Seoul

First let us mention that we do have plenty of photos but there has been a problem with blogger and we can't load them yet. We'll post a workaround shortly.

Our first stop was in Seoul which doesn't have any appealing qualities to it. Lots of traffic clog the city which is entirely paved and full of ugly buildings set amongst hills so I (Ryan) wasn't eager for a return. However, Shauna wanted to go to the DMZ border with North Korea and that was our only purpose to come to Seoul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone

The area of the DMZ which famously has the border guards staring at each other across an area which doesn't even have a fence is Panmunjeom. We saw the North side together when we first met but wanted to catch the view from the south. My first trip to Seoul a few years ago was over Thanksgiving and Panmunjeom was closed as it was a holiday for the American military advisors so I didn't get to see it. This trip we unfortunately found out that Panmunjeom was also closed the day we could see it due to military exercises.

We did take a trip to the DMZ to see the only thing we could, the Third Incursion Tunnel which was built under the border by the North Koreans. The tour is rather brief but we got to descend into the tunnel and see how they created it with dynamite. Once it was discovered, the North Koreans smeared the granite walls with coal and when questioned called it an old coal mine but scientifically you can't mine coal in granite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Tunnel_of_Aggression

The real highlight of Seoul was the W hotel we stayed at as it was probably the hippest hotel I've ever seen. Imagine the coolest bar you've ever visited and then imagine staying in it. Photos:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=1451