A few weeks ago some friends and I decided to check out the DMZ here in Korea. If your unfamiliar, its the area that divides North and South Korea. They are still very unfriendly with each other and the North always tries to upset the South. They are in a state of cold war similar to US-Russia back in the day. So with that said I decided to head to an area where soldiers on opposing sides are literally feet from each other, sounds smart I know.
Anyway, John, Joe, Rachel's sister, her sisters bf and I all headed to Seoul on a Friday to stay overnight, or we would have to wake up super early because the tour started very early the next morning. The best and cheapest place for us to stay was a jimjilbong. Unfortunately, they are awful to sleep in. A jimjilbong is another one of those things that is very difficult to explain. But I will anyway. Picture a basketball court covered with people sleeping all around and the temperature waaaaaaaay too hot. They do have little mats that you can use for sleep, Im guessing there an inch thick, maybe. Probably less than that actually. And then of course the pillows. How could I forget about the wonderful pillows. Picture a brick...thats it, its basically a brick, slightly softer but not by much. Koreans seem to love staying at jimjilbongs, I, however, hate them.
Regardless, we woke up the next day around 6ish or so to head to the meeting place for our tour. It was run by the USO so the tour would be in English, which is nice. The tour took about 7 hrs, and I thought it was really interesting, but somewhat anti-climatic. The first thing we did right away was go to the actual meeting room where the North and South meet to discuss stuff. Which means I could walk into 'North Korea.' Technically the area we were was considered North Korea, so that was pretty cool to be there. We did see some North Korean troops and our tour guide told us that the North always have someone about 300 feet away just watching the South and the tour groups. Goin into the actual DMZ and stepping foot in North Korea was by far the coolest part of the trip. Which is why i say the trip was anti-climatic. Not bad just anti-climatic.
After goin into the actual DMZ we then went to a few other places that are significant. We visited a tunnel which the North had dug into South Korea. Apparently 4 of these such tunnels have been dug into the South. It really wasnt that exciting and the tunnel was built for short Koreans. AKA I was waaaaaaaaaaay too tall for it. It was more uncomfortable to be in it than anything. But still cool.
The next thing was we went to an observation point that is just outside the DMZ. From there we could see the meeting area where we had been earlier that day. Also there are 2 villages that are actually inside the DMZ. There is a North Korean village and a South Korean village. The South Korean village actually has people who live there, while the North Korean village was built to look like it is a big nice city, but really no one lives there. When the villages were first built each country put a large flag pole in them. Eventually this turned into a contest between the 2 countries. The North finally 'won' this contest, because the South stopped building bigger flags/flagpoles. The North's flag pole is 525 ft high and the flag weighs 595 lbs. Sounds like they are compensating for something if ya ask me. Anyway, we could see both villages and the meeting area from earlier.
Overall, I think the trip to the DMZ was highly interesting and entertaining. Its crazy to think that the 2 countries are still at war, and goin to the DMZ helped to show that. Will the 2 countries ever unite? Who knows but all i know is the DMZ was really cool to check out. And if anybody comes to visit me ill make sure to take you there.
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