DMZ visit 1

I've called this post 'DMZ visit 1' because I'm hoping that I will be returning in a few weeks to see the village of Panmunjom, and the Joint Security Area. However, on this trip we didn't go. There are many tours to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), and many different companies vying for your business. I went on the half-day tour with Neil Munro, and his friend Liz who is visiting from America. Liz is only here for a week, so we had to book on one of the tours that doesnt go to Panmunjom as the ones that did were all full. I won't go into detail about exactly what the DMZ is, instead I would suggest going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone for a description.

So, after a pretty early start (up at 5am!) and a subway ride into Seoul, we went and met Liz at her hotel and boarded our bus. We had an english speaking Korean guide called Laura, who was very good throughout. After a mini-tour of Seoul while we picked up more people at different hotels, we headed along down beside the Han river on our way up to the DMZ area. At this point I've got a wee map so you can an idea of where we went. We headed up to the area near the 3rd tunnel (I'll talk about that later). Seoul is about 50km from there.

Pretty much as soon as we had cleared the suburbs of Seoul I started noticing a big barb-wire fence and watch-towers along the side of the river. Laura explained that these were here because North Koreans sometimes try and swim down the river into South Korea (or walk in winter when the river is frozen over). here is a photo of the fence and guard tower on the way up to the DMZ.

Our first stop was the Imjingak park, where the "Freedom Bridge" is. This is a bridge that many prisoners of war used to return to the South when the Korean war "ended". It is estimated however that there are still around 10million people seperated from each other beacuse of the DMZ, and so North Koreans who live in the South come to this bridge to pray for their families in the north, as it is about as close as they can get to them. The military installations were visible on both sides of the river, and I took a photo of a watchtower that actually had two soldiers in it. The bridge in the background is a rail bridge for the railway that it is hoped will eventually link the North and South. Neil and I joked that we would tell everyone that that is North Korea on the other side of the bridge, but hey, I can't lie, it's not!

Now you will see from that photo that I wasn't supposed to take a photo there. In fact, our guide was very quick to tell us where we could and could not use our cameras. You knew it was OK if you heard her say "Enjoy taking pictures". I was a bad boy. Because I had a camera phone, I basically tried to take photos whenever I could, with varying results (please don't arrest me).

After leaving the park, we went through our first checkpoint where we were told our passports would be checked (but weren't....slightly disapointing) and acroos the "unification bridge" funded by the CEO of Hyundai, who has family in North Korea. He's a big fish in South Korea. We then piad a visit to Dorosan station, opened in 2002 by the legend that is George W Bush. It is a bizarre place, there is this brand new statin which is ready to be a hub for cross-border rail travel if it ever happens, but right now it is pretty much deserted, apart from tour groups. Right next to it was a motorway that goes through the DMZ to North Korea, but is only used by some South Koreans who 'commute' to North Korea to work in a factory there. Here a couple of photos of the station.

Maybe one day!

Nelly and a soldier.

Dubya at the station. A shame the train is not moving.

We then got back on the bus and headed up a steep hill (with minefields on either side of the road) to the Mt.Dora observatory, the closest point of in South Korea to North Korea. It was the highlight of my day. Although it was a bit hazy, there was a good view across the DMZ (we never actually went into the DMZ, the observatory was just outside the southern limit) to North Korea. I could see the massive North Korean flagpost and flag (biggest in the world) and the smaller South Korean one, the deserted motorway and railway line crossing the DMZ and numerous fences, watchtowers and soldiers patrolling. There were lots of soldiers at the observatory itself, mainly stopping people from taking pictures. I managed to take a couple, though they didn't come out very well.

The orange stripe in the foreground is the southern boundary of the DMZ, and was lined with watchtowers and fences. The land in the distance is North Korea. I found that pretty exciting.

The next stop on the tour was the "3rd tunnel of aggression". This was a tunnel that the North dug into the South in the hope that they could move troops through it, but it was discovered before they could put it into use. We watched a video on the DMZ that ended with some babble about the DMZ being a symbol of peace (what? it has the highest concentration of military hardware anywhere in the world) and then donned our hard hats and went underground. We had to walk down a 768m long access tunnel to get to the actual NK tunnel, here is a dodgy photo I shouldn't have taken.

The actual NK tunnel was very small (Nelly had a nightmare!) and we were able to walk about 250m up it to the boundary with the DMZ(the full tunnel is 1.7km long). The North Koreans had painted bits of the walls black in an attempt to make out that they were mining coal, but it didn't really work! The boundary of the tunnel at the DMZ was sealed off with a big concrete barrier and lots of barbed wire. Here is dodgiest photo I took on the whole trip, there were cameras everywhere! ahhh!

And here is Nelly in the actual tunnel.

After resurfacing we got back on the bus and headed back into Seoul, stopping off at an amethyst centre (apparantly Korean amethyst is very good) which was basically a hard-sell opportunity. So overall the tour was excellent, but I am keen to get into the DMZ and see the meeting area in Panmunjon. I don't think I'll be taking any photos there.

We went back to Liz's hotel and had a nap, and then took at taxi in the evening to Cheonggyecheon, a stream that flows right through the centre of Seoul. It's course used to be covered over and was a road I think, but the city government decided to get rid of the road and bring the stream back. A stroke of genuis in my opinion. It is lit up by great lighting and the water looked really clean. We bought a couple of beers and just sat on the side and played "I'm thinking of........" for ages. Here is a photo of the beginning of the stream, and a video.

After some dinner we went to a PC Bang and watched the Scotland game and then went out on the town to celebrate. I have spent today recovering, I think I'm going to have an early night, it's a school day tomorrow you know! I will hopefully be returning to the DMZ in a few weeks so I will update further when/if I return, haha.

Until then, much love as always, Neil.