KOREA VACATION JUNE 2017

We had always wanted to visit Sarak-San​ (Mountain) and the Korean DMZ, but after 20 years of living in Korea and/or Asia, had never made it to the two most popular tourist destinations in South Korea, so, with some time off and a flight departing from Incheon (Seoul) a week later, it was primetime to finally go!!

DAY 1)
Tuesday, woke up early and went to the Kimhae Airport, where we caught our early flight to Kimpo Seoul Airport on Cheju Air. It's actually not that bad for a discount airline.  45 minutes later, we bought our Kimpo-Sokcho bus tickets and ate breakfast at Steff Hotdog.  The three hour bus ride was scenic, asides from the horrendous bus driver and/or the other drivers.  I only wish I hadn't of gotten a front row seat exposing me to the windshield (a case of ignorance is bliss would have been great in this case).  One nice note: the roadside stop had excellent peeled potatoes roasted in butter, akin to french fries in a brown bag from an Ottawa chip wagon.  We arrived at the Sokcho, Gangwon-Do Province bus station and walked over to the Egg Guesthouse.  We promptly dropped our bags off and went in search of Sukcho soondae (squid dipped in egg, stuffed with soft rice and veggies and deep fried).  We followed the upbiquitious brown tourist destination signage towards the harbour (the walk was nice, seeing Korean homes with front lawns, gardens, picnic tables, a rarely seen visage in apartment building Pusan) and found the Sukcho Tourist Dried Fish Market (✓), and ordered Sukcho Soondae (✓).  It was good with the sauce.  Being that it was humid, we also ordered some she-kay (sweet rice drink).  We needed to digest our meal, so we walked towards this Wall Street looking bull statue and saw some fishing boats, so we said we'd check out the trawlers and go home.  While looking at the trawlers, we saw a shark and her baby swimming in the harbour!  Then we saw this barge pully ferry (✓)  for 200won (0.17¢) so we took it and found an arts and crafts park (✓) under the bridge, with murals of vendors, diving ladies, sailors and farmers.  We even got on a few "cows" (read statues) for a photo opt. We then saw a cute tourist village/market, with painted homes in amongst the alleys, selling soondae and alcohol with bottle caps shaped like the male anatomy.  Turns out it was a village of former North Koreans, who went there during the Korean War.  We also went to the beach, where we took a really cool video, giving commentary on Sukcho.  We went back to Egg Guesthouse and napped.  We went out later for rib soup and soondooboo.  The waiter spoke English and was very friendly.  One thing we noticed was that people and signs in Sukcho were multiple lingual.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21
We got our free breakfast of eggs, coffee, and cereal (Carol got juice & toast), where we met Ryan, the friendly guesthouse manager from Pusan.  After breakfast, while waiting for the bus to Seorak Mountain, we grabbed a coffee and met soondae, the very affectionate cat.  While Carol played with Soondae, I went to talk to Sarah (New Zealand) and Suani  (Indonesia) who were going hiking, too.  The four of us chatted on the bus for 45 minutes about traveling.  We decided to hike up to Ulsan Bawee, a doable peak, as it took about two hours and we stopped at a temple built into the stone, nearly resembling a cave.  We also soaked our feet in streams and saw "a bubble toilet", as we were in a National Park, so this was an environmentally friendly alternative to flushing.  With these stops on the way up and back down, it took a longer amount of time than planned, but that was okay, because we were in no rush.  Carol had a good hiking companion in Suani,  as I did in Sarah, as our speed's and endurance meshed better.  It was cloudy, so the view was less than ideal, but our goal was to see and conquer Mount Sarak-San, so we did not mind.  The last 30 minutes or so were on stairs, so it was a challenge, but still very doable.  We finally made it to the summit.  There were three places to rest, one full of colorful adjamas and adjashis, who smelled like makoli (white rice wine), another that was empty, but lower, and another with a few hikers: Koreans and one foreigner, which is the one we opted to sit at and have lunch.  Carol and I had chocolate and bananas.  We went to the other area, where we made funny videos for Bobo, Carol's best friend.  Her ex-boyfriend went on a trip with his new GF, so she was sad, so we all called him an a-hole on different languages.  I called him a gae-seki in Korean.  We then hiked down and stopped at another nice temple.  We also had "tea free" at souvenir shop, while sitting on the floor.  We took the bus back, changed/showered and were joined by Ryan for dinner, who brought us to a potato (starch) soup restaurant, because it was good, different, a local neighborhood specialty and Sarah is a vegetarian.  We also tried potato booze (not vodka), which was sweet.  Still requiring meat, as well as heo-deokk (a pancake filled with brown sugar, pumpkin and sunflower seeds).  Sarah was so cute, having much difficulty pronouncing it.  We walked back to the market via a great shortcut (thanks, Ryan) and waited in line for heo-deokk, which was excellent. We also saw a place that had cheese and spaghetti ice cream (looked like it, not the flavours). We also got yang-nyeum chicken (cooled fried chicken in a sweet red sauce) native to Sukcho, which we brought back to the Guesthouse, but not before buying some beers, including Fitz and a rice beer, so we could have Chi-Mek (Korean chicken and beer). The five of us played with various cats along the way.  We then had Chi-Mek and played foreheads in the Guesthouse living room.  I had Jesus on my forehead, but it  was hard, because I asked if he was a man, and they said yes, no, maybe, sort of.  Then I asked if he had long hair and they said no (that was really confusing...). 

THURSDAY JUNE 22
We had breakfast with the other travelers, including a Vietnamese German, who was traveling around Asia.  He said the new thing to do was buy a motorcycle in Vietnam and drive it up or down the coast and then sell it to another backpacker once you were done with it.  We said our goodbyes, exchanged Facebook accounts and then took a bus to Seoul's East Bus Terminal.  We took the long subway ride to Itaewon, since our tour the next day was near Itaewon.  We went old school, just rucking up, thinking we'd check out a few Guesthouses.  Well, it doesn't work like that anymore.  Everyone uses an APP or a site, like hotels.com, booking.com or agoda.com.  Anyways, it was 35 degrees and Carol couldn't walk (her legs were very sore from the hike), so she waited in the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and I searched for a place.  I ended up finding one nearby on one of the sites, no less, so we checked into the Itaewon "Hill" Spa. The "Hill" is also in reference to "Hooker Hill".  Itaewon, an area full of shopping, bars, restaurants and others services (visas, lawyers, business cards...) exists because a large American military base used to be here, and thus, Hooker Hill came into play.  Now Itaewon has Persians, Africans, Korean and white degenerates.  It used to be this cool area, where foreigners could "get away", but now it more or less resembles a collection of international slime.  There are some good parts, full of bars and restaurants that look like Montreal or Ottawa, but the old area is still crappy.  We grabbed lunch at an okay Korean place and then went to an Irish pub called Dillengers.  We had a few Kozel brews there while we waited for my shoes to be fixed at the cobbler, for where we were going to be going to the next day required neat clothing.  We walked all around Itaewon, had a 1500won (1.30$) beer at a Thai place and then retired to our accommodation, which had a spa bath, shower, steam room and sauna, as well as a jimjilbang (common area where both genders can lie on the floor, watch TV, eat, drink or go into hot or cold rooms.  Carol and I shared a fried rice and a she-kay.   We were staying across from these rowdy young Russians, so we were like oh god, we won't sleep tonight, but they got booted to a different area.

FRIDAY JUNE 23
When we woke up, we opened the door to leave, there were about 15 people sleeping on floor in the jimjilbang in front of our room, which was interesting, funny and a little shocking. We grabbed some Turkish kebabs, two burgers cooked by a Korean guy and some cold, but strong coffee from 7-11.  We went to the U.S.O. Travel Agency on Fort Kim a few stations away to check in for our tour.  Most of the other people were very "back home white sliced bread" kind of people we did not have much in common with, but we were not on this tour to make friends, but it see the other half of Korea, through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)! We were given instructions, information, as well as a short tour of Seoul.  We saw the tallest building built in 1985 along the banks of the famous Han River.  I won a bottle of water for answering the question: "When did the Korean War start?" (1950).  About halfway there, we were able to look across the river (as well as barbed wire and look outs) and see North Korea, which was very distinct, because their mountains lacked trees, as they used them for fuel or to eat.  We crossed a bridge called the Freedom Bridge, built by the former owner of Hyundai Company, a North Korean himself, who took a few cows from North Korea and left for the South, when they were still one country.  In the 1990s, he returned 100 cows (interest), built a bridge, as well as a manufacturing plant in North Korea, which had North Korean employees, because he thought that through economic times, relations would ease, which was true.  The Southern president at the time, Kim Dae-Jong, had a Sunshine Policy, which meant rapid engagement with the North and it was working.  He met with then President Kim il-Jung, in either China or Pyeongyang (maybe both) and Kim il-Jung also visited Seoul.  Korea was on the cusp of peace and maybe unity, until the South Korean people voted for a new president and political party that was staunchly anti-North.  I am quite disappointed, frustrated and confused in their logic, but then again, THAT is a daily occurrence... Back to the present.  We crossed the bridge and then waited in a parking lot for an American G.I., Kim.  He gave us a few instructions and checked our passports. We then went into an auditorium, where he gave us a talk via a PowerPoint presentation.  He asked us to raise our hand if we were planning on defecting to the North.  He also gave us a few pointers, such as don't point or talk to the North Korean soldiers, and told us why there was a Korean War and a DMZ.  We had to sign some papers and then we got back onto the bus and headed in.  He showed us a few flags from the North and the South, each pole height being raised  in competition with each other over the years.  There were areas with no trees or trees that were unturned, tanks, bridges that could be blown up, and even a village where South Korean people live & make ginseng.  They do not have to pay tax and can get a very high salary (84,000USD per year).  Women can marry into the village,  but men cannot, because of the fact that men do not need to serve in the military if they are from this village.  They only have a church, a store and a movie theater, so life there is very boring.  They are free to leave and go wherever they want, so long as they spend at least 240 nights a year there.  We got off the bus, had to line up double file (amazing that he had to tell some people three times, LOL) and then we walked into the area with the blue buildings and North Korea in the forefront, with a North Korean soldier standing there, guarding, standing and marching.  They call him Bob.  There is another soldier in the North Korean building behind the glass with a gun. We went into the blue building which sits on the border.  One South Korean soldier stood at the head of this negotiating table while another Southern soldier stood on the North side.  We were tecniqually inside North Korea!  We then left and were taken to a train station, the last train from the south and the first to the north, although no passengers have used this station since before the separation of the two Koreas.  I was met by an Englishmen who asked me if I was American, and I replied:  "No are you?"  He realized his question was a but forward, so he asked me where I was from and he told me that he had family in Beaconsfield and Kirkland, two suburbs of Montreal I went to school and grew up in.  He was interviewing Americans about their opinion on the matter of Trump and North Korea, but he thought it would be hard, as many of the people on the tour were tied to the military. He interviewed me, since I was an expatriate of Pusan and this situation was very serious and very real for me.  While walking around the platform, I saw and touched the REAL Berlin Wall, a donation from Germany to support the unification of Korea.  We then had bulgogi (marinated beef) lunch. Carol had her Turkish kebab (I threw mine away, thinking it was a bag of garbage).  We saw these two Chinese Malays or Singaporean boys who were so addicted to their phones, it made us wonder; why bother even leaving your bedroom in your home country; why bother even going to the most interesting border in the world, when all you can see is some bright screen?  They were asked to not sit in an area reserved for a group tour and they did not even acknowledge their request or even move.  We also had to wait for them on the bus while they texted and fooled around with their phones on the toilet.  Okay, back to the present.  We crossed another bridge and went to an observation deck, so we could see North Korea.  On this Southern side, we could hear hideous South Korean music, which was for the North to listen to.  Apparently, it was a classic hit in the '80s & '90s.  When it stopped playing for a fleeting moment, I could hear a North Korean woman saying something (recorded) on a loudspeaker.  Her voice actually sounded melodic.  There was also a very tall flag pole, and if anyone could go there and take a piece of the flag back, they would get one million USD.  Nobody has ever succeeded.  We could pay 500won (0.50¢) for about five minutes of binocular views.  I paid twice.  We could see the old Hyundai Factory, the DMZ, a town, a few homes, mountains, but no people (others claimed they could see people).  We then went to the 3rd (of four) infiltration tunnel, built by the North.  The South found it via a North Korean defecting (starving) soldier.  He actually did not know where it was exactly, so the South put these poles with sticks of dynamite down holes dotted all over the fields.  A year later, one bundle of dynamite mixed with water in the tunnel and exploded, hence, they found the tunnel.  There are four that are known and have been found, but they suspect many more.  They are to be used to invade Seoul.  We were lucky enough to walk through one, and we definitely needed the hard hats given to us, as the ceiling was really low in some parts, just high enough for Carol.  The North plastered coal along certain parts, to disguise it as a coal mine, but I made sure to touch it and took a photo 'later' of my blackened hand.  We were not permitted to take photos inside the tunnel.  It was about 20 minutes return, down and then up.  We then went into the tunnel museum and temple.  The museum's and souvenir shops in the DMZ sold ginseng from the Southern Village farms, as well as North currency and alcohol.  We then headed back to the USO in Seoul, took the subway, ate a Korean giblets dinner and then I did even more grading. The Internet Cafe didn't allow me access to the BUFS ISS System, so I went to the business center at the Hamilton Hotel.  Technically, it's only for hotel guests, but the kind receptionist and consierge helped me access it, by lowering the firewall on the hotel manager's computer.  He walked in just as I was finishing up, and had an expression of shock and wonderment.  He pointed to the sign: "Do not use this PC", but we explained to him why and he rushed off to talk to (blame??) the bell hop.  When we walked out, he smiled, and the bell hop was talking to his friends, so I guess it was all good. We slept afterwards, as we had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning.

SATURDAY JUNE 24
Woke at 4:30am, took a shower in the spa, stretched, and then bought two kebabs at the slow Kebab King (Carol was getting iced coffee from GS25). It was full of drunkards getting some sloppy 5am food B4 their trek home.  We told them to hurry up, since we had a flight to catch, so some drunkards and the staff started chatting us up: "Where are you going?  For how long?  Why?  Are you an American soldier?". Finally got our chicken wraps and took the subway to the Incheon Airport, departing from Itaewon Subway Station.  The station was full of people lying on benches, the floor, barely standing, passed out or saying funny things.  We traveled about an hour.  Checked in at the AirAsia booth, got our middle and aisle seats for Seoul-Kuala Lumpur (KL) & FOR KL to COLUMBO, SRI LANKA.  We then searched for breakfast after going through security and immigration.  I got Carol an Auntie Anne's pretzel bagel, as well as a Taco Bell sandwich, while she bought me some wraps from Dunkin Donuts & also got more coffee.  Boarded & had an uneventful flight.  Just read the in flight magazine, as there are no movies on AirAsia.  Landed 6.5 hours later and explored the KLIA2 Airport.  We found several local restaurants, along with the usual mix of Western "fat"-food joints. We settled on this Malay place, where we had Nasi-lemak and teh-tarik (coconut rice, sambal [spicy onion mix], chicken, curry, salted egg, dried anchovies, peanuts and collared greens, as well as hot pulled condensed milk tea). We then took a long stroll through the biggest and best duty free liquor section we've ever seen.  We also found, for 20$, a space where you can shower, eat a buffet, have two drinks, and rest on lounge chairs.  We'll do this on the way back.  We bought some Indian chicken, but had to wait in line for a while as they changed the cash/shift.  We then waited, as a a teen American "shmomby" (smartphone zombie) took over five minutes to back up, get her belongings, and leave the table that her mother had vacated in 10 seconds. What a loser generation.  A toddler was screaming a few tables away (bad parents).  After 6.5 hours, we boarded the plane to find out we had middle and window.  I sat in the aisle, until the very last passenger boarded and she headed straight towards us, but with a sweet smile and said: "Okay, that's me by the window".  She must have had aisle, but didn't double check.   She was of Sri Lankan origin, and an Australian citizen.  She looked at our guidebook and gave us some pointers.  She was returning for the end of Ramadan.  She asked us if we could buy one bottle of alcohol for her, as she would only be able to buy one.  She needed one for Ramadan!  I misunderstood, though, and thought she was offering to help us bring one in, so when we went through Duty Free, she was eyeing me, but I just bought my Jim  Beam Honey and went on my jolly old way.  I went through passport control with ease, having applied online for the visa a few months ago.  Carol was ushered into another room, so that her visa could be issued/stamped on a separate piece of paper (not in her passport), as has happened before, as a Taiwanese.  We then exited and we're met by a few taxi drivers, who we said no thanks to, as we were looking for the official government taxi booth.  We went to one counter and got our taxi for Negombo.  I noticed the real taxi booth hidden over to the side, so I went over there and found out that the fare was only 2$ less.  Our nice driver and tout tried selling us a 55$ per day (including driver's food and accommodation) package, but we decided to go for an adventure by taking local buses and trains. We kept commenting on the physical similarities to Jakarta, just minus the traffic.  After getting a bit lost, we finally found the 4 Seasons Villa. Said hi to the Russian and Georgian management and said goodnight.