The Rest

In this post I will wrap up the tale of my parents travels. I guess it is about time, they have only been gone for over two weeks already. After we returned from China we celebrated my birthday and had a few more days to explore and relax before it was off to Seoul to catch their flight.

We took the bus in Friday afternoon in order to be ready for a tour of the DMZ the next morning. The DMZ or De-Militarized Zone is an area 2 km wide between North and South Korea that, aside from a few watch towers, has been de-militarized.

I had registered for "the best" tour so that we would be able to see all the sights but that meant that we had to be at the office by 7:30. We did our best but due to some faulty map reading on my part we got off one subway stop to far. After not seeing any of the landmarks and with time getting short I frantically looked through the past three weeks of history on my phone trying every number that I did not recognize. As a result of, what I can only attribute to an act of God, we were on the bus 5 minutes later.

The first stop took us to the Joint Security Area or JSA, this is the only place on the Korean border that you can actually cross in to North Korea(From what I know). We switched buses and picked up a tour guide from the U.S. Army and continued and this is where I will switch to pictures.

JSA facing North Korea, look at all the people on the balcony.

Officially in North Korea.

North Korea man

North Korean Village

Bridge of No Return

Site of the ax murder

The train station between Seoul and Pyeongyang

Next stop Pyeongyang

We also stopped at the third tunnel but I didn't take any pictures. The third tunnel is around 60 km from Seoul and capable of bring 30,000 troops through an hour. 

All in all the tour was alright, while most of the information was fascinating, I had read it before coming on the tour. If I had to do it again or was asked for advice about it I would say just visit the Joint Security Area. In going to the JSA you also see across to North Korea, Bridge of No Return, the ax murder site and along with the sites there are stories and a good tour guide to go with it. The other sites, while interesting, seemed very commercialized, just a place to take a picture and buy a souvenir. 

While there was a lot of talk about reuniting the country, the feeling I got on the tour was that they had a good thing going and the reunification would just get in the way of their profit.

After the tour we met up with my cousin who just arrived to teach in Korea 3 week prior. We had a lovely time catching up and chatting about his first impressions of Korea. Rather than treat my parents to an authentic Korean meal for their last dinner in the country they treated me. We ate at, what could be one of the best restaurants in Korea, Outback Steakhouse. 

Sunday we went to Yoido Full Gospel Church, which is rumoured to have one of the biggest congregations in the world. Went back to the hotel for lunch and walked to the airport shuttle bus stop just around the corner. We said our good-byes some what prematurely I thought as we would have a bit of a wait for the bus. As I was thinking that a taxi sped up and offered to take them to the airport for the same price as the bus, deal. Annyeong-hi Kaseyo!