the DMZ (part 2)

We woke up early and left the Sauna for the DMZ tour. In our original plans we said we'd just get breakfast on the way at a coffee shop. When we woke up and walked out of the Sauna, Korean reality hit us and we totally forgot that Korea is dead asleep until at least 9am. This is quite annoying because the earliest you can go out to get coffee (or really anything) is 9! After we beat ourselves up for being so stupid, we plotted our next step...and that was when an anomaly happened. Out in the far distance I could see the lights on in some sort of shop. Upon closer inspection we realized it was a Tom N' Tom's, one of our new favorite coffee shops. Much to our surprise, T n' T's was open!!! So we started our day out right, with breakfast treats and a latte.

We arrive at the USO for our tour at 7am. They quickly got us onto a bus and informed us it'd take about an hour and a half to get up to the DMZ. Since neither of really slept well at the Sauna we used the drive for much needed naps.

Finally, after much anticipation we arrive at the DMZ. Along the way we have to go through many security check points, we got told to not take any pictures of certain things along the way, and then our first big stop was at conference row. Conference row is where you can really see a line on the ground and on one half there are South Korean soldiers and on the other there are N. Koreans. Straddling the two sides are blue meeting rooms (blue for the UN) where conferences can be held between the North and the South. We got to go in the main conference room and because it straddles the North and South we technically got to stand in North Korea. This is a picture of Tom "in N. Korea" standing by a ROK guard (Republic of Korea=south korea). They wear the shades to be intimidating. They remind me of the sunglasses my dad wore my entire life until he made a big sunglasses change a few years back.

On the tour they also took us to many check points to look out onto North Korea. Unfortunately the weather was really bad and because it was so foggy we couldn't see much (more on this in a future post). But we learned a lot of cool information and seeing conference row made the trip worth it.

Something we couldn't take a picture of was Tunnel 3. The North Koreans made many underground tunnels for infiltration purposes. The ROK's found out about it and they dug tunnels down to blockade the N.Koreans. We got to walk through Tunnel 3, one of the underground tunnels, and see what it was like. The tunnel was only 5 ft tall, so Tom and I were both hunched over for the trek through the tunnel.

Here are some things to note from our trip:

1. the DMZ is a real reminder that Korea is still at war. Although there is an Armistice, there is a serious tone at the DMZ that each side is prepared for war at any moment.

2. there is barbed wire and mine fields everywhere around the DMZ

3. there is an agreement between the north and south that only Military Police are allowed to carry weapons at the DMZ. As a result, every US soldier wears an MP arm badge even though they are not MP's because they all are mostly infantry soldiers.

4. there are ROK special forces near the DMZ that can suit up and arrive at the DMZ in less than 60 seconds.

5. north korea is creepy. this one is just my opinion.