I've spent the last seven years feeling afraid, angry, sad and
disappointed of our government. Finally someone can sing a different
tune reminding us of the ideals that define us as opposed to those who frightenus into forgeting them.
The message resonates, whether you support him or not.
This looks like its going to be the last of my Korea entries. A lot happened though the longer I wait the less enthusiastic I get about posting.
I took a tour of Mount Geumgang a few miles over the north side of the DMZ. This tour is run my Hyundai Asan a division of the conglomerate Hyundai. This is the only part of North Korea that Americans are permitted to visit.
Before entering N. Korea the tour guides gave us a list of things we couldn't bring in. No cell phones, cell phone batteries, cell phone chargers, computers, cameras with lenses over 120mm, cameras with more than a 25x zoom lens, video camera with more than 25x zoom, magazines and books about current affairs a politics. Any camouflage clothing.
We also weren't permitted to take photos from the tour bus, photos of any North Korean military personnel, vehicles, installations. No photos of North Korean nationals, unless in a sanctioned performance. We were permitted to take photos of large portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il but they couldn't be cropped or truncated. They had to show the entire portrait. We were permitted to take landscape photos at designated points. We were also permitted to take photos in the hotel.
We crossed from South to North over the DMZ in a bus. We had to go through you're typical immigration, customs and quarantine formalities.
South Korean Customs at the DMZ
As a result of the Sunshine Policy, the north had opened up the area around Mt. Geumgang to tourism. This area has always been considered one of the most beautiful areas on the peninsula and holds importance as a pilgrimage site to north and south koreans alike. There is a Korean saying "Once I go to Geumgang I can die." I think the closest thing I can relate this to is for Americans wanting to see the Grand Canyon at least once in their lives. It was some of the most beautiful hiking and landscape I had ever seen.
We were kept to a designated tourist area surrounded by electric fences and guards every 300 feet. Occasionally we accompanied by official 'Observers' who tried to get information about our backgrounds out of us.
Some of the trails were quite high up and I guess in an effort to recoup the costs of placing bathroom facilities they came up with the following fee structure for pay toilets.
1 US$ for #1. 2 US$ for #2.
There wasn't much to do at night we went to the special tourist bars. Where we found 80 proof soju, and some special liquor.
Read the ingredient under Elutherococc. Yes folks if the Chinese will eat anything, its the Koreans who will drink anything. I didn't try that one. But I tried this ...
It's 120 proof snake infused grain alcohol, and after drinking this I can honestly say I can drink anything. Do you remember how in high school biology class they used to keep dead animals in jars? Well that's what it tasted like, and the aftertaste lingered for hours. Also in the background is a N. Korean waitress that thought she was out of frame. Cheers to my friend Louisa who took this one.
It was an exciting trip, it was tense and somewhat frightening. It's someplace I will always remember and its a new pin on my map. I'm never ever doing it again.
Part two of what might be a four or five part series.
So after seven years I decided to go down to my hometown. I'd been putting it off because it was a bit out of the way. When I asked the concierge at the hotel the best way to get there, she gave me a look like 'Why would you want to go there?' It's a bedroom city on the outskirts of Seoul. Something like what Pearl City is to Honolulu and what Queens is to NYC. I decided before hand not to look for the hospital where I was born. This trip to Korea wasn't going to be about a birth family search. I just wanted to see where I came from.
It took about an hours ride by subway. I have to admit I was getting pretty choked up sitting on the train. I was thinking about how it was almost 32 years to the day someone was making the reverse trip with me to my orphanage in Seoul.
I knew before hand that the city was sort of like a bedroom community where people moved to get out of Seoul because its more affordable, though still close enough to commute into the city for work. When I left the station I wasn't expecting be so similar to the place where I grew up. The retail district looked almost identical to Flushing and the people
there not quite as stylish as those in Seoul. The residential district wasn't all that different either, houses built
too close together, families where fathers commuted an hour a day
into work, and problems finding street parking.
I don't know what to make of it. I know that it wasn't like this 32 years ago. But really its not far off from the neighborhood where I ended up. Thinking about it know. I guess its comforting to know that both my hometown and I have kept up with each other. I guess in the end, I'm just a kid from a place not quite the city and not quite the burbs. Another aspect of my life that isn't quite like one thing or another.
The uncanny similarity to Queens also didn't end with lack of things to do. So after being thoroughly bored I made my way back to Seoul to buy a nice shirt for myself for the 'White Party" at the adoptee gathering.
At the hotel, they had already put the banner up for the adoptee gathering. It was time to look ahead to other things.
I'm sitting at Kansai International Airport right now on my way home from Korea. I have to say this last trip was one of the most meaningful ones. I'm still processing my thoughts about all the people I've met, events I've experienced and the hundreds of photos I've taken (which Kikaida and BusyB will have to sit through in order to get their omiyagi.)
I underestimated just how much Korea is a part of me, and it saddens me to leave it behind.
Also, thanks for all the Birthday messages you've all sent on Friendster, Facebook, My Space, Downelink and Xanga. I was in North Korea for a little while and was under a communications black out.
They're calling my flight soon. I'll post more when I get home.
