Let me get straight into it. Today, finally, was our trip to the DMZ. If there was one location I was looking forward to the most before leaving for Korea, this would be it. Being the history buff that I am, this location was a high interest to me as soon as the idea was brought up during one of our four pre-departure meetings. Even though it is a tourist location, I wasn’t sure if we were actually going to be allowed to go there for Plus3. Thankfully, we did as it was an incredibly insightful experience.
Our day began very early as me and my roommate barely dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:45 in the morning. We had to leave for the bus by 6:10 so that we could get to the DMZ as early as possible (apparently tourists need to get there early in the morning to ensure they get a tour at a good time). The drive was only about an hour, but the time to set up the crossing into the main area did take quite a while.
While crossing over one of the bridges we had actual soldiers come into the bus as they had to verify our identities. Having my passport checked over by a military soldier instead of a TSA agent was a somewhat nerve wracking thing. Obviously I’m me, there’s nothing wrong with my documents, but there’s still always the thought that there might be. The moment passed quickly, however, and we were soon into the main tour.
I will skip most of my recollection of it here as it wasn’t too interesting but I will note the two most significant things we did. First we went to the “Third Tunnel” which was a secret underground tunnel the South Koreans found being dug by the North Koreans in 1978. The tunnel itself is open, and we were able to walk through it. However, because it was so far underground, we had to walk all the way down. Then, while down there we had to duck and wear safety helmets to ensure we didn’t hit our heads on the low rock ceiling. After all that, we had to make the walk all the way back up as well. Needless to say I was completely exhausted after that.
Second, we went to an observatory? Whatever it was, we could actually see North Korea from the top. It was so cool to see the empty town just sitting on the horizon. Most people might not know, but the towns we could see are just fronts. Nobody actually lives there, or if they do, it’s not as much as presented. It’s all a game. One that is still going on. Although, I will admit I was able to see a few farmers strolling along in the fields so that was neat. We had more plans for the night, but the weather today prevented anything else from going on.
Hopefully the weather is nicer tomorrow as we are going to a national park. Well, it’s late as I write this, so I’ll make my next update soon!