Today (Wednesday 9/23, Korea time) i visited the Demilitirized Zone between North and South Korea and i finally made it to the War Memorial of Korea… met some new people, ate more spicy foods, and sidenote: converse are not great sight seeing shoes. Duh right?

All right, so the day started out at 5:30am and i got ready for my first “organized” tour group trip, opposed to my spontaneous, self guided (with some help from a few people) adventures.  I dressed according to the required dress code specified by the US Military and wore my closed toe shoes, long pants and covered my tattoos with long sleeves, CHECK!  Even recently,  jeans weren’t allowed, being perceived by the North as linked to American decadence.  Anyhow, the bus was to leave promptly at 730am from down the street at the USO and i had to be there no later than 700am, or 07oo hrs to keep with the military protocol.

It all started with a 1 hour bus ride… which i slept the entire way through and even missed the head count for lunch that would come later in the afternoon!  I did try to kick off a few pages in my new book “12 Steps to Raw Foods“, and made it through the Forward and i think maybe 3 pages before passing out.

To familiarize you with where i was at today, i was leaving from Seoul (gray area) and heading North about an hour crossing into the pink area around the “3rd Tunnel” zone and eventually to the big black line which is the Military Demarcation Line.

Once we crossed into the Demilitarized Zone we changed buses and our adorable Korean tour guide that we could barely understand turned into an emotionless and not very compelling US Military MP Officer.  Nothing personal guy, i just wasn’t getting the feeling that you weren’t super stoked on your job.  I guess i can’t blame you.  Heck, maybe you were supposed to sound like you didn’t really care?

So after an hour drive/sleep, a bus swap, potty break, a brief orientation… BAM!!! In all her glory there she was, North Korean soil!!!

For those of you with 20/20 vision, you’d be staring at the white in the eyes of North Korean soldiers… and don’t you worry, they’d be staring right backatcha!  Apparently they there were North Korean soldiers with binoculars staring right back our way from the windows.  We were told not to make gestures or do anything that could be used as propoganda against us.

So basically the UN (the US and our good guy friends) has a big shiny building on one side of the line and the North Koreans have their big schmancy building on the other side of the line, and they have these fashionable blue buildings in between that straddle the line where they have “peace talks” or maybe we should call them “peace arguments”?  Seems like we’re still kind of at a stalemate…

South Korean (ROK) Soldiers standing guard out front of the building that we were visiting. FACTOID:  If you hear these particular ROK soldiers walking you will hear a “jingly” noise.  Apparently they were vastly outnumbered by N. Korean soldiers in battle (maybe a specific battle i think), so it eventually became standard issue to place “ball bearings” in the pants so when they march it sounds like there are way more soldiers than there really were.

So inside they told us a little about some of the conversations that have gone down in this room, who’s sat in these very chairs and a few other things that i’ve already forgotten.  You see that soldier in the background?  Right behind him is a door that the North Koreans use when entering the building.  Apparently someone got yanked from there one time, thats why a soldier stands guard now. They also told us about an account where North Korean soldiers came in and blew their noses and wiped their feet w/ some Allied flags…unbeknownced to them they were on camera.  So now the flags are in a case hanging on the wall…the UN flag you see is the only one that is out.

Standing in Communist North Korea.

Intrigued onlookers…and me checking out their assets.  Okay, not really…but i WAS trying to do something artsy. I came up with this.

After the big show, i gotta say that i was a little anxious and uneasy about being so close to real life North Korean soldiers.  Im sure it was safe, but still pretty crazy to know what’s gone down in that spot.  Next we bussed down to this place called the Dora Observatory where we’d observe the North Korean communisit town that we’ve dubbed “Propoganda Village”, from a distance.

1/2 a Korean WON (Pronounced: “wahn” like “wand” but no “d”) and you too can enjoy the sights….

Its called “Propoganda Village” because most of the buildings are actually vacant decoys, and up until recently the N. Koreans broadcasted propoganda over a loud speaker trying to entice S. Koreans to join them, talking about how great of a leader Kim Jong Il is, and how wonderful life is in the North.

The nice Irish boys who helped me up when i tripped, or rather when i fell into the hole between the gap in the grating covering the sewer drainage. Thanks guys!

My fellow Americans!  It was nice to spreckin’ ze English with people on the tour.  Most everyone on the tour was from the US military, contracted on the base, American or at least spoke English.  I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories, background, and what drew them to Korea.

DOWN with unificiation (of the N. and S.)!!!  Just kidding.

Not sure what these guys have to do with anything but i thought they were cute.

So these statues were out front of the 3rd Tunnel, one of the four tunnels that were discovered that the N. Koreans were digging to try to sneak attack the South.  They woudn’t let us take pictures inside, so these two are all you get.

So that about sums about the day with the USO Tour to the DMZ from 0700-1530 hrs.  Frankly, i wasn’t super fired up about going on this tour in the beginning but it was just one of those things that i felt like i had to do….when in Rome right? And who knows what going to happen between N. and S. Korea i the coming years? Maybe the relations improve, or maybe they continue to decline and the DMZ is closed to tourism.  I was curious about all the hype, i bought in…and it was worth it i’d say.  I met some people, had some great conversation, took some fun pictures…. and…

…found some people to go to the War Memorial of Korea with!!!

Angela, Katie, Sarah and i rallied from the DMZ tour to the War Memorial.

I hate to say it, but this kind of sums it up.  Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but i wasnt very impressed.  Granted we had limited time before it was closing and the others had to meet up w/ some friends, but i just expected so much more.  It was a lot of immitations, recreations, etc… there was some cool stuff though, like the Laser Shooting Range…and there was a good linear breakdown of the tumoltuous history of Korea, and then a good Korean War breakdown.

Serving our required time in the ROK army…..

After the War Memorial we snuck over to Itaewon for some dinner, then to Myeong Dong to check out the shopping.

Sarah trying on wigs.

Dad, you didn’t tell me about the family business…

Im gonna have to go with “definitely maybe” on this one.

After realizing that my feet were numb from walking around all day in Converse, i decided to call it a night… and with a big day ahead of me, i think ill need to call it a night on the blogging as well… more to come.

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