Today, Plus3 Korea lived up to its name as we visited the Korean DMZ (demilitarized zone) and saw the other half of Korea first-hand.
The funny thing about a post on the DMZ is that you can’t really take pictures in the DMZ, though. That said, we started off by bussing out to the DMZ checkpoint where we were taken onto an official DMZ tour bus for the rest of the experience. On our way to the first stop, we were able to see many South Korea military base camps, showing the intense tension that’s still present at the countries’ borders. As we pulled into our first stop, we disembarked from the bus to explore the third tunnel through which North Korea attempted to raid the south through during the Korean War’s peak. It was honestly a very cool experience as we walked all the way down to the tunnels with hard hats on and began working our way to the subterranean wall marking the border between South Korea and North Korea. As we reached the end of the tunnels, we were met with that concrete wall, resolute in its stance, with only a small window providing a glimpse into North Korea. Turning back, we went back through the tunnel, finding our way to a small theater where a brief history of the DMZ and the war that created it was shown. When the film finished, the rear wall lifted up, revealing a miniature museum, complete with models of the DMZ, showing its layout in detail.
Rushing back to the bus so it wouldn’t leave us all behind, we moved onto the next station where we were met with an observatory overlooking North Korea. It was honestly such an interesting experience to see the difference between the modernized South Korea and the glimpses of North Korea that I got through Dom’s binoculars. The contrast between societies was striking and showed just how greatly the two societies diverged in the aftermath of the Korean War. Oh yeah, and Ken Jennings was there. I didn’t say hi out of respect, but I can now say with pride I was, in fact, in the same room as the man who hosts Jeopardy!
After some more sightseeing in the DMZ, we made out for our last event of the day: the baseball game.
I was not disappointed.
In my pre-departure post, I said that I was curious what a baseball game would be like in Korea, and my curiosity was thoroughly sated. Every single moment, something is going on. Every time a new player is at bat, the entire crowd would cheer a chant for them. Every time there was a strike or ball, another chant would begin. If your team was on the offense (in our case, the KT Wiz), there wasn’t a moment’s reprieve. You were singing, shouting, dancing, or all of the above! The energy was unparalleled, and I think the only other time I’ve seen such a lively crowd was at the single FC Barcelona game I went to years ago. In truth, I don’t think I could even compare it to American sports—it’s just apples to calculators. It’s so different in energy, there just isn’t even a reference point. That said, I’d take a Korean baseball game over anything in America any day of the week. There just isn’t any beating that fire and drive.
