The Brice of traveling

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Brice Gaston
  • 8th Maintenance Squadron
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Through traveling while stationed in Korea, I have learned to expand my idea of the world beyond what I know in America.

The 8th Force Support Squadron here has a saying, "If you're bored, it's your own damn fault!" and I agree.

Get out! See the country! Korea makes it incredibly easy to travel, and the Community Activity Center (CAC) offers multiple tours every weekend. I'm not made of money, but travel is cheap and the tours are cost-effective and fun; there really is no excuse to not get off base and see different sights and really enjoy your time here.

Before I arrived here in May, I heard the whole peninsula is connected through a very extensive series of public transportation methods and routes.

I was not disappointed. It is very easy to get almost anywhere here. Even if some of the Koreans do not know English every well, they know city names. If you're at a travel station, they know how to efficiently get you to the right place.

I have learned to expand my idea of the world beyond what I know in America. The customs and courtesies here are guarded just as vigorously as we guard our own ideals, and I find them fascinating.

As a novice photographer, I'm still fascinated by the images that can be captured with a camera. Because I am a foreigner in a new country, I am taking pictures of people and places for my friends back home who can't experience the new places and cultures with me.

They are living vicariously through my travels, so many of the photos I take try to reflect how I am feeling at that moment.

Don't let the language barrier keep you from going farther or seeing more. Make friends with the Koreans and they can take you places CAC tours and sight-seeing websites can't. I have a few friends up in Seoul who have already shown me amazing things I would not have gotten to see otherwise.

I LOVE the food here! My friend in Seoul introduced me to a dish called mul naeng myun. It has quickly become my favorite food here in Korea. One day I had a huge hankering for the dish, so I went to the taxi stand and asked the driver to take me to the best place for some mul naeng myun.

He looked at me weird for a second, then laughed because he couldn't believe I was so certain about a Korean food. He said he has never had someone ask him to take them to food. He was so polite about it and even called ahead to set up my entire dinner for me at the restaurant, including drinks! It was definitely a unique experience.

Another interesting thing about Korea is all the roadside monuments built to their ancestors. They pay their respects to these burial sites. I found this fascinating. Some of them are ornately decorated, while others are very formal or basic, but they all look the same. It's interesting to see how they pay their respects to their ancestors.

My best two excursions so far

1) My first experience with the public transportation system was a weekend trip up to Seoul for the Lotus Lantern Festival. There is an express bus terminal in downtown Gunsan that operates the Honam line to City Center in downtown Seoul. It costs $15 to take a base taxi there and then 17,900 won ($15) for a one-way ticket. From the station, a town taxi back to base is only about 7,000 won ($6) to the front gate.

Because of its location, City Center is connected to the orange line on the Seoul Metro, and thus you're able to get everywhere in Seoul just from the express bus. The express bus leaves every 15 to 20 minutes, almost every single hour of every day. It makes it mighty convenient for those who don't want to wait for Wolf Pack Wheels.

I loved the experience because I was able to experience a very joyous occasion in another culture. The intricacy of some of the lanterns was amazing!

2) The next experience was a demilitarized zone (DMZ) tour through the CAC to Imjingak. The raw emotion of sadness there is almost overwhelming. Seeing all the ribbons with messages to loved ones is incredibly moving. There are also memorials all over the area to various individuals who aided in the Korean War. At the end of the tour, you go to the Joint Security Area, where you come face to face with North Koreans. You definitely have a heightened sense of tension at the border.

This stop was profoundly moving when you are able to see all the ribbons on the fences and know so many families were displaced as a result of the divide between the two Koreas.

Bottom line: Your tour in Korea can be very worthwhile - make the most of it!