April 3-5, 2024
$1 US = 1,370 South Korean Won
Busan: Second largest city in South Korea.
With heavy rain off and on, definitely a museum day!
Jeju:
Seoul: Unfortunately, the taxi into town took about 30 minutes too long due to traffic and we missed our walking tour – but we made it in time to see The Changing of the Guard across from the City Hall.
Incheon: An hour (give or take) from Seoul, the city where our ship docked, is best known for its Chinatown.
History lesson:
The Korean Peninsula was home to some of the earliest hominids during the Lower Paleolithic era (from 3.3 million to 300,000 BC). Modern Koreans descend from humans of the Neolithic period (about 6000 BC). Three Kingdoms ruled the peninsula until the end of the 1st millennium, after which the lands unified, though with China to the west and Japan just across a narrow sea, the lands were often subjugated by other nations. The bloodiest of conflicts occurred during the Russo-Japanese war from 1904-1905, where battles between the two empires clashed on Korean lands instead of either warring neighbor, after which Korea became a protectorate of Japan until the end of WWII. The area was reclaimed by the Allied forces in 1945, and divided along the 38th parallel as “spheres of influence” – the Soviet Union to the North and the US to the South. The peninsula remains divided to this day, with the DMZ (demilitarized zone) marking the boundary. Modern South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. North Korea has been kept in the dark (literally – look at night time photos from the International Space Station), though the South still dreams of reunification.