Since we have been in Seoul there has been subway workers strike. We are lucky that our son's apartment is close to the down town area.
Amazing things happen when you least expect them to. My husband and I decided to go shopping for a birthday gift for our son. We decided to go to the café in the Seoul Grand Hotel.
In the lobby I met an old friend of mine, Robert S., (who use to be the Canadian Station Manager for Olympic Airlines). I knew him from the time I owned a Travel Agency.
We asked him to join us for lunch, and he did. He was very excited because he was taking the first guided tour into North Korea. He had started a new job, and was now working with Royal Scenic Holidays, (a tour company based in Toronto, Ontario). It was even more exciting because this is the first tour company the Government of North Korea has allowed to bring Westerners into their country.
The tour was a 6 day packaged tour, with 3 days of guided tours, and they were selling it for $2000.00 CAD, per person, (including air fare, taxes, hotels, food, tips and transfers). We asked him when the tour was leaving Seoul, and he told us he was meeting the group at the airport in 3 days. I asked if he had one room left, that 3 people could stay in. He told me he would have to check with his office in Toronto.
I explained we only wanted the 4 nights in the hotel, and the 3 days of guided tours. If it was possible, then we would have to come back early, and would need transportation for that.
We gave him our son's phone number and enjoyed the rest of the meal, chatting about the good old days in Travel.
The next day he phoned and said he had arranged everything for us, and not to worry about getting back, because he wasn't the Guide, and would be going back to Seoul, (the same day as we were), in the Ground Arranger's transfer bus. The price would be $200.00 CAD for each of us.
Then he told us we would be staying in a tourist zone area, called Haegeumgang. We would not be allowed to travel outside that area, take pictures without permission, drive, bring in cell phones, newspapers or magazines. The hotel was a 3 star hotel. We still thought that was a bargain so we met him to pay him for the tour, and arranged to meet him at his hotel, to go to the airport and meet the rest of the people.
We went home and told our son what his birthday gift was going to be, and he was so excited, because he would be the first person he knew in South Korea who would have seen the north.
He picked us up in the coach, (it was very funny to see a huge bus parked in front of our son's apartment), and we drove 25 miles, east, to the Incheon International Airport, to meet the group. My son has a friend who works there, and he took my son's note pad home.
When the group got onto the coach he gave all of us our visas, (Royal Scenic Holidays gets them for you, after your final payment).
We then drove for about 30 minutes, north west, along the outskirts of Seoul, to the DMZ, where we crossed the border.
I have written about the DMZ, in another reviews, so I won't bother repeating my self in this review.
.:Our Tour:.
At the DMZ we had to problems on the South Korean side, but it was another story on the North Korean side. We had to cross over a bridge, (called the Bridge Of No Return), that was build when the north and the south decided to exchange some prisoners.
It was over 33 degrees Cel. and we all had to get out of the coach. The guide was smart, because he had us line up, in the same place our name appeared on the list he gave to the border guards.
They looked at our passports and visas and then looked at us. I'm sure it was only a few minutes, but it seemed like a very long time, before he nodded we could get back on the coach.
We drove through a village called ''the peace village'', (Kichong-dong), by the North Koreans. We could hear the loud speakers broadcasting, (our son told us), propaganda.
The Tourist Zone is in the Kumgang San, (Diamond Mountains). It took us less than 30 minutes to reach it.
Along the way there were armed soldiers everywhere. We saw small villages, where the very thin people were dressed in drab clothing. In the distance we could see the tall topped mountains, and not so green valleys.
In the fields we saw the paddy fields and oxen pulling plows. And every where there were huge picturers of Kim Jong-il, (the son of Kim Il, who founded North Korea).
.:The Zone:.
We had to go through a barbed wire fence to get into the Zone. Once we crossed into the Zone we could see there was a three story wooden hotel that was on the top of a mountain.
.:The Rest Of The Zone & Our Tours:.
Within the Zone there is a Duty Free Shop, a Casino, a Shopping Centre and a food court. We didn't trust the water, so we thought we would eat all of our meals at the hotel.
The restaurant was a buffet that served food from around the world.
If you visit here you must taste the variety of Soju, (Korean rice wine). Most are served cold, but the one I like best is served hot.
The mountains were higher than the ones in the south, and we couldn't see the top of some of them because of the clouds.
One afternoon we took the land tour that took us into the mountains so we could have a hot spring bath at the Hyundai enclave. The mineral water was so hot we almost scalded our self. Once we got use to the water, it did sooth our muscles.
Where ever we look was a hermitage. We only saw the outside of the Sin-Gye Sah Pagoda. We could hear the chanting, and our son translated it for us, ''Twelve thousand peaks, each of a different height. Look, Sir, as the sun rises, the highest one blushes first.''
We were allowed to walk along the trails to the top of one mountain, (1,000 metres high). The soldiers followed us every where.
Most of the forests have been stripped and that was a shame, because there were very few trees. Higher up we did see some fabulous huge bonsai plants. We saw a few hares moles and a wild boar.
We drove past a white sandy beach and a lake. We did see a lot of birds, (gulls, ducks, eagles and a some swans, a few were black), on the lake.
We went inside a cave and saw coloured drawings of bears, mice, pigs and tigers. One mouse looked like a Walt Disney drawing of Mickey Mouse!
We saw an old railroad track with a lot of containers on it, and were told that the people who worked there were from China, and lived in a camp out side of the Zone.
They then drove us to a the Pyongyang Circus and Acrobatic display, (called a Gyove), before we went back to the Zone for dinner. For a moment I thought I was back in China, where every performer was so perfect.
We decided to take a half day cruise on the Seolbongho, Cruise Ship. I'm glad it stayed close to the shore, because it was quite rickety! We left from the small port of Sokcho.
We could see the fisherman casting their nets, and the women pearl divers, (hay-nyaw, meaning sea woman), diving below us, there were a variety of fish, a some cranes and a few seals.
.:The Next Day:.
The limousine picked Bob and us up and drove us back to Seoul. We had to go through the border control and customs, again.
They seemed happy to see that we had bought some Chanel make-up, a few boxes of cigars, one bottle of gin & one of scotch and some pottery man and woman statues.
Continued in the comments
