Welcome to Bukhan (N. Korea)

My friend Lindsey and I left Busan on the KTX train at around 4:30 pm. Korea has great public transportation. The KTX travels the 500km between Busan and Seoul in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. At one point the train reached 295 km an hour. Once we were in Seoul we had some dinner and then passed the next 3 hours over a few beer. At 11:30 we boarded the bus to Bukhan. It wasn't the most comfortable ride and it was light before we got close to the border. At around 7am we reached immigration. Everybody was herded into a big tent and sorted into lines (South Koreans in different lines from foreigners). The Bukhanin (North Korean person) soldiers were very serious looking, but to be honest, in some ways the the security is heavier at an American airport. When it was my turn I was actually asked to step aside and my passport was taken away. The soldier was concerned because my home country was listed as Canada, but my citizenship was listed as American (I was using my US passport because it has my S. Korean Visa). After everyone else had passed the soldier questioned me for a couple of minutes and let me through, and then walked off with both my passports! I found the tour guide and he said he would find out what was going on. Needless to say I was pretty fucking stressed! I was almost to the buses when the soldier came back. Apparently he needed to check with the higher ups and everything was ok. Anyway, it was quite the introduction to Bukhan. The view as we went through the DMZ and reached Bukhan was quite bleak. The dry Korean winter allows little grass to grow and the Bukhanin cut down any plant over a foot in height so that they can see anyone trying to defect. Razor wire fences line the roads and every half kilometer or so a Korean soldier stands in a pillbox watching the buses drive by. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures of the DMZ because if any soldier sees you take a picture they raise a red flag with each of them carries and you get fined (not to mention the possibility of loosing your camera). The first picture I was able to take was after we reached Bukhan proper. It doesn't show much but it gives my first image of the Geumgangsan Mountains (which were our destination) and a small Bukhanin village.



We finally arrived at the hotel and unloaded our bags in the lobby. However, we didn't check in. Instead we got onto smaller shuttle buses and headed straight out for our first hike.

Check in soon for the next installment in my trip diary!