Post #274415 by ikitnrev on Thu, Dec 21, 2006 11:26 PM

I've recently spent several weeks for work in Korea, and decided to include a small handful of pictures from that trip - some pictures with tiki, and some without.

One of the highlights was taking a day tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily guarded area that separates North from South Korea. One of the stops of the DMZ tour was a location called the Third Tunnel - dug under the borderline by North Korea, apparently to help troops cross over in case they ever decided to invade, or for other unsavory purposes. This tunnel was discovered in 1978, and is one of four tunnels found in the DMZ so far. It is now a tourist site, and I was able to descend into the tunnel and walk a good portion of its length.

At the surface of this Third Tunnel, is a Museum, gift shop, some interesting sculptures .... and these carvings, which immediately caught my attention. I'm not sure whether to call them tiki or not, but they seem to be influenced by and are somewhat similar of other Pacific Rim carvings. Best of all, they lie within a couple hundred meters of North Korea itself!

Later that afternoon, our tour also visited the nearby Joint Security Area (JSA), the only portion of the DMZ where North and South Koreans troops stand face-to-face. On these grounds is a small building/conference room that actually straddles the Line of Demarcation that officially separates North Korea and South Korea. I took the following picture while standing in the North Korean side of the room. The door shown leads into North Korea, and the guard shown is from South Korea. He is black-belt trained, and there to make sure that nobody makes an effort to exit or get near to that door. (Rumor has it that there are two North Korean guards posted at all times outside this door)

Outside of the above building, one can look further across the Demarcation Line, and view actual North Korean soldiers.

Well south of the DMZ area, outside Osan Air Force Base, in the city of Pyeongtaek, I discovered this thatched-roof restaurant, which had a pair of similar type carvings outside. I did not have the time to go inside this restaurant, so cannot vouch whether they served any type of rum drinks. (The only rum I saw for sale in my entire time in Korea was mainstream Bacardi)

One other place that intrigued me featured this sign outside. I walked inside, but saw only a generic bar, with one couple playing a pool table .... a typical bar geared towards young servicemen, with no real signs of tiki. But the sign is cool!

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2006-12-21 23:29 ]