Center of Korea Culture and the DMZ

Its been a few days since the last update. I believe we left off on the boat tour of the Han river. Saturay we took it easy, slept in and relaxed. Saturday nights, as we discovered, turns out to be South Africa night as Paul's roomate, Ludwig, and his buddy Jacque come over to cook some South African stew and drink some Korean Soju (Korea's solution to Russian Vodka, well, thats my opinion anyway). We all joined in of course along with two other Foreign teachers, one from South Africa and one from USA. Good fun was had by all...

Sunday was a tourist day around Seoul, we went to a historical park and joined in on some of the New Years Festivities. The Lunar New Year in Korea is a lot like Christmas, mostly family gatherings and few large parties or countdowns, at least as far as we could tell.

Monday was the start of a three day trip to the South of Korea. We were headed to Gyeongju in the far southeast of the country.



Gyeongju, is considered the cultural center of Korea and the whole area is designated a world heritage site which I didn't know. There are tonnes of buddhist temples, sculptues and memorials in the area so there was a lot to see. We took a whirlwind tour of the area over the two days that we were there, check out the photos below.


Kendra, Myself, Paul and Kate outside the Gyeongju Train Station (the volunteer photographer apparently cut off some of the Gyeongju Station sign, and some of my hair...)


A traditional Korean dinner, quite delicious (yes, contrary to popular belief Kendra enjoyed everything).


Pulguksa Buddhist Temple, one of the oldest in the country and one of the reasons the area has been recognized as a World Heritage Site.


Exploring the temple, some steep stairs, everyone (yes including me, "Mike Foot") made it down safely.

Today we went on a tour of the DMZ which was an eye opener to say the least. North and South Korea have technically been in a state of war since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in 1953. You could feel the tension as we went through army checkpoints and looked across a 4 km valley at North Korea. A lot has changed in the last year though and it seems that peace, at least from the indications in the short video propagand...I mean presentation, may still be a possibility in our lifetime. South Korea in the last year has set up some factories just north of the DMZ giving jobs to a few thousand North Koreans, the products of which are shipped out of the North.


A picture of an observatory over the DMZ. Photos of certain areas were strictly forbidden.

Well thats not bad for a week. Hope everything is going well back home.
Cheers
Mike and Kendra