DMZ: part 1
The DMZ tour was a whirlwind of educational experience, propaganda, and metaphorical manhood measurements. This photo shows the border between North and South Korea. I'm taking the photo from the South. The big building in the back is North Korea. If you look carefully, you can see one North Korean soldier standing guard at the front door. These guards only come out where there are tour groups so as to keep up the imposing image. Everything North Korea builds near the border has to be bigger than the South Korean counterparts. For example, see the blue buildings below? Those are SK, while the gray buildings are NK. The middle blue building is where they hold U.N. talks between the nations.
If you ever find yourself in Korea, don't leave without visiting the demilitarized zone.
To begin, we were required to dress "business casual" in order to give the right impression. You know, the "look how much nicer capitalists look with their St. John's Bay and Calvin Klein apparel" impression. We hopped on two buses and made our way to the zone, North Korea across the river on our left. Most of the area between the river and "Freedom Highway" (this is actually its name) is barb wired off from any human entry. Guard posts are built every 300 meters or so in order to prevent spies from entering the South. Before this trip, I understood the North-South Korean conflict in theory. However, after visiting the border, only now can I begin to comprehend the tragedy of it all.
As we were driving, we were instructed not to take photos of anything related to soldiers, unless given permission to do so. This was quite sobering. We stopped by multiple war memorials/monuments and got a sense of the deeply engrained pain South Koreans feel for their separation from their northern brothers and sisters. At one spot, there was a monument built for American soldiers who participated in the Korean War. There are fifty poles surrounding a central monument thanking Americans for their help in the war. It's one of the better memorials I've come across in my travels. But as stirring as it was meant to be, the fact that an amusement park sat 100 meters away kind of took away from the 
emotional sentiment. I mean, this is Korea, so why not have a Super Viking excursion after paying your respects. In fact, there's a cute little train you can ride around the war memorial. Why walk around the fifty poles when you can enjoy the view from a cutsie mini-steam-powered choo-choo? There was even a cute little Korean soldier woman outside of the tourist information office.
If you ever find yourself in Korea, don't leave without visiting the demilitarized zone.
To begin, we were required to dress "business casual" in order to give the right impression. You know, the "look how much nicer capitalists look with their St. John's Bay and Calvin Klein apparel" impression. We hopped on two buses and made our way to the zone, North Korea across the river on our left. Most of the area between the river and "Freedom Highway" (this is actually its name) is barb wired off from any human entry. Guard posts are built every 300 meters or so in order to prevent spies from entering the South. Before this trip, I understood the North-South Korean conflict in theory. However, after visiting the border, only now can I begin to comprehend the tragedy of it all.
As we were driving, we were instructed not to take photos of anything related to soldiers, unless given permission to do so. This was quite sobering. We stopped by multiple war memorials/monuments and got a sense of the deeply engrained pain South Koreans feel for their separation from their northern brothers and sisters. At one spot, there was a monument built for American soldiers who participated in the Korean War. There are fifty poles surrounding a central monument thanking Americans for their help in the war. It's one of the better memorials I've come across in my travels. But as stirring as it was meant to be, the fact that an amusement park sat 100 meters away kind of took away from the 
emotional sentiment. I mean, this is Korea, so why not have a Super Viking excursion after paying your respects. In fact, there's a cute little train you can ride around the war memorial. Why walk around the fifty poles when you can enjoy the view from a cutsie mini-steam-powered choo-choo? There was even a cute little Korean soldier woman outside of the tourist information office.
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