April 5, 2018: A Tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
	Return to the Index for Our Visit to Seoul

Our round-the-world odyssey began days before our departure, as we set out all the things we needed to take with us, but by the morning of April 3rd, we were both packed and ready about 10AM for my friend, Al Hirschler, to give us a lift over to Love Field for our flight to Los Angeles.

Our Flight to Seoul, Korea

Getting to Seoul today will be entirely unlike how I got to Seoul for the first time in 1969. Back then, the government gave me a travel voucher for a flight from Charlotte through Chicago to Seattle, and from there a transfer over to McChord AFB where I hopped on a MATS flight to Kimpo Airport in Seoul (then Seoul's only airport).

Fast forward almost 50 years. Today, we'll fly to Seoul in two stages (commercial, of course)- both legs booked through Singapore Airlines- as the first two legs of a three-leg-with-layover flight to Singapore itself. Our first flight, a Virgin America flight from Dallas Love Field to Los Angeles International Airport, would leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, so Al was kind enough to drop us off about 11AM. We stopped at the bag check to give Virgin America our large bags and get our boarding passes. Then it was off to the gate to await our flight.

On the way to the gate, we came across a musician performing on a small stage. The violinist, Zuriel Merek, was quite good, so I made a movie and took a picture:

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Zuriel Merek

Our Route to Los Angeles

The flight over to Los Angeles was uneventful, except that we found Virgin America to be a quite nice airline. The flight was not particularly crowded, so we had some room to spread out.

During the flight, I had occasion to wonder where my baggage claim check was. I looked through the ticket folder and couldn't find it, and so I concluded that I'd walked away from the baggage claim counter before the young lady had given it to me.

When we landed in LAX, we headed directly to the gate area for our flight to Seoul. It was a heck of a long walk, up escalators and down stairs and through terminals to the International Departures wing. All along the 45-minute walk I was wondering about the bag claim checks, so when we finally got to the gate area I hauled out my phone and spent some time looking for a phone number I could call. I finally found one, and spent a bit of time trying to connect with a human being. I finally did, and eventually found out that Virgin America doesn't use bag claim tags; the claim number is printed on the boarding pass at the bottom. So sure enough, Fred and I each had our claim numbers- so I didn't have to worry all the way to Seoul.

Our Route to Seoul

The flight to Seoul was on Singapore Airlines and, although this flight was considerably more crowded, Singapore's planes are nicely-appointed and well-equipped and quite comfortable. I'd gotten a couple of seats on the window side and as luck would have it the center seat remained vacant.

As on our last international flight to Turkey, the plane had an extensive entertainment system with a couple hundred movies to choose from. I watched three or four, including a particularly interesting one called "Downsizing" with Matt Damon. Between the movies, the three meal servings, doing some reading, and playing some games, the eleven hours in the air passed fairly quickly, and by 11:30 in the evening we had landed in Seoul (on the 4th of April, since we'd crossed the International Date Line and lost a day).

I had arranged with Viatour for an airport transfer to our hotel, but when we came out of customs I did not see anyone with a sign with our name on it. I'd told the Viatour agent months ago that we'd be arriving very late on the 4th, and so would not be through customs until after midnight on the 5th, and so the agent suggested making the 5th the pickup date. I found a young Korean woman working at the information counter, and she used her phone to call the local provider. She discovered that Viatour had indeed scheduled the pickup for the 5th- but the evening of the 5th, not the early morning.

Our Route to the IBIS

So I had her cancel the booking and we simply found the taxi dispatcher and got a taxi to the hotel. When I first came to Korea, I came into Kimpo Airport, which is close in to town, but of course in the intervening 50 years, a much larger airport has been built much further out, and so the ride to the IBIS Hotel took about an hour (a 50-mile trip). The fare turned out to be $10 less than the Viatour fare would have been- $65US rather than $75US.

Even though I'd purchased some Korean Won in the airport, the driver was happy to take US currency. (He turned out to be such a good driver, and his fare so reasonable, that we took his card and had the hotel call him to take us back to the airport on April 7th.)

We got into the hotel lobby about one in the morning, having been traveling now for almost 20 hours, door to door. All in all the trip was pleasant, but we were ready to hit the sack ahead of our first scheduled tour at 10AM.

The IBIS Ambassador Hotel Insadong

Our first stay at an IBIS Hotel had been in Prague last year; we found the hotel to be very adequate, if spartan, and usually quite reasonable. So when looking for a place here in Seoul, I thought of them over many other choices. Seoul has a huge number of hotels scattered all over the city, but this one was centrally-located and near the subway.

The IBIS Ambassador Insadong

The one thing that marred our trip to Seoul was the weather. Both full days that we were here it was cold and a bit rainy, although our second day did offer some sunshine when we were touring the palace. Because of the weather, I don't have such good views of the hotel itself, so I've borrowed one from the Accor Hotels website. The photo makes the hotel look less like it is pretty much in the middle of a group of ten- and fifteen-story buildings, and the street in front is not nearly as broad as the picture indicates. I think they photoshopped out the buildings that are on either side of the hotel.

The Hotel Lobby

Perhaps it was because the outside weather was pretty gloomy that I didn't take many pictures in and around the hotel, so once again I will borrow a couple of stock photos to supplement the pictures we did take out our room window on the 8th floor. The lobby was small but functional, with a cafe and restaurant at one side, the elevators in the middle, and the reception desk (with some very helpful attendants) at the right.

We had no problems checking in; the reservation was accurate and on file. We just reserved a standard room, and I asked the young lady to put us as high as possible. We ended up with a nice corner room on the 8th floor.

Our Room

I did end up taking a couple of pictures of the room, but when I left the curtains open to get as much light as I could, the flash kept marring the picture, so I'll settle for one provided by Accor Hotels. This is exactly the room we got for our three nights here.

As I said above, the rooms are small but very functional, with everything you need. The bathroom was also small but functional, with one of those Asian commodes that does everything but powder your nose. (I'd first seen those complex devices on my last business trip to Japan; when I was here in 1969, you were lucky to get a commode at all, unless you were someplace, like a major hotel, frequented by Westerners.) The heated seat was nice, but that was as far as we went with the controls.

We had Wi-Fi Internet access and CNN International on the television, so we weren't exactly roughing it. The room was a little different from the one in Prague, but really not by much.

Our room was on the front side of the hotel, and as it turned out there were no tall buildings right across the street, so we had good views all the way south to Namsan Mountain and beyond that Yongsan, where the US Army headquarters used to be.

The View to the South

In Fred's photo at left, you can see what the neighborhood around the hotel looked like. Most of Seoul's tallest buildings (and it has a couple of doozies) are on the far side of the mountain and a bit to the west. We had considered one tour that included a trip to the top of Seoul's tallest building, but didn't select it. Just as well, because the views would not have been very good on either day we were here.

The area of low buildings across the street turned out to be a rabbit warren of all kinds of little shops, restaurants, bars, and at least few residences. Walking through it numerous times while we were here reminded me of the little streets I'd loved to navigate when I came down to Seoul on weekends. But it was just a reminder. Gone seem to be the sidewalk food vendors; now what you saw were little restaurants- some with only two or three tables. But there were all other kinds of shops too, and most everything was pretty modern, if cluttered.

The one thing that hadn't changed were the crowds of people. Particularly when we came through the area in the middle of the day or at dinnertime, there were lots of people, many of them quite well-dressed, walking through the narrow alleyways and going in and out of the shops and cafes. But it wasn't like I remembered, but then I guess not much is, when the memory is 50 years behind me. Still and all it was interesting, particularly for Fred who'd not been to a place like this before (much less one in an Asian country).

N Seoul Tower

When I was here, walking up Namsan Mountain was a popular activity, particularly on nice days in spring and fall. I, myself, went to the top numerous times. There was a small observation tower there then, but it was only a hundred feet tall- if that. You can see the new tower that replaced it if you look at Fred's closeup view from our window (below, left) or his extreme telephoto view at right.

Namsan Mountain

The tower (commonly known as the Namsan Tower or Seoul Tower), is a communication and observation tower; rising over 750 feet, it is the second-highest point in Seoul. Built in 1971, the tower was South Korea's first general radio wave tower, providing TV and radio broadcasting throughout the city.

Construction of the tower began late in 1969; I left Korea in September, 1970 but the tower was not completed until a year after I left. I do remember the beginning of construction; you could see the site as you walked up the mountain. But when I left, basically just the base and first few floors of the tower were finished. It was certainly not the skyline landmark it is today.

The tower cost approximately $2.5 million to build, but was not opened to the public in 1980- nine years after completion. While the broadcasting facilities were installed early on, the facility interior took much longer to complete. It took until August 1975 for the third floor of the observatory deck, the museum, souvenir shop, and the other facilities to be completed. Even so, and for reasons that I have not been able to discover, the observatory was not opened to the public until October 15, 1980.

Since then, the tower has been a landmark of Seoul. Tower elevation ranges from 777 ft. at the base (it is built on the slope of the mountain, almost at the peak) to 1,574 ft. (above sea level) at the top. Seoul Tower had its name officially changed to "N Seoul Tower" in 2005; there is confusion as to what the "N" stands for, with 'new', 'Namsan', and 'nature' all possibilities. At the time its name was changed, it had just undergone a $12 million (15 billion KRW) renovation.

Hotel Rooftop Patio

I was exploring one evening, and I found a stairway leading to a rooftop deck. There wasn't anyone up there (too cold, too misty) but there were nice views in pretty much all directions. The hotel stock photo at left shows the deck, and here are a few of the pictures I took up there:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The rooftop reminded me of the one at the William Gray in Montreal last year, and I imagine it it just as busy when the weather is nice and the bar is open.

I just have a couple more pictures that we took around the hotel that I want to include here.

Fred at the Ibis

At right is a picture we took on our second day when we were returning from our tour that day. That's the front of the Ibis hotel, of course.

Fred and Friends

To the right of the hotel entrance was a driveway leading to the parking area, and out front was a bench with these two doll-like figures. I thought it would make a good picture to pose Fred on the bench with them.

The figures were reminiscent of a couple of wooden Korean dolls that I bought when I was stationed here, and which I sent back to my Mom. She actually had them out for a long, long time- first in the living room at Somerset Drive, then the living room of the Cranford Road condo she moved to, then the dining room at High Hollows here in Dallas, and finally at both the Bentley and Bentley Manor. I didn't get them back until 2007, when she moved into the group home in North Dallas.

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	April 5, 2018: A Tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
	Return to the Index for Our Visit to Seoul