Thursday 17 September 2009

Up, Up and Away again

Notification came through today that we are booked to go back to South Korea. I have my itinerary. Now I have to organise myself. We are due to fly to Incheon Airport, South Korea on October 4th, and due back in Australia on November 24th.

The spelling of place names in South Korea is confusing - you can see the name Incheon, or Incheion - it is just a different spelling, and I've forgotten why now. Will have to look all that up again.

Koreans will spell a place one way, and when you can find it on a map you search for other spellings and lo and behold it pops up.

While I was in the doctor's surgery on Tuesday (getting the all-clear from the ENT man) I found a National Geographic with a graphic story about North Koreans escaping from their country via China, and then back to South Korea. Incredible story - and gives a bit more insight into the atrocious circumstances in North Korea.

One thing that puzzled me when I was in South Korea last time, was the apparent indifference to the conditions of North Koreans, and the indifference to the strange behaviour in the north - the food shortage, the lack of basic conditions experienced by all other communities (there is no mobile phone capabilities, and the locals cannot access the Internet),but it is the nuclear weaponry and testing that I found alarming and seemingly the locals had not concern about it.

In the National Geographic article it mentioned the apparent indifference to the situation in North Korea by the South Koreans. I don't know why that would be but it is quite interesting to see. On the one hand they seem to be a caring community - very Christian, and yet, they do not show any concern about the situation.

Interesting.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Heartbreaking stories from there. Some families have been split for 50 years before children saw their elderly parents again.

Well good luck and get prepared, Di. Should be an important trip for you; getting some more pics for yourself and more raw material for a future book/books.

Regards,

Peter