Day 360....DMZ and 28th birthday....

Saturday December 12

Pictures:
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DMZ 1

**I usually like to give information on prices and how to get to attractions, but with the DMZ tour you have to be with a tour group and prices and places you get to see vary by what group you go with. I went with the Travel and Culture group from Meetup.com. They offer a DMZ tour a few times a year. I recommend it.**

DMZ: a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. It is 155 miles (248 km...) long and approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and is the most heavily militarized border in the world.

Fact: Korea is the only divided country in the world.

Its my birthday! I'm 28 years old.

I went on a meetup with the travel and culture group. We got up bright and early. My group met at 7:45. They gave us a choice of 3 pickup locations. There were 42 of us in all. Expats and a few Koreans. There were a few people that I knew from previous trips and I met some new people.

Some of my order might be off, but I'll just describe the places we went to.

The traffic flow pattern around the areas in the DMZ was interesting. They had these barricades set up sorta like an obstacle course. Its set up like that so you have to drive slowly and not rush through. All the areas are restricted also so you have to have permission to get through.



We got to Imjingak around 9am. Its an area right outside the DMZ. While we were there we saw the bridge to freedom, a steam locomotive, peace land, and other monuments. We could go to the roof of Imjingak and view the area from the observation point and use the binoculars that were set up there.

Next we went to The 3rd tunnel. First we went inside to watch a video that told us a little history about the Korean war. It started in 1950 and ended in 1953 in an armistice. They wanted it to end in a peace treaty. To this day the two countries are still not on good terms.

Then, we went to the tunnel. (North Korea dug tunnels so they could attack the south unexpectedly.) We couldn't take in our cameras to this area because photography was forbidden inside the tunnel. Walking down the tunnel was okay. We had to wear hard hats because the ceiling was so low. I'm only 5'2 and I hit my head a few times.The walk back up was terrible (for someone who isn't in great shape)!! It was all uphill. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath.

We went to an observatory to look out at the DMZ area. They had lots of the binoculars so you could look out. I started to take some pictures and the soldier came up to me and told me we couldn't take pictures and that I had to erase the pictures. He showed me the line where we could take pictures. You couldnt get a good view from that line. I wonder why they are so particular about not taking photos. Its just open space. A lot of people loved taking photos with the Korean soldiers. They seemed happy to see us. They were very friendly to us and waved and allowed people to take photos with them.

This is what you could see from behind the line

Then we headed to our next destination-Cheorwon. We had a tour guide and we were the lead bus on the tour. There were other people who were following us to take the tour also. Our first stop was The second tunnel. We went down another tunnel. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of there either. We could take pictures from the outside. We had to wear hard hats in this tunnel too because the ceiling was so low. Going down was good, but going back up was quite a hike. I sure got my exercise today!

2nd tunnel

we went to another observatory-Cheorwon Peace Observatory. The walk up to the observatory was another hike! Almost everything in South Korea requires walking uphill. At this site you weren't suppose to take photos but there wasn't anyone enforcing it so we did it anyway.

Then we went to see some other site with a old train and a crane park. I stayed on the bus. We were only going to be there for 10 minutes. Everyone said it wasn't worth it and it was boring so it was good I didn't get off the bus.

Then we went to see the North Korean labor party building. It was used by North Korea before the Korean war when that part was North Korea. After the war the lines were moved and its now a part of South Korea. Its just a shell of a building that was bombed.

Then we started heading home. We stopped at Mcdonalds to eat on the way home. There was a lot of traffic so we changed our routes for subway drop offs. We got home later than we expected. I got off at Sinsa station and took line 3 home. I didn't want to get on one line and transfer to another so I just took like 3 to Nokbeon and took the bus to E-Mart.

We had a full day. We saw a lot of stuff. It was a good trip and a little history lesson about the DMZ and the Korean war. We didn't actually get to enter into North Korea. They kept pointing and telling us where the border was for North Korea, but we couldn't get a good view.

Day 346/347...Thanksgiving meetup

Saturday November 28
Sunday November 29

This weekend the travel and culture group was having a Thanksgiving dinner and overnight stay in a pension meetup. We each paid 45,000 won (about $45). Our organizer rented 3 units for us. The pension(log cabin) was called "The Jazz Pension". Each unit had a musical name. We rented "The Saxophone" (36 people), "The Piano" (15 people) and "the violin" (9 people). There were 60 of us on the RSVP list. Mostly expats and a few Koreans. The owner of the pension was a musician for 30years. He played saxophone. Then he started running the pension.

I didn't take any pictures at the event.

There was a cooking team who cooked all the food. We had all sorts of things. We got turkey and ham and some side dishes from the army base. We had turkey, ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, 7 layer salad, mac and cheese, green been casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, etc.

We arrived at the pension at various times. Getting to the pension was an adventure especially when trying to coordinate times and meet someone who isn't familiar with the subway line! (This is why I do most of my travel alone! I am very familiar with subway lines and have my routes all planned out) She called me the day before and we decided to meet at 2:20 pm at a station where line 6 and line 1 meet. Then we were going to ride together for the last hour of the journey and catch the bus to the pension. The bus was leaving at 3:40. I got to the station early about 2:10. She called me right after I got there and told me she had just left her station. She got to our meetup place at 3pm. Then I hopped on the train. She told me she got lost getting to her station. I told her we weren't going to make the bus time. We had 3 stops to get to another transfer. When we got to the transfer it was very confusing. Line 1 is the most confusing line to transfer from. It took us a while to figure out where we needed to be. We finally found the right side. The line we got on was a slower route. We rode about 6 stops and then I heard the message "this is the last stop". So we had to get out and transfer to another train going in the same direction. silly. We finally made it around 4:15 pm. When we got to the station we met another foreigner who was going to the meetup. She called the organizer and he came to pick us up.

We ate dinner around 6pm I'd say. The food was great! Big portions. Everyone was stuffing their face.haha. There was a lot of food and a lot of leftovers. People would go back to the food for snacks later on in the day.

There were a lot of things going on. There was a piano in our unit so there was a guy playing piano. He was really good and played a ton of songs. Sometimes there would be a group sitting around the piano singing. There was also a guy with a guitar. There were people making smores outside. I chose to stay inside where it was warm. People were playing board games and card games. Someone had an ipod hooked up to speakers providing all sorts of music.

The owner played a few songs for us on his saxophone. Everyone enjoyed that.

One of the men brought along his son. I'd say maybe 2-3 years old. Everyone thought the kid was so adorable. He was so cute. He was our entertainment at times. He was counting in Korean at one time then all of a sudden he says "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" in English. Everyone clapped for him. We were surprised to hear a child so little speaking in English.

We found out that there was a noraebang in our unit. (a karaoke room). A few people went over there. I didn't sing, but I listened to everyone else. We stayed in there till around midnight till they kicked us out.

People started to go to bed around different times. I stayed up with the night owls till around 3:15am. There were about 10 of us awake at that time. Then we all finally called it a night. I stayed in the small unit with girls. There were 8 of us in there. OMG it was as hot as an oven. I could barely sleep. It felt like an oven. We had all 3 windows in the room open and that didn't help one bit. I started out sleeping on the floor. There was room for about 3 people on the floor and 2 people in the bed. There was one girl on the bed but she got up during the night. I couldnt sleep so I decided to get on the bed because I thought it would be cooler because the windows above the bed were open. nope windows did not help. So it was hot and I was sleeping on the bed which wasn't too much better than sleeping on the floor. There were 2 girls on the floor. I didn't hardly get any sleep. I can't sleep if its too hot. I kept tossing and turning. I finally got out of bed around 9:45 and got dressed and met up with everyone else.

A lot of people were eating leftovers for breakfast but I didnt get anything. Some people got cabs and left around 10 am. The rest of us stayed for the 12:30pm bus. I had a good time. It was good to celebrate with others.

Then we all headed home. We met another group of foreigners at the subway station who were at our same pension. One of the girls was completly hammered. We were all being entertained by her.

I had to take a nap at home. I probably slept for about 2 hours. I'd set my alarm for 30 mins, then 10, then 10, then 20, then 10. haha.

One of my dreams was totally out of character. I was looking at this map thing that had places of interest. It spun around like a globe. While I was looking at it some people came up behind me and looked too. I was finished with that side so I turned it and they wouldnt let me turn it and they were mad. I was yelling at them and telling them I had to do a school project and I needed to look at it. They still wouldn't let me look at it. So I stormed off and as I was leaving I yelled "I hope you burn in Hell" OMG!

Day 340....Seoul Racecourse Park

Sunday November 22

Seoul Racecourse

Well I was planning on going to the science museum this morning. They were meeting at 9:30am. I got up at 7:30am and decided I needed more sleep so I logged into meetup and changed my RSVP to 'no' 2 hrs before the event.ha. I was still going to my 2nd meetup of the day.

**If you ever live in South Korea I recommend joining the Travel and Culture group on meetup.com. Here's the web address: http://travel.meetup.com/715/

Its free to join. The group just hit 1000 members this week. The organizer is a cool guy. He's a Korean who grew up in the USA so he's fluent in English. He plans a lot of meetups. I just started going to meetups after being here for 11 months. I wish I would have joined sooner!! Its a great way to see Korea and meet tons of cool new people.***

I woke up at 11am. I went to the meetup at the seoul racecourse at 1pm. There were 6 of us there at first. I met a guy from Jacksonville, Florida who had actually heard of Jefferson. haha. I know people in SC who have never heard of it!! I also met a girl from Asheville, NC. I got to meet new people since the organizer was the only person I knew. More people started showing up later. I think we had about 20-30 in the end. Mostly Americans. There were 3 Koreans who came-2 of them were Korean Americans. I'm not sure about the other one.

We got to sit in the foreigners lounge inside of "Luckyville".haha. Wow. I didn't know that horse racing was such a popular sport in South Korea. That place was packed! It was hard to get around because there were so many people. Its mostly middle aged Korean men. They really get into it. They are all standing around reading the stats and the odds and there are tons of betting machines where you can place your bet. Some of the people in our group said they saw Koreans betting 100,000 won (about $90) on one horse! wow. I wonder how many people there have serious gambling problems!

Our group was making small bets anywhere from 100 won to 10,000 won. They were reading the stats and the odds to see which one they should bet on. Most people were losing. One girl won 28,000 won (about $25).

We sat in the lounge for most of the races. We went down to the track to watch one race. We went down the paddock to see them show off the horses before the race. They just walk the horses around a circle to let everyone see them.

There are a lot of races during the day. I think we watched about 6 races. They only race once around the track anywhere from 1100 meters to 1900 meters. There is a 30-1hr break between the races. Thats when everyone is watching the stats and making their bets.

We ate in between races where there was a big gap before the next race. We went down to a Korean restaurant. I finally tried bimbimbap (비빔밥). I scooped out the gochujang(chili pepper paste). It was actually pretty good.

The word literally means "mixed rice." Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating.It can be served either cold or hot

Most of the group left around 5:30. I decided to stay to watch the last race at 5:55pm. I should have gotten out before the major rush!! I actually made a bet on the last race. I chose the horse with the best record to win and just a random horse to place. I only bet 2000 won (about $1.50). My horses lost! There were 8 horses and mine didn't even place in the top 5. oh well. I just didn't bet because I don't like throwing money away and I don't have any strategy to pick the best horse.

The races were over at 6pm. It was really crowded trying to get out. There were so many people. When we got down the subway station entrance it was chaos. Everyone was packed like sardines and we were being pushed along by the crowd. Then the subway was crowded too. Barely enough room to move!

I had a good time and it was an interesting thing to experience. Will I do it again? Probably not.
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How to get there: Line 4 Seoul Racecourse park Exit 2

Entrance Fee: 800 won (less than $1.00..very cheap!)

Notes: There is a “Foreigner’s Lounge” on the fourth floor of Luckyville which provides a great view over the entire course and has an information desk with English language race-cards and guides on how to bet as well as extremely friendly and helpful staff.
No alcohol or smoking allowed inside.

Day 318 and 319..Weekend trip to Gyeongsangbuk-do

Saturday October 31
Sunday November 1st

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Meetup trip Oct 31-Nov 1

In April I joined a Meetup.com group. Its a travel and culture group based in South Korea. I'd see events but they never fit into my schedule. This weekend I joined them for my first event. We were going to see the fall colors at Gyeongsangbuk-do which is on the eastern side of South Korea (I live on the Western side). Its about a 4 hour drive from Seoul.

We met around midnight at Samgakji station and we left at 12:30am. We were on a chartered bus. There were 30 of us on the trip. I didn't know anyone. There was a good mixture of people from various countries: USA, Korea, Ireland, India. Most of us were English teachers.

I tried to sleep some on the bus since we were traveling all night long. I couldn't really sleep on the bus. I can't get a good sleep on a moving object.

We arrived at our first destination around 6:30am. We went to Jusanji lake. It was really foggy so it was hard to get good photos. Everything was beautiful with all the fall colors. There were a lot of people there taking photos.

Then we headed to Juwangsan National Park. We had 2 options-a 4 hour hike or a 3 hour stroll on the flat land. About half of the group went on the 4 hour hike.I chose the easiest since I am not in good enough shape to do a hike up a mountain! We were on flat land at first but we found out that to get to the waterfall you had to climb quite a bit. There was a steep climb to get to the waterfall. There was a girl in our group who was afraid of heights and wanted to go back down. I volunteered to go back down with her because I wouldn't have made it up that sleep climb without stopping a ton of times! I helped the girl go down and we just went back near the entrance and just sat and talked. It was mostly her talking and me listening because I'm not a big talker.

We met up with some of the others in the group later to eat lunch. I had some of a fish pancake. I really liked it. We left the park and went to Andong Folk Village. Andong Hahoe Folk Village is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were going to spend the night there. We saw a mask performance first. It was very interesting.




Then we went to see our lodging. We were staying in a traditional Korean house. Koreans live a much simpler life than Americans. I actually like it. Their houses are a lot smaller. The rooms are tiny and they sleep on the floor. The heat comes up through the floor. (It works really efficiently!) I like how the house had a courtyard in the middle where we could socialize.

After we put down our stuff we went to explore the village. I walked around with a girl from the group. We were just walking around the village and we stopped at one house to take photos and we saw a man standing in the yard. We realized that people really live in the village. I think we were under the impression that it was a village for people to stay in but people really live there. We saw the little church in the village. There were 7 small pews on each side of the church. It wasn't much bigger than a standard bedroom.

Then we went back to the house to get our living arrangements, we were staying in the owner's room. He stayed in the kitchen. The owner was with us almost all the time. He enjoyed socializing with us. We enjoyed being around him also. He was an older man. They were telling us that he lives at the village and his wife lives in Seoul. I wonder when they get to see each other. That would suck being so far away.

Later all of us were back at the house cooking dinner together. Our group leader and others cooked. The food was really delicious. We had one chicken dish and some pork and rice. We also had a dish that was prepared by the staff at the village. Our team leader actually made the same dish and his was just as good as what the staff made. Someone brought all the ingredients to make smores! There were people there who didn't even know what smores were!(people not from America!) We made them over a portable gas burner. After eating some people went to bed early because they were tired. Some of us stayed up and just socialized. I socialized till around midnight then went to bed when all of my roommates were starting to go to bed. (I'm never in bed by midnight!) There were 5 girls in a small room which was actually considered "a large room". It was probably 10x10 or smaller. We all slept on the floor. It got hot during the night! That ondol floor heating really warms up the room. I had to throw off my blanket! It was really uncomfortable sleeping on the floor. I had to keep moving around ever so often to get into a more comfortable position.

We actually got up really early. I was up around 7am. I could hear people moving around outside so I just got up. We were having breakfast at 8am. For breakfast I had egg and cheese on toast. They made it in a frying pan on a portable gas burner. After breakfast some of us went to explore the village again.

We left the village at 10:30am. Our first stop was going to be a temple but they miscalculated the time it would take to get there so we just skipped it. Our first stop was the Gosu Cave. We decided to eat first and then go through the cave. I ate with some of the group at a korean restaurant. I had a potato pancake for 7,000 won. It was a good serving size. It was delicious! I need to see if I can find that near my house! I was struggling with my chopsticks but I made it through lunch! We also had some fried sweet potatoes. That was good. Their sweet potatoes aren't orange inside like ours in America. They are more of a white color. I'm not too fond of their sweet potatoes but I always eat it when they give it to me at school.

The cave was interesting. There were a lot of stairs sometimes! Expect to walk up a lot of stairs at Korean tourist sites! We were all walking along the cave in a single file line bc thats how the cave was set up with the staircases. They told us it would be cold in the cave. It wasn't! I was getting hot with my sweatshirt!

After the cave we stopped at an Island called Do dam sam bong. I took some pictures. There was a spot where you could climb up a steep 300m staircase to get to the observatory, but I opted not to go up! Those who didn't go up were either taking photos or watching the outdoor karaoke show. You could pay 2,000 won and sing a song. There were a few koreans up there singing (badly!). One man came down and wanted me to sing. I considered it for a second but I didn't do it. I just didn't feel like trying to "show off" in front of the meetup group. I did like the venue. It was outdoor and there were seats for an audience but the singer had their back to the audience. The Koreans were getting into it. There was a group standing around the singer dancing. We need some of those venues in America. There are so many things in South Korea that need to be adopted in American culture.

Next we headed to Hoeing Sung for supper. Hoeing Sung is a town that is known for their Korean beef. Downstairs you pick out what kind of meat you want. Then you take it upstairs and sit at tables and cook your meat that you bought. We got into groups of 4. I was with 2 Korean guys. The korean beef was really good.

Then we headed home. We got back to Seoul around 10pm. Then we all went our separate ways. I had a great time. I met some nice people. Everyone was laid back and we all got along very well. I saw some great sites. The fall colors were awesome! We packed a lot of activities into 2 days. Our leader was good at keeping us on schedule when moving from place to place.

I can't wait till I'm able to go to another meetup!! I was looking at the site when I got home and they are planning a Thanksgiving dinner on November 28 and staying overnight in a cabin. I think I'll sign up for that.

I spent a lot of time editing my photos when I got home. I had 260, but by the time I took out the bad shots I had about 220. I use Picasa and the only real editing I do is cropping. I wish I had Photoshop. Maybe someday. I take tons of pictures. I love photography. I just need to learn how to do cool things with my DSLR.