War and Wine

[FLASHBACK]

Tuesday, March 3rd

I spent a couple of hours today in the Korean War Museum.  Since the visit to the DMZ, I've been a little obsessed with learning as much as possible about the Korean War.  I won't do my history-in-a-paragraph here, but check out Wikipedia if you're interested in the basics.  I thought one of the most interesting things was that the war could have been over in only one year (instead of three), but the higher-ups couldn't decide on an exact border - the orginal 38th parallel determined after WWII, or a border a few miles north of that.  The fighting moved north and south something like six times before an agreement could be reached in 1953.

Here's a few pics outside of the museum:

The Tower of Korean War:  "Symbolizing the images of a bronze sword and a tree of life.  The bronze sword represents the time-honored history of the warrior spirit.  The tree of life symbolizes the prosperity and peace of the Korean people."

Statues Defending the Fatherland:  "The statues represent 38 people from all walks of life who overcame the Korean War and depict the suffering and pain caused by the war while embodying the sublime spirit of sacrifice and dedication to the defence of the fatherland of past patriots."

The exhibits inside were pretty good, but the wax figures and dioramas got a little boring after a while.  One of the highlights was a room showing constant different footage of combat on 8 huge all at once.  It was mesmorizing.

Here's the charter of the United Nations if you've never read it:

And a teardrop of dogtags, representing the over 4 million casualties of the war in just over three years.

Later that evening, in desperate need of a drink, I was treated to some of the best sushi in Korea, and more importantly, was introduced to Plum wine.  I'm on a search for it here in Singapore.  Thanks to our hosts!