DMZ...Happy Veterans day for the americans.

Woke up nice and early AGAIN to go to the DMZ (demilitarised zone)…the border between North and South Korea. Had an angry taxi driver who had *gasp* been early and waiting for us for ages!! Haha.

Made it to the USO (united services organization) who run the tours, and got on a bus with some American military boys who didn’t stop talking the whole time we were on the the tour!

First stop at Punmunjeon (the DMZ) was the joint services area (JSA). Here we were treated to a “go the us/south korea” slide show, then taken to the demarcation line (DML) that divides North and South Korea. We went into the room where talks take place, and actually stood (technically) in North Korea, which was pretty weird but cool.

Next stop was a lookout where we could see into North Korea. Then another lookout where we could do the same thing but through binoculars. There are soldiers everywhere to make sure you don’t take photos where you’re not meant to, and to make sure you don’t defect to the North. Lol

Finally we went to the 3^rd Tunnel – the entrance of the tunnel was dug by the south but you walk down to where it intersects the tunnel that was dug by the north. We basically got 150m from the DML…underground. Quite an experience (and a very steep hike back up)

The tour was worth it but also I found it a bit weird and one sided (no pun intended). Interesting to see the DMZ though.

We wandered back from the USO to our hotel by foot, stopping in at the War Memorial of Korea. We didn’t go in, just looked at the military transport and weapons outside. If we have time we may go back and look inside but we were both pretty war-n out. (pun intended)

We are staying at Itaewon which is a pretty touristy district – we stopped at lots of shops/market stalls on the way home. We arrived back to discover our “reel escape”…This is HILARIOUS! A cable thingy to escape in an emergency…oh dear.

We decided to head out to a French restaurant down the road for dinner (mussels, yummo) and going to have a relaxed day tomorrow checking out some of the sites of Seoul.