Along the main road in Incheon are these little plaques in the floor that teach you how to say "Yo" in many different languages and state what the capital of that country is. Seoul was my 29th capital city :)
There were also these little pieces of art too. I think the logo has something to do with the city of Seoul but not being able to read the writing below I can't confirm that.
I had tried learning the Hangul writing system prior to the trip but realised without knowing the underlying Korean it would be pointless. Japan borrows a lot of western words and has a writing system that caters for it; Korean doesn't. The writing system however is lovely and very well designed. It looks confusing to those of us familar with A B & C but once you get around the concepts, it quickly falls into place and you very quickly realise just how crap our western systems are.
The Hangul writing system is so straightforward that the country prides itself on having a 100% reading rate. Our tour guide had also told us that Indonesia have now adopted it for their country.
In the centre of Seoul is this large hill and atop it stands the main communication tower. Some of the Americans on our trip who'd arrived a couple of days ahead of us, went up it to get a good view of the city but found it too overcast to do so.
Soon after we arrived at the War Memorial and it wasn't obvious whether we were going to be allowed in. The road that this is situated on houses a number of Embassy type buildings each with their own armed guards, and the memorial site had some of their own too. But once we clocked some elderly people having a morning stroll on the other side of the gate, we made our way in, the guard not reacting at all to us doing so.
A large sculpture I think made to resemble a missile that has been split to symbolise the end of war.
The sculpture that surrounds the missile which beautifully captures the impact of war on both those involved with the fighting and those unable to do so.
Beyond that a massive hall, which I think contains much more on the history of Korean War. Unfortunately at 0630 in the morning when the three of us were walking around it, it wasn't open.
Is this a your's or is it a mine?
Another stunning sculpture that captures the plight.
As well as remembering WW2, the memorial also strongly remembers the more recent Korean war between the North and South started in June 1950 and officially hasn't ended although there's little fighting these days.
The West came to the aid of the South and China the North and between them over 2 million people were killed the majority on the North side.
The 2.5 mile no-mans land now between the two countries, referred to as the DMZ is a popular tourist attraction although I don't know why.
I couldn't visit it due the itinerary but also because if you visit it you can't give blood back in the UK. I guess because no one is responsible for that area.
For more on the Korean war you can click here
Beyond the statues lie a massive display of military vehicles, from tanks to trucks, planes to submarines and the rest of this page is going to be full of them. I had decided to come here based on seeing a few planes in Google Earth but only visiting it in person was the scale of it appreciated.
A parade square at the back of the complex. That speaker system in the top-left is actually a sonic weapon, the sort of thing that Leftfield use to play their dub and that the KLF used to kill sheep.
How is that dangerous exactly?
A very pretty ceremonial drum, I have no idea what its purpose was here in amongst all the military stuff.
TUO YAW is Korean for "exit" supposedly.
This is a sonic weapon. The sort of thing that the KLF use to kill sheep and Leftfield use to vibrate your bone structure.
A cool looking boat that is actually a submarine, either with that soft top!
Despite the humidity, the museum was pretty cool and I'd never seen such a huge display of military hardware in one place before. Having had our fill of big guns it was time to head back to the hotel for breakfast before heading out to the first park of the trip.
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