Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

We had to wake up for a pretty early start of the day. Our bus left for the DMZ at 7:30 ><. We arrived at the DMZ area and got a 20 minute briefing about JSA before heading out to the JSA area. When we arrived, we walked out of the South Korean headquarters in a line and talked a little bit about the area. At the other side’s main building there was only one DPRK soldier standing outside and one inside watching with binoculars. We then proceeded into one of the blue buildings which has half of the building in South Korea and half in North Korea. I, of course, took the opportunity once inside to step over into North Korea.

The next destination was the third infiltration tunnel and the Dora observatory. The third infiltration tunnel wasn’t that interesting, but it’s still one of those places that you just have to go anyway. It’s a lot smaller in width than I would have thought. I had to bend over most of the way while walking through the tunnel. One of the more interesting things of note is that the walls were painted with coal so that North Korea could try to claim it was a coal mine or something. At the Dora observatory we could see into Gaesong, the second biggest North Korean city and the location where South Korean companies hire North Korean labor.

The last and definitely most not-notable stop was Dorasan station. It was built fairly recently and was used for a brief time to transport materials to Gaesong and back before being shut down do to many issues with the North Korean government. Now it’s only open to tourists to go and see.

After arriving in Seoul and finishing the DMZ tour we went strait to Insadong to get some presents for my parents to bring back to the states. It was such a clear night I decided to bring them up to Seoul Tower on the cable car. Apparently everyone else in Seoul had the same thoughts because the lines were absolutely atrocious.

Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

We ate at a little Kimbap place for breakfast before heading down to see Gyeongbok Palace where we got an English tour.  I never did the tour so I also learned some new things about the place.  Afterwards we went through the Korean Folk Museum which turned out to be one of my parents favorite destination.  Then we walked along Samcheong street, saw the Blue House and then ended the night over a bowl of Kalgooksu.  We made sure to make it an early night since we had to be at Camp Kim the next day by 7ish to spend the day around Panmunjeom in the DMZ.

I just got back from a fun trip with the SNU geography education club for three days and two nights down in Jeolla.  I never really traveled down there so it was a great opportunity to see a part of Korea I hadn’t seen yet.  We went to Jido and Jungdo islands, Mokpo, Yeongsan River (part of the Four Rivers Project), Boseong Green Tea Fields, Sooncheon (Nakaneupsung Folk Village), and various other little spots.  Out of all the destinations we went, I would recommend Nakaneupsung Folk Village the most.  We only stayed for like an hour but you could spend a much longer time walking around the village and meeting the various people living there (if you speak Korean).

Thus ends my epic end-of-summer traveling.  Enjoy the pics~

Check out day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 of my trip with my parents!

After waking up, we went downtown to Gwanghwamun Square where there were some different celebrations going on related with the opening of the renovated Gwanghwamun Gate and Independence (from Japan) Day.  We walked past a whole bunch of people who were watching some sort of concert (which turned out to be some kind of Christian concert).

We then took the subway to Seoul Station and took the train down to Suwon to see Hwaseong Fortress.  Before getting in the station we ran into an interesting gather outside having to do with peace and unification so we stopped and watched for a minute.

Oh yeah, I don’t have any pics from it, but I did take my parents to Yongsan and walked down the red light district (where woman present themselves at windows as they wait for male customers to get *cough* service).  My mom really enjoys seeing ‘different’ things and she did enjoy getting to see something extremely out of the ordinary ^^  For those who don’t know where it is, it’s between the new and old Yongsan station on a street which has blinds which partially block the view down the street from the main sidewalk and says in Korean ‘Youth prohibited’ or something like that (can’t remember).