Inchon, South Korea

Tuesday March 18th and we are heading to Inchon.  In order to enter the port you must first go through a canal.  We think this is a security issue.  At any rate, we arrived a bit later than expected as it was very foggy in the morning and the pilot did not want us to enter the canal in that weather.  Somehow our Captain was able to talk the pilot into letting us go so in we went.  But we arrived late.  We were to gather for our tour at 7:30am but they were not ready for us until 9.  So we sat and waited for them to let us exchange our tour tickets for a bus number.  And we also had to take our passports with us.  Our tour today "DMZ and the 3rd Tunnel".  South Korea has found 4 tunnels that the North Korean's have been building to try and attack Seoul.  South Korea is not sure if there are more tunnels or not.

During the Korean War, Inchon was the site of the Battle of Inchon, when United States troops landed to relieve pressure on the Pusan Perimeter and to launch a United Nations offensive northward.  The city was also the site of a Japanese POW camp during WWII.

This is the canal we went in to get to the actual port.  They have two canals side by side.

As we drove out to the DMZ, all along the river are these guard huts.  And the river is surrounded by barbed wire.  You might be able to see the barbed wire at the bottom of the picture.  This was taken while riding on the bus.

You arrive at the park where your guide gets the tickets to enter the tunnel area.

At the park there is this monument.  I did not see this myself as I was waiting for Bob to come out of the rest room and I guess he passed me and I did not see him.  So I stood by the bus while he went ahead and took some pictures.

The people of South Korea still pray for peace.  It seems North Korea does not feel the same way.

This is known as Freedom Bridge.

This is the entrance to the tunnel area.  An armed guard came on the bus and checked all of our passports.  We were then allowed to enter the tunnel area.

Another view of the checkpoint.

In order to get into the tunnel, you can walk down or ride on the monorail.  The monorail riders wore blue hard hats.  And it is a good thing because as you walk in the tunnel, you need to bend over and all along you hear the heads being bumped on the ceiling.  I did walk about two thirds of the way but my back hurt from bending over so I returned to the monorail station to wait for the others.  If you walked down, you wore a yellow hard hat.

I wanted to get a picture of the two of us but Bob was busy taking pictures of other couples for them.  So I just went ahead and took Bob's picture.

This is Jim and Anne Louise.  They are from Henderson, NV and were on our Circle South America cruise although neither of us remember the other.

Outside the tunnel is this statue symbolizing the reuniting of the country.  Not sure that will ever happen.

When we got to the DMZ itself, this is the guard house.  You can take pictures but only from behind the yellow line.  Which means you cannot see anything.  And it was overcast so we have no good pictures to share with you.  And you could not take pictures in the tunnel.  You had to put you cameras and cell phones in lockers.

Back at the port, as we sailed away, we spotted these cars being ready to sent to USA.  We think they are Kia's.  But as far as you could see, cars, cars, and more cars.

They drive them onto this huge car carrier for transport.

And the we entered the canal and set sail for China.

We were meeting Bob and Marilyn for dinner with Jim and Anne Louise.  Ann Louise and Jim are getting off in Beijing.  So a good bye dinner at Prime 7 with them.  Bob and Marilyn tried to change it to a table for 8 at the last minute but could not.  So they left early to go to the show, which we have seen several times, and meet up with the other couple.   So that left the four of us at the table and we had a nice talk.

Then back to the suite and bed.  A good day.