If my Christmas was quite alternative, my Boxing Day this year trumps it in terms of being unconventional. Normally I spend Boxing Day eating left overs of Christmas dinner, seeing more of my family for yet more food and playing card games well into the night. This year, I spent Boxing Day exploring the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) of Korea - a 4km wide strip of land that stands between both North and South Korea. Nothing quite says festive spirit like paying a visit to one of the most tense borders in the world.
The only way to explore the DMZ in Korea is to go with a tour company. Luckily our lovely guide Gina was really informative and militant with the half day schedule we booked onto, ensuring we got to see everything in a timely fashion. We drove about an hour outside of the centre of Seoul and the weather seemed to get more bleak the further we went. It had snowed over night so everything felt quite peaceful but also quite tense. We were dropped off at Imjingak, a small tourist resort which is home to the Freedom Bridge significant for returning thousands of Prisoners of War (POWs) back to the South at the end of the Korean War.
Next part of the tour took us for a visit to The Third Infiltration Tunnel. To date, only 4 secret underground tunnels which were intended to be used by North Korea to spy on and invade the South have been discovered. The Third Tunnel was only discovered in the late 1970s but there is thought to be many more yet to be found. We were given hard hats and ventured down the tunnel. The descent was a little steep and the tunnel itself stretched some 1600m long. It was a bit of a tight squeeze for some of the boys, but this was probably the first time being a little short has paid off for me. Of course, I was still grateful for the hard hat though.
The DMZ is a bit of a odd place to visit. The signage and monuments all speak of a hope that one day, both North and South will be united again. Perhaps it was the bleak weather, but you could really feel how deserted and eerie the area was. It was as though any sudden movements could cause big trouble.
Next stop on the tour was the Dora Observatory. It was already quite drizzly on the way to the first parts and Gina told us it was doubtful we'd see much out of the telescopes. She was right...
What should have been a panoramic view overlooking North Korea was a big foggy blur. I suppose it was still pretty beautiful in it's own way though.
The last stop of the tour was a trip to Dorasan Station. One might say it's a pointless station because no trains run through it and no one is actually allowed to use it. If anything, the station is another symbol of hope for reunification one day. The main destination sign reads 'To Pyeongyang Station', North Korea's capital. Although trains don't run there yet, it shows that there's hope for the future.
It was a real whistlestop tour of some important landmarks in modern Korean history. I can't say I really knew much about it before going to Korea, but physically being in the places certainly helped to understand it in a poignant way. Given more time, I'd have liked to have gone on a full day tour including the Joint Security Area (JSA) where North and South Korean soldiers actually face each other. Still, the DMZ visit was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Seoul.
So, after an interesting and unconventional morning at the DMZ, we decided to occupy our afternoon with a visit to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA). If I haven't mentioned it before, I bloody love a good visit to a contemporary art museum and MMCA did not disappoint. With a flash of my provisional driving license, my ticket was free. Apparently if you're under 24, you account for a student in South Korea.
We spent quite a few hours at MMCA. Some of my favourite pieces included Julius Popp's 'bit.fall'. The installation uses water droplets which shoot down in short pulses, forming words which disappear after a second. I could have spent a long time just watching the water fall and attempting to read the words. The whole installation is supposed to represent the temporary nature of information today in a world of social media and the high speed ability for news to travel around the world and quickly be forgotten. I thought it was really clever.
My next favourite piece was Rebecca Baumann's 'Automated Colour Field'. I'm a sucker for quite colourful art pieces so I was instantly drawn in by this one. The wall was mounted with flip clocks but rather than numbered cards, they were replaced with various colours which flip and change intermittently according to the time.
Amongst the rest of the exhibitions, we saw a big range from French black and white documentaries, goldfish installations and a concrete sphere which invited you to step inside but be silent. It was particularly hard not to giggle inside the ball to hear your own echo.
Before we left, Beth and I decided to leave our mark. In the museum lobby stood a massive Christmas tree where you could write a message to tie onto the tree. Mine is below:
Thanks Seoul, it was a good one!
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