The Straight Times: Frontiers Remix

Dear Readers,

This is tkweks' 99th post! Three cheers (: a celebration is approaching, and tkwek will try to finish sending The Straight Times his Korea pictures by this post, such that the next post can be a special one.

Excited

The Straight Times Editor

The Economic Frontier

After that belated lunch of pizza and such, we dedicated the day to shopping around Seoul city. First we stormed this huge 7-storey shopping centre, where Yao Yuan made probably the most expensive purchase on the tour - a Nike/Man Utd jersey. A pioneer indeed. After leaving the auspices of the humongous complex we went to the Southern Gate area, where we found an extensive street market. Here was handicrafts and souvenirs galore. However, we took this to be a recce trip and anyway, comrade ZY was suffering the after-effects of the physical (digestive) frontier and we had to head back for dinner. The rest of us enjoyed a huge pink ice-cream along the walk.

Before long, we were back at Lotte's for dinner. The meal of omelet and rice cured the hunger for many of us, and following that, 5 comrades headed back to the hotel while Naishad, Wei Han, Nol and I followed Mr. Lim to take a shopping trip in the brightness of the Korean night.

In the night, a pseudo market is set up right in the middle of the city, among the skyscrapers. Hawkers will put up their wares and sell all kinds of goods - from souvenirs to snacks.

Being very enthusiastic (read: very idiotic) Singaporean tourists, we came across this stall that sold rows and rows and rows of socks, and we decided to buy SPONGEBOB socks of different colours for our team, and wear the socks out the next day. It was also here that I got most of my souvenirs, as the night market afforded us many budget buys (read: BARGAINS). But it wasn't just the wealth of things we could find there that made us stay for half the night - it was the bustling atmosphere of half a million city-dwellers wanting to let down their hair after a long work week.

The Cultural Frontier

After a brief visit to a Samsung subsidiary the next day, we headed off to a Koreanfolk village that was just outside Seoul. Set against the mountains, villages from around the area were relocated here and turned into a historical attraction. The first shot shows jars used to ferment kimchi. The second shot...is a random water droplet. The third shot is a totem that bears resemblance to Chinese court attire and the fourth shot shows GERALDSNG and JEREMYSIA.

The last shot shows the product of our previous days' shopping - the SPONGEBOB socks!

After the cultural village, we proceeded to Lotte World, which was, and is, a theme park. It was quite a unique concept of a completely indoor theme park with a skating ring in the middle, but it was a pity that the rides we took could have been more exhilerating. It was fun anyway, especially making champion Nol sit in front for the water ride!

That night, we were basically given free time to do whatever we wanted, just to be back in our rooms by 9 40. So JeremySia, JeremyTeoh, Naishad, Weihan and I headed back to the road market from yesterday, where we'd had to forsake cos of Zhiyang's bad stomach. Despite the rain, we managed to get there and make quite a number of brilliant buys.

When we were done shopping, though, HORROR OF HORRORS we only had ten minutes to get back to our rooms! And in the rain some more. It was practically impossible to hail a cab from the middle of nowhere, and we didn't know our hotel address anyway, so we did what any crazy Singaporean would have done - head in the general direction of the hotel and RUN!

Thank God we had a number of Geog pros with us and that the millions of moleholes (i mean underpasses) that criss-crossed Seoul city were relatively easy to navigate. Through that amazing race we discovered that 1) Hey, we are actually fast runners. 2) You can run half the Korea city centre on a stormy night in 8 minutes.

When we got back to the hotel lobby we found a number of our team camping at one of the laptops downstairs, and the Nanyang Girls' team camping at the other laptop, which formed an interesting contrast. And then we were asked to sign on the World Scholars' Cup board for the NY team and we did so, some (coughWHcough) more willingly than others.

The Political Frontier

Early the next morning, we headed up and out of the hotel towards the 38th Parallel, which is also known as the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. Despite its name, this tiny 4km-stretch of land has more than 100,000 soldiers on each side and 6 million land mines. It is, in fact, probably one of the most heavily armed places in the world. And it's jut 60 km from Seoul.

Our first stop was a checkpoint on the way to the DMZ, where we found a traditional peace bell that overlooked the DMZ. (see below). We had our passports checked and then the bus trundled into the DMZ itself. The first stop was a museum, and then the Third Tunnel, which was one of four tunnels that the North Korean army had dug into the South across the DMZ after their treaty. On our way there we met a group of South Korean recruit soldiers.

Our next stop was the lookout point, from which tourists can get a rare glimpse into a north. photos were prohibited here beyond a certain line, but by various clever touristy techniques we all managed to get a number of shots of the other Korea. If you look closely in the fourth picture below you probably can see the tallest North Korean flag in the world.

Anyway, after this stop, we went to the last train station of the trans-siberian railroad, that stretches down after vladivostok, into pyongyang, and down to the south. Here's the last station.

Our last stop for the day was the Korean War Memorial museum, where we learnt about Korean war history. it seemed to be an army day, and we met another group of soldiers there. As well as two bronze ones, and a gang of would-be soldiers.