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Published: July 17th 2008
We signed up for a tour to see the DeMilitarized Zone and all the areas around it. Even though I felt fairly knowledgeable about the history before going, I obviously have a lot to learn. I thought it was going to be a station with a big fence. But it was so much more!
We got into our tour bus in front of the Lotte Hotel and napped as we took the hour-long ride to the DMZ. When we woke up, our tour guide told us we couldn't take many pictures (those North Koreans sure are shy...). The first thing that struck me was how green and pretty the DMZ is. I actually read before that this stretch of untouched land has become somewhat of a wildlife preserve because no one has touched it for 50-something years!
Our first stop was at the "Unification Bridge" (ha) to get our bus checked by soldiers. Intense. Then we went to the 3rd Tunnel Viewing area. The story behind this is crazy, and I had no clue! In the 70s, a North Korean defector told South Korea that the north had built a series of tunnels made to invade the south. Lo
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Outside the 3rd Tunnel!and behold, when South Korea began drilling to find these tunnels they found 4. We got to go into a section of the biggest tunnels, the 3rd one. It was made to bring 30,000 soldiers over in an hour! We went into this station and were introduced to the bugs of Korea. A millipede on the wall, horseflies--now I know why they're called horseflies, because they are SO big they have to gallop on their legs aldskfjk--and giant flying water bugs.
Then we put on our hardhats and went on a slow moving tram (felt like Indiana Jones minus the speed and giant snakes) down to the tunnel. It got pretty cold and damp. When we finally got down and started walking, we realized how small the tunnels were. I spent most of the walk bent over to avoid hitting my head. We walked until we hit a South Korean barrier, since without it we would be traversing into Kim Jung-Il's territory. On the way back I took a rock as a souvenir hehe. OH and the North Koreans but coal dust on insides of the tunnel as they left, and tried to play it off as a coal
mine. Except there's no coal there or in the area. lolz
After that we went to the Dorasan Observatory, where we could take a gander at North Korea! It looked like Jurassic Park. Like a T-Rex was gonna pop out and holla at us. We weren't technically allowed to take pictures past the yellow line...technically. So the shady shot was taken for you at the risk of life and limb. We looked into the binoculars and saw these nice little villages, except I think they were fake. No one was in them. They were apparently made for propoganda. I also saw a giant statue in the distance of some leader, maybe Kim Jung-Il himself? The fact that we couldn't go into North Korea but still see it was pretty trippy. O yes, and about 4 days before a South Korean housewife in a North Korean resort area (highly-monitored tourist attraction) was shot and killed for leaving the resort area. It was pretty scary, but tours and life at the DMZ--if you can call it life--continued on as normal.
After that station we headed to the Dorasan Station with the railway between North and South Korea. When did all
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Where we're allowed to take pictures. this interterritory cooperation happen?! Granted, money and connections are required to get across the border. But a gaggle of North Korean tourists poured in from the train when we got there, which was a cool thing to watch. I really do hope that things get better, and families get reunited. The stories of families separated for 50 years and then being allowed to reunite once a year for the Moon Festival is devastating. Maybe in our time things will change, eh?
You gotta come to the DMZ once in your life. Feel the pit of fear and instability for several hours that people living near the DMZ feel daily. It's an experience you're probably not used to, and won't forget.
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