This week I have (or rather had) Thursday and Friday off as vacation time.I am going to do a reverse post dealing with Friday first and then Thursday and the rest of the weekend in a later post.
I have dedicated this post to one day as I want to talk about the DMZ and JSA solely.
I chose to take the DMZ tour + Panmunjeom (JSA) Tour with VIP travel (www.vviptravel.com 02-739-3501) mainly due to the fact they had published testimonials on their pamphlet. Other tours are relatively identical as far as I could tell.
The cost of the tour (at this time) is 135,000 won with other variations of the DMZ tour ranging from 46,000 - 95,000 won. The Panmunjeom tour can be taken by itself at 87,000 won (selected hotel pick up) or 77,000 won (no pick up).
Remember to bring your passport.
I was picked up at Hamilton Hotel in a private car and joined the tour group just outside Sinchon where we proceeded north for about an hour or so passing by barbed wire and guard stations all the way to our first destination Imjinak Park. There a peace bell waits to toll, the train named "the iron horse wants to run", which is an old locomotive completely riddled with bullet holes and freedom bridge which was built to free 12,733 prisoners in 1953.
During the trip there are many areas where photography is prohibited and you will be specifically told where you can and cannot take pictures.
Our next stop was the 3rd tunnel. A brief visit to the museum and then down into the deep cold depths of the earth or rather the granite. This tunnel was discovered October 17 1978 52km from Seoul and 10,000 soldiers, it is estimated, could move through this tunnel in an hour. There are 3 other known tunnels and an estimated 20 unknown or undiscovered tunnels.
Photography was prohibited so the image below was sourced from the internet.
The roof is very low and I had to double over the majority of the way. You can see holes drilled for dynamite and the black painted walls which has to do with the alleged North Korean claim of mining for coal.
You get to wear a lovely yellow hard hat and trust me if you are over 6 foot you will need it!
Dora Observatory. At this point you would have seen many MP's and have either been head counted or had your passport checked. You would have also passed large white boxes almost like shipping containers either over the road or later on the sides of the road. These are filled with dynamite and will be detonated to destroy the roads if the North Koreans decide to attack.
From the Dora Observatory you can actually see North Korea and you will be allowed to take pictures from within a yellow lined box and believe me if you think that you will be able to take a sneaky shot at the wall you will have your camera taken. I saw that for myself and I believe if you protested you will be arrested quite aggressively.
I managed to get some pretty good shots as the day was quite clear (and I have a new camera... more on that in a later post). The North Koreans built a 160 meter tall flagpole in a one up gesture to the South Korean 100 meter flagpole. These are the tallest flagpoles in the world and the weight of the flags is apparently 600 pounds (about 270kg's).
You can use the binoculars for 500 won and check out the city (you will see no one lives there) and maybe you will see some ROC (South Korean) soldiers in their guard posts if you look down toward the defences. You will not be able to see the defences from the photography line.
These shots are taken from miles away but give you a general idea of what the place looked like. I have a shot in the slide show of the binoculars so you can gauge how far away things actually were.
From here it was onto Dorasan Station the last station of the South and perhaps the first station of the North. By now you would have passed roads lined on both sides with approximately 700,000 mines, checkpoints and barricades. Dorasan Station is in stark contrast looking like any normal station with the exception that it is a ghost station. No one uses it. It was built in 2002 and will be the first train station connecting China, Siberia and Europe. Hopefully one day soon.
A bit of bulgolgi for lunch and then it was onto the most anticipated and exciting part of the tour. Panmunjeom!
This is where it really starts to get interesting. Your passports are thoroughly checked, any bags you have brought with you are left on the bus, you literally sign your life away in the event of your death or injury, you are given a special tag which shows you are under UN Command protection and then you transfer to a UN bus to go up to the JSA.
Now there have been numerous incidents that have happened here. The North and South troops were mixed in the JSA until the axe incident (in 1976) where the South and US soldiers were cutting down a tree to clear vision for one of their guard towers and 20 odd North Korean soldiers took exception killing a captain and other soldiers. Now North and South are clearly separated. Two other separate incidents one where a Russian crossed from North to South causing a fire fight and fatalities and another incident where a tourist tried to cross to the north but was arrested by South Korean MP's have led to stricter rules. On this trip photo's were only allowed to be taken inside the JSA building and on the bus as it passed by on the way out. So no flashy photo opportunities arose to get good shots of the North Koreans. Today they also decided to stay indoors and did not come down to eyeball us although we were being watched by one guard outside.
Inside the building is a conference table with microphones (that are broadcasting whatever you say in that room to both sides) and the direction of the wire (down the middle of the table) indicates the DMZ line. You can cross the room and at that moment you are in North Korea. Look out the window and you can see the concrete slab that also represents the DMZ border. There will be ROC soldiers in Taekwondo stance everywhere for your safety and it is insisted that you do not point to the north.
So yes it looks like I have been in North Korea even if it were only a few feet.
Yes you are being watched the whole time...
Look to the left of the guy at the open window; he's watching you too. I wonder if they have files on all tourists that visit?
So after being marched in 2 columns back on the bus you will drive past this area and can shoot off pictures from the bus. (that's how I photographed the guy above).
Make sure you spend your money at the gift shop on ROC glasses oh and I forgot to mention before that there is another gift shop earlier in the day where you can buy North Korean beer.
Overall the tour in my opinion the tour is well worth the money. The only thing is it feels like a whirlwind tour and you don't really have the time to compose shots. So don't be shy. If you have a camera with a good battery and multiple shot capability definitely go wild at Panmunjeom and fire off as many rounds... camera rounds that is... as possible.
The surreal part happens when you get back to Seoul. After being around the military all day you are kind of tensed up and ready to dive for cover at any minute. I think that is the most powerful thing about the tour; that only a few kilometres away there is still a war going on and you can feel it when you are up there... perhaps even smell it.
Here is the full show:
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