Day #10: DMZ

We went down to breakfast on time at 6:15 to find we were just about the last ones there.

We savored our second to the last day's morning treat.

We then boarded the bus that would take us north to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) which separates North Korea from South Korea.

As the bus left our hotel, we saw streets lined with police buses ready to keep the peace at the protest demonstration against the South Korean president.

That sounded ominous.








 

More Facts, Opinions and Information from Lara:

• South Korea has a love/hate relationship with America. They love the American people, but hate some of what the government has done.
• The American government kept a dictator in power because he was easier to control than a democracy. I believe she was talking about Park Chung-hee during the Nixon, Johnson eras.
• Koreans blame themselves for not being able to protect themselves from outside influences and aggression.
• North Korea actually has far more natural resources than the South.
• The LG company stands for Life's Good.
• Hyundai means modernization.
• Samsung means Three Stars. Three is a powerful number to Koreans.
•  There are 5 important colors to Koreans. Red-chili, White-garlic, Yellow-ginger, black-fermented fish sauce, Green- onions.

These stones gathered from historical battlefields around the world remind us of the grief war has caused.

These ribbons hung on barbed wires separating North and South Korea hold wishes of reunification from families torn apart.

When we entered the check point, a soldier came on board to make sure we all had our passports. We were warned that if even one person forgot to bring their passport, the entire group would not be able to enter the area.

Ummm... I took this photo of the soap in the bathroom. I thought it was such a novel way to prevent a bar of soap from getting messy.

And yes, Art did buy a t-shirt there. He was hesitant at first because it's such a sad area, but I told him he should get it as a reminder.

We were moved by that sculpture representing the desire to come together.

From an observation area, I could use my long lens to take a photo of the North Korean flag. It's supposed to be the 4th tallest flagpole in the world.

In 1978 the Third Tunnel was discovered running from North Korea to South Korea. Four tunnels have been found so far.

Lara says it was probably in preparation for a sneak attack. North Korea has denied this claiming it was a coal mine even though there's no coal there.

I was wondering why we needed to put on helmets and discovered the reason why when we walked through the tunnel. I could hear lots of helmets clunking on the low ceiling of the rock tunnel. I was glad I wasn't tall.

When we headed back into the city, we stopped at an amethyst jewelry shop.

Art and I weren't interested in buying jewelry so we asked Lara if it would be OK to see the demonstration that was just up the street.







It was pretty darn awesome! The energy, organization, emotion of the crowd really moved us. We didn't understand a word they were saying but knew they wanted to oust their president.... badly.

The demonstration blocked the street outside our hotel so we had to take the metro to get back. I was impressed with how calm and efficient both Lara and Peter were in making sure we all made it safely through the train system.

When we got to our hotel, we saw an incredible crowd of people covering several streets. I have no idea how far it went.

We looked down from our window and saw a river of people that streamed past in an endless parade of protest.

Our tour group then gathered together to walk to a festive shopping area and saw holidays lights lining the streets.

Art had fun taking photos of street food that he really wanted to try, but our tour leader, Peter said we needed to keep our appetite for dinner.

I loved the Daiso store which is like a dollar store. It was such fun to see almost all the other tour members also shopping there.

But Art?

Well, he found the potato spiral stick which he found more interesting that our granddaughter loved when she and her parents visited South Korea a couple of years ago. The cotton candy would be a no no for me.

We were surprised to find our last dinner restaurant would be at Todai (seafood buffet) Restaurant. There used to be a Todai in Waikiki but it had gone out of business. This one in Seoul was doing great!

It was a glorious night and we enjoyed the walk back to the hotel.

When we got back to Hawaii, we would see this in our local Star Advertiser newspaper. How awesome is this to think we were actually there?!!

Everyone in our tour group was planning on doing a lot of shopping the following Free Day. We made plans with several other tour friends to enjoy the morning together before going to the airport.

Alas...