Author Topic: New Zealand with some Seoul  (Read 40274 times)

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #140 on: December 20, 2014, 12:43:58 PM »
you are looking at close to US$200 per person.
not sure how you got there

Offline Yaalili

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #141 on: December 20, 2014, 06:46:24 PM »
not sure how you got there

$25 for each of the two attractions that you did, plus $100 for the one that you didn't do, and giving another $25-50 for other stuff there.

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #142 on: December 20, 2014, 07:17:51 PM »
plus $100 for the one that you didn't do,
no longer exists

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #143 on: January 11, 2015, 08:15:15 AM »
Part 9: Seoul & DMZ

Tuesday morning we awoke early to catch our 7am flight from CHC to ICN via SYD on two mostly uneventful flights with Air New Zealand and Asiana. We had some problems on the Asian airlines this trip for some reason with regards to our KSMLs. It took many minutes of explaining, convincing and speaking with the purser that the cellophane wrappers were oven safe. It was always a struggle for them to not remove it before placing in the oven. Has anyone else experienced that?

Picking one of our duffels off the belt in ICN, we noticed a giant clamp like device had been attached to it, similar to a wheel boot for unpaid parking tickets. As we made our way through customs, something triggered it and it started belting out the latest Korean pop hits. We were immediately escorted to a secondary area where a customs officer searched fruitlessly in the bag for a good 5 minutes. Finally giving up, he asked us if we were carrying large sums of cash with us. Totally confused, he showed us an image on the screen and it became apparent they confused a package of baby wipes with a large wad of greenbacks...

We made our way outside and negotiated with the minivans for the best price into town. We got someone for ₩85k (~$76) including tolls for the slightly less than 1 hour journey to our hotel, the Park Hyatt. As a Category 4 hotel, it was a great way to use the free anniversary nights, although it’s changing to a Cat 5 soon. I was only a Platinum member at the time, but I tried my hardest for them to upgrade us to a suite, since a regular room would have been too small for the 4 of us. After conferring in the back for a bit, she came back to tell us that the hotel policy was not to give free suite upgrades to Plats, but could give us the suite for ₩150k/night. I countered with ₩120k (~$107) and we had a deal. It was definitely worth it, especially since the room only cost me the AF on the Chase Hyatt card.

We. Pack. Heavy.





« Last Edit: January 11, 2015, 08:34:51 AM by moish »

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #144 on: January 11, 2015, 08:16:27 AM »




View from the room. Recognize it?



Hint…



That’s right, the hotel is located in the posh Gangnam section of Seoul, parodied in the YouTube smash hit. I found the hotel to be relatively convenient for touring and located near a 7-11 in the event you don’t want to be gouged for drinks.

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #145 on: January 11, 2015, 08:17:27 AM »
For Wednesday I booked a tour of the DMZ, a must do if you find yourself in the region. The best/most popular way to do it is with the USO, but by the time I got my act together to actually make a reservation, they were all sold out. I looked around and booked with a company called TourDMZ for ₩120k. The tour wasn’t given by native English speakers which was certainly a negative. I had to actively focus in order to understand what the tour guide was saying. I don’t know about the USO tour, but if it’s given by a Native English speaker, that would certainly be enough of a reason to book in advance with them.

At the time of my visit in 2013, there was increased tension between North Korea and the US, leaving a real possibility in the cancellation of the tour. However, the night before, I was informed that the Army wasn’t cancelling the tour and we were good to go.

Wednesday morning, I took the subway to the departure point at the Lotte Hotel according to the directions they had sent me. I left with enough time to get there at 5 to 8 for an 8am departure. However, once I got there, I realized that the Lotte was a huge complex and there was no way I would be there on time. They had told me to be there at 10 to 8 and I was kicking myself for not leaving enough time. I finally found the office at around 8:20 fully expecting to hear that the tour had already left. G-d was smiling down at me that day, and for some reason they had a different delay and were still there. If you do take these guys, leave yourself plenty of time to find them.

The first stop was the Freedom Bridge in Imjingak Park. A former railroad bridge, it was used after the war in the exchange of POWs.



Ribbons with messages of hope




Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #146 on: January 11, 2015, 08:18:10 AM »
Next up was a visit to Dorasan Station which once served a railroad line connecting the North and South.







Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #147 on: January 11, 2015, 08:19:09 AM »
We then went to the Dora Observatory where North Korea can be viewed through binoculars, including the giant flagpole in ‘Propaganda Village.’





The next stop was to the 3rd tunnel. North Korea has been building tunnels into South Korea so that in the event of a war, they could move full battalions right into the heart of the South. The South has developed methods in discovering these tunnels, and this is just one example of a tunnel they uncovered. You can hike the length of the tunnel right up to the border. There is also an interesting museum about the war.

On the way to lunch, we stopped off at a store, sort of like a duty free shop that’s licensed to sell Norh Korean products.



mana chama...


Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #148 on: January 11, 2015, 08:20:23 AM »
After lunch we drove to Camp Bonifas where we were transferred, as official visitors, to the control of the US Army. They drove us, on their busses, into the Joint Security Area. We had a briefing about the history of the area and watched a short film. We then walked outside to see an interesting scene of basically a standoff between South Korean and North Korean soldiers. The  South Korean soldiers were standing half exposed and half behind the meeting huts in case of North Korean aggression, to be able to quickly duck behind. They also wear sunglasses so that the North Korean soldiers, constantly monitoring us with binoculars, can’t see what the S. Korean soldiers are looking at.





We then walked into the blue conference buildings which straddle the border, and you have the opportunity to be on what’s technically North Korean soil.

Black things on table mark the border (SK soldier standing on NK side)




Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #149 on: January 11, 2015, 08:21:57 AM »


Demarcation line


We boarded the busses and passed by the site/memorial of the Axe Murder Incident and the Bridge of No Return (GIYF).





Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #150 on: January 11, 2015, 08:22:48 AM »
We then headed back to Camp Bonifas, shopped for souvenirs such as pieces of the border fence, NK currency etc., boarded our tour busses and headed back to Seoul.

Back in the hotel, the front desk had a message for us that the manager felt so bad about our experience the night before in securing a suite. They offered us a complimentary city tour the following day for the inconvenience, which we gladly accepted.

As we love doing in Asian cities, we inquired about the shopping area and headed out. However, we had in mind more of an Asian market with crafts, souvenirs etc., but what we found were behemoth malls selling everything under the sun….retail. No thanks. We walked around a bit but realized we were just wasting our time and headed back. Like most of the times we meet people of Asian descent, they go ga ga over Western children and they will crowd around and take pictures of/with them. I’m already quite used to this, but if it’s your first time, you might find it to be a bit overwhelming, especially when they start touching them.



Thursday morning we got picked up by the tour company for our free city tour. The first stop was a Buddhist Temple in town but we sat that one out. We then rushed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace to catch a reenactment of an ancient changing of the guard. I have seen many changing of the guards around the world such as in London, Monaco, Athens, Copenhagen, Beijing and Prague at the top of my head, but this one was refreshingly different.





Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #151 on: January 11, 2015, 08:23:21 AM »






Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #152 on: January 11, 2015, 08:23:45 AM »




We then went to a museum of Korea which was somewhat interesting.



Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #153 on: January 11, 2015, 08:24:59 AM »
Afterwards, they took us to a jewelry shop specializing in amethyst. Amethyst seems to be quite popular there as many stores we encountered were selling it. I recognized the oldest tourist scam in the book and was sure the store would be a tourist rip-off with a cut getting kicked back to the tour company. I realized we were near a nice pedestrian area so we decided to end our tour at that point and wandered around the various shops where we bought local crafts as well as some amethyst jewelry at a fraction of the price of what we were just offered on the tour.



Street food


We then headed back to the Park Hyatt, checked out, and took a taxi to the airport where we passed a curiously familiar looking bridge. We flew ICN-LAX via HND on Asiana and ANA where we were to spend the Passover holiday.



The End.

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #154 on: January 11, 2015, 08:42:08 AM »
Thanks for sharing! Really great and detailed TR! Odd to see the ugly bridge in Seoul too

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #155 on: January 11, 2015, 08:52:06 AM »
Thanks for sharing! Really great and detailed TR! Odd to see the ugly bridge in Seoul too
your welcome. i actually like the bridge of strings

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #156 on: January 11, 2015, 09:43:21 AM »
Didn't mean to judge ;-)

Offline Yordai Dooma

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #157 on: January 11, 2015, 09:48:09 AM »
Great TR. Thanks for sharing. Adding some destinations to my bucket list :)

Offline Ergel

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #158 on: January 11, 2015, 10:21:44 AM »
Thanks for sharing. Did you take the kids to the DMZ? Or was that solo?
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline moish

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Re: New Zealand with some Seoul
« Reply #159 on: January 11, 2015, 10:46:20 AM »
Thanks for sharing. Did you take the kids to the DMZ? Or was that solo?
didnt take