Travel plan idea blog

Wrapping up my mini-vacation

When I wrote about my little unexpected vacation, Sharon asked about the DMZ.

In Seoul, you can take a DMZ tour that brings you to a tunnel dug by North Koreans, an observation point, and the JSA (Joint Security Area). The tour is done by your local guide and by US army soldiers. It's pretty interesting. I actually wrote about it just over 3 years ago.

The part of the DMZ I visited the other day is in Gosung. Here there is much less to do - no tunnel and no JSA. The observation part is nice because it's on the coast and very beautiful. You can see a few mountains in North Korea but I found myself looking at the beach. No people but with binoculars you can see a plain military outpost.

They have gift shops with much of the same stuff I saw at the DMZ closer to Seoul: North Korean soju and other liquor, mostly. I did make one excellent find - a tshirt that says "Unification Observ". They forgot the "atory" so it's pretty funny. And it was only about $3.50 (4,000 KRW).

There were a few military vehicles like a Mustang fighter and a tank. There was a museum but it was nothing compared to the Korean War Museum in Seoul. There was a passenger train turned restaurant that amused me.

I believe that Gosung is the meeting point for tours of Keumgang Mountain. My wife wants to go but I have no interest at all - plenty of mountains in South Korea and elsewhere to visit.

Gosung happens to be right near Hwa Jin Po where they have a "castle" that used to be Kim Il Sung's summer home. It seemed like a nice house with the ocean on one side and a lake on another side. Great scenery.

After getting back to the pension and taking care of the dogs we spent some time with our friend Nasra and the Japanese backpacker (I think I mentioned them in the other entry on this trip) in Gangneung. I can't think of any reason to go there unless you know someone so I won't bother saying much about it.

The next day went to Jung Dong Jin - the easternmost beach in South Korea. It's popular for sunrises but we got there around noon. It's basically just a walk on the beach. I managed to get into a shouting match with some drunk woman who was mad that one of our dogs was barking.

Then we headed home. Today we realized that I had thrown out my wife's new fancy shoes because she had packed them in a black plastic bag and asked me to take out the garbage as we were leaving the pension. Luckily they had the shoes so we're getting them back. I'm in trouble anyway, of course.

Posted by James Trotta at September 6, 2009 11:20 PM