Seoul Time

A couple of days to relax in Seoul whilst the bikes are being flown across the Pacific, and a chance to meet up with my old work mate Ricky, who popped up with his family from Daejon to Seoul for a spot of lunch - great stuff.

No trip to Korea would be complete without a visit to the DMZ - the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ is 55km from Seoul, and consists of a 4km wide strip of mine littered land that spans the entire country. Four tunnels have been discovered, the most recent in 1996, supposedly dug by the North Koreans to invade the South. We had a wander down tunnel 3, a 1600m tunnel, 70m deep, and 2m high and wide - excavated out of pure granite! The tunnel ended right under the DMZ.

The drive up to the DMZ was quite strange, the road followed a huge river, tributaries originate from both North and South Korea, so there was a significant military presence along the river bank, with plenty of razor wire fences.

A quick visit to the Dorason observatory to have a gawp at North Korea - the propoganda town, and the industrial village built as a joint venture between North and South. Looking through the binoculars it was certainly a game of spot the movement - car, people, anything,...

So, back to the democratic free city of Seoul;

There were police everywhere - all with riot shields, just standing and watching - nothing. It seems that the South Koreans are very quick to demonstrate about issues, and so the police are always present near city hall.

So tomorrow we fly to Seattle to start the American leg of the trip, but first a couple of Seoul photos;