BEST WISHES

 

l found a lot  of mistakes in my last email because i was printing at the airport with no light , faded letters on the keyboard and rushing to the plain, sorry,

 

after spending  more than 2 month in the asian part of the world i am going from NZ to Equador, look at the map or a globe     Auckland- Quito almost direct line  East, but because Delta's asian partner is Korean Air  i have to fly  12 hours north to Seoul ,than 13 hours  east to Atlanta, than  south to Miami, Bogota, Quito,  it took me 3 days and 2 nights -shlepping my heavy carry-on and heavy napsack- but since i do not have anybody to complain i am very calm, saying   -this is part of fun of traveling and getting from point A to point B and make the best out of situation , and i did by taking a very unusual and interesting tour of DMZ-demilitirized zone between North and South Korea or 38 parallel,

 

we drove on very good highways and roads, went through Seoul- very contemporary looking city of 12 million people-and in 1 hour came to DMZ, it was a very cold but sunny day-18F and snow was on the ground,

 

Koreans talk  about  2 countries with pain and sorrow, it is the only devided country on earth and DMZ is the most  heavily fortified border on earth for 50 years since the end of Korean war 1950-1953, the ideological war between kommunism and freedom as koreans said it,  there are few landmarks there:

 

DORA observatory- 4 story building which has 8 telescopes on the top and we were looking at North Korean village,small town and a statue of Kim Ir Seong, we saw a deviding line of 4 km-2 km on each side, no men stepped in for 50 years and that is why it is the world's only example of extraordinary ecological revival of flora and fauna- one good thing came out of DMZ,

 

we saw Freedom bridge named this way because 12 000  prisoners of war crossed it  returning from captivity in North Korea to freedom in South  Korea,

 

we saw Dorasan railway station and old lokomotive standing there as a symbol of  gateway  between North and South waiting for reunification, the most impressive was a walk through infiltration tunnel,  digged by North and discovered by chance, somebody defected from North and gave information, 30 000 armed military forces with artillery can go through this tunnel within 1 hour and it is only 30 km from Seoul,

 

there is a village, few very good  memorials  monuments, we saw actual jet and a tank ,documetal film and  exhibition and military personal talked to us,

 

there is a real hope for reunification soon,

 

i thought about my friends who were in Korean war,

 

i am very glad that i was able to see this historical place, one day it would disappear.

 

I am back to the Americas,

 

see you next year,

 

much love Inna