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Last Thursday I went to Korea for a weekend break with Katja. Seoul was hot and humid and in many ways wasn’t that different to Tokyo.

It was probably one of my first trips I’ve went on simply by booking the plane ticket and not having planned anything. However, with my Lonely Planet guide book in one hand and a good friend off TravBuddy, it was a great but short holiday.

The one thing I did book ahead was a tour to the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the demilitarized zone - the border between the two Koreas. I think the tour helped explain a lot about the South Korean mentality as well as show how this country is still very divided. The tour was on Friday, the same day a South Korean lady was shot dead in North Korea. Yeah…

It was the first time I’ve ventured anywhere military like so I didn’t take any risks with my camera. Just took pictures when we were told we could. One guy was told to not take his camera out because it was too big and could be mistaken for some weapon. This is us looking at the North Korean tourists at Panmunjom!! It makes you think if both sides are actually cooperating to just make money from tourism…

We got to go into the conference room where the negotiations happen and venture into the North Korean half. Here’s a ROK soldier in their taekwondo stance - they’re the rapid response force and can be ready for action in 90 seconds even if they’re a sleep:

Anyway, back to normal life and back to Seoul where we spent most of our time. Lovely Ashley (left) let us stay at her place and showed us around a bit before taking us to typical Korean barbeque.

Korean food was actually very yummy and wasn’t as spicey as I was expecting. Perhaps it’s working with Thai colleagues that have got me accustomed to a few spices in my pallette.

We also did some sight seeing and saw Gyeongbokgung (the palace that’s being rebuilt after the Japanese destroyed it a few centuries ago). Here I am protecting the entrance with the Taekwando stance. No idea why I was standing like that..

We also watched some traditional Korean folk dancing at the folk museum but it was a little slow for my taste, though the museum itself was quite interesting.

Since I knew I was going to Japan, I already had the intentions of going to Seoul since it’s only about 2 hours away. So I did it and enjoyed it More photos on flickr: Korea