Hanging out in North Korea and Seoul.

On Saturday I went to the DMZ and it was awesome.  The tour started out with a brief presentation to give the history of the DMZ and talk about how it is controlled now and how it is used.  The presentation was actually quite interesting and I learned a lot about how it was formed and what it all means.  Here are a few pictures of the slides:

After the presentation we got on a bus and went to headed up to the DMZ!  Our tour guide was Sgt. Jenkins, he was a really cool guy and did a great job explaining everything.  Once we got to the DMZ we went through the freedom house and right up to the border between North and South Korea.  The border is marked by concrete that is about 12 inches wide and 2 or 3 inches high and it runs throughout the border.  Once we got out there we were able to not only have a very clear view of North Korea, but we also saw a North Korean soldier who was watching our every move.  We had to be very mindful of our body language and hand gestures, if the North Korean soldiers would have misinterpreted something or felt as though we were threatening them they probably would have shot at us. seriously. 

North Korea, if you look closely you can see the soldier a little left of center in the photo.

The blue buildings are used for meetings, we got to go inside!  In the middle of those buildings is the border between North and South Korea, neither country has more of the building than the other...I think.

A blurry photo of the North Korean soldier.  If you look in the lower right hand corner of the window on the left you can see another pair of binoculars from a soldier who was watching us from inside the building. 

After seeing that we got to go inside the blue buildings, it was pretty cool!  I actually stood in North Korea for about 10-15 minutes, I also took a picture with one the South Korean soldiers.  They are not the friendliest of individuals, but then again they have a pretty serious task on their hands.  One man got too close to a soldier and he was stiff armed by the guy.  They are always standing in a ready position and I certainly would not mess with them, I am pretty sure they could tear your arm off with their pinky finger.  

Proof that I was north of the border!  The raised cement in the picture is the boundary that I was trying to describe earlier.

ROK soldier in ready position.  The guy in the polo is the one who got stiff armed.

Me, in North Korea, hanging out with my new soldier friend. 

After being led around there we hopped back on the bus and saw some other pretty significant areas in the DMZ.  We saw the bridge of no return and a monument that was erected in honor of officers who were killed by North Korean soldiers in the 70's (i think) while they were chopping down a tree.

Once we were finished there our tour continued on to a tunnel that North Korea dug, they claimed it was for mining but no one believed that.  Unfortunately I couldn't bring my camera with me but it was pretty cool.  We put on hard hats and went pretty far down to a very narrow tunnel with a very low ceiling, I hit my head several times while I was crouched down walking through the tunnel and some of the people I went with were much taller than me, I can only imagine how uncomfortable the walk was for them.  Once we reach the "end"(the tunnel continued into North Korea, but we obviously could not go that far) there was a steel door with a small rectangle cut into it so we could look in to North Korea.  It was just their end of the tunnel, but it was still neat.  To prevent people from going to North Korea or coming from North Korea there was about six feet in front of the door that was filled with barbed wire, that certainly enough of a deterrent for me. 

After the tunnel we went on to an observation deck where we could look into North Korea and actually see a village, it was pretty cool.  Again, unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures close up because it could pose a threat to South Korean security.  After that we had an opportunity to purchase some souvenirs, there was North Korean beer available and it is actually quite good.  One of my friend's informed me that it was because Kim Jong Il bought a brewery from Germany and now has it in North Korea making beer for him.  With that the tour concluded and we headed back to Seoul where we continued our day.

Once we returned to Seoul my friends and I went to a part of the city called Insadong.  Of the three different areas of Seoul that I have been to this one is by far my favorite, it has a very cool artsy vibe to it and has really neat shops all over!  There was also a really cool outdoor mall there that had garden throughout it and some really neat artwork.  All of these next photos are of Insadong and the mall.

When we were finished wandering around we headed back to Seosan and sampled some of our North Korean purchases.  It was a very long and full but very awesome day.

Living in Korea is getting better everyday, and I am truly very happy here.  The opportunities to travel are wonderful and so affordable, living in a new culture is such an amazing experience and is helping me to learn and grow in ways that I could never have imagined.  

This week is my vacation!  I was going to visit an Jeju, an island off the southern tip of Korea, but I think that now I may head back to Seoul for a day or two to explore Insadong more and check out the touristy parts and then maybe head to Busan, which is another large city in Korea. 

I'll be sure to update where this week takes me!