central bali: munduk and around

After the longer than necessary trip to tanah lot, I figured it was a good idea to get a proper map of bali…I’ve always loved maps…I feel much more secure when I can point to where I am on a map…after looking at the map for a while, I figured out how I’d taken the long way to get to the temple…figuring that out also made it easier for me to figure out how to drive north…I’d been baking on beaches for a little over a week, and I’m as dark as I have ever been…(which still isn’t dark compared to some people, but that’s besides the point…you should see my tan lines!)

I counted on getting lost several times while trying to bypass denpasar, and I tend to drive more slowly than most people on this island, so I got on the road early…it was Sunday morning, which meant there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic…yay! I managed to get all the way to munduk without having to turn around at all…woo hoo!! I was actually able to keep track of where I was the whole time…signage isn’t always there, but I’ve gotten better about guessing which way to go if I’m forced to make a turn…when going through towns the main road often turns several times, which is hugely annoying…I’m always terrified I’ve gotten off the main road without knowing it…

I was only wearing shorts and a shirt, figuring that would be enough…but as I got north of denpasar, I realized I was constantly going up, at least a little…and I was cold…eventually I pulled over and put on my jacket from lululemon…(thanks mom!!)…it didn’t block the wind completely, but it made a big difference…toward the end of the drive, the road was a lot steeper, and quite twisty…when it went through shady patches it was downright cold, I was relieved to have the jacket…at a couple points along the twisty parts of the road I saw places on the side of the road where people could pull off and enjoy the view…with a whole lot of monkeys joining them…what is it with this island and monkeys?  I’ve had enough monkeys for the time being, lol…

The last 10km or so to munduk involved driving along the ridge of a crater…a lake on one side, hills and rice paddies and coffee plantations on the other side…fantastic views all around…more twisting road, so I wasn’t able to look around nearly as much as I would’ve liked, but I spotted a few lookouts, and knew I could come back…munduk itself isn’t anything exciting…just a little hill town…not even a town really, just a village…I found a place to stay on my first try…it’s twice as much as what I was paying in kuta, but it’s at least twice as good…breakfast is included, there is a drying rack, they provided a towel and toilet paper, the lighting is good, the view is amazing, the room is spotless and there is a mirror…

After settling in and figuring out what I wanted to see, I got back on the bike…drove back in the direction from which I came, stopping at a few of the viewpoints…at the last place I stopped, I zoomed in a bit with my camera and saw a temple…it looked a bit like the temple I’ve seen on gbillions of postcards, and it looked like there were a lot of people there…when I got to the bottom of the particular hill, I realized traffic was absolutely nuts…soooo many cars and bikes pulled off the road to park…I didn’t know where I’d find an official spot, so I just pulled over where I found room, and started walking from there…

I thought I was going to see the famous temple…but I was wrong…the temple I did see has a very similar name though, and is on the edge of the lake, as opposed to on the lake itself…I saw pura ulun danu buyan…it turned out that the gathering I’d seen from above was a political group gathering…PDI PERJUANGAN…according to angie there are over 180 political parties in Indonesia…the colours of this party were red and black, and everyone was wearing them…flags all over…I could hear plenty of comments in English as I walked down the path, but I pretended not to…across from the temple there was a stage set up, and just as I got there, someone started speaking…needless to say, I didn’t understand a word…lucky for me, the temple was completely deserted…I didn’t know whether I’d be able to go in, but the gates were open…it wasn’t a very exciting temple, I think it’s relatively new…

On the way back I had to walk past all the same people…being a single, blond foreigner makes me really nervous at times…fortunately, it was easy to get back into traffic from where I’d parked…driving down the road I got to the turnoff to the temple I’d been looking for the first time…pura ulun danu bratan…(notice how similar the names are)…there was a big carpark, and I was directed where to go…at tourist spots like these there is usually an area for motorbikes…I bought my entrance ticket after passing a bunch of souvenir stalls…(just in case you REALLY need that bingtang t-shirt right now)…it was crowded with tourists, but not unbearably so…tourist money gets put to use, the temple is in really good shape…unless you’re a local and in traditional garb, you don’t get to go in a few areas, which is fine by me…I was able to see the temple on the lake, and have my photo taken with it…people in general were doing a good job of noticing others taking photos and staying out of them…yay!! It was sunny, the sky was blue, life is goodJ

I ended up eating lunch across the street…

Driving back toward munduk I stopped at even more viewpoints…so pretty…I like the lake side views better than the valley side views…I stopped at a tiny area that said parking for a waterfall…it said 246m to the waterfall, but I’m guessing that meant height, not distance…there was a clear path, much of it steps…some of the steps were quite large…I’ve got good knees, but that wouldn’t have been easy for anyone with slightly bad knees…I heard the waterfall before I saw it…quite pretty…15m or 20m high? To get to a decent viewpoint, you cross over the top of the waterfall, then come down…when I crossed it I didn’t realize just how close I was to the top of the falls…there is a tiny little restaurant looking over the falls…peaceful, and quiet…the water falls hard enough that you can feel the splash a ways out…I liked that…unfortunately, you can’t hike behind the falls…I followed the path a little way down the creek, to see if it went anywhere in particular…It didn’t…

Climbing back up I drove back the rest of the way to munduk, skipping signs for another waterfall…maybe tomorrow? I parked my bike at my guesthouse, (they call themselves a homestay, but it is more of a guesthouse) and took off walking…walking to the edge of town didn’t take long…along the way I passed tourist information, so I stopped in to ask about possible treks in the area…I’d like to trek, but don’t really want to pay a fortune to do it…at that point it seemed like it had been a long day already, though I don’t think it had in reality…I read in my room for a while before going to get food at a local warung…I ordered something written on the menu outside, but she said they didn’t have it…oh well…I had something else and it was fine…

A number of the treks I’d seen in the information office had waterfalls, and my guidebook had a couple listed, including the one I’d seen my first day in the area…my second day in the area ended up being a day of waterfalls…I started by going to gitgit, which angie had recommended…I had to get back to the main road, and head north…the entire way there was twisty, and I was constantly amazed at the blind corners on which people passed…I don’t have the guts for that kind of driving…I was expecting a bigger sign, but I only saw one…and the carpark was tiny…the guidebook said entrance was 6000rp, but it was only 3000rp…(less than $1USD either way, so it didn’t matter much)…there is a path all the way to the waterfalls…there were actually quite a few in this spot…while first walking on the path I came to a spot where I could either keep going straight, or cross a bridge…I went straight, and eventually got to a spot where I saw two waterfalls pouring into the same pool…beautiful…I could see a rainbow toward the bottom, but it doesn’t come up very clearly in any of the photos…I had fun putting my camera on a timer and posing…I can be really shallow sometimesJ…after running down the battery, I walked across the bridge and followed that way until I got to see a whole bunch more waterfalls…each of them very different from the others…awesome…after checking out every path I could find, (including one that took me close to someone’s home, and the dogs came howling after me) I got back to my motorbike, and drove a little further…

the guidebook said there was a second set of waterfalls about 2km down the road, and angie had mentioned something like that as well…the second set was by donation, and the donation wasn’t actually required, which was nice…I gave anywho…this set of waterfalls wasn’t nearly as good as the first bunch…but there were several more paths to check out, and at one point I realized I’d hiked back up to the first set of waterfalls…nifty…I realized that when I ended up in front of a house I’d walked by earlier…I was about to go back, when I heard a little voice say hello…it wasn’t loud, and I couldn’t figure out where the kid was at first…then I looked up into a tree, and there he was…he then proceeded to rock out, much to my amusement…singing quite loudly, shaking the tree…it was awesome…I watched for a couple minutes, then went back down toward the waterfalls…I checked out every path this time as well, and ended up trekking around for over an hour…fun…it’s a beautiful area…

the only thing I didn’t like about these waterfalls was the way “guides” try to forces themselves upon you…they ask if you want to know anything about the falls, and tell you they are trying to create jobs…they start to walk with you, and you have to say no thanks, I just want to walk by myself…if you let them walk with you, they’ll end up asking for a guides fee when you leave, and it’s usually quite large…I know that much of what is said wouldn’t be remembered, and I don’t need a guide when I can see the paths on my own…I did end up seeing several small groups with guides, though none of them were the guys who tried to talk to me after I parked my bike…I’m guessing these were official trekking guides, and that these people had signed up for treks the day before…given that I found various paths on my own, I was relieved I hadn’t signed up for a trek…I’m sure they have plenty of information, and could’ve shown me great places, but I was content with what I did…

on the way back to munduk I saw a pretty temple and pulled over to check it out…I don’t know how I’d missed it on the way down, but I guess it wasn’t in my line of sight as I was driving…the main area was closed, but the front bit was open…I’m guessing it’s a fairly new temple, the rock still had really sharp edges from the carving, and no moss growing…at least, not yet…

the waterfall I’d skipped yesterday was where I stopped next…there were two carparks for this one, each really small…and unlike yesterday, there was an entrance fee for this one…still less than $1USD, so I’m not complaining…the path took me straight there, the only time I had to choose which way to go was at the spot I paid the entrance fee…there was a sign there pointing which way to go, so I went…that was the most crowded place I went all day…four other people were at the bottom of the waterfall when I arrived…it was pretty, though not spectacular…the falls were thin, but strong…a couple of the guys had clearly gone swimming…as I walked back up to my bike, I took the other path at the ticket office, just to see where it went…it ended up at the back side of a resort, after winding through quite a lot…I’m pretty sure that’s not the way people usually get to the resort, as the path was quite narrow…

after returning to my bike I realized I was quite hungry, and had a very very late lunch at a roadside warung…I got to have what I wanted last night, yay…from there it was back to my room, where I finished a book and relaxed for the rest of the eveningJ

tanah lot

I knew I could end up staying in kuta for the rest of my time in bali, and be perfectly content…checking email, looking for jobs, laying on the beach, watching movies in cafes, going for walks, etc…I’ve gotten better about ignoring the touts, even though they’re everywhere…howeva, having been to bali five times now, I wanted to see more of the island…so I decided to leave again…howeva, before leaving the kuta area, there was a temple I’d always wanted to see, called tanah lot…it’s on a lot of postcards, almost always in a sunset scene…it’s just off the west coast of bali, and the sunsets are beautiful…

Howeva, I’m not one for driving at night on a scooter…I’m also not one for seeing a sunset with a gbillion other people…and I figured the lighting would be good in the morning for photos anywho…so as soon as I woke up, I started getting ready to go, instead of laying around which is what I usually do…

According to the map and directions in lonely planet, it should’ve been easy to get to tanah lot…but for me, it wasn’t…when I finally got there, I realized I’d taken the long way around…basically going to far, then circling back around to the right place…whoops…at least my detour was prettyJ

The main part of the temple can only be reached at low tide…otherwise it’s cut off by the water…this main part of the temple is also the most photographed par, though I didn’t think it was the most photogenic part…the day I visited there were some higher waves, and I loved seeing the waves crash into the rocks all around…there were multiple altars, and multiple viewpoints, and I loved them all…not surprisingly, there were cafes designed to give you the best views at sunset, and a gbillion souvenir stalls…of all the places I’ve seen in bali, this temple has the most tourist stalls…it’s crazy…there are so many of them that after I parked I wasn’t sure in which direction I should walk…all I could see in any direction were souvenir stalls! howeva, as i was threading my way through everything back to my bike, i passed this procession of folks on their way to the temple:)

Driving back to kuta was a lot easier…I followed the signs heading back toward denpasar until I saw signs for kuta…phew…I stopped and got oreos and postcards at a supermarket close to where angie’s family lives…double stuffed oreos, of course…they’re my favourite…I also got a map, I’m fed up with lonely planet being terrible…later that afternoon, after more beach time I packed up my stuff and took my pack to the clark household…I planned to take off the next day on another bali adventure, and didn’t need to take everything I had…I could’ve, but I didn’t want to…

back to the beach(es)

Back in seminyak…I was pretty proud of making it back without any majour stories to tell…no wrecks, no majour getting lost, etc…no majour stories to tell either, but that didn’t matter much…I had a few good photos, and it was nice to be with the family again…I went to the beach that afternoon, and did it without getting lost…woo hoo!!  On the way home from the beach I shopped for bikinis…I have a good one, and I love it, but part of me wants another…do I need another? No…do I want one? Yes…since there is a lot of surfing all over Indonesia, all the majour surfing brands have shops here…and for some products, I’m a brand name junkie…since I didn’t have the cash on me, I didn’t buy anything…but I found a few I wanted…I have weight I want to lose, but I don’t consider myself huge…howeva, I’m usually wearing the largest, or 2^nd to largest size these stores have…what do most Americans wear?

The next morning I got up and went to a supermarket, getting full milk and mini croissants…I’d been dying to make chai again…it was yummy…so were the mini croissants, especially when they were dipped in “plain” (it said plain, but it was pretty sweet and tasted like vanilla to me) yoghurt…later that afternoon I went to the beach, and from there drove to jimbaran, on the bukit peninsula…I met angie at a mcdonald’s (it was a spot she knew I could find) and we drove to a fish market…lots of seafood available, to say the least…all different colours too…she picked out a couple snapper, telling me what she looks for when buying fresh fish…we also got some fruit that makes me think of snakeskins…the fruit inside tastes like a cross between a tart apple and a pear…YUM…I’d never had them, and after trying one, I suggested we get a kilo for dinner…woo hoo…

As soon as we got home, angie put anna and I to work…chopping up a bunch of stuff to add to the fish…she bbq’d the fish, and added to everything else, the meal was AMAZING…after dinner, all of us (willie, anna, me, angie, mom, dad) went to a movie…a family outing…we saw “driving angry” with Nicholas cage…definitely one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen…and it was LOUD…we couldn’t help but laugh at how bad it was…just awful…since it was so loud, after the movie was over, as we walked back to the van, we were all pretty quiet…shell shocked I think…just awful…

The next day I moved into kuta…it’s the crazy crazy crazy tourist centre of the island…nearly everyone who comes to bali spends a night or two in kuta at some point…there is a giant beach that goes for 8km or something like that, tons of accommodation in every price range, and shopping…not much else…I was lucky enough to get a room in the same place I stayed during both visits in 2009…it’s super cheap, but I don’t need much…(by comparison, the room I stayed in with the clark family was a palace)…since I’m on a motorbike this time, I’ve realized just how crazy traffic is around here, and just how many tourists are here…it’s nuts…fortunately, I’m able to ignore most of it…what always gets me is when I’m walking onto the beach, and someone offers transport…I’m walking onto the beach, does it look like I want to go anywhere else??????

Since moving into kuta I haven’t done much…beach time, reading time, online time mostly…a couple times I’ve met up with angie and anna, we’ve played badminton…it’s the national sport, which meant we got our butts kicked by the local kids…fun…and I was super sore after the first day…lol…I’ve also gone to play touch rugby, good times…rugby is the best sport, and the only one I know where a total stranger can rock up to practice, and be fully welcomed into whateva is happening…drills, scrimmage, etc…awesome…if I decide to stay on bali, it’s something I want to get into regularly, because I miss playing in seoul…

bali:bukit

I managed to drive from ubud to bukit w/out getting too lost…I missed one turn toward the end of the drive, simply because it wasn’t labeled the way I thought it would be…fortunately, that was easy to fix…I’d looked at the map of bukit several times, paying special attention to the road to get to bingin, which is where my mate james was staying…james and I were in the same primary school classes in 4^th and 5^th grade, and I hadn’t seen him since…and w/out facebook, I wouldn’t have known he was in bali, nor would I have recognized him while walking past him…he’s a surfer at heart, so it makes sense that he feels totally at home on the bukit peninsula…there are a lot of surf spots off the southern peninsula of bali, and it’s easy to get around…

I found a place to stay, and headed down to the beach…at least, I thought it was down to the beach…as has been my habit so far, I missed a turn, and ended up taking the adventurous way to the beach…bingin is a very small village, and basically only exists because of surfers…everything is related to surfers…accommodation and food, surf shops, etc…getting down to that particular beach involves going down steep steps that wind through various accommodation options…the beach itself is pretty small, and the water crashes really close by…

After laying out for a while I started climbing back up to mama ketut’s to check email/surf the net…that’s when I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast…I nearly passed out a couple times on the way up, I had to take mini breaks and guzzle water…whoops…I hadn’t felt it while laying out, but the sun had apparently taken a lot out of me…after checking internet and meeting up with james I ate a full meal, I knew I’d feel better…and I did…after showering I met up with james again and we chatted the rest of the evening…it’s fun to catch up with people from my past, especially in random places like the bukit peninsula of bali…needless to say, a lot has happened since we’d seen each other…to make a long story short, james is an engineer in California; he quit his job to take a 12-18 month trip around the world…

 The next morning, after a ridiculously slow wakeup, I drove to ulu watu…it’s a temple on the south side of the peninsula…there is also a surf spot and beach called ulu watu…the temple wasn’t as impressive as I expected, but it’s perched on top of some beautiful cliffs, and I enjoyed seeing those…a whole bunch of monkeys live in the temple grounds, they like to take things from the people wandering around…I didn’t have any plastic bags, or any food with me, but they still wanted to look in my purse…I was okay with that, but I wasn’t so thrilled when one of the monkeys jumped on me and moved up to my head…apparently the monkey liked the look of my hair rubber band…it’s orange…but most definitely not edible…he scratched me a bit as I shook him off…his buddy watched the whole thing happen, but he didn’t get the hair band either…on my way back out, I asked about the dance show that happens every night at the temple…the guidebook said the price was 40,000rupiah, but I had a feeling that number would be higher now…and it was…70,000rupiah…having seen a couple shows in ubud I didn’t think it would be worth it to go again…

From the temple I drove back toward bingin, stopping at padang padang beach…angie had recommended it…it’s small compared to some of the other beaches I’ve seen in bali, but it’s still nice…I think there is even a lifeguard on duty! Who knows if the lifeguard is any good, but that’s beside the point…it was crowded as beaches go, or maybe I just got spoiled when I spent time in new Zealand and anything more than 5 people on a beach makes it seem crowded to me…the water felt good, and it was fun to watch people…after laying out for an hour and a half I went back to my hotel and chilled for the rest of the evening, chatting with james a bit more…I realized I could stay on that peninsula for a week, not doing much of anything, just soaking up sun and chatting with people…the people who owned my accommodation spoke really good English, and were great fun to talk to…james had stayed their previously, and they loved him…and the mango juice was awesomeJ

The next day I drove back to seminyak, w/ only one small detour…now I know how to get to the airport, hee hee…fortunately, it was easy enough to get to seminyak, despite taking the “alternate” route…

my first motorbike ride...and ubud...

the day after i arrived in bali, angie took me to rent a motorbike...it's only $60 for the entire month!!! it's been great to have...i have been tooling around seminyak, but earlier today i drove for a longer bit for the first time ever...i've driven motorbikes before, but never for this long...i only got lost once...well, twice...it rained, but not a lot, and not for long...thank goodness...for some reason, despite all my traveling, i've never owned a proper rainjacket...it’s on my list of things to get, eventually…

after getting to ubud, i found a place to stay, and started walking...ubud is the cultural center of bali tourism...the first time i came to ubud was 2005, then again in 2007...lets just say it's changed a lot since 2007...angie said it's gone crazy since eat pray love came out, and i completely understand her...she said the medicine man now takes credit cards...(if you've seen the movie or read the book you'll know what i mean)...i found the place i stayed in both 2005 and 2007, the price has tripled in the past four years!!! so i'm not staying there...there is a LOT of construction going on, and most of what I’ve seen is probably villas being built…apparently bali was never hit by the global recession in real estate…

I first stopped at the tourist information station…there are lots of little stands that call themselves tourist information, but those stands are all just trying to sell trips and transportation…this station is actually just for information…this one also sells tickets to the different traditional Balinese dance shows taking place all over the city each night…since ubud is the cultural part of what lonely planet calls the tourism “duopoly” it makes sense that there would be traditional dance shows each night…I’d seen a few before, and this time I was armed with a better camera…not surprisingly, prices have gone up for the shows as well…oh well…

My next stop was what is called monkey forest…so called because of the tribe of monkeys that lives there…the monkeys are almost totally dependent on tourists, and if you walk in there with any sort of food, they’ll find it and take it…these monkeys have no fear of people, which isn’t really a good thing…the signs at every entrance to monkey forest warn you not to bring plastic bags and food, but right next to those signs are people selling food specifically for you to give to the monkeys…bananas and such…it’s amusing to sit there and watch a monkey eat a banana, peeling it and everything…they’re smart enough to eat just about anything they get…I saw a couple new monkeys, still clinging to their moms…so new that they were still covered in birth gunk…both moms seemed sensitive to this, and did their best to protect the newborns…turning so that their backs were to all the cameras…there are a couple temples in the forest, and you need sashes and sarongs to go in each temple…fortunately, there are tables set up where you can borrow a sarong/sash…it’s easy to do, but not many people went in the temples…it would’ve been easy to wander around for quite a while in the forest, watching the monkeys and the people, enjoying the shade…ubud definitely doesn’t have the sea breeze of seminyak…

After wandering around the forest for a while, I walked back up monkey forest rd (I think there is a real name, but no one uses it) collecting handouts from all the spas along the way…ubud is also a place where you can spend a little or a lot at various spas, and come out feeling like a princess…some spas have packages set up, others are just a la carte…you can go for something as small as a manicure, or you can spend 5 hours being pampered…

Dinner was simple: rice, veg, tempe and a banana smoothie…

I bought a ticket for a show that was supposed to take place at the ubud palace…I’d been to a show at the palace before, and quite enjoyed it…howeva, they’ve temporarily moved it across the road, to a different pavilion, which disappointed me…oh well…it’s not as if its that much different, but somehow I was disappointed…I made sure to get there plenty early, as I wanted to be able to take photos without people’s heads or other cameras in the way…the gamelon orchestra started and then the show went…I quite liked the gamelon orchestra, their timing was quite good, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves…the dancing was impressive as always, as were the costumes…really bright, with a lot of colour, and nothing like anything you’ll ever see in the western world…the style of dance is also very different…flexed toes and fingers, using the eyes to act as well…I wonder how long it takes them to change in and out of those costumes? This particular show had 7 different dances I think…I’m pretty sure there is a story behind each of them, but I don’t remember…good show…

The next morning I got up and walked out to sit on my porch…hot water was already there, so I was able to prepare tea immediately…after a few minutes one of the family ladies came by and asked if I wanted breakfast, of course I did…(I don’t often turn down food)…a bowl of fruit (papaya, watermelon, pineapple and bananas) and a couple pieces of French toast…breakfast was included in what I was paying for my roomJ

Of course it took me longer to get going than I had planned, but that didn’t make much of a difference…I got on my motorbike and drove…the map in lonely planet made it look easy…but the actual driving wasn’t so easy…well, the driving was fine, but finding the specific roads wasn’t…I ended up turning around 3 times, and eventually reversing my plan of attack for the day…which was fine…

My first stop ended up being a place called goa gajah…translated I think it means elephant cave…the whole area is a temple, and a pretty neat one…you can borrow a sarong from the same place you buy tickets…to get to the temple you have to walk through a lot of souvenir stalls, all calling you to take a look at their stuff…annoying, but I guess they make money or they wouldn’t be there…this temple isn’t like any others…when you first enter the area, it seems quite wide open…there is a small pool of sorts in the middle of a plaza…on one side of the pool are six ladies carved out of the walls, and from them come spouts of water…you can walk down the steps of the pool and wash your face and hands…(the pool is nowhere near fully filled)…the cave itself is the most important part of the temple…normally, when I walk in a cave, it feels chilly and damp…this time, when I walked it, it felt warm and claustrophobic…there are a couple altars with offerings in the cave…if I had had a guide, I’m sure I would’ve been told what they were for, and why they are important…

Walking around the plaza area, I found a trail off the back end leading to who knows what…when I see a trail, I tend to follow it, just to see what I can see…so I walked…up and down irregular steps, tripping over roots, etc…at times the trail wasn’t always clear, but it’s still easy enough to follow…it goes through jungle and passes a couple small altars along the way…at one point, a guy came out and asked for donations to help restore the temple…I didn’t give, figuring my entry fee is supposed to take care of that…he had a book of names of people who’d donated, and how much they’d given, but I didn’t see a box in which to put money, and I’m always hesitant about handing someone cash when I don’t know what will happen to the money…I kept walking, and eventually could hear a river…the path got quite steep a few times, with the steps in bad need of repair…I still didn’t really know where I was going…eventually, I could see a small bridge crossing part of the river…it didn’t cross the whole river!! I had to cross what I could, then step off onto big rocks and cross the rest of the river that way…with my levels of coordination, not falling in the water was not a given…you, my two faithful readers, are laughing because you know exactly what I mean…there was nothing spectacular about the area after crossing the river, but I sat and enjoyed it for a few minutes…peaceful…rushing water, no one else around, in the middle of jungle…pretty awesome…by the time I got back up to the regular temple area I was dripping sweat…lovely…

I got back on the motorbike and drove a little down the road to a place called yeh pulu…it isn’t as big as goa gajah, so I don’t know why the entrance fee is the same…oh well…you walk about 300m down a path from the carpark, along the edge of a field of rice paddies…beautiful…and then you’re walking along yeh pulu, which is a carved cliff…there are a number of beautiful scenes carved into the rock…as I got torward the end, an older lady grabbed my head and led me toward a small altar…I was fine with it until she started demanding a donation…no thank you, I really don’t like demands…especially when I’ve already paid an entrance fee…I know it’s probably her way of making a small income, but I was uncomfortable with it…I know that the average Balinese makes very little money, but if I gave every time I was asked, I wouldn’t be here for more than a week…

From yeh pulu I drove to another temple…technically, everything I saw all day was a temple, and I needed a sarong for all of them…goa gajah and yeh pulu were different from other temples though, and didn’t have the same feeling to them…this temple was called pura samuan tiga…pura means temple I think…this temple didn’t have an entrance fee of any kind…nor any people around, from what I could see…but the gate was open…I had my sarong in my purse, so I put it on…the entrance gate is pretty fantastic, and the guidebook says it was created by a local guy…(long since dead…I think)…the temple is said to have held important meetings all the way back in the 11^th century…it was a large temple, and there were plenty of altars for me to see…I loved it, especially because I was the only person there…these sorts of experiences are always my favourite, being all alone in a place…

Driving up the road, my next temple was called pura kebo edan…which the book says is translated to crazy buffalo temple…this one didn’t have a specific entrance fee, but there were people sitting at a table, taking donations…when I declined, they said I couldn’t go in…which frustrated me…they said it was the same as an entrance ticket, but when I asked for the ticket, they said they didn’t have one…I don’t mind paying entrance fees (most of the time) but call it what it is…if I have to pay it, then it’s a fee…if I choose to give it, then it’s a donation…I found small change, and “donated”…they complimented my sarong…this temple was a LOT smaller than the one I’d just seen…far fewer altars, not much to see…the book said that the temple was famous for a statue about 3m high, thought to be 300 years old…from what I could see, it wasn’t very interesting at all…and far from the tallest thing in the place…it didn’t look like a buffalo, I’m not sure what it was supposed to be…again, I was the only person in there, I wonder how many people visit these temples…

The next temple was called pura pusering jagat…which translates to navel of the world temple…the gates to the temple are on a track off the main road…easy to find, as long as you know that…again, no one was around…there didn’t seem to be a parking area either, so I pulled the motorbike as far off the road as possible, put on my sarong, and went in…this one had a greener area in the middle of all the altars…allegedly this temple was the center of the old (really really really old) pejeng kingdom…(all these temples I’m mentioning right now are in the village of pejeng)…according to the book, young couples come here to pray to the yoni and the lingam…(hoping for fertility)…I did no such thing…

The next temple was further down the road…(not such a long road, there just happen to be a lot of temples on it…I’m fascinated by such things, most people think they’re boring)…pura penataran sasih…this one had an entrance fee, and I was happy to pay…and as with all but goa gajah and yeh pulu, I was again alone as I explored…except for the guy following me around who seemed determined to tell me all about the temple…these kinds of people make themselves into your tour guides whether you want it or not, then often demand a payment as you leave…I wasn’t keen on this, and did my best to ignore him…I liked this temple as well…there is a big drum way up on an altar toward the back,  it’s said to be the largest single piece cast drum in the world…(who figures this stuff?)…it’s pretty high up, so you can’t really see much detail…it’s called the moon of pejeng…this temple was the state temple of the kingdom I mentioned earlier…(what’s the difference between the state temple and the center of the kingdom temple?)…according to the guy following/leading me around, there were two older temples in the same complex…if I was walking by myself, I wouldn’t have recognized them as older, they looked the same to me…I loved this temple in general…

Then I started to make my way back to central ubud…along the way, I saw another temple…since I’d just seen four traditional temples, normally I would’ve driven right past it…but I could see that it was fabulously decorated, and I could see guys carrying pieces of a gamelon orchestra out of it…I pulled over, parked, and put on my sarong…the guys taking out the orchestra pieces smiled at me, complimented me on my sarong, and indicated I could go on in…it appeared the temple had been involved in a ceremony of some sort, the whole place had a lot of extra colour…awesome…as I walked around, I realized a bunch of guys were busy taking down all the extra colour, so I guess I just missed the ceremony, whateva it was…I have no idea what this temple was, but it seemed to be as big as what I’d seen earlier in the day…and I loved seeing all the locals around…

On the way back to ubud, I figured out where I’d gone wrong earlier that morning…I’d missed just one turn…argh…oh well…I dropped my sarong off in my room, had a cup of tea (there was another thermos with hot water waiting for meJ) and made my way to a spa…the night before, while waiting for the show to start, I read through all the brochures I’d collected, and figured out which spa had the package I wanted…I wanted a facial, a massage, and an intensive hair treatment…almost three hours later I came back out of the spa, feeling wonderful…the hair treatment included a head massage, LOVE IT!! And I almost fell asleep during the facial…I guess I was relaxed…

After dinner that night I went to another performance…this one was at a temple toward the edge of ubud…the kecak dance, and fire dance…there are no instruments in this one, only mens voices…they create an interesting combination of sounds, and I loved it…there was a single torch lit in the middle of the plaza area, the men sat in circles around that…most of the dancing took place in this area…because the torch was the only light, pictures didn’t turn out well…(if you’re in the shadows at night, even the best cameras can’t do much)…there was a storyline, but I didn’t pay much attention to that…I loved the dancing, the way the singers were also somewhat involved in the story, and the singers in general…after this part of the show was over, the torch was put out, and taken away…a wheelbarrow full of coconut skins was dumped in the middle, and lit on fire…after a little while, a man wearing a horse (look at the picture) came through and started his fire dance…wow…he’d kick the coconut skins, and dance through them…after a little while, my neighbor pointed out that his eyes were closed…WOW…he was doing the whole thing by feel…each time he kicked the skins, and danced through them, a couple of the singers pushed them back into a pile in the middle…a few times when he kicked them, they came really close to members of the audience…after he was done dancing, a holy man offered something, and then the night was over…awesome…

The next morning I drove to the bukit peninsula…

bali...again...

This is the fifth time I’ve been to bali…yup, five times…the first time I came here, I never dreamed I would return, let alone four more times…I was here first in 2005, three years after the first bali bombing…in 2007, two years after the second bali bombing…and twice in 2009, during my asia trip…and yet, I haven’t really seen much of the island…when I first booked this ticket out of Korea, my plan was to be here for a week, then go visit a friend in aussie…those plans changed but I still had the ticket to bali…fortunately, my friend angie is here…I played rugby with her in seoul in 2007…she’s half Indonesian, but was raised almost entirely in Montana…now she spends a good portion of each year here…I saw on her facebook page that she would be here, so we emailed, and she said she would pick me up at the airport when I arrived…the only condition was that I bring a bottle of whiskey…liquor is crazy expensive here…seeing a familiar face after coming through an airport isn’t something I get to experience very often, it was nice…especially because it was almost midnight, and my other option was to sleep at the airport…(trying to find a place at that hour and paying for an airport taxi is craziness)…she took me to her family house/compound and we caught up along the way…it’s always great to catch up with a friend…she put me in one of their rooms, and everyone slept for the night…

The next morning I was awake at 0615 or so, which wasn’t my idea of fun…I guess I’m just used to waking up early, whether I want to or not…ugh…fortunately, other people were up, so when I wandered downstairs, I got to meet her mom, dad, one brother, and grandma…porridge for breakfast, and tea…angie and her mom do most of the cooking in the house, they’re both awesome cooks…a combination of traditional Indonesian food and American/western food…around snacktime they served up noodles, I’ve forgotten what the dish is called…angie said it’s one of her mom’s specialties…she also said it involves a lot of chopping…lol…that ended up being morning snack and lunch…YUM…after lunch several of us went to get beads for bracelets…there are lots of stores that sell the beads wholesale, it was interesting to see what is available…sometime during the afternoon I got to help out making some of the bracelets the family sends to stores in the states…(sometimes the “handmade in……” labels are real!!)…angie’s mom has a couple factories, and exports clothing to a bunch of boutique stores in the states…all in all, it’s a pretty big business…

Somewhere around lunch ang took me to go hire a bike…renting a motorbike for a month is ridiculously cheap here, only $60USD…having one allowed me to come and go as I please, and not be on anyone’s schedule…why have I not rented a motorbike on my previous visits? Granted, traffic is a bit crazy much of the time, buuuut…

Later that afternoon I went swimming with mom and anna…it turns out that ang’s mom isn’t a great swimmer, but I was able to give a few pointers…who knew all those years of coaching and teaching would come back and help me out again? Hee hee…she doesn’t like to put her face in the water, which is a bit of a challenge, to say the least…but she wants to learn, and that’s more important than anything else…yes, there is a small pool in the middle of the family compound…

Dinner was good, and the whole family watched the most recent episode of American idol…I think there were 3 people left in the season at that point? They all sang three songs…since I haven’t watched American idol since the 2^nd season, it was interesting to see how it goes…I don’t think anything has changed since that second season…lol…

The next day was relaxing as well…working on the bracelets in the morning…it’s fun to be a bit creative every now and again…and it felt like I was a little productiveJ

I went with anna and willie to the beach in the afternoon…even though I knew where the beach was, and I recognized the roads on which we drove, I knew that when I went to the beach by myself, I’d end up getting lost…and I did, the very next day…not all the roads lead to the beach, so I ended up doing quite the tour of the area when I tried to go by myself…lol…I had on suncream, and we didn’t get to the beach until almost 1500, so I got no colour…I know it isn’t healthy, but I love being tan…

During the evening all of us walked across the street to watch the family housekeeper as she played in a gamelon orchestra…normally only men are in gamelon orchestras, so this was neat to see…plus, it’s the only time I’ve seen a performance where the audience is made up of locals, not tourists…ang has quite a lot of experience with these performances, and doesn’t generally like the sound of a gamelon orchestra from bali…I think she says they sound like a long, never ending train wreck…apparently the gamelon orchestras on java sound much better…a gamelon is a traditional Indonesian instrument, somewhat like a xylophone…individual instruments are tuned to the orchestra in which they play, not to a specific note…so you can’t switch instruments in between orchestras…it takes a lot of practice to get the whole group to sound good…and when they do, it’s really impressive…

For dinner, angie and I drove down the street to a café, she ordered…spicy bbq chicken and rice…she did the ordering, and we ate with our hands…yum…and very spicy…I love the little peppers!

The next day I read for a while, and went to the beach…(this is when I got somewhat lost)…I also spent time online, which I hadn’t done for a few days…there are a lot of cafes around here with free wifi…of course, you have to order something to eat or drink in order to access the wifi…depending on how long you want to spend online, its usually worth it…at one point in the afternoon angie sat me down with a map of bali and showed me a few places I should go…she said bali has too much to see and do to spend all my time at the beach…for a little island, it really does have a lot to see and do…and if I wanted to stay here for a while, it would be fairly easy to get a teaching job…I think…maybe…it’s a possibility…

That night angie and I went grocery shopping…there is a huge Carrefour not far away…it’s a bit crazy, but fun too…after only having seen Korean grocery stores for over a year, I had forgotten how many other food products are available…(there is plenty of foreign food available in Korean supermarkets, but never as much as I see in other countries)…

The next day, I drove to ubud…

the last few days in seoul with the fam

Our flight back into seoul landed around 2200…not the greatest of times to be landing, but oh well…after zipping through customs and immigration we got back on the trains…two hours later we got to my area of town…that is, the area in which I last lived…since hana had suggested switching hotels, we decided to find one in an area I knew…the first place we walked into seemed to have an automated system, and I don’t know enough Korean to figure out how that works…the next place was full up…the third place we tried had rooms, and at first we wanted to stay four nights there…but the desk clerk told us the price would more than double over the weekend, and we had no desire to do that…howeva, the price that night was fine, and it was too late to do anything else…so we slept in rooms that looked like the wallpaper had been thrown up out of an interior decorators trash…terrible…

So the next morning we decided to switch hotels…after looking around online, we found one that looked promising, and made the booking…it would be too early to check in, so we used the last hour or so of our time in our current motel to make a trip to coffee bean…(as long as I was in Korea, I wanted as much coffee bean as possible)…after my morning fix, we got back on the subway, and found the new hotel…fortunately, it wasn’t far…we’d booked two double rooms, but they only had one left when we showed up, so they upgraded one of the rooms for free!! Hana and I ended up with a small suite!! A lounge with a half bath, big tv and computer…and a bedroom with two beds, a full bath, and a big tv…woo hoo!! The view was straight into the side of another building, but you can’t have everything, at least not all the time…especially compared to places I usually stay when I’m traveling, this place was pure luxury…I loved it…when we checked in, mom’s room wasn’t ready yet, but that was okay…we left everything in our room, and took off again…

The first place we went was deoksugung…another palace…when we got there, there was a changing of the guard ceremony at the gates, but since we’d already seen one of those at gyeongbukgung we didn’t feel like watching it again…this is the palace of longevity and something else…mom and hana probably remember better than I do…it’s smaller than gyeongbukgung, and at the back of the area is a museum I’ve never visited…I’m sure it’s a great museum, but I’m not one for museums most of the time…we saw a statue of king sejong and it seemed like a good place to take a picture…as we walked up, some schoolgirls asked to take pictures with me and hana…we obliged, having fun with jumping photos…mom was a pretty good photographerJ…the ladies then took a photo for us, of the three of us, which was nice…of course, it didn’t get the king in the background, but oh well…

Wandering through the palace was nice…there is a pavilion with Russian/western influence, a few gates, the traditional throne room, etc..in one corner is what remains of the worlds largest water clock…it didn’t look like much to me, but I guess very little of it remains…I would’ve loved to have seen a picture of what it should’ve been, it would’ve given me an idea of what I was seeing…there was also a large bell on display, I’ve forgotten what that was from…as we walked out, we could see all the school classes having class photos taken in front of the throne room…

After deoksugung, we split up…mom went to namdaemun market, while hana and I went to insadong…insadong is an area that is touted as a traditional art area…that’s true, but it’s also completely touristy…again with gazillions of little shops selling kitchy souvenirs…but there are also great tea shops, and art galleries and yummy food…hana was looking for some souvenirs for friends back home, so I wandered with her, and helped her remember which shops were worth visiting again after we’d wandered all the way through the area…she got her ceramic stuff, as well as a stamp with her name on it…that was fun, and the guys in the little booth weren’t at all pushy…they even made her a couple bookmarks with her stamp…hana’s name is simple, and because of what it means in Korean, it’s all over the country…we weren’t giving the guy something strange to carve…(have I ever mentioned that the word “hana” is the Korean word for the number 1?)

After insadong, we went home…shopping is tiringJ

I’ll leave the DMZ tour, which we did the next day, for another post…it’s a full on experience to say the least…

Our last full day in seoul, hana wasn’t even awake at 10am…mom came to our room around 1015, and I didn’t think hana would be up anytime soon…and if she was, I knew we wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon…so we agreed to meet later in the day, for dinner and our last night…eventually hana did get up, and we both got ready…my idea was to get coffee bean, then go to Olympic park…I thought it was a 20 minute walk from the subway station where I’d lived for a year…I was wrong about the length of the walk, but at least it was a nice day…most of the time I could see part of Olympic park from the windows of my flat…hana and I walked through the park as well, trying to get a few photos, and just enjoy where we were…the flags of all the nations that participated in those Olympic games are still flying in the park…which is nifty, because not all of those nations exist anymore…(Czechoslovakia, USSR, etc)…we saw a few sculptures, walked along the remains of an old fortress wall, etc…on our way back to the hotel, I got us going the wrong way on one of the subway lines…argh…you’d think I’d know which way to go after living in seoul, but I still get confused from time to time…whoops…fortunately, the timing worked out, we saw mom in the hotel lobby…

From there we decided to get dinner…it was still pretty early, but none of us had really had a proper meal yet that day…we ate at kimbap town, though none of us had kimbap…

from there, we took the subway to the stop closest to namsan tower…namsan is a little mountain in the middle of seoul…there is a tower on top, much like the sky tower in Auckland, or the space needle in seattle…from the subway station to the bottom of the cable car, there is no direct walk…you have to walk up a bit, and turn a couple corners…fortunately, we found it relatively quickly…the cable car takes you to the base of the tower, and from there you have more choices…you can eat, visit the teddy bear museum, or take a really fast elevator ride to the observation platforms of the tower…we went with choice #3…despite living in seoul for more than three years total, I had never been to the top of the tower…(or even to the bottom of the tower, for that matter)…I don’t know why…while waiting for the elevator, we had our picture taken…the company takes the photo of every individual/group going up the tower against a green screen…at the top, you can choose to have your photo put against the backdrop of a daytime tower, or a nighttime tower…just because we liked the family photo idea, we decided to get the nighttime photo…fun stuff…mom and hana looked pretty good in the photo…

The elevator ride up is really fast…they play a video on the ceiling of the elevator, which makes you look up, which helps to equalize the pressure in your ears without anyone realizing it…the video is dumb, but you can’t expect a whole lot…something about blasting off into outer space…I found it amusing more than anything else…after we got to the top, we wandered around, looking out at the city…seoul doesn’t have a particularly memorable cityline…so while there were lots of lights, there weren’t any “ooh, aaah, look at that” sort of moments…it didn’t help that along the inner side of the room, lights were on and stuff was for sale…but I’m glad we went up…the line for the elevator to go down was fairly long, but it also moved consistently, so I had no complaints…the line to go down for the cable car was just as long, and moved in fits and starts…it was chilly, all three of us whinged a bit…all in all, it was a pretty good last night in the city…

The next day we didn’t do much, even though mom and hana’s flight wasn’t until 1850…I took them to the airport, said my goodbyes (not easy, and something I’ll never get used to doing, even though I end up doing it a lot)…then I went to lindsey’s flat for the next couple days…

DMZ with the fam

The next day was another long day…I’d signed us up for a DMZ tour…when we checked into the first hotel in seoul, there were brochures for various DMZ tours, many of which didn’t include the area most people know, the area with the blue buildings…and all those tours were expensive, especially those that did include the JSA area…I remembered that I’d done this tour with a high school classmate back in 2006, so I went looking for that information and eventually found it…the USO web page isn’t very helpful, I had to email them directly…fortunately, they were good about responding quickly…the USO facebook page also isn’t terribly helpful…the DMZ tour starts with checkin at the USO at 0700, and to get there on time I wanted us walking out of our hotel at 0600…the buses leave the USO at 0730…we thought we’d have a chance to grab coffee at a coffee shop nearby, but since it was Saturday, the coffee shop wasn’t open…argh…

As the bus was driving north, there wasn’t much traffic…(thank goodness)…Saturday morning is a time for sleep for most people…our guide was giving us various bits of information, some people were trying to sleep, etc…at one point, our guide was having a trivia quiz, finding out who knows what about north Korea…one of the questions: what is the most important holiday of the year in north Korea? I answered that one (the birthday of kim il sung, their eternal president, which is in april) and got myself a free XXL t-shirt…other questions included how long mandatory military service times for north Koreans, what you should NOT do when taking a picture with the famous kim il sung bronze statue in Pyongyang, etc…I like those kinds of questions…I’m a geek, I know…as we were driving north, our bus took us through a couple checkpoints, and we started to see barbed wire and the like…

Then the bus stopped…this was the outer boundary of the DMZ…the DMZ is 4km long, and runs the length of the entire peninsula…2km on the north side, 2km on the south side…despite the name, it’s actually the world’s most militarized area…there are soldiers along the entire length of both sides, there is constant tension, and shots are fired from time to time…to enter this area, you have to have a military escort…we had an army specialist, and I’ve forgotten the rank of the other guy…as we quickly learned, our guy could be pretty entertaining…some of the stuff he said was pretty funny, but it was even funnier because he said it all with a completely straight face…living in this area of the world has to be pretty stressful…one of the nifty effects of having an area hardly touched by humans has been the proliferation of wildlife…environmentalists hope that if north and south Korea do reunite, the DMZ will be kept as a national park, or some kind of protected area…quite a few species have shown up there that aren’t easily found in other areas of the world…our guide had some entertaining stories about which animals he’d seen, and how…our army guide told us the regulations of what was coming next, and what we’d be doing…

After driving through the gates/checkpoint, we had to get off our buses…because we were now in a military area, we had to switch buses, but we couldn’t take anything with us…only cameras, and some money we could put in a pocket…no camera bags, no purses, etc…it couldn’t appear at all that we were trying to take something with us to try to give to the north Koreans…if we had jackets, we needed to be wearing them, the jackets couldn’t be tied around our waists…before switching buses, all of us trooped into a small theatre area, where one of the army guys gave a briefing on the history of the area…the Korean peninsula hasn’t been united as one country for a good portion of it’s history…most recently, at the end of WWII, it was divided in two for the purposes of accepting the Japanese surrender…in the north, the Japanese surrendered to the Russians…in the south, they surrendered to the US and I’ve forgotten who else…the idea was that the two sides would then come together and hold democratic elections for the future…needless to say, that didn’t happen…the south held elections, the north didn’t…instead, a man by the name of kim il sung was supported by the Russians (and the Chinese) and put in charge of the north…both sides still talked about becoming one nation again, but kim was the leader who actually did something about it…on 25 june, 1950, the beginning of what the US calls the Korean war,  north Korean troops poured across the border in a sneak attack…they conquered nearly the entire peninsula, and were all the way down to the busan perimeter before the US (under the flag of the united nations – UN) stepped in…when US troops came, north Korea was stretched to it’s limits supplywise, and wasn’t able to fight back with much force…so US troops pushed back, and eventually recaptured most of the south…general macarthur planned and launched a surprise landing at incheon, helping to recapture seoul, and push the north Koreans far behind their original lines…and this is where macarthur was an idiot…with winter coming on (which ended up being one of the worst winters Korea has ever seen) macarthur wanted to keep pushing, and take over the entire Korean peninsula for the south…the yalu river is essentially the boundary on the north, between Korea and china…he pushed US troops farther and farther north, without doing proper checking into the situation…the Chinese didn’t much like the idea of a fully southern peninsula, so in secret they sent a bunch of “volunteers” from the Chinese army to help the north Koreans fight…some of these “volunteer” units had been fighting for a loooong time already (this was the end of the fighting between mao’s forces, and the forces of chiang kai shek, for control of china) so they knew how to fight…they ambushed the US in quite a few places, causing a lot of casualties…the weather didn’t help, as US forces didn’t have winter clothing…the Chinese/north Koreans pushed south again…anywho, the long and short of this is that there was a lot of fighting, especially over the middle third of the peninsula, which destroyed nearly everything…temples, villages, etc…in the end, a peace treaty was never signed, only a truce that stopped the actual fighting…so technically, the war is still going, 60 years later…the agreements were finally signed in a building on the north side of the DMZ in july of 1953…3 years of fighting that didn’t change much of anything, except a lot of people died, on both sides…

A number of incidents have taken place in the DMZ, including the most expensive tree cutting operation in world history…the south wanted to cut down a tree that was impeding it’s view from one of the checkpoints in the area, so they sent a number of soldiers to do the job…north Korean soldiers attacked, and in the fighting, at least two US soldiers were killed…not too long later, the US sent soldiers again, only this time with a whole lot of backup…fighter jets flying overhead, a warship on alert off the coast, and a whole bunch of guys waiting to rush in in case the north Koreans tried any more funny business…they didn’t…there is also the story of a Russian defector, running across to the south while on a tour of the north side of the DMZ…that resulted in a firefight…there are other stories I’m sure I’m forgetting…

We got on our new buses, and drove to what I think is called freedom hall…we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, though I don’t know what we would’ve wanted to take pictures of…anywho…this building was originally built in order to host family reunifications between families that were split as a result of the end of the war…but it’s never held any of those reunifications, as the north won’t let it’s people go across the line, not even a little bit…all reunifications have been held in the north…(most of them at a facility built by Hyundai, on the east coast)…walking out of the other side of the building leads you to the sight you most often see in photos…a big building across the way, with one north Korean soldier visible…in between that building and the one to your back are five smaller buildings…the two outside ones are silver in colour, and belong to the north…the three in the middle are run by the south, and are blue…the building in the very middle is where a lot of high level negotiations take place usually between ranking officials of each country’s military…(official government level talks are rare, and don’t take place here)…the border between the two countries actually runs in a straight line down the middle of these five buildings…so if you’re standing on one side of the blue building, you’re technically in north Korea…hana and mom are now in a photo of this…as we walked out of the freedom house, our group was separated into two…the other group went in the blue building, we waited outside, and our army guy told us a bit more of the history…then our group went in the blue building…the door on the north side of the building is blocked by a south Korean soldier when groups from the south visit, so it isn’t possible to open the door, run out and defect to the north…(and in return, when groups from the north visit, the south side door is blocked by a north Korean soldier, so you can’t defect to the south)…groups from the north and south don’t visit this area at the same time…ever…

We got back on the buses and continued the drive to one of the checkpoints…this particular checkpoint is surrounded on three sides by the north, so when you look out, you get to see a lot of north Korea…this is also the point where you can best see the village north Korea has built inside the DMZ…there is a village on the southside as well, and it’s real…people live there, and farm the land…the village on the north side, not so much…only a few people live there, and they all work in Kaesong, a town just a bit farther north…the flag on the north side is 160m, as opposed to the flag on the south side, which is only 100m…these are sizes where the flags will tear under their own weight when the weather is crappy…when you listen to the guides give these statistics, you can tell they are amused by the games played by each side…north Korea usually wants to be the “best” so their things are taller, louder, bigger, etc…

Then the bus drove to the end of the bridge of no return…we weren’t able to get off the bus at this point, so everyone crowded onto one side of the bus to see the bridge…it’s nothing exciting, just a bridge…at the end of the war, POWs on each side were given the choice as to where they wanted to live…it’s called the bridge of no return, because once they walked to either side, there was no return…they couldn’t go back…back then no one knew what the situation would be today…even if you were able to get off the bus and run to the bridge, you wouldn’t be able to cross it, as there is a big barrier in the middle…

For the first few decades after the war, the north was actually doing better…the people had a better quality of life, and a higher income…the south didn’t do as well until the 70s, I think…in the north there is the potential for much more industry…they have more mineral resources, more capability for heavy manufacturing…but in the south there is a lot more agriculture…and that makes a huge difference…if you can’t feed your people (and north Korea has needed food aid for years now) then it doesn’t matter what else you have…

The bus then took us back to the spot where we’d originally changed buses…we had the chance to check out the museum (which shows the history of the area in general, as well as war history) and the gift shop…hana took the chance to ask the guide about women stationed up there…he said normally there are no woman, but at that point, there were a couple air force ladies stationed up there…there is no chaplain position, one comes up from seoul every couple of weeks…

We switched back to our original buses, and drove to the 3^rd tunnel…north Korea has been caught digging at least four tunnels (a 5^th one has allegedly been found, but due to the timing of the find, it wasn’t officially announced, and still isn’t recognized) under the DMZ, into south Korea…the 3^rd tunnel was actually discovered by the south on my birthday…(the actual day I was born!)…it’s size would allow 10,000 north Korean soldiers per hour to get into south Korea…when the south found it, the north tried to say that it was the south who’d actually dug it…again with the blame game…there is a small museum and theatre set up, visitors can also descend into part of the tunnel…there are now three blockages, so no one can try to get into north Korea by going backwards…the descent into the tunnel is quite steep, and there is water dripping all over the place…the guys digging the tunnel back when must’ve been miserable…I wonder how long it took? The powers that be reckon north Korea is still digging, but is better at hiding it now; the south is constantly searching…the 4^th tunnel was discovered in the 1990s…as far as I know, the 3^rd tunnel is the only one open to the public…

After everyone had the chance to go into the tunnel, we all got back on the bus…our third and last stop before lunch was at the dora observatory…it’s on dora mountain, and from this building you can see a bit of north Korea…there are binoculars that allow you to see even farther, though I’ve never used them…you’re only allowed to take photos from behind a certain line, as otherwise you might be photographing a Korean military installation, and they’re not cool with that…the fat lady from Texas sitting in front of hana and me on the bus seemed completely oblivious to this GIANT YELLOW LINE, and was clicking away until a Korean soldier came up to her and pointed out the line…then he watched as she erased the photos she’d taken…how does anyone miss that line?

Then finally, lunch…by that point, I think all of us were starving…or at least it felt that way…the bus drove us to a cafeteria of sorts, where we had two choices…bulgogi or bibimbap…all three of us went for bibimbap…there were plenty of side dishes to go along with it, and as has become the norm lately, my eyes were bigger than my tummy…there were more side dishes (including tater tots!!) on the bulgogi side, but I was stuffed…even so, hana got me a couple tater tots because I said how much I wanted them…(sometimes you have to give into cravings, right?)

After an hour or so, the bus drove us to our final stop of the tour…dorasan station…there is a railroad that goes between north and south…it was built during the previous south Korean government, during the sunshine policy days…(the current south Korean president, lee myung bak, has taken a much harder line toward the north and is making it work harder)…the idea was that people could ride the trains in between the two countries, and that economic ties would help bind the economies…the line does run all the way to this station in the south, on a regular basis…the people who live in the DMZ on the south side take the train to this station, then catch a bus to their village…the train actually did run into the north for a brief while in 2007, but only cargo trains were allowed then…never any people…inside the station they have commemorative stamps, you can use them to stamp the waiver you signed when you went into the JSA area…(this is the waiver acknowledging that you might be shot, and that it’s your own stupid fault if that happens, not the fault of the US or south Korean governments)…you used to be able to stamp your passport, but not anymore…(my old passport has this stamp, from the last time I did this tour)…you can also buy tickets to the train…500won, a whopping 50cents each…that allows you out onto the train platform, where you can take photos and such…hana wasn’t keen on buying the tickets, but mom and I thought it could be fun…and at that price, even if it wasn’t fun, who cares?

And then, we drove back to seoul…I think most people fell asleep on the way back…it had been a long-ish day of driving around and seeing stuff…the only thing we didn’t see was the friendship bridge…the first tour of the DMZ I took saw this bridge, but this one didn’t…I don’t know why…after returning to the USO carpark, hana mom and I went straightaway to the coffee shop that hadn’t been open in the morning…more as a place to gather our thoughts and figure out what to do with the rest of the day than anything else…we ended up deciding to go to myeongdong, a shopping area of seoul…

And by shopping, I don’t mean kitchy souvenirs…I mean full on shopping…clothes, food, etc…it’s super crowded most of the time…by the time we got there, I was way out of it…hana and I looked through one of my favourite stores, but neither one of us could be bothered to try anything on…it was too much work…on the way out of the area, back to the subway station, hana and I stopped at a dunkin donuts…one of their first days in seoul, after we’d seen a palace and had donuts for dessert, we saw that DD currently has spinach, tomato/carrot and broccoli donuts…at the time we didn’t try any of them, but this day seemed like a good day to do so…hana and I split a spinach donut…it wasn’t very interesting…it was sweet and green, but didn’t taste anything like spinach…gutted!