Ending our South Korea Adventure

Last Morning in Busan

Before we headed to Busan train station and back to Seoul we made a couple more stops.

The first of these was Dongbaekseom Island a nice coastal spot and home to a conference hall which was built for an international APEC conference. It was interesting to be in and the views out to sea were amazing.

After this it was the Busan Tower. Again great views but also some interesting exhibitions on as well.

It seems sad to be leaving Busan, 2 of the girls on the trip had extra time at the end of this holiday and rather than stay in Seoul they plan to head back to Busan. I think that summed up most of our feelings about this city. Although nothing against Seoul!

Back to Seoul and Up the Mountain

We got on the train and set off for Seoul, no delays this time. Back in Seoul we went up the cable car to Nansam Mountain and the Seoul Tower. Quite busy but still worth the trip, the cable cars were particularly full, standing room only. We then had a quick look round the Namdeamun Market before heading back to the hotel.

DMZ and War Memorial

Our last day involved an early start, on the bus for 5.30am as we had a trip to the DMZ. The early start turned out to be worthwhile our guide managed to get us on the first shuttle bus. The benefit of this was highlighted when we had finished and saw how busy it had become.

The DMZ and war memorial afterwards were both amazingly moving and interesting. Having our guide give us additional and personal detail made this a highlight of the trip. Since an American soldier ran across to North Korea you can no longer visit the area with South and North Korean Soldiers that was shown on documentaries by people like Michael Palin but we could still view North Korean from one of the towers.

So much history we didn't know. Although America were the biggest supporters of South Korea with by far the most soldiers sent across and most names on the memorial walls, I didn't realise we were the second biggest supporters and only America sent forces to Korea before us.

Also as always really sad to hear about the atrocities carried out.

Last thoughts on South Korea

After this we had a bit of downtime before our farewell meal. The meal was great, Korean beef is amazing and again cooked at our table. The chat and laughing showed the group had bonded very quickly over a shortish trip. Our guide was excellent very funny not always intentionally, we will remember her "good guess" whenever anyone answered one of questions wrongly for some time.

The food has been a real mix lots of fish, some great pork and beef. Nice having it cooked at the table but not so sure of cooking the fish myself. Definitely have mixed feelings over the kimchi, fermented veg, some was nice but other bits a little unusual.

South Korea has been such an interesting country. A mix of the traditional and modern. The trip was a perfect pace we saw lots but also had some time to chill.