2024 South Korea Trip Day 02: DMZ

Waking up before 6 was mandatory today as we were going on a trip to the DMZ, someone from the travel agency will contact you the night before and if there are changes to your itinerary, they will inform you. We had /to forego our free breakfast at the hotel as we need to be at the meeting place early on (luckily the meeting place was just across the street from our hotel). We bought some sandwiches and coffee to fill us up for the day ahead. 

The only gripe is that convenience store in Korea is that there are full of snacks, chips, coffee , beer, but in terms of sandwiches, not so much (although it might be that I bought during the time that they haven't refilled the shelves , just my luck!)  

Why did I want to go? 

in the early 2000s when there was a Korean boom and Korean travel was starting to pick up. People were offering DMZ tours (to even go as close as the JSA area, you know the place where US and N Korea officials met for the first time). and I was amazed that you can go as close to N Korea. I wanted to go back then and I kinda regret not going there on my first trip to Korea. Had I known then what would have happened in the future (that incident with the US soldier defecting to N Korea while on a tour), i would not have hesitated and just book a tour!   

Start of tour

Register first with the tour guide waiting in front of the hotel (exit 9, MD station) and then she will direct you to the assigned bus (free seating, by the time we reach, we were already one of the last people).  

Because of the military schedule,  you can only go there at a specific timing.  They only open to buy tickets at 9AM (but you should already be at the place to get the tickets). A lot of tour buses are also scrambling to get a good timing so we need to leave the soonest out of MD (before rush hr traffic as well). It was around 1h+ ride. According to the guide, you will only know about your schedule for the day after buying your tickets (places, timing will change accordingly).  As it is a requisite when buying the ticket, the tour guide will collect your passports. She will also give you a sign up sheet to write details of your FULL Name, birthday and nationality  (for the military personnel to compare).  

But first things first, while the tour guide is busy buying tickets, we were able to walk around Imjingak Park and Tourist Information Center. This is the only stop where you can have your breakfast, and toilet break. We were there for about a good hour. 

and basically you have about 1hr to roam around the park (and there will be plenty of time to go to the bridge and back, entry fee applies) or to go on a gondola ride,  Imjingak peace gondola(we didn't opt for this one since you can't really see anything)

This is also longest break you can get aside from lunch time. This is where we will wait while the guides will get the tickets to go to DMZ. 

Inside the  Imjingak Peace Park 

 

  from which you can find Imjingak peace gondola, Freedom Bridge

                          

the Mangbaedan altar , an altar for  North Korean ancestors.

Gyeongui line Steam locomotive at Jangdan station (the last train at the final stop) and the Dorasan station 

Other places you can visit at the Imjingak Park 

Tip: You can also buy your DMZ exclusive souvenirs here (before you go to the 3rd tunnel). 

After that it was off to the 3rd tunnel, because you are entering a military zone, a soldier will check your passport (by this time, the passport will be in your possession).  

Once tickets bought and everyone back to the bus, we were directed to go to see :  the third tunnel. But before that , we went to DMZ theatre.  Basically, you will be asked to go and sit for a well, video made in 2000s ( when they were optimistic that the 2 koreas will unite ,we now know that is just a pipe dream).  and of course there was the museum tour before going to the 3d tunnel .  

Once you are at the 3rd tunnel, there are no pictures allowed and most your belongings will be kept in a locker (only bottle, and jacket and keys to your locker are permitted. you can bring out a mini wallet, just in case). You will also be given a hard hat before you enter.  The whole stretch will just be around 30mins (or less) depending on your stamina (because the road is really steep @ 11 degree angle for about 358m in). 

this is roughly how the third tunnel was dug (and there are many more of these tunnels around Seoul) 

How the third tunnel looks like (after climbing and walking the whole stretch of the tunnel). I remember i saw something like a light, some fauna growing and maybe a table. 

These are also some of the things you can find outside the museum/tunnel. 

Tip: Do buy your Paju chocolates and souvenirs from the museum shop. ( We kinda skip it because we did not have enough time, we wanted to take more pictures outside too).

Then it was off to Dora Observatory, the place where you can really see North Korea (on a good day). I did see a flag pole of the north korea (they say they build a fake city with people residing .. ) 

Somewhere out there is  North Korean town Kijong-dong. It was slightly cloudy but you can see the silhouette of a flagpole. 

around Dora Observatory

For those who are worried if DMZ is near to North Korea (you are still miles away from the actual border). If NK decides to launch a missile that day , i think the tour will be cancelled. (So it's definitely safety first) 

After that, we had our lunch  at the unification village (it was a full day that we have to reserve our energy for the next pitstop) 

Our lunch was at Dmz jangdan kong cafe, ₩13,000 (best decision to eat here! Buffet lunch prepared by ahjummas, so you can be sure that the food is authentic and taste good) at the Unification village  

Those are not peanuts (like what you eat for nasi lemak) instead they are soya bean nuts . 

Dessert was at the Dmz jangdan kong cafe, their Jangdan soybean ice cream (a bit weird taste but it was not creamy) ₩4,000

 

Then it was off to  Gamaksan suspension bridge

You will definitely feel tired from all the walking that you will be doing in the area. You just need to pull through.  We thought that the tour will stop at Hongdae, but apparently, all people have boarded at MD (no wonder the bus was already full when we went to board, that we are seated at the back. ).  we decided to rest a bit (after buying from a nearby Olive Young, HBAF and MD street market) at our hotel before going for dinner . 

As we are meeting our friend for dessert+shopping in Hongdae, we decided to just have our meal in MD. We ate at  at Wangbijib 왕비집 and ordered 

One of the few side dishes (from which you can order for more) . 

pork belly and premium pork( ₩41,000)

they provide free water (but need to ask them for refill esp if water bottle is empty) and they will cook the meat for you. 

as my friend was running late, we decided to go around Hongdae (HD) night market. There are more fashionable clothes here than in HD, streets are also wide enough (and not overcrowded like in MD, would actually prefer to go HD than MD to shop) 

we met with our friend, we were looking for a dessert place but we couldn't find seats so we just did the next best thing, eat street food. we happened to stumble Oksususeyo (Oksusu means corn) 

we didn't want to transfer lines so we decided to go to another route to go back to hotel (kinda got lost inside MD cos they all look alike but we managed to stumble some of the shops, we didn't get to see last night). We also managed to pass by a pharmacy so all is well. 

after that, we finally managed to reach the hotel and call it a day.