border – rene bauer photography

South Korea: at the border to North Korea

It was bit hazy, so not ideal for making photos. There was many photo restrictions anyway due the security regulations.

When we enters the DMZ (demilitarized zone) our passports has to be shown, then crossed the bridge to the no-man-land. Not far after, there was the border post to North Korea. The bus passed it very slowly, even stopped for a few seconds, while our tour guide was requesting us to make quickly a pictures since it was actually not to allow to stop here.

We reached a viewpoint and looked over to the border of North Korea. The two nearest border towns on each side put a huge flag post in competition to have the taller one.

There’s also tunnels dug by the North Koreans in order to attack South Korea. The famous Third Tunnel was discovered by South Korea and now open for visit by tourist. An access tunnel leads down to the original tunnel and follows it until 170 meters distance to the actual border. Our guide joked, the South Korean eventually must be happy about it, since the North Korean did all the labour but South Korea makes now money with it.

Mai 26, 2024Mai 26, 2024 by Rene Bauer Categories: Asia, portrait, reportage, SouthKorea, travelTags: Asia, border, borderpost, dmz, fareast, korea, northkorea, renebauerphotography, reportage, sightseeing, SouthKorea, Travel, warzone Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

South Korea: Day Trip Up North #DMZ

A „must see“ when in South Korea is the DMZ, the demilitarized zone on the border with North Korea.

On the way there was a stop at the Majang Reservoir Suspension Bridge. Just enough time for a nice stroll in the cool, fresh air of the morning.

Just before the DMZ is a place called Imjingak. A touristic place for foreign and domestic tourists alike. It tells the story of a border town, which supposed to be not. And it also has carry still some hope, that the unused railway tracks and bridge are connecting the people of north and south one day again.

(stay tuned for the next post, inside the DMZ)

Mai 22, 2024Mai 21, 2024 by Rene Bauer Categories: Asia, culture, landscape, reportage, roadtrip, SouthKorea, travelTags: Asia, border, bridge, dmz, history, imjingak, korea, landscape, majang, nature, northkorea, people, renebauerphotography, reportage, SouthKorea, suspensionbridge, Travel Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Palestine – Jordan River, where Jesus got baptized, maybe.

A big crowd was gathered at the small, brown muddy river. It’s supposed to be the place, where Jesus got baptized in the Jordan river. These groups of believers obviously want follow their religion idol by get also blessed in that dirty water.

There’s a singing, praying and even screaming all over the crowd. A few standing in the water, all in white clothes, and holding the believers. Some seemed to hesitate, but loud prayers demanding to the supposing daemons to leave. Then, in a quick move, the priest dived the believer backwards into the river. A guy with a horn blows a deep tone to announce the new baptized, while the crowd was cheering and the singing is swelling in excitement.

The Jordan river is the border to the state of Jordan too. At the other side there’s also a small access to the river. The wooden platform is smaller and much less crowded. The few tourists from Jordan side was watching and filming the event. In between, there was a lonely guy, a bit off the crowd dipping himself into the river. When he reappeared he looked around, seemed to be almost a bit lost.

März 24, 2023März 24, 2023 by Rene Bauer Categories: culture, history, HOPE, humansofplanetearth, landscape, nature, portrait, reportage, tradition, travel, UncategorizedTags: baptism, baptized, believers, bible, biblestory, border, crowd, history, jesus, jordan, jordanriver, middleeast, palestine, priest, renebauerphotography, river, Travel Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Israel – The Golan Heights

Actually belongs the Golan Heights still to Syria. Since the occupation from Israel in the „Six-Day War“ it was never recognized internationally as part of Israel. But due its strategically importance, the latter never gave it back.

Despite the politically situation, the Golan Heights are known for its beautiful landscape and wonderful views.

Frankly, i’ve been too curious for both reasons. How it looks there, and is any tension to feel or to see when i travel there.

I started very early in the morning from the coast and headed straight to a point, which was marked in my map as memorial and picnic spot in the heights. An old tank was displayed there and some boards telling the stories of the battle in the ‚Six-Dax War‘.

I was honestly disappointed from the view there. Not only was it bit hazy, but also couldn’t see really far.

There was another mark on the map. Merom Golan, it says, was also a picnic spot or so. As i arrived there another ten minutes driving, it turned out as holiday resort. I turned my car at the security gate. Just few hundreds meters back heads a steep, winding road to the top of Mt. Bental with a wonderful lookout westwards over rolling hills of Golan.

On the very top, the view opens to south and east. A big, green valley lies in front, with a few wind mills and small lakes. At the horizon raises big, snowcapped mountains. Mount Hermon, as i found out, is 2’814m asl and already at Libanon – Syria border.

The peak of of Mt Bental is full of old bunkers, ditches and combat positions. It’s nowadays an open air museum, but no doubt, they would put it back into operation and reinforce it, whenever the situation get tense again.

I decided to travel along the ‚buffer zone‘ to the Gamla nature park and have a short hike there. But on my way i got stopped by some military road block, who asked me to turn around, since that road is temporarily closed. As if to underline the soldiers words, a big bang from artillery echoes trough the air. They’re on a training or maneuver, always ready to strike again.

On my way back i saw big trucks parking, ready to take tanks to move them from one spot to another. I rather took a look back to the beautifully and peacefully mountains on the other side.