DMZ

0700h. Camp Kim. Destination: DMZ (demilitarized zone between North and South Korea). 1.5 hours north of Seoul. After about one hour the left side of the river next to the highway was lined with a fence and guard posts occupied by military. Prior to entering Camp Bonifas, the US military base 'in front of them all', i.e. the base closest to the North Korean border, the bus passed through a heavily fortified road blockade. Obviously, near all strategically important military positions taking pictures was striktly forbidden. Inside the camp, we were first given a 20 minute briefing about the history of Korea. Note that there is no peace treaty between North and South Korea. As of today there is only an armistice (ceasefire, truce) between them. There have also been quite a few incidents after the Korean war, most noteworthy the discovery of three major tunnels dug from North Korea into South Korea presumably to bring large numbers of soldiers toward Seoul as quickly as possible. The latest of these was discovered in 1990 (!!!). We then drove to some observation points, where one could see into North Korea. Both sides built little towns near inside the DMZ featuring massive flag poles. We were also in the building were the truce was negotiated on July 27, 1953. The table in the center of the room is devided by the border, so we actually had the chance to entered North Korean territory. Also, the immediate area was guarded by soldiers from both sides. Upon returning to Seoul, we had a good dinner and ended the day in the bar on the top level of the Samsung tower overlooking Seoul, while drinking wine and enjoying a piece of cake.

Vacation and visitors

After Busan, I took a week off to show around two German visitors, who are currently studying in China: Hanne and Christian. After there arrival I decided to start with traditional Korean food: dulsok bi bim bap (rice mixed with all kinds of vegetables in a hot stone bowl). Afterwards, I decided to show them my favorite traditional Korean bar. The entrance almost scared them off and we decided to capture the moment in a picture illustrating that I had also already showed them the Korean way of symbolizing 'no' (anyo). Once inside they were quite happy with the choice. The next morning, we had to find out that a lot of temples were closed on tuesday. The initial disappointmen was quickly swept away by the opportunity to participate in a Korean bell ringing ceremony nearby. It felt like in a movie - the three of us in between all the traditionally clad Korean soldiers. We then visited the Jogyesa temple, toured through Insadong for some shopping, looked at the artificial creek through downtonw, city hall and finally stumbled across a palace near city hall, that I myself had never been to before. Inside were traditional Korean palace buildings as well as two roman-style houses, one of which held a traditional art exhibition, we decided to attend. The eventful day was rounded off by some shopping in Dongdaemun. I never anticpated shopping for clothes and shoes could be that much fun. We didn't even find the time to look at the performances on the multiple stages, which were my initial reason for going there. Nonetheless, it was only the beginning of a wonderful week.

Fish market

Saturday, after considering another day at the beach, I was persuaded to instead check out the city especially the local fish market. Busan's harbor is the 2nd largest in the world, so the fish market also turned out to be quite impressive. There was one with solely dried fish and a very beautiful building filled with mostly living fish in water tanks waiting for customers. If you are wondering what you get when you order dried fish, check out the pictures. Along with that there is a 'modern traditional' house, a before and after picture of fish and a traditional Korean folklore group.

Beach time

Friday afternoon the conference was over and this could mean only one thing: beach time. Too much to tell, too little time, therefore just a few nice impressions: me enjoying the ocean, an enormous amount of kites on a single string at a nearby kite competition and an aquarium full of squids about to be enjoyed in the restaurant behind it.

Conference tour

On thursday afternoon, all German participants and quite a few Koreans went for a trip to an old city from the Shilla dynasty featuring - among other things - the Bulguksa temple. Very beautiful buildings with stone stairways. Afterwards we had a traditional dinner and went to see a park at dusk, which might have been the prettiest sight of the day. Most unexpected or surprising was an ancient graveyard, however, which had nothing in common with European cemetaries at all. Nothing scary about it, just peaceful and pretty. The graves are large earth mounds (or small hills) covered with grass and all around are trees and flowers. Not a dark, gloomy place, with stone crosses and cobble stone paths as in Europe. Sadly too challenging for my camera to take a picture.

Conference dinner

No respectable conference comes without a special dinner. Ours was on wednesday and it was special indeed. The chosen location was the Nurimaru APEC house, built with the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation of mainly east asian, but also US and Russian, world leaders in mind. A more beautiful location would be challenging to find, offering the view of the open ocean as well as of the bay in front of one of the main bridges of Busan - the home for a staggering 3.5 million Koreans and therefore not exactly the little harbor village I had expected prior to arrival. Foodwise the highlight was certainly the soft shell crab served as part of the starter. Every part of it was edible and wonderful. The dinner was accompanied by musical performances of a Korean music professor as well as a traditional music group - everything from German opera over traditional Korean pipe to contemporary Korean music. All in all another one of those evenings to be remembered.

Conference days

To at least give a short impression of the conference, I've decided to give you a quick impression of the lecture hall. However, meetings all across the globe are fairly similar. Sure, behind the curtains there is a beautiful beach, but during talks all across the globe it is usually dark and cold. Some of the talks did turn out to be rather interesting, though. But enough of that: no conference comes without good food and the welcoming buffet surpassed everything I've seen at any conference so far. Particular highlight was 'sashimi', not to be confused with sushi. While both refer to raw fish, sushi is usually sliced very thin and served on rice, sashimi is sliced a lot thicker and may be eaten without anything else to accompany it (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi). Koreans tend to eat a variety of sauces and salad leaves with it. After initial hesitation, I found out that it was excellent. Especially the red tuna, which I was told is also exceedingly rare. In the evening the following day we also went to a sashimi bar near the coast, where fish and seafood were served so fresh, some parts were still twitching. Nevertheless a very tasty experience.