Jiri Dienstbier – former dissident and Czechoslovakia’s first foreign minister at the Joint Security Area (JSA). The Joint Security Area in Panmunjom is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where South and North Korean forces stand face-to-face.
As one of the most famous cherry blossom festival in Korea, the Jinhae Gunhang Festival at the Gyeongsang province draws more than one million tourists from home and abroad to Jinhae every year during the festival period.
My journey to the coldest populated area on Earth started in January. I left South Korea by boat to Vladivostok and then further by plane to the city of Yakutsk. There I had been already in the winter two years ago and my friend, well known blogger Bolot Bochkarev www.askyakutia.com, mobilised shortly before his friends and people he knew to realise a trip to the “Pole of Cold”. He really managed to find enough people to fill one UAZ (Russian off-road vehicle) and finally joined us in the last possible minute…the rest is already history. We left Yakutsk to the “Pole of Cold” during an early Sunday morning and I had no idea what was going to happen during the next 5 days…
Below you will find four chapters of the Journey to the “Pole of Cold” in Yakutia/Russia.
First part of the Journey to the “Pole of Cold” (January 2010) to Oymyakon and Tomtor in Yakutia/Russia.
Second part of the Journey to the “Pole of Cold” (January 2010) to Oymyakon and Tomtor in Yakutia/Russia.
Third part of the Journey to the “Pole of Cold” (January 2010) to Oymyakon and Tomtor in Yakutia/Russia.
Our final destination – “The Pole of Cold”
After almost three weeks in Russia and an excursion to the Pole
of Cold in Oymyakon and Tomtor/Yakutia leaving back home
with the ferry to South Korea.