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!

China: The Last

After our tour we went in search of food and came across a group of people dancing. They were in uniform and seemed as though this was, perhaps, part of their job. What the picture does not show is me on the far left joining in to learn some new moves to impress the ladies but I have to admit that after a full day it was somewhat half hearted.

Tuesday was our last day in China and so having done a little bit of reading I requested that we go to Hongqiao Market also known as the Pearl Market. My parents were a little hesitant to spend our last morning in China in a market but they reluctantly came along saying that they needed the walk.

We got there and my father set a one and a half hour time limit. Before we came to China I had decided that I wanted a watch and not just any watch a Mont Blanc Timewalker Chronograph Automatic. So I set about looking for one, testing depth of the price waters when I found a booth that had one. Walking from stall to stall, "My friend, my friend" they would say, "Have we met?" I would ask. To them it was all a game, what a game it was, they were good at it and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So much so that I ended up using the full hour and a half in this manner. But when we met up, instead of the expected, "We need to leave right away" both my father and mother agreed that we did not need to leave quite yet. "We just need to pick up a few more things was the reply." That suited me fine.

When it finally did come time to leave I had a new watch around my wrist and my father and mother both had a bag or two of stuff. The whole walk back to the hotel we compared our deals and swapped stories of how great our experiences had been. A good time was had all around but now it was time to get to the airport.

The airport in Beijing has a shuttle that runs off of the subway which makes it very easy to get to. In our case, we caught the bus from just down the road from our hotel and rode it to the subway. We then rode the subway till the transfer station to the shuttle, quick, cheap and easy.

Apart from a short delay on the runway, our flight was smooth and as comfortable as anyone can get in economy. We arrived in Busan just after 9:00 pm and took an incredibly fast taxi to the bus station only to find that the last bus to Geoje left at 9:00. No problem as there were many motels right beside the bus station. Motel SS was kind enough to offer us a room for the whole night and after a short sleep we caught an early bus back to Geoje.

Beijing: Tourist Edition

The tour started bright and early Monday morning, we had arranged for a private driver and tour guide to take us around for the day. Take us around they did! Here are a few pictures from the day.

The first stop was the Great Wall! We went to the Mutianyu section and even my mom said she liked it, which means that it must be surreal.

The one thing I forgot in the 5 minutes I took to pack was
something warm, thankfully my mother came prepared.

The Ming Tombs were next on our list of sites to see and while it was a bit drab after the Great Wall, our guide made it more interesting than a walk in the park.

For lunch we stopped at a tourist lunch stop and had a fine mass produced Chinese meal.

From there it was off to the Olympic village to see the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest as well as the lesser know site The Dragon Hotel.

While the Olympic Village was impressive, we had other things to see, so after we had our fill we headed off once again. This time it was off to the hutongs. Hutongs are small narrow streets found in the oldest parts of Beijing, very "cultural".

For this part we went up a the Drum Tower, got a ride in a rickshaw and visited a home. If I were honest the rickshaw and the home visit were my least favorite parts of Beijing, I was(more than) a little embarrassed. I guess it was my pride as all the other rickshaws were filled with fat, old retired tourists, I had considered myself "above" them and here I was right along with them. My parents on the other hand fit in great...

From here it was off to an acrobatics show, it was interesting and some of the stuff that they did was cool. but the only thing worth taking a picture of was the sphere off death(I think that is what they call it) They had 5 motorcycles riding around in it at the same time.

That concluded our tour. I have a general dislike for tours as they often do their best to show a polished, flawless view of an area rather than the real culture(because sometimes it's messy). I would rather explore things on my own as the resulting experiences are often more memorable. But with our limited time in Beijing the tour allowed us to see most of what we had wanted to see. There, justified, I feel better already...

China: Beijing

The train from Shanghai was fast and smooth, the comfort level was about that of an economy seat in a 1980's era airline, but most importantly it was safe(I think...). When we debarked from the train we could instantly tell there was a difference between Shanghai and Beijing. It was a difference of night and day, the suburbs and downtown, Beijing being downtown.

While it was dressed up to look good there were people sleeping one the floor, who did a good job of making it look like they were not on route, and there was an odor that made me think of my bathroom before my mom cleaned it(thanks mom).

We found the line for registered taxi's but at the rate it was going we would need to take the taxi to the airport to fly back home. Thankfully we met a nice gal who was also thought there might be a better way so with her help we took the bus and got off at what we thought was two short blocks from our hotel. Thankfully we were right.

For our time in Beijing we had found a good deal on a western hotel that was close to a number of the sites we planned to see while there. The location truly was superb, but what hit me as we walk in to the hotel was a sense of familiarity, that I was home. They had taken what was normal back home and brought it to China for me, along with a continental breakfast. It was an interesting thing as I hardly ever, to the point of trying not to, stay in hotels back home but here for some reason it felt warm and welcoming.

Our first full day in Beijing was a Sunday, as such we had found a government approved church to attend, it's website said that the service started at 7:00pm so we had the morning and afternoon free to explore. My mother decided to take a day off to rest and explore in her own right so my father and I set off to see what we could find.

We started at the Temple of Heaven as it was right down our street and from their worked our way North up Qianmen Street through the Zhengyang Gate, past Chairman Mao's Hall, The Monument to the People's Heros, Tian'anmen Square, The Forbidden City finally finishing at Jingshan Park. Here are some pictures of it:

Market

The courtyard of the Temple of Heaven was full of entertainment.

View over the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park.

This walk put us what felt like 15 miles from our hotel and so being the fit and active father that he is, my father insisted that he wanted to walk. Being the stubborn son that did not want to be shown up by his aging father(I said it), I ignored the tempting calls from the rickshaw drivers, and kept pace.

On our walk we happened across the church that we were planning to attend but as it turned out their service was in the morning and so we had missed it. So for dinner we decided to go for Peking duck, a dish that every tourist absolutely has to have because other tourists tell them to...

We went to a restaurant just around the corner from our hotel and it was evident by the looks we got that it was very much a Chinese restaurant. Thankfully their menu had large pictures of every dish so we knew what we were getting.

It was certainly an experience and it did taste quite alright. Along with that it was a reasonable 99 RMB($15US) for the duck and everything that came with it which easily fed all three of us.

Next post: Beijing: Tour Edition