Plat de Résistance: Living Life on the Wild Side: DMZ

Living Life on the Wild Side: DMZ

Hi guys! so its been a while but school is now getting more serious so im not always able to blog immediately.

So last sunday, despite the emails from the International SOS, American Embassay and learning of the news that North Korea ended their peace treaty with South Korea. Some KUBA groups went to the DMZ.

For those of you who do not know what the DMZ is, the DMZ is the " De-Militarized zone." Ironically it is "militarized" and it is the dividing line between North and South Korea that runs along the Korean Peninsula that acts as the "buffer zone". It is probably the most intense in the world, when you think about it.

We all got on buses and went about two hours out of Seoul to the DMZ . On the bus ride the tour guide gave us some historical information about the DMZ. When we arrived lets just say i was definitely confused.

Our First Stop:

This was the first stop on the tour! It was probably the most bizarre also. The DMZ is being turned into a "tourist" area so this part was like an amusement park with rides, balloons, flying kites, food, souvenirs and this really creepy "happy music" it made me feel uneasy. It was also funny how they tried to mitigate the atmosphere of the DMZ by doing such things.

see the rides o_0

2nd Stop:

This was when we were actually entering the DMZ and before entering a soldier came in and looked at all of us lol

Here we got to go by this peak/ledge which overlooked North Korea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not really sure what was in that building but it was in front of the peak thing.

"End of Seperation, Beginnning of Unification"

There were telescopes to look over the peak but you couldnt take pictures beyond the yellow line that enclosed the area with the telescopes lol. So we had to ask someone on the other side of the line to take pictures.

I GOT A PICTURE WITH A SOLDIER!!!!!!!!!

one of the KUBA buddies tried to get everyone to try "korean cookie" which was really some fried/steamed, im not even sure, bug or worm! i couldn't get myself to do it.

3rd-Stop
The third stop was where the museum was. We watched a short video on the history of DMZ, and the tunnels within the DMZ that North Korea Built.

Then we went to the museum, which was connected to the theater.

model of the DMZ

While there Ruby and I practised reading hangul.

Then After we went to the Tunnels. The government made another tunnel near the one built by North Korea and tourists are able to walk in in and then at the end of that one you are able to walk in a part of the real tunnel. The real tunnel is so short so have to bend down and they also give you helmets. i unfortunately don't have any pictures in the tunnel because i didn't take my camera but i have to get some pictures from other people of us.

map of the tunnel

Last Stop

The last stop was to the Dorsan station. This a train station that is supposed to used to be for sending and delivering packages globally and has trains that would/could take you to Europe however, because of the divide between North and South Korea the train station cannot be used because it runs through both countries. The station is just there and part of the Tour, and its a really nice and modern station.