DMZ - part 1

Last weekend Mike and I took a long weekend and went to visit Rob and Allison in South Korea. The first 2 days we spent in Seoul, since we'd never been there before. On the agenda was taking the DMZ tour, which was quite scary, but definitely worth it.

DMZ or Demilitarized Zone which divides N. and S. Korea is 4 miles long, with 2 miles on each side and Panmumjon in the 38th parallel, that divides the two. In the morning we did the 3rd tunnel tour, which is literally the 3rd tunnel S.K. found in 1978/79 that N.K. was digging to reach S.K. So first, we stopped to get on the special DMZ bus, where we were able to see the Freedom bridge and look into N.K, which was quite far. We finally boarded our special bus and off we went into the zone... We saw a video of the history, took some pictures in front of the DMZ letters and mines.

Yes that does say "mine" and yes its a warning because there is a mine there.


Next we went to the 3rd tunnel. We had to walk about 350 meters at a 15 degree incline and then another 280 meters in through the tunnel to reach the first blockade that was put up. We couldn't take any pictures and had to leave all bags in lockers. Very tight on security. However, as we walked through the tunnel, there were yellow markings along the wall indicating where N.K. had put dynamite to make the tunnel. The tunnel was really cool and I didn't have to bend over to walk through like Mike and everyone else did..tehehehe But the walk back up to the top was a killer.

After the tunnel, we headed to an area where you could actually take pictures of N.K., but only from this point and not over it. They were so strict about security and where you could take pictures. One guy in the tour took a picture facing the other way and had his camera taken away from him. What's even worse, it was a disposal camera, so all his pictures were gone. I had 2 questions for this guy: 1.)why aren't you following the rules and 2.) who uses disposables anymore?


Here is Mike with very little of N.K. behind him.


Next we headed to, the last stop or first stop that you can take to get into N.K. They use to use the train to allow S.K. to go visit, but not anymore.


They really like N.K. hence from the sign and we thought it was cool.


After this, it was time for lunch and then the second half of the tour. We had a very traditional Korean lunch with all kinds of sides. Beef hot pot, which was quite good.


Mike never looks happy when I take his picture, but the food was good.