On the Border at the DMZ

The last several weeks have been insanely busy and have flown by. December is already well on its way, not sure how that even happened.

Towards the end of November, I was able to make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea. Good thing we went when we did, because a few days later, the tension shot up between NK and SK and things are still not exactly stable.

I probably should have posted about the DMZ closer to when it happened because I can't remember many of the facts anymore. It was a very interesting trip, worth one trek, but not a second. After teaching on Friday night, we took the KTX fast train to Seoul and finally settled into a seedy love motel around 2:30am - wake up call 7:00am. After Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a bagel, we headed for our tour bus with a bunch of other foreigners.

The DMZ goes 2km into North Korea and 2km into South Korea and is supposedly the most heavily militarized border in the world. Our first stop was Imjingak and the Bridge of Freedom at the edge of the DMZ, 2km from the actual North Korean border. Close to 13,000 prisoners crossed the bridge to "freedom" in 1953. They also had part of an old train with more than 1,000 bullets that was derailed in the war. There were some good touristy photo opps there and a small amusement park that I thought was abandoned until I saw the "Super Viking" swinging across the sky.

Next, we went to the Third Tunnel - North Korea had dug many tunnels with the plan of secretly attacking Seoul at some point. We weren't allowed to take photos in the tunnel area, but we did have some great hard-hats that we were required to wear. We looked unfathomably awesome. Some parts of the tunnel got pretty low, and the foreigners tend to be taller than 5 feet tall. I could hardly contain my laughter when every 3 seconds, on beat like a metronome, hard-hats would clink on the tunnel ceiling followed by a slight groan. I enjoyed it.

This full day tour was a long one! Next, we went to an observation point of North Korea that we weren't allowed to take photos at once you stepped foot over this line. It made no sense whatsoever, but I did, however, break the rules.  I accidentally took a picture on the wrong side of the line of someone getting busted for taking a picture on the wrong side of the line. We also stopped at Dorasan station, which is the last train stop in South Korea. They built it hoping that it would open up some railways into North Korea, but that didn't work out.

Finally, we made it to the actual border of North and South Korea - Panmunjom, or sometimes known as JSA (Joint Security Area). At that point, the tour was led by the US Army. We were able to cross the actual border within a building that was being guarded by ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers. They just stood there with Ray-Ban-like aviator sunglasses on and did not move an inch, much like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.

It was a good trip, a long day and glad I did it once, but wouldn't sign up for it again. To keep things in the theme of "borders," we went to On The Border for dinner in Sincheon, near Hongdae - a good place to go out for a night in Seoul. Some of my other friends from Daegu had been in the area for The Flaming Lips show and we met up later on. The band turned up at the bar we were at, and I had a few words and a hand shake with the lead singer, Wayne Coyne. The rest of the night turned out to be one to remember forever. Thank you, Seoul. See you soon.

And for your ears: Lemon Jelly - "Spacewalk"


LEMON JELLY Spacewalk from Mario Cavalli on Vimeo.