Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Day 2

Day two – Imjingak, 3rd Tunnel & Dora Observatory (NEED PASSPORT)

Nambu Subway terminal (line 3) go to Chungmuro & switch to line 4 headed towards Seoul Station. Then, follow the arrows & walk towards KTX (Korea Train Express). You will take KORAIL headed towards Imjinggang. It will only cost you 2000won for the hour train ride.
When you reach Imjinggang (its the last stop anyway :P), you can either:
a) Tour Imjingak 1st (10 mins walk away… you can’t miss it). Here you can observe “the Iron Horse Wants to Run”… a train in the park symbolizing the rail way connecting North & South that was cut off during the Korean War in 1950. Also, you can observe quietly to show respect at the Mangbaedan, an alter for refugues to pay their respects to their ancestral graveyards. At the Freedom Bridge, a recently open for tourist spot …i guess it kinda’ symbolizes freedom to just walk over to the North side…. There is also the unification pond & Peace Bell. So Imjingak is more like an open air museum. The park also has many statues & monuments put up to thank America for Her contribution towards South Korea during the Korean War. Also, monuments to respect the fallen American Soldiers with their names on it.

Train Station

 

Inside the Korail

 

Outside my window

 

Chimneys

 

Vast land

 

Buildings

 

View along the way

 

Other tourists

Plane

 

Military tank

 

A Shorter Monas

 

A Wall...

Peace Bell

 

Peace Bell, artwork on floor

 

Stones from all over the world

 

Respect

 

Remembrance

 

 

Articles to remember

 

Me at the Freedom Bridge

 

End of freedom bridge... what's on the other side...

 

Messages for freedom and unification

b) You buy a ticket at the DMZ tour counter for 11700won. (u can’t miss the counter). Then you go to the KORAIL counter & buy a return ticket to DORA station. You hop onto the train – 5 mins away only. Upon exit, you look for the bus station for the tour.

at the station, a short description

 

Foreigners must bring passport

 

The soldiers are not allowed to smile...

 

The “spot” near the station (red busses lining up)… & you hop onto one of them. The bus will take you to the 3rd Tunnel.
Here in the 3rd tunnel, strictly no photos allowed. They offer lockers for you to lock up your stuff so that you can take the tunnel ride with ease. You have to wear a helmet. Your head may knock against the walls of the tunnel as the tunnel is small. The guide is only in Korean… so i kinda guessed here & there la… anyway i read up before the trip so i knew what to do le… the train ride will take you to a platform, where you can walk the some parts of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, which is abruptly “ended”… we can see thru’ a small rectangular hole “the other side”… i could see more of the tunnel, yet there was moss, more green & it looked “untouched” for a long time.
On the display board, its written that no man has stepped foot beyond that point for 50 years. The tunnel is wet… has water dripping. Anyway, there is a tapped fountain … mountain spritzer anyone? i took some… tasted really fresh… the cool water ran down my throat & it was so fresh. I could not explain the feeling. It was like i was so thirsty & suddenly there’s water after a long long time…. then we take the train back to the top…

After that, we were ushered into a video viewing room which showed us a 7 minute documentary about DMZ… Now DMZ symbolizes FREEDOM & PEACE… not War. I cried when i watched the video… it was quite touching ok…

Note: Imjingak closes at 3pm. So i think it will be wise to do this 1st. I chose to do this last b’cos i arrived early… around 11am. so i did option b 1st instead.

Directions

 

Tix station for Tunnel Ride

In the bus

 

Arriving at Tunnel 3

 

Join the earth

 

The train that will take us into the tunnel

 

The tunnel opening

No pictures where allowed in the tunnel…

After that, we hopped onto the bus again & we were whisked away to DORA observatory.  Here is the only place in South Korea where we can see North Korea CLEARLY. I am not joking. Look thru’ the binoculars & you can see buildings built by the North Korea. I saw many of the buildings & even saw some people moving about. These buildings… i read in the internet was apparently originally built by North Korea to show South Koreans that South Korea was also “prosperous” la… ALSO a NO PICTURE ZONE…

As i peered through the binoculars, i saw, on the opposite end, North Korean soldiers, observing us through binoculars also… lol.

Then we hop back into the bus to go back to Imjingang. What i think: I think it made me realize that i am very lucky to be a Malaysian. Let’s not take the peace & harmony we have for granted.

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Day 1

I decided to visit DMZ, out of respect & curiosity in Dec 2007. DMZ is made of the following main places to visit: Imjingak, 3rd tunnel, Dora Observatory, Odusan Unification Observatory. In most tourist guide books, they also mention about Unification Village, Freedom Village & Panmunjeom. However, i was told upon arrival… 😦 that these places required to pre-apply permission to visit. So here’s a fool’s proof breakdown of my visit. Any one who’s interested to go to DMZ on their own instead of following a tour package can use my travel itinerary as a guide.

Day 1 – Odusan Unification Observatory
Cheong Ju – Express bus to – Nambu Bus Station. At Nambu Subway Station, take the subway (line 3) all the way to the last station – DAEHWA. When you exit at exit 5, there’s a bus station. Wait there until you see a bus no 200.  Hop onto the bus & pay 1600won. I decided to go to Heyri Art Valley 1st, so i drop off at the 2nd last stop, Heyri. But if you are headed directly for the Odusan Unification Observatory, stop at Tong Il. Better yet, just tell the bus driver where you want to go, & the bus driver will announce that this is the stop for the Odusan. At Tong Il, there is a free shuttle bus to Odusan. Its the same way to go back into Seoul.

 

Home Bound Soldier

I met him on the train 😛 He was home bound, for a short holiday. I did not give him my number. End of story 🙂

Ok, back to the journey…. At Tong Il, wait for the free shuttle bus that looks like this:

Shuttle Bus

 

View from Bus

 

Almost reaching

 

The main building

The flow

 

Some notes

 

The following are pictures for the view from the Observatory Deck. It was a cloudy day…

Viewing

Another view point

 

The below pix are of the man made maps depicting how North & South Korea is separated:

River that separates

 

Low Tide : 3km separated the North & South

 

Then, there is a small museum that shows how North Korea is, in terms of culture and how it looks like.

Traditional Outfit in North Korea

 

North Korea Class Room

 

North Korea house

 

The Leader

 

We are also allowed to leave messages / wishes. Luckily for me, i traveled with my Starpie blue fine point permanent marker 😛

North + South = Korea

 

Others where more creative, they came prepared & hung their artwork in the hall.

Rainbow wish

 

Peace

 

Then the tour of Odusan Observatory is almost coming to an end. Before you exit, you will see a few souvenir shops.

Souvenirs

 

Next, when we exit, we are greeted by a large drum, called the Unification Drum.

The Unification Drum

 

Up close

 

Instructions

 

Day 1 was coming to a close. It was something very new to me, and i would encourage everyone to visit DMZ if you have a chance.

Make love, not war.

 

 

 

 

 

Heyri Art Valley

In Dec 2007, I decided to go all the way to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when i was posted to South Korea for work. As i Googled for more information, i discovered that on the way to the DMZ, there is a place called Hyeri Art Valley. I decided a detour would be good, as how often would i travel so near to the DMZ area.

I stayed in Cheong Ju, about an hour away from Seoul. So very early in the morning, around 6am, i took the 1st bus out, heading into Seoul. Then, i took a series of under ground train, to reach Daehwa (the last stop). It was about 9ish, when i got to the last stop. I walked out of the train station and looked for the bus stop to take another bus to Hyeri Art valley. To my much surprise and happiness, across the bus stop, i saw a Roti Boy store. As a Malaysian, Roti Boy is one of my favorite tea time snacks. Its a bread with coffee topping, baked to perfection. The smell alone will make anyone salivate. Of course, before i hop on the bus, i decided to have a cup of coffee and a roti boy 1st. It was opened by a Malaysian lady, married to a Korean man.

Opposite the Bus Stop, ROTI BOY 🙂

 

Happy Bunny 🙂

 

After warming up my belly a bit, I stood in line, waiting for bus no 200. I was very impressed, as the bus was very punctual. Almost like clock work.

Cool Female Bus Driver

The view

The bus ride took about 30 mins, and soon, the bus driver signaled to me to get off. lol. I think I had the “blur” look, consistently checking the road signs, versus the map lol.

Hyeri Art Valley

I really was not sure what to expect… but i was certainly curious 🙂

Outside of of the Buildings

I realized that Hyeri Art Valley was a collection of a few buildings, each building dedicated to different art form, but mostly to cartoons and movies. Below are a few pictures i took. I was not a big fan of cartoons but, since i was there… lol.

Toy Display for sale

Darth Vader: Khooo Khooo Khooo

Cute she is 😛

Superman

Shrek

Dinasour... lol

Marilyn Monroe

There were also a lot of the Japanese anime … sorry, was not a fan.  So i decided to see the children playground instead 😛

Playground

Giraffe !!!

My summary of this detour… unless you are a great fan of cartoons and Anime or even superhero movies, then, you can skip this 🙂

Happy Birthday Indonesia

Happy Birthday Indonesia

Next week, on the 17th August 2011, Indonesia will be celebrating their 66th Independence 🙂 Happy Birthday Indonesia 🙂

Jakarta Morning Traffic, Part 2

Jakarta morning traffic Part 2: 11th August 2011.

Today was one of those days, when it took me almost 2 hours to reach work. I left home at 7:45am, reaching the office at 9:30am. Yes i was late. missed a telecom. My apologies. Usually it would only take between 15 to 30 mins for me to reach the office, but today, i guess it was special.

Even my lap top battery went dead on me. lol. Having my camera with me, was a good thing. I guess even the horse next to our car was not spared of the massive traffic jam…

There is Horse Lane in Jakarta

 

I guess it was a photo journey opportunity. I got a chance to drink in Jakarta morning, all it is glory. I turned to my left, and i was given an update on the air quality …

Chart 1

 

 

 

 

 

Chart 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So i think we have nothing to worry about…. minus the haze…

One of the reasons the recent traffic jam (macet) is so bad, is that a few of the roads are closed out for a major construction, to build a highway in the sky. sorry, i forgot what is the right name for those time of highways in the sky… Fly over? mmm

Workers taking a nap

I was not able to get a good pix of the construction… but here is a pix of the workers taking a nap by the road side. I’ve seen these guys carry load that’s way too heavy, and these guys, are truly the heroes, they make things happen. They make sure construction goes on schedule.

Pak Mariam refill the petrol in the car twice a week. Today, was indeed special. While we waited inline, we saw the owner of the car in front of us, kept pushing his car.

Shaking car left to right helps pack in more petrol?

He was pushing his car from left to right, whilst the petrol attendant kept pumping petrol into his car. Apparently, according to Pak Marimam, this helps to pack in more petrol into the car. The petrol reaches every corner of the engine. No comments.

After 10 mins of traffic free ambiance, we were soon back into the traffic congested streets…

Kopaja

Inside - Busy texting

Inside - Catch some rest

 

I decided to try to capture some more pix of Kopaja and its passengers. While doing that, i caught one of the conductors asking his passengers to switch Kopajas. This was not well accepted by the passengers of course.

Change Kopaja

And here is a pix of another Kopaja conductor, with a wad of cash neatly folded in his hands. I guess its good business for Kopajas in Jakarta 🙂

CASH in hand

 

Well, i am glad its a Thursday… cause tomorrow will be a Friday, then at least during the weekend, i can avoid traffic jams, and actually reduce my carbon footprint for 2 days.

Have a good and productive Friday tomorrow everyone 🙂