South Korea

March 18: Throughout history war has been a popular activity.  In the 12th and 13th centuries there was the so-called '100 years war' between France and England.  The king of England "Edward the Squeamish" received false intelligence that the French were planning to invade his palace and force him to eat snails cooked in butter.  Dreading such culinary unpleasantries, he launched a pre-emptive attack.  The fighting continued for 100 years, yielding some creatively named battles.  There was the Battle of the Herrings, and the lesser known Battle of Sour Cream.  Both skirmishes occurred in 1429.  Today we don't have such interesting names for our military events.  For example, the war in Korea was simply called the 'Korean War' and lasted only 3 years. 

That conflict occurred in 1950 on the newly divided Korean peninsula.  North Korea kicked off, hoping to gain the element of surprise.  They were indeed surprised when the U.S. sent 80,000 troops under the command of General MacArthur.  MacArthur's men landed at Inchon and bravely pushed back the northern army.  It ended in a tie, which was of course disappointing to both teams.  Each side got roughly half of the peninsula.  The south got all of the arable land, capitalism, and U.S. military support.  The north got all of the minerals and a President with remarkably white teeth.  The Soviet Union took their ball and went home.

Today the north is a very poor, insular dictatorship possessing nuclear weapons.  South Korea on the other hand is an economic success story that shows just how far a country can go on a diet of kimchee and Korean barbeque.  Since most of the citizens there have the same last name, as a country they get huge discounts on monogrammed towels and stationary. 

For our tour we visit a 19th century village to see how folks lived back then, which was pretty much the same as people live today, minus anything that requires electricity, running water, internet or fossil fuels.  We enjoy a traditional Korean meal, with kimchee and other fermented foods.  I enjoy the spicy dishes, though most of my fellow travelers find it too hot.  Next we go to the capital city of Seoul for some shopping, sightseeing, and of course a visit to Starbucks.  Seoul is one of many big cities around the world that was destroyed and rebuilt after war.  In just over 30 years it has grown from a pile of rubble to an industrial powerhouse of 12 million people.  Lots of industrial pollution, lots of new construction, high employment, everyone lives in apartment buildings, English language mandatory in schools.  Capitalistic economy, elevator is going up. 

We learn some curious tidbits about Korean culture.  When you ask a Korean their age, they respond with their birth year as defined by the zodiac - year of the monkey, year of the ox, etc.   With that clue to work with, you then have to figure out their age.  Golf and baseball very popular.  Family values undergoing some of the same changes that occurred in western countries a few decades ago.  Diet is traditional Korean, with fermented vegetables, though western fast-foods are becoming widely popular among the widening young.

We leave South Korea glad that we saw it, another example of the stark contrast that develops quickly when a society is cut in two, with one half adopting the economic engine that is capitalism, and the other half choosing the wound-up rubber band called communism. The satellite photo at the top of this page is of the Korean peninsula at night, showing that the north is both literally and figuratively a nation in the dark.  Tomorrow at sea, headed to Beijing.