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Published: June 10th 2012
JSA MH with guard on the border line
at the border conference table (does he look waxy to you?)today was the day that I got to go to the DMZ (I am sure that everyone knows that stands for De-Militarised Zone) which is the 2 km zone in both North and South Korea on either side of the MDL (military demarcation line). Supposedly you are supposed to book them three days or more ahead. Fortunately with the help of the guy at the hanok in Bukjong he did this for me with this particular company. Although most of them will collect from most hotels, this was not actually much use to me as at the time of booking I did not actually know where I was actually going to be. So the idea of waiting for the tour bus at a particular subway exit bus stop was certainly preferable to me. However I almost missed it as I did not wake up when the alleged alarm went off so had a bit of a scramble to get down there. And as the pick up time was 8:10 AM on a very busy piece of roadway near City Hall I do not think they would have been circling around again! Most of the people on the bus were actually just
Panmunjeon-JSA caps
tempting, but at $12 a pop I resisted doing the half day trip to the DMZ, which was 47,000 Kr won (about 40$) whereas I paid 135,000 (about 115$). I did wonder about the extra cost as it really only included three extra hours and of course a lunch. Anyway we drove out of Seoul relatively quickly once we got on to the freeway and we were at Inmingjak in about an hour. This is a point where you can actually look over to North Korea although as you will see the haze was pretty bad. Then we went to the Third Infiltration Tunnel - the North kept on diggin' em. You are not allowed to take photographs there but it would be a bit of a challenge anyway. You put on yellow helmets and then walk or are propelled down by gravity a fairly long 1 in 11 steep grade tunnel down to the actual area where the tunnel was found. Unfortunately you then have to walk out the same way and it is about 500 m or so and you are about 75 m under ground level at the bottom.
From there we went to Dorasan railway station which was optimistically built when it looked
like they would be running trains across the border between North and South. Relations chilled of course and this never happened. Most of the other people on the shuttle bus then left as there were only three or four of us who were continuing on to the JSA/Panmunjeom. It was over the bulgogi lunch that I met young American Uday (Indian by extraction so we buddied up for the rest of the day and effectively the rest of his stay in Korea (he went to Japan on 10 June). After a long briefing about dos and don'ts in the Joint Security Area (JSA) - "no scoffing!" we transferred to the military bus and escort to Camp Bonifas and then to the actual JSA/Panmunjeom area which is where the two sides meet for conferences and so on right on the actual border. Having seen a number of mannequin type soldiers, I was really surprised that the "real thing" in the actual conference room right on the border, where you can actually walk over into North Korea, really did look like waxy mortician's dummies! And those clenched fists (they are all selected on the basis of their ability at the martial art
of tae kwon do). Managed to avoid the tempting prospect of a JSA cap but as they were about $12 decided to let it go.
Bus back to downtown Seoul and I suggested to Uday that we might adjourn for a refreshing ale or two. This ended up by finding the totally excellent Myeondong Gyoza restaurant which I had been unable to find the previous night. Uday even went back there the next day as well as the gyoza (steamed in this case) were seriously excellent .
I did not mention in my earlier blog, which ended up with me eating in the Myeondong area, that I'd put my bag and camera down on a ledge , then went off to get something to eat at a restaurant very close by upstairs . However when I went to leave, although I had my backpack I did not have my camera . Ran back to where I decided I must have left it on the ledge 45 minutes previously. There were some stalls in the street selling the usual "designer gear " etc and with the assistance of a local he asked the stall holder directly in front of
N Korean wine
grapes or glycol?? where I had left it . She then produced the camera inside a plastic bag which she had stored under her stall. Now admittedly not likely every Korean is as honest as this, and it would probably likely also happen in Japan (where criminals hand themselves in to the police). But the thought of losing 1200 photographs (forget the camera, that can be replaced) had me more than a little vexed!
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Huddo
non-member comment
Hi Mike, Nearly dropped my glasses reading the last piece about you camera being left behind! That must have caused some serious anxiety! So great to hear the lady stall holder had it for you. Great story about the DMZ, that was some walk with the tunnel, and the snap with the bridge to North Korea and all that barbed wire, told a story in itself in the country. Good you found a friend in Uday, and a couple of "sherberts" Great photo's as usual, the guards on duty was good. Huddo.