Ganghwado Style

I had been working in Seoul for less than a month when my parents came to visit. I hadn't had time to explore the city so I was overwhelmed by their demands. My father didn't want to eat anything Asian (the trick was to tire him until he was so hungry he would eat Korean food) and my mother's idea of travelling is going to the mall.
Seeing my distress, my mother took matters into her own hands.“Gangnam style” had just gone viral so she booked a family tour to Ganghwado, which sounded close enough. My mother read “island located in the Yellow sea with one of the highest dolmen concentrations in the world. It has been the location of punitive incursions by France, the US and Japan”. Little did we know it was on the North Korean border.
I should have suspected something was up when we were the only ones to show up for the group tour. The tour guide, a nicely dressed Korean lady, kept asking about all the other sites we must have visited before choosing this tour (in Korea and surrounding countries). She seemed to think we were a family of bored Europeans that had been everywhere and needed to spice up our family vacations.
We had barely left Seoul when tanks appeared on the road. They moved sluggishly giving the impression of being a caterpillar. My father’s face had lost all trace of color. The road went by the Han river which was fenced, every 50 yards there was a guard with a gun pointing north.
When we got to Ganghwado it was an anticlimax. My mother had expected to see a succession of Stonehenges but there were just stones following no particular order.
The Dolmen Museum was full of kids in school trips. My dad has a big nose, white hair and beard. The kids ran towards him shouting Father Christmas! They took out their phones, taking selfies with him. He felt like a celebrity. He was less happy when immediately after we went to lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant where we had to sit on the floor. My mother on the other hand, was very happy with the tour guide, she was amazed by how the lady could cut open a roasted chicken with two swift chopstick movements.
Our trip ended at the top of Ganghwado Island, at a colourful and secluded Buddhist temple. From there we could see a defense fort and the Yellow sea. It was at that moment when we understood why the island had received so many invasions. It was also the moment that set the tone for the rest of our trip. We were happy by the unexpected discovery and open to new adventures.