After the DMZ experience, we decided to do something a little more safe,
so we traveled to the top of Seoul Tower. :) At 480 meters, it's the
tallest structure in
Asia. It made Steve & Betsy woozy (they could swear that they felt the
tower swaying in the wind -- safe indeed!), so we only stayed long enough
to see the sunset over Seoul.
From this vantage point, I could see how
Western this town really was. There were a huge array of skyscrapers,
billboards, and a thick layer of smog floating over the city. It was odd
to think, from that view, that there were tiny little area amongst those
huge office buildings that reveled in ancient Korean culture... I had to
think that it was essentially two cities, battling each other. A lot of
Koreans have embraced the Westernization of Seoul, but there are many who
are perfectly happy to continue to eat their boiled silkworm larvae from
the many food carts on the street and never set foot into Kentucky Fried
Chicken.
old meets new at Seoul Tower
We also went on a boat tour down the Han river that night, just to round
out the touristy day. It was very pretty and very cold. The Han runs
right through the center of Seoul, so we got a nice look at the city at
night. (At night, it definitely looks like a metropolis, what with all
the lights and neon.) The boat took us past the now-infamous bridge that
collapsed into the river last fall. The city was using de-icers on the
bridge that weakened the structure, and the middle section fell into the
water, killing about 20 people. They have left the hunk of bridge where
it landed, sticking out of the water, as a memorial to those who died.
It was eerie, passing it on the boat at night. There's still a
streetlight that survived the fall, standing upright on the fallen
pavement, and sticking up out of the water...
