Visit the DMZ, Plus a Tragic Bus Ride

I visited the DMZ today.

The tour started at 7:00am and Josh lives an hour away :(

We started the tour by going to Camp Boniface, a US military camp just south of the DMZ. There, someone from the military briefed us on the history of the DMZ and the Joint Security Area, and on some of the rules and etiquette we must adhere to while visiting. We also signed a typo-ridden waver that gave up our right to blame the US or South Korean government if we were killed or injured.

We boarded a bus to the JSA. Along the way, we passed by signs and checkpoints, signaling our entrance to the DMZ. The South has a few lines of fortifications that were pointed out to us by our guide. Some minefields here, some tank barriers there--you know, the usual. Actually, it was really interesting looking for the tank barriers. I thought they were just big, strange bridges, but no: if tanks start rolling across, they'll blow the supports and the debris will block the road.

Once at the conference area of the JSA (it's the rows of UN-blue shacks where the South and North Korean soldiers glare at each other), we were led first to see the structures. We weren't allowed to take pictures towards the south (they don't want their cameras photographed), point (the North will photoshop it to look like we're flipping them off), or step off the platform (it might look like we're advancing or trying to defect).

Our guide told us that one of the grey structures belonging to the North was an exercise room, but usually the North Koreans just go inside and leer out the windows, flipping the bird, and drawing a finger across their necks. Thus, the Americans dub it "the Monkey House".

We then went inside of one of the conference rooms. Two ROK soldiers were stationed inside. Our guide told us not to touch or go behind them. They were positioned in a Taekwondo-ready stance. The main table in the room was right overtop of the military demarcation line. In other words, right. On. The. Border.

So I went to North Korea today and I returned safely!

After the conference room, we saw some more historical sights like the scene of the ax murder and the Bridge of No Return (site of a big POW release after the ceasefire). That bridge is really quite significant, but US President Bill Clinton traipsed across and back when he was here on a visit. Now the secret service won't let any president go there.

Next we went to Dorasan station, the last train station towards the North. You could buy a platform ticket and walk around on the tracks if you wished.

We then had lunch and went to the Third Tunnel of Aggression. It goes that Kim Il Sung told the people tunnels were 10x as effective as nuclear bombs, so they started secretly digging tunnels south across the DMZ. We visited the third one the South discovered. A defector had told the South about the general location of the tunnel, so the South impaled a bunch of PVC pipes in the ground in that area and filled them with water. When the North used dynamite to blast their tunnel, the pressure from the blast pushed the PVC pipes up a bit and the water drained into the tunnel.

Now, you can go inside the actual tunnel, but you have to walk down a reeeeeeally long, steep entrance tunnel to get there (and back out!!). It's really cramped inside the tunnel, and you can touch the walls to see the coal powder the North painted on the walls, claiming it was a coal mine that previously existed (it's not, the rock is all granite).

After the tour, we returned to Seoul and I met Josh in Itaewon for dinner. We had Indian food.

The next morning, I was taking the early bus back to Gwangju. I wasn't feeling good, but I figured it was because I ate foreign food and I was waking up so early.

I slept for 2 hours on the bus, and then I woke up, 90km from Gwangju. I REALLY wasn't feeling well now, but we had already stopped at the rest stop and weren't stopping again until Gwangju.

I had to sit on that bus. For. 90. Kilometres. That was the most desperate hour of my life! I had excruciating diarrhea and I knew I couldn't do anything about it for 90kms. I don't think I have ever prayed so hard in my life.

Finally, we arrived in Gwangju and I was able to help myself. I happen to run into another TaLK scholar I hadn't seen in a long time, but I leveled with him and he graciously gave me some space.

I didn't do anything else that day. Stupid food poisoning. :'(