Seoul - Korea

I am in Seoul Korea.

It is -7 today. When I went out in the morning I wore two t-shirts and a sweater and a light coat to keep warm. Not enough. When I went out in the afternoon I wore my pj bottoms under my pants, as the pants I have are light and four t-shirts under my sweater and light coat. Oh and my sorong wrapped around my neck as a scarf. It was warmer last week, but they are having a cold spell. I am trying to get use to the smells. There seems to be a wierd odour just about everywhere. As Erin informed me about China, it seems the people here also have a hard time clearing their throats and like to snort a lot. That being said it is interesting here and I don't mean to have a negative slant. So here is our history lesson for today.

I went on a great tour this morning, it was amazing and very informative. It was called the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). It is the zone between North and South Korea. There is a border and each side has 2km on either side of the border as a military free zone. It is heavily armed with soldiers. It is so the South can watch the North. You are not allowed to take pictures in all these areas, so where you can, there is nothing to take a picture of. They will put you in jail if you take pictures in the unpicture taking areas. I went under ground, in the 3rd infiltration tunnel, what a work out. The pitch was steep getting under ground and up. The North Koreans used dynamite to blast through to the South and dug it out by hand. Amazing. All while the south was increasing their economics the North was trying to attack the South and letting there people starve. The North is very poor and the South sends them food on a daily basis, even though the trucks going to the North have to pretend they are from the North. They do so with a red flag on each vehicle and their license plates covered. The North is so poor they have cut all the trees down on their mountains and used the wood for heat and eat the bark for food. The people though in the South want the countries to be untited. It was really interesting.

My shortness came in handy today as I did not have to duck in the tunnel. The North Koreans are 7 inches shorter than the South Koreans, so I'm told. Therefore no ducking for me. The tunnels where less than 2m by 2m. The tunnels are granite stone painted black. After the North was caught, they tried to lie and say it was the South digging and then they lied again and said, no we dug them, we were looking for coal. Hence why they painted the rock black. They are aware of four tunnels the last being found in 1990 and think there are 15 - 17 more.

When our tour of eight people entered the DMZ we had to join up with other tour groups and get onto a coach bus that only stays in the DMZ. You are not aloud to take in your own vehicles or the tour companies vehicles as it is thought North Korean spys could sneak in and try to bomb the area. Supposably there are 30 000 North Korean spys living in the South. The army gets onto the bus and checks everyones passport with guns strapped to their backs.

Each South Korean male must serve two years in the military unless you live in the DMZ village of 250 people. They did this and gave these people a tax break to get them to live and work in this area. It is the agricultural area of the country, but noone wants to live there as it is the first to get attacked in a war. So the people living there make $70 000 US. tax free and their sons do not have to serve in the military. They say they harvest the worlds best ginsing there.

The traffic is crazy here. Lots of motorcylces and intersting motorbike/dump truck combos. I took a picture of this one motorcycle that had no back tire and a box on the back with dump capabilities. They also have huge mitts over the handle bars to keep there hands warm. They would be interesting to add to my motorcycle. I think people would laugh at me though.

There are all kinds of little, I mean really little shops and venders everywhere. They cram things into very small alley ways and motorcyles ride on sidewalks and the roads.

The view from the Dora Observatory was great today. Cold weather means clear skys, so we could see to the North really well. Oh course no picture taking though, until you are behind a yellow line looking at a fence and then there is no view to be had.

It has been really interesting and informative. Hopefully I did ok on my spelling as I did not have a spell check option today.