Seodaemun Prison

During the period from 1910 to 1945 Korea was under Japanese colonial rule and Seodaemun Prison was a site of incarceration, interrogation, torture and execution of Korean independence fighters. It is therefore no wonder that a gigantic Korean flag now adorns the side of one of the prison's main buildings and that a number of our Korean friends don't want to visit the site. Although the weather had warmed, the prison was dark and cold.

The Year of the Pig

According to Chinese astrology, we are now in the year of the pig. Korea celebrates Chinese (Lunar) New Year more so than the calendar new year and enjoys a three day public holiday. Unfortunately this year two of those days fell on the weekend, so we only received one extra day off work. However, not being ones to complain about any bonus days off, we took the chance to embrace some traditional Korean culture.

We started our New Year's weekend by checking into a traditional Korean house (hanok) in the middle of the older area of the city.

The winding lanes leading up to our hanok accommodation set the mood for an escape from the modern megacity that is Seoul

Trent in the inner courtyard of our hanok house

And me in our ondol (heated floor) room with thin mattresses and colourful quilts, wooden finishings and rice paper screen windows

We spent the day in the Insadong area, where free Makgeolli (Korean traditional rice wine) was being handed out in celebration of the New Year.

Free Makgeolli!

We finished the day with a yummy Korean meal in the inner courtyard of one of Insadong's restaurants.

Some spicy Korean food washed down with Baekseju, another traditional rice wine with added herbs and ginseng, which apparently help you live to be 100 years old - bottoms up!

The next day we headed to a hanok village at the base of Namsan. Here there were a range of traditional Korean games being played, wishes for the New Year being made and plenty of eating and running around by hanbok-clad kids.

A nice view of the hanok village

A girl doing laps of the hanok houses in her traditional Korean costume (hanbok)

The steady hand of an experienced calligrapher

A not so experienced archer gets ready for this shot

New Year's wishes

And some wishes down the well

One more cute outfit

And it wouldn't be a Korean holiday without our Principal giving the teachers a present. This time we ended up with a huge box of soaps, toothpaste, shampoo etc, which will help us keep clean and smelling fresh until we leave... and then there was the other box- more olive oil and... SPAM!!

I suppose it does say "quality pork", so maybe I should give it the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it is actually unrelated to the jelly-covered pink blob I remember from childhood

Day trip to the DMZ

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip with the US Army tour company to the military demarcation line north of Seoul. Here South Korea and North Korea meet- their respective soldiers facing off in tense stares across the border. Although we had actually crossed the border last year during our trip to Kumgangsan, this tour gave us some insight into the area where negotiations occur between the two countries, their allies and the UN.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was a walk through one of the North Korean dug tunnels that was uncovered by South Korean/US forces before it had a chance to surface in South Korea. Apparently North Korea denies these tunnels were being dug for military purposes, rather for excavation of coal. To substantiate these claims they actually painted the inside of the tunnels black, which now comes off upon touch. We weren't able to take cameras into the tunnels, however, here are some shots of the areas where we were.

South Korean and North Korean soldiers face-off at the military demarcation line (you can just see the North Korean soldier at the top of the steps).

A South Korean soldier in a taekwondo attack stance in the conference room where negotiations occur between the two Koreas. He is actually straddling the two countries as does the table he is standing at the head of. We (a tour group from the South) were able to walk around freely in this room. Tour groups from the North can also enter this room. The door is locked after each group leaves and given a thorough security check before the next group enters.

Within the conference room the flags of those countries who represent the South's side of negotiations are mounted behind glass. They once were not behind glass, but this was changed after an incident during which a member of the North Korean military blew his nose on the South Korean flag and polished his shoes with the US flag.

South Korean soldiers take their positions at the southern end of the conference buildings. The one on the right only has half his body exposed- a defensive strategy.

Trent tests his ability to stare off the North Korean soldiers.