On Her Majesty's First Class Service
Willard & Friends are back on the road again in his first trip on BA (in First Class, naturally) traveling to Seoul in South Korea
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Date: 21/03/13
Owner: Willard
Size: 204 items
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This is the tourist photo everyone comes here to take.... (tourist photo of a war zone, what am I saying?) This is the view from the steps of the South Korean Freedom House, of the various huts that straddle the MDL (Millitary Demarcation Line - the middle of the DMZ, the actual North/South Border) blue for UN buildings, grey for KPA, and beyond, the geographically close but totally inaccessible (from this side) Panmungak, the main North Korean building, on the site where the original armistice was signed, and the counterpart of Freedom House on the Northern Side (and indeed, where we would be standing if we had entered as tourists from the Northern side, instead of the Southern side). We're being watched by our US/UN guide, to make sure we don't do anything that may be interpreted as hostile by the cameras attached to Panmungak, or, indeed, anything that might look embarassing on the front page of a North Korean newspaper tommorow morning...
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Back on the bus (and I'm back in shot again!) we turn around and get a 'photo opportunity of the MDL compound, just to prove I was really here...
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Tensions are sufficiently high that the normal stop to get out and photograph Checkpoint 3 and the Bridge of No Return is reduced to a 2 minute stop of the Bus, but nethertheless, here we are, at "The Loneliest Outpost in the World"....
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Yay! We can take photos again! (Sort of, as long as we only face this way...) Mixed feelings about one of the last vestiges of the Cold War being reduced to something akin to a Disneyland Ride (but, to be clear, if the animatronics at "Pirates of the Carribean" start carrying real guns and live ammo, and there is any chance that they might start carrying off tourists, I'm switching to Legoland) with a gift shop, even! It is nethertheless a sobering place, and gives a feeling for the tension in the area....
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Our tour guide was happy (if a little bemused) to be photographed with me - being an overgrown nurse-maid to tourists is unlikely to be quite what he expected from his posting here, but he did a great job, and showed a sense of humour, which is probably the best weapon to deploy in this environment.
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...and as our Tour Guide said after reaching Seoul "you can now take photos any time you want, stand up, point at anything, and don't need to walk in twos anywhere if you don't want to", so let's return to more typical Willard fare - let me give you a quick guided tour of our room here at the Millenium Hilton - Bathroom is compact but functional....
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Comfortable bed, enough space for two humans and a Bear (and what more could you really want?) and typical Hilton decor.
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...and a nice LG LCD TV, with accessible VGA and HDMI inputs, so I can lie back and watch my favourite shows from my media player.
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After the tensions of the Cold War yesterday, a lazy day is called for, so I'm ready for a dip in the hot tub!
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Motion sensors detect my presence and the jets of the Whirlpool system come on, ready to massage away aches and pains - if only I was Tumble-dry.......
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