Seoul, South Korea
Our DMZ guide Ben Kim, called this country the 51st U.S. state. And a "red state" at that. And yes with the beautiful weather and modern city landscape, the immaculate modern metro, broad avenues, expensive cars and well dressed people it could be any US state in a temperate climate till you notice the little differences that place it in Asia.
(Buildings are numbered in compound fashion with company names, who rent to employees or offer on the open market)
The Incheon airport was ranked second in the world after Singapore followed by Schiphol Amsterdam in the last 2014 rankings and it showed.
(The main throne hall of the palace)
Little quirky neighborhoods and historic palaces are scattered inside this metropole of 10 million inhabitants about 30 km or 20 miles from North Korea. numerous high rise apartment buildings indicate the need to house that many people.
(Gas masks in the metro - during rides the screens do demos on their use)
Everywhere are signs leading to bomb shelters. The metro has gas masks in glass vitrines and escape ladders and fire extinguishers are everywhere.
Our sense is that Koreans live with the danger of the North the same way Californians live with earthquake danger.
Unlike Tokyo there is no sense of communal civil etiquette. In metros people stare at you, talk loudly and have phone conversations. Crosswalks indicate with arrows on what side to cross, but nobody pays attention to it and so we worm ourselves through throngs of people in the opposite direction.
There are seemingly more coffee shops here than anywhere else in the world and it seems people have run out of ideas on how to call their shops. We even found a shop called "Dutch coffee" (whatever that is) only topped in my mind by the one named "You Like Coffee"
Sweets and coffee dominate the hospitality industry here with specialized dessert cafes. We even saw a ricetaria.
Beyond that we found that disabled people in the metro system have to search hard and long to enter or exit. There are homeless people sleeping in the underground, where there were none in Japan. The Lotte department store can rival Harrod's in London for supremacy. Their food department was amazing.
As for our excursions: with exception of the guided DMZ tour we struck out on almost everything we tried. Visiting the royal palace on our first day was a bust: closed on Tuesdays. Then wanting to take a hop on hop off bus to discover the lay of the land: "due to protests today we will not stop here"
So we wandered aimlessly in a section of town with a mix of shops, street performances, restaurants and protest movements like "green peace" and "turn to Jesus before the world comes to dooms end" and in "Korean only" movements.
We visited a part of the palace the next day, missing the changing the guard by minutes, before rushing off to meet our guide Ben at 1 pm at McDonalds in Seoul railway station, transformed to a modern US looking station with every franchise we know present as well as a food court.
The last day we took the earlier missed hop on hop off bus tour, finding that the bus tourguide only announced the next stop with no commentary. So we learned nothing. The afternoon bus we took had headphones with recorded info about the trip we took in the am, but nothing about what we were seeing while on the afternoon bus.
We loved the food from barbecued steak on the Mongolian style hot plate (the tender steak could be cut with a fork) to chicken shish kebab in a side walk Pojangmacha (tent restaurant).
Ok, now all about the DMZ tour. We boarded a cheesy DMZ tour train, where we were entertained by the hostess, watching her "performance" on wall mounted screens. We were required to show ID's before being allowed to travel into the South Korean demilitarized zone section.
(Maquette of meeting place between north and south; see demarcation line cut through the buildings)
The MP had trouble saying the Ferebee name so Sandee suggested Freebee, which the MP liked tremendously. After that you walk into a tunnel for tourists downhill (almost stumbling over yourself as you try not to get into a running down mode, because the angle is that steep), to then proceed bent over into an original tunnel as discovered by the South Koreans which abruptly comes to an end about 175 meters from the demarcation line above you.
The unfortunate things that after hitting your head quite often walking bent over for hundreds of meters, you have to climb up the same 300 meters you speed walked down, causing frequent stops to regain your breath.
We also visit an
(Nice statue symbolizing reunification efforts)
observation deck, (hazy day not much to see), a museum with a movie and then back into the bus and back to the train for more cheesy entertainment on the ride back.
Our takeaway: it is like visiting a Disney world exhibit. And South Koreans do not really believe the North is going to attack.
Also they strongly belief reunification is unavoidable. Note their flag has a globe in the middle with the red (think Communist North Korea) on top and the blue (think democratic South Korea) on the bottom, signifying the peninsula to be one country.
Interesting tidbits:
1. Japan did not give many options in wifi. In Seoul whole neighborhoods had free city wifi. And the city feels safe at night.
2. A musician has his van with open performance platform unattended on the side of the street with gear and fire extinguisher for the taking.
3 in Japan we found no senior discounts offered anywhere. In Seoul you paid full admission prices till age 64. Showing our passports gave us free admittance
I write this on our way to Vietnam. Today the 10th of October is a National Holiday there, celebrating the liberation from France in 1954.
(These ads are walking ladies with electronic billboards on their backs)
I am looking forward to fireworks.
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