Started the day with another solid hotel breakfast before heading out to our main stop: the DMZ. The Demilitarized Zone is the heavily guarded border separating North and South Korea, established after the Korean War armistice in 1953. Ironically, while it’s called “demilitarized,” it’s actually one of the most militarized places in the world. I was really looking forward to visiting—it’s not every day you get that close to North Korea.

Before starting the tour, we stopped for an early lunch near the DMZ and had army stew—a traditional Korean dish originally made by soldiers. It’s a mix of spam, hot dogs, sausage, cheese, broth, and veggies. Not gonna lie… this one wasn’t really for me. Between just having breakfast and the ingredients being a bit heavy, I didn’t have much of an appetite.

The first part of the tour took us to the Third Infiltration Tunnel, which was one of the coolest parts of the day. It’s a secret tunnel that North Korea dug in the 70s to try and sneak troops into South Korea. It runs about 1.6 kilometers and was discovered in 1978. We got to walk part of it—hard hats and all—and it was wild to be inside something with that kind of historical significance.

After the tunnel, we visited an observation building that overlooks North Korean territory. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate—it was foggy, so we couldn’t actually see into North Korea. Kind of a bummer, since that was supposed to be the big finale of the tour.

But the day definitely picked back up when we headed to a KBL baseball game later on. We watched the Hyundai Lions vs. Kiwoom Heroes, and it was so much fun seeing Korea’s take on professional sports. The game was intense—it even went into extra innings—and the energy in the stadium was awesome. We also had Korean fried chicken, which totally blew American fried chicken out of the water.

All in all, another awesome day—bit of a history lesson in the morning and some good old-fashioned fun at night. Can’t believe we’re in the final stretch of the trip!

BarberB01

BarberB02

BarberB03