Seoul, South Korea

Our sail-in to Seoul began well before dawn. Actually, the port of Incheon – a city of 3 million, roughly 20 miles south of Seoul. We were to spend two days here. Not much to see before sunrise, and we had an 8-hour tour planned for the day so after a quick breakfast, we were busy with showers & packing. One correction here – I mentioned we booked a ride on the bullet train here and actually, that’s not scheduled until we reach Shanghai next weekend. What’s more, there’s no bullet train service in Seoul!

Before recapping our two days in South Korea, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share parting comments about Japan. As you know, we hit 4 ports - and with the exception of running into a few older, sullen adults in Nagasaki (& understandably), the people we met throughout the week were all very kind, receptive, helpful, & gracious. The Japanese are a magnificent society with extremely high cultural standards. Their cities are meticulously maintained – you won’t find graffiti on any building – you won’t find disregarded trash left to accumulate – you won’t see homeless people or wandering beggars. We feel truly blessed to have experienced the enchantment of Japan & her people. To one and all, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful country & heartfelt hospitality!

So, two very busy days in Seoul, and perfect weather. First day, we booked a tour known as ‘Best of Seoul’. Leaving the pier at 8:30, it took us just over an hour to reach Seoul, which is the capital and largest city in South Korea, & is considered a megacity because it has a population of over 11 million people - one of the largest cities in the world. Nearly half of the South Korea's entire population lives in the Seoul National Capital Area (which also includes Incheon and Gyeonggi and makes it the second largest metropolitan area in the world). Because of its hefty population, Seoul is considered a global city and it’s the center of South Korea's economy, culture and politics. We passed the Blue House – Korea’s version of the White House, but much larger & very impressive. Outside the gates stood about a dozen armed guards and at their sides, some of biggest (enormous) German Shepard dogs I’ve ever seen – they were amazing! Although the Blue House has been open to the public since 1998, it wasn’t on our schedule for the tour. Nearby, we arrived at the Gyeonbok Palace & Folklore Museum – the largest and grandest of the five palaces built back in the 13^th century. Once inside the museum, you go through a showcase of the lifestyle of the Korean people from the prehistoric age to the Joseon dynasty, displaying items of everyday use along with major works of art & replicas. As you’ll see in several pictures, there were literally thousands of school kids with us on field trips. They were more interested in one of our passengers than the history & artifacts offered in the museum. This passenger I reference stands 6’8”, and all the Korean kids wanted their photos taken with him – it was incredible! I was approached at one point – a Korean gentleman wanted his photo taken with me, certainly not because of my height, but because of my shaved head & mustache! I guess being bald in Korea is considered somewhat peculiar, and not many have facial hair. We spent the majority of the morning there – the palace was incredible – I’ll let the photos express for me here.

Lunch was next on the itinerary. We dined in the middle of the financial district downtown – a prearranged, traditional Korean lunch. We thought the food was awesome, though not everyone agreed with us. We recognized most of the cuisine, and even the courses we couldn’t distinguish tasted pretty good.

We then had two shopping stops. The first, known as Insa-Dong Street – advertised as the focal point of traditional Korean culture & crafts. The second, an open air market known as South Gate. Funny thing – once back on the bus, passengers were showing each other their ‘authentic’ Korean goodies and most had the inscription ‘Made in China’. Surprised? Both shopping areas were extremely crowded and actually a little hazardous because there were scooters & small vehicles weaving in between pedestrian traffic – crazy places, but fun. The only thing we bought was a fridge magnet. We rarely buy souvenirs. The quality is often suspect, and the prices typically inflated for naive tourists.

We were back at the port by 4:00 – showered, & dressed for a 5:30 Korean BBQ on deck #8, poolside. Holland America always does a phenomenal job with these events. I’ve included a few pictures from this event, along with our ‘adopted’ 92-year old from Los Angeles…Joe. What a dear man – love the guy, & we try to include him in all we do if he’s physically able. Walking is a problem for him, but we normally meet him for Happy Hour and then take him to dinner with us. Following the BBQ, we went to the aft deck pool where we enjoyed our favorite pianist and good friend, Debby Bacon. It was ‘Music Under the Stars’ – she always draws large crowds with her amazing talent & music. I’ve mentioned it before, but if you’re a fan of truly beautiful piano music, I’d encourage you to check out her CD’s (and free samples) at debbybacon.com

 

 

Day two was devoted to the DMZ, and what an awesome, educational day. First, here’s a few notes taken during our pre-arrival lecture.

Back in 1945, Korea gained its independence from Japan and the city was renamed Seoul. In 1949, the city separated from Gyeonggi Province and it became a "special city." In 1950 however, North Korean troops occupied the city during the Korean War and the entire city was nearly destroyed. In March of 1951, United Nations forces took control of Seoul and since then, the city has rebuilt and grown considerably. Today, Seoul is still considered a special city, or a direct controlled municipality, in that it as a city has a status equal to that of a province. This means that it has no provincial government controlling it; rather the federal government of South Korea controls it directly. As one of the largest cities in the world and a leading global city, Seoul has become the headquarters for many international companies. Currently it is the headquarters of companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Kia. You’ll see in one of the photos that Kia was in the process of shipping about 5,000 autos – apparently this occurs three times each week! I’ve never see so many cars on a shipping pier before!

Due to its very large population and relatively small area, Seoul is known for its population density which is about 45,000 people per square mile - as such, much of the city consists of dense high rise apartment buildings. Mostly all of Seoul's residents are of Korean descent, although there are some small groups of Chinese and Japanese. Seoul is surrounded by several mountains but the city itself is relatively flat because it is on the Han River plain. The city is divided into 25 administrative divisions called Gu. Each Gu has its own government and each is divided into several neighborhoods called a Dong. Each Gu in Seoul varies in both size and population and Songpa has the largest population. Seocho is the Gu with the largest area in Seoul.

Now for the DMZ – one of our bucket-list items. The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ is a de facto border barrier, which runs in the vicinity of the 38th parallel north. 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 was created as part of the Korean Armistice Agreement between North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the United Nations Command forces in 1953. It is 160 miles long, approximately 2.5 miles wide and, despite its name, is the most heavily militarized border in the world. The Northern Limit Line, or NLL, is the de facto maritime boundary between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea and the coastline and islands on both sides of the NLL are also heavily militarized.

In the Armistice Agreement in 1953, the DMZ was created as each side agreed to move their troops back 2,200 yards from the front line, creating a buffer zone 2.5 miles wide. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) goes down the center of the DMZ and indicates exactly where the front was when the agreement was signed. Owing to this theoretical stalemate & genuine hostility between the North and the South, large numbers of troops are still stationed along both sides of the line, each side guarding against potential aggression from the other side. It wasn’t until yesterday that we learned we still have about 8,000 troops stationed here. The armistice agreement explains exactly how many military personnel and what kind of weapons are allowed in the DMZ. Soldiers from both sides may patrol inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the MDL. Sporadic outbreaks of violence due to North Korean hostilities killed over 500 South Korean soldiers and 50 U.S. soldiers along the DMZ between 1953 and 1999. You know from listening to the news that tensions still exist today. We saw miles & miles of barbwire and several dozen military observation posts on stilts.

Since 1974, the South has discovered that four tunnels crossing the DMZ have been dug by North Korea. This is indicated by the orientation of the blasting lines within each tunnel. Upon their discovery, North Korea claimed that the tunnels were for coal mining - however, no coal has been found in the tunnels, which are dug through granite, but some of the tunnel walls have been painted black to give the appearance of anthracite. The tunnels are believed to have been planned as a military invasion route by North Korea. Each shaft is large enough to permit the passage of an entire infantry division in one hour, though the tunnels are not wide enough for tanks or vehicles. All the tunnels run in a north-south direction and don’t have branches. Following each discovery, engineering within the tunnels has become progressively more advanced. For example, the third tunnel sloped slightly upwards as it progressed southward, to prevent water stagnation. Today, visitors may visit the second, third and fourth tunnels through guided tours. We visited the third tunnel. In fact, we took a tram about 240 feet down (built by S. Korea), then walked about 700 feet through the tunnel built by N. Korea.

Again, the first of the tunnels was discovered in 1974 by a South Korean Army patrol, noticing steam rising from the ground. The initial discovery was met with automatic fire from North Korean soldiers. Five days later, during a subsequent exploration of this tunnel, U.S. Navy Commander was killed in the tunnel by a North Korean explosive device. The blast also wounded five Americans and one South Korean from the United Nations Command. The tunnel, which was about 4 ft. high by 3 ft. wide, extended more than a half-mile beyond the MDL into South Korea. The tunnel was reinforced with concrete slabs and had electric power and lighting. There were weapon storage and sleeping areas. A narrow gauge railway with carts had also been installed. Estimates based on the tunnel's size suggest it would have allowed approximately 2,000 KPA soldiers (one regiment) to pass through it per hour.

The second tunnel was discovered in March 1975. It is of similar length to the first tunnel. It is located between 160 and 520 ft. below ground, but is larger than the first, approximately 7X7 feet.

The third tunnel was discovered in October 1978. Unlike the previous two, the third tunnel was discovered following a tip from a North Korean defector. This tunnel is about 5,200 ft. long and about 240 ft. below ground. Using a sloped access shaft equipped with the tram, we put on hard-hats and down we went. Once we reached the bottom, we exited the tram and walked through the first 700 feet. It wasn’t an easy walk, but rather you had to bend over the entire distance or risk hit your head on the limestone ceilings, which many did including both of us. With the hard-hats however, we obviously weren’t hurt. The tunnel floors were wet, and the ceilings and walls were trickling water. The temp was somewhere between 55-60 degrees. Anyone with claustrophobia would’ve had a real problem. I had difficulty breathing at times – not seriously, but with my condition it was a challenge occasionally. Cheryl was fine.  

Both North and South Korea maintain peace villages in sight of each other's side of the DMZ.  

A fourth tunnel was discovered in March 1990, north of Haean town in the former Punchbowl battlefield. The tunnel's dimension are 6.6 X 6.6 ft. and is 476 ft. deep. The method of construction is almost identical in structure to the second and the third tunnels. Our tour guide said the government believes there are several more tunnels in the area, yet to be discovered. One thing for certain - N. Korea was preparing for a major, devastating attack on Seoul, and tensions endure to this day. Warfare could erupt any time.

 

 

We left the DMZ around 1:00 and stopped at a hotel for another prearranged lunch by Holland America. My opinion, the food wasn’t as good as the day before, but Cheryl enjoyed it. We were back at the pier by 4:25, just 5 minutes before ‘all aboard’. Traffic was horrific, even on a Saturday afternoon. We immediately went up top by the pool for the sail-away party. Weather was beautiful, and we stayed until almost 7:00. Cheryl got a couple beautiful shots of the harbor bridge (below). A quick, light dinner in the Lido and we were off to bed. Exhausting two days, but very memorable!

As I write today, we’re sailing northwest across the Yellow Sea toward Beijing, China, scheduled to dock by 7am tomorrow morning. Weather today is quite brisk – cool temps with heavy seas. Our room steward tells us many people are still hunkered down in their rooms (midday) & quite ill from the motion – it’s really not that bad. Cheryl’s been busy doing laundry. I’ve been writing and watching football on ESPN. We have a ‘formal’ night this evening – neither of us look forward to these, but we skipped the last formal function and made a commitment to our tablemates that we would alternate our participation.

Beijing will be special for us. We’ll be leaving the ship for a couple days and climbing the Great Wall tomorrow, followed by a visit to Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City on Tuesday. I’ll do my best in posting an update by Wednesday or Thursday – I suspect we’ll have many photos and lots of commentary.