Hello all! It's been a while! After a crazy last week of March (tons of lesson plans and millions of monthly comments due), I have finally been able to find time to post about my DMZ trip!
Nyeasha and I signed up with an ex-pat travel agency, called Adventure Korea, to visit the DMZ (De-militarized zone). They plan all sort of trips to different parts of the country, as well as to other countries. There are other groups like Adventure Korea that you can take trips with, but we decided on this one through positive word of mouth.
Anyways! Saturday, we had to wake up wayyyy too early in the morning to get into Seoul on time. After picking up everyone, we headed out!
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| Our tour bus. |
As I should have suspected... people here aren't the best with communication (even though they are constantly on their phones or laptops) and we were surprised with bungee jumping FIRST thing in the morning rather than late afternoon (as was scheduled on the itinerary). That'll wake you up!
We get to the site and after minutes of being told how dangerous this was, don't jump with an ankle harness, blah blah blah... I decided that I WOULD jump... and with an ankle harness :)
Here are some pictures of the place and my jump:
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| The platform! |
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| Everyone watched from down here... |
Nyeasha's jump: If you don't feel like waiting... skip to 1:20 :)
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| The scenery was breathtaking! |
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| Too bad I was already having a hard time breathing from shear terror! |
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| My jump! The most exhilarating and terrifying thing I've ever done! I would do it again in a heartbeat though! Sure, I don't look the most graceful... but at least I didn't jump like this guy: |
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| The wrong way to jump by your ankles... |
ALSO: Here is my jump... kind of... Nyeasha accidently did not hit the record button :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sURbGCc4Z10&feature=youtube_gdata_player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sURbGCc4Z10&feature=youtube_gdata_player
After all that excitement... we made our way to the DMZ... ALSO, little did I know, N. Korea had declared a state of war THAT DAY! YOLO!
First stop: DMZ "Museum" and Hantangang River
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| With the Robin Hood of South Korea... |
The river was really beautiful! Sadly, my pictures do it no justice...
Then, it was off to the TUNNEL!
The tunnel was built by North Koreans in the attempt to sneak into the South. It was really long and we only walked a small segment of it. You had to duck the whole time and wear helmets to protect your head... my back and thighs really hurt afterwards!
Then it was off to the observatory!
A look into North Korea! It felt unreal peering into their land and seeing their army posts. Luckily, South Korea has many posts set up as well. We heard they keep moving theirs closer... uh oh! It was sad when we found out that North Korea cut down all the trees from their mountains along the border to be able to see and catch runaways... I found this talk from TED.com that I think everyone should watch! Its about a North Korean woman who managed to escape... it's an amazing story.
Next, Woljeong-ri Station! The sign says "The train wants to run". The Communist army took the front engine cars during the Korean War and only a part of the ruins of the passenger cars and freight cars remain to show the regrets of a divided nation.
Last part of the tour: The Labor Party Building
This building was the site of many executions held by the labor party. The victims were mostly political prisoners. Once the Korean War began, the South Korean Army attacked the building and took it over. Bones were found in the building and a trench was found behind the building full of human remains.
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| A pet goat we found at the Labor Party Building... he was super cute, but a little tooo playful... |
On the bus to our sleeping and dining quarters, we were told that we going to stay in a building, much like the labor party building (image how I felt after looking at it), but it turned out to be fairly nice place and it had heated floors!
That night we had amazing Korean food for dinner and a bonfire! Also, everyone took a trip to the convenient store in town and here is what that looked like...
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| Bonfire and alcohol... not the best combination... |
Next day...
After a WARM shower (yes!) and a delicious breakfast consisting of jelly toast, fried eggs, and orange juice (it's the little comforts that I get excited about...), we made TOFU.
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| Tofu Jjigae... really delicious!! |
Then, we had a chance to ride bikes around town! We definitely formed a bike gang...
After our little bike escapade... we went to the White Horse Monument. The Battle of White Horse held a series of battles to maintain control of the hilltop. During ten days, it changed possession 24 times. Around 18,000 troops died. People come here to pray for the souls of the lives lost. After the battle, the hill apparently looked like a threadbare "white horse"...
Post-it note story: Late the night before a group of us (not under the best influence) took a trip to the monument and everyone had to walk up one after another and put their names underneath the monument rocks. The next morning, we came back to see if they were still there... It was supposed to be a "scary" thing to do at night because so many soldiers died there. I didn't run into any "ghosts", but I did have a fascinating conversation about spirits with a Muslim guy in our group.
Before we headed back to Seoul, we had a bibimbap buffet lunch, rice wine, and tofu we had made that morning. Mmmhhhh...
