, no joke--and it was interesting to try.  It was also great to have a break from Korean food.  At the dinner I was assured that dog is only eaten at special restaraunts--in the summer because the meat has a high fat content.  Koreans are very conscious of their image abroad so photos aren't really an option, and I don't want to give them a bad rep--I'm glad I got to see dog out in the open before it gets driven underground as Seoul:s tourism business increseases.