Seoul Survivor

It's my final evening in Seoul. Heading back to Dalian tomorrow and so concludes part 1 of my big holiday!!

Korea has been great! I've had lots of fun. Yeah, it's a bit like China but more modern and westernised and open. People enjoy themselves in a more western style as well, with lots of pubs and clubs.

Went to see the DMZ (De-Militarised Zone) today. It's the 4km area straddling the border between North and South Korea. The tour was very interesting and we learned a lot about the history and situation of the people. Visited the third infiltration tunnel, which was built by the North Koreans in the seventies. The tunnel was built so that the North Koreans could perform a surprise attack on Seoul. Allegedly, the tunnel could have supported the movement of 10,000 armed troops per hour. However a North Korean defector spilled the beans and the tunnel was discovered in 1978, which put an end to that. There are 3 other discovered tunnels and they reckon another 15 or so undiscovered ones!

Hitting the Korean karaoke bars tonight and also the pub! Was at an Irish bar on Monday with a whopping 13 euro for a pint of watery Guinness. Holy shit!

Have met some interesting people in the hostel here, including an American dude who is a professional full-contact fighter in Japan! There’s also a 19 year old Cockney lad who’s doing some Tae Kwon Do training here. He’s a bit culture shocked by the whole Korea thing.

Honestly, it ain’t all that hard for me to adjust to Korea after coming from China. The hardest thing is the language barrier. Can’t speak a word of Korean and it’s a really hard language to learn.

I'll write some more stuff about Korea and Taiwan and put up some pics when I get back to China!