Seoul Station

Electronic Market

Namdaemun Market

Blue Motel

Seoul Tower

On our way to the DMZ

DMZ

North Korea

North Korea behind me

First station to the North

Seoul Searching

This past weekend we spent in Seoul, the capital city of Korea.

First here's a few facts about Seoul...

Seoul has a population of more or less 49 million people, making it the world's 26th most populous city. As just mentioned it's one of the world's largest and most technically advanced cities.

They have a massive public transport system. There is 8 subway lines with just over 200 stations (can you imagine what my map looks like after this weekend?) Their subway system is one of the best developed and comprehensive subway systems on earth.

Ok well now you have a small idea of what we got ourselves into this past weekend.

Our weekend started by getting on the KTX (bullet train that goes 300km's per hour) for an 3 hour journey to Seoul.

Once we got to Seoul we decided we were brave enough to take on the subways, map in hand off course. We found Luka's (salome's cousin) hotel and popped in for a quick hallo. After the greeting session we had to make a mission to find a place to lay our heads down for the night. Turned out to be the biggest mission ever, but so much fun!! We walked around till about half past 1 in the morning looking for a cheap place to sleep. We walked up and down through various area's, including Hongdae which is the most happening of all because of it's night life. Unfortunately we couldn't find a place there, so after phoning information we got into a cab and headed to the Rex Motel. Haha luckily it didn't turn out to be dodgy, we just stayed up the WHOLE night fighting off mozzies. Damn mozzies, thought they would stay away in the winter. Apparently not!

We had an early start Saturday morning because of our fun filled day. We were supposed to pick Luka up at 10, which only happened at 11. Oops! We started our day off with a lovely Starbucks brekkie and then headed to her hotel. Our first stop for the day was the electronic market. Now, market makes it sounds teeny weeni! It's not!!! It has about 8 floors and one floor is HUGE! It's got camera's, hard drives, video camera's, instruments, flash disks, computers, anything you can think of even the tiniest gadgets!

Our second stop was the Namdaemun market. Namdaemun could quite conceivable feed , and maybe clothe, the whole world. Namdaemun means 'big south door' and once marked the city's perimeter. The original market burnt down in Feb 2008, so it's supposed to be new - but trust me, it doesn't look new. Als behalwe! You have to walk through mud to get to little shops. Off course they sell everything you can possible think of here, so you can imagine how insane it was. O and I forgot to mention the rain. It was POURING on Saturday, so we were squished up under umbrellas just trying to stay dry - but needless to say it didn't work. It was all part of the fun, it makes the adventure so much more exciting don't you think?

After lunch we had to rush back to Luka's hotel for her to get on a plane and go back to South Africa. We had about 30 minutes to get here back and at that stage we didn't have a clue where we were. This city is so big, it is easy to get confused. After 10 minutes of trying to find a taxi we decided to start looking for a subway station. We didn't really want to get a subway because we would've had to change stations - which would take forever. up and down the stairs over the street and down again. As soon as we reached the stupid station we found a taxi driver. I was so glad I rushed to climb into the taxi just to find the stupid driver snapping my (super) wet umbrella from my hand and tossing it at my feet. The dumb man made my finger bleed. He spent the rest of the ride to the hotel shouting at us. What an idiot!

We got Luka to her hotel early enough so that we can pack the last few things into her bag. As soon as Luka left we started looking for motels. We didn't want to walk around with our luggage in the rain so we quickly made a plan. We took a taxi back to the Rex motel in Sinchon. There's a few motels in that area so we just picked another one. This one was the Blue Motel. Literally blue, free porn in the rooms! SCORE! haha the rooms was a lot smaller than the previous night, but just what we wanted and no mozzies in sight!

We chilled for a bit and then headed out for our next adventure which was Seoul Tower. We weren't quite sure how to get there, but luckily Salome printed out directions. So off to the subway we went. We ended up climbing a mountain which luckily took us to the cable car station for Seoul Tower. We didn't have much of few from the tower itself, because the weather was still pretty sucky, but the experience was cool and we got some really nice photo's from the tower it self.

Sunday was an early start as well. For Sunday we had a scheduled trip/tour to the DMZ. Before I tell you about our adventure, here's some history or background or whatever you want to call it :)

Not surprisingly, Koreans have a keen sense of national identity: the peninsula plays host to two of the most distinctive societies on earth, now cleaved into North and South Korea by the spiky twin frontiers of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Since the korean war, North Korea has armed itself to the teeth, stagnated in its pursuit of a local brand of communism and became one of the least accessible countries in the world. Adventure Korea used to do trips there, but it stopped recently. All access denied! Bummer! (Adventure Korea is the company we did this trip with). They say North Korea has a population of about 23 million people and they live in an area about half the size of the UK.

Gyeonggi and Gangwon is South Korea's northernmost provinces and often described as one of the most dangerous places on earth. North and South Korea is separated by a 4 km demilitarized zone (DMZ) which is obviously a nomansland. Just to throw it in there - the two Korea's have never signed a peace treaty so technically they are still at war... SCARY!

Anyways so our first stop to the DMZ was at Imjingak. This is where you have to show your passport and where you get permission to enter the DMZ. At this point you are still allowed to take pictures. Here we saw the monument dedicated to the united states forces in the korean war. There was also a South African flag :)

As soon as the bus started to drive off again we weren't allowed to take pictures. We crossed the bridge over a river and stopped at the Civilian border control. A soldier entered the bus and once again checked everyone's passport. It was quite scary (he can't do anything to you but still) and the whole bus was silent all of a sudden. When he left the north korean jokes started... we had americans behind us on the bus..

Our second stop was the actual DMZ building where the third infiltration tunnel is. We watched a short documentary of the DMZ (which was more of a dramatic add) and then we headed towards the tunnel. Now the north koreans built these underground tunnels in an attempt to attack Seoul, secretly obviously. The tunnel was found in 1970 if I remember correctly. They have only found 4 tunnels, but suspect that there's about 20 more to be found. Scary shit! Anyways we had to lock all our belongings in lockers and find ourselves hard hats for the mission down to the tunnel. The tunnel is about 73 metres underground. You weren't allowed to take anything down, not even your camera. The tunnel's height is about a meter and a half and about 2 meters wide. You can only walk down the tunnel for about 200 meters but was definitely worth it. It was very eerie though... The walk up wasn't fun!

Our third stop was where you can get a clear view of North Korea. We saw a lot of soldiers at that point, because of the strict security regulations. You are only allowed to take pictures of north Korea from behind the yellow line. I think it's stupid because North Korea is quite far out. Anyways, we couldn't see as much as you usually can because of the cold weather, but we saw enough. The place looks like a ghost city. Even with binoculars you couldn't see a single car or person. Weird and very eerie!

Our forth and last stop was the last train station of South Korea. They prefer to call it not the last station of south korea but the first to the north. When you do a trip to North Korea this is the only way you can access it. As I've already said it's been closed off completely, so you can only access Seoul from this Station for now.

We had an amazing weekend!! It was unbelievable exciting, adventurous and interesting and I hope to take a trip to North Korea in the near future.

Nite x

Hallo all, me again! Just had to share something with you!

Look what I found in our CHEAP under ground shop!! This is probably the cheapest shop in Korea and it's in the subway station...

O and this is Salome enjoying the Simonsvlei!

Good News guys!

My friend, Tanique got on to the FHM hot 100. We have to vote as much as possible for her! So go and get your vote on!

http://fhm.co.za/fhm-models/2010/TaniqueEchardt/

Please help us and vote as many times as you can. Click on the link above to do so!

Come on vote for her, she's GORGEOUS!

Sup fellow readers?!

This past week I did something very non-antoinette like. I made a science video!! What? I did an experiment with acids and bases and its influence on red cabbage juice. Haha it was so much fun! I even made my own flashlight in science class on Saturday. Don't worry, I won't drop anything to pursue science as a career - I'm afraid I'm too stupid and not-boring enough for that :) (sorry)

Supplies vir die flits bouery

At the moment it's a lovely lazy Korean Sunday Afternoon, sligthly chilly but bearable. Salome and I went grocery shopping this morning and bought a lovely bottle of Simonsvlei Pinotage. On the menu for today's late Sunday lunch is a mouth watering bacon and mushroom pasta, complimented by peppers and onions, perfected with a hint of garlic and rosemary. On the side, a fresh garden salad will be served. For desert we are having pineapple, naartjies and strawberries. Come and visit me if you want to dine with us. If we can find a bottle opener, we'll sure to cheers with a glass of South African red wine. The inspiration (and motivation) behind today's healthy lunch off course: Thailand Bikini Bodies!
Our Thailand plans are well on their way and we will be heading there late January. Accommodation's been provisionally booked and the flights will be confirmed this week. All systems go! Now we just need to shed the winter pounds (before they pile up again). Off course you are more than welcome to join us on our mission to paradise, just drop me an email.

Putting the holiday aside, I scored myself some extra classes, which means extra money!! Jippeee! This will also be confirmed next week. The plan is to teach SIX extra classes each week after school (3 on Tuesdays and 3 on Thursdays) to the students of my school. These will be fun, conversational classes. It's very convenient, because it will all take place at my school, Yongmun Elementary. Nice nice nice!

Ok well, enough now, I have to get behind my gas stove and cook up a storm! Laters x

And so the second month begins!

This month we'll be travelling to the capital, Seoul and this weekend we're heading to Cheongju to watch Jonathan's band (Papa Bare) play and go for some well deserved massages! My bags are packed and I can hardly wait! Nog net een slapie*

Some school updates for those interested... I have given the grade 5 classroom's back wall a make over. The grade 5's are very interested in riddles, so I took the liberty of finding a few new ones and making a big thing of it. Feel free to look at the picture below and let me know if you can figure out some of the answers. It's almost like an interactive board as I have placed post-it's on the board for the kids to submit their answers...oulik!

This is the rest of the board.... (the middle part will show case their work..)

Ooo, I almost forgot to tell you, we went to the Pusan International Film Festival. (Busan was first called Pusan) Frankie gave me tickets as a birthday present so Salome and I made the mission to Nampo-dong to experience the festival. Unfortunately the movie was a disappointment, but the experience it self was awesome! It was really cool being apart of the whole thing. The movie was about a serial killer. Way back when everybody thought it was a midget on a killing spree, but 17 years later (after everyone thought he had died) it came out that it was a thirteen year old boy (pfff) who killed everyone! WTF? Haha at least the make up was good - it was very gory! At the end when the director walked out, only the ushers applauded him...shame poor Italian dude.

Die ding op ons kantoor deur

Ek wat klas gee

Jip, we have survived our first month, believe it or not! Even I can hardly believe it!!

I would say our first month was successful. We managed to travel a bit, do some shopping and meet amazing new people! Since arriving in Korea we have been to Incheon, Jeongju, Busan and our most recent; Cheongju. We spent Chuseok in Cheongju with Leanne and Jonathan (two uni friends of mine). Chuseok is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. These few days are normally spent with family and a lot of sompyon - rice cakes. I don't like them very much because they look ... well just look at the picture below and judge for yourself.

Cheongju is a smaller city about 3 and a half hours by bus north of Busan. It was quite a trip, we had to take the subway for 45 minutes, changing lines, and then the bus. Luckily the bus felt like a first class ride - the seats were nice and big and we had lots of leg room! I felt like royalty! I slept most of the time so it went by very quickly.

Our weekend in Cheongju was very relaxing and was awesome to get out of busy Busan for a few days. We spent our mini holiday playing baseball in the batting cages, shopping, enjoying korean food, guitar hero and darts - o and did I mention a few beers..?

The weekend before Chuseok Leanne and Jonathan came to visit us in Busan and we had a real South African Braai in my flat. (well it was on a gas stove - so technically not the same) nevertheless we had biltong, boerewors and potato salad! It was amazing!

Everything else in general is still awesome. School not so much, but whatever it's just something to do during the day right..

For October we've got a lot of plans. We are planning a trip to Seoul to visit Luca, Salome's cousin and we'll be going to Cheongju again to watch Jonathan's band play! Well I can't think of anything else to post now, but check out all the photo's and video's on facebook. Happy belated Chuseok everyone!! x