I'm going to begin this blog by saying how incredibly lucky you are to be READING this instead of hearing it from me in person, because as of right now, I have absolutely no voice, whatsoever. Last Thursday I contracted some sort of illness (most likely a cold... with a bit of laryngitis, possibly?), had a fever one night, and for the past 5 days I haven't been able to talk much, let alone belt out some great Christmas tunes. (I've been put into the Christmas mood early this year due to our downstairs lobby being decorated already, which then, spurred me on to also set up and decorate my own tree in my apartment. And yes, I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but still...)
So over the past few days I think I've accumulated a MASSIVE pile of tissues, almost using up an entire box, I drank almost all of my instant Lipton soup mixes, and have guzzled down a strange concoction of Dayquil, Nyquil, Halls Vitamin C's, and "Riiiiiii-collll-aaaaaaaaa's!" :D I'm hoping to feel better soon.. we shall see.
Anyways, I've been meaning to update you on my recent travels to the DMZ, De-militarized zone between North and South Korea. A few weeks ago, a bunch of us traveled to the north to see what exactly the border looked like, and to my surprise, there really IS a concrete border between the Koreas. No joke. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We arrive early in the morning at the USO building, and then head off for our bus trip north to the border. On the way, our tour guide gives us some interesting facts and because of the static microphone and her accent, from what I gathered, I'm still very confused as to why it's called DE-militarized. The strip of land, about 2.5 miles wide and about 150 miles long, is THE most heavily armored border in the WORLD. Soo... yeah... De-militarized? Boggles my mind too.
Anyways, we arrive and are taken to the US base where we sat in a room and watched a presentation done by a US soldier about the history of North and South Korea and the infamous DMZ. It was also then that we signed a paper that stated "The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action."
...yeah.
NEVERTHELESS, we all signed our lives away and walked onto the bus that would take us to Panmunjeom. On the ride there, we weren't allowed to take pictures but definitely passed signs that read "This is a mine area" and it was then that I realized how much I was leaving my life in the hands of our bus driver. Every uphill twist and turn I felt a bit squeamish thinking what would happen if our bus accidentally drove off into the mine-filled brush. Oh, and we also got badges so that the North Koreans would be able to identify each of us and not just pick us off.. I was very thankful.
As we got off the bus, we were again reminded "Do not point at, gesture, or talk to the North Koreans." The atmosphere of this whole tour was very exhausting. I think the majority of the time, I tried to remind myself not to make any sudden moves, like grabbing my zoom lens out of my pocket and switching it out. (I wanted to take NO chances..ha.)
We made two lines and since ours was the first, we were also first to go inside the MAC Conference room. (Or otherwise called "T2" that stands for temporary 2... funny how places keep temporary buildings FOREVER and yet still call them temporary- like portables in high school.. hmm...)
This is the building that lays right smack dab on the Military Demarcation Line (yes, there's actually a concrete line marked out in case anyone were to just start walking the direction of North Korea and be confused at all.) I crossed over that very line into North Korea that day!
and is also where North and South Korea hold meetings. (Convenient how they don't even have to cross borders in order to hold meetings, right?) So we make it inside and here's our US soldier tour guide, Harvey, explaining just where exactly we are.
[movie clip: sorry, I'll upload it later, when I get better internet]
Anyways, we decided to take some pictures with the Korean soldiers standing watch by the door and just as I'm about to walk up to him, another man decides to take a picture with the dude and totally puts his arm around him. HAHAHAH.. I think my face was like "Oh man.. we are going to witness a SMACKDOWN." It would have been only a mere mistake had we NOT been JUST informed to not touch the soldiers and if we did, they had full permission to do whatever they wanted to us. (And I dunno about you, but when you see a man in uniform standing in a taekwondo stance.. umm.. well, you don't mess with him.) Well, the poor man soon realized he got himself into a pickle when the soldier totally shoved him to the side full force. (It was quite exciting to watch.) But then it was almost my turn to take a picture next to him.. haha.. so this was my face.
So I still got one next to him, but DEFINITELY kept my distance.
But it was really crazy to be so close to North Korea. Like I said before, you feel like so many eyes are on you the ENTIRE time, it's a bit exhausting, but definitely a crazy memory, indeed. Here's a picture of how close everything is. There's a soldier on the other side who had binoculars and was just scoping us out, which was a bit unnerving because just as I switched out my zoom lens, I looked up and he's staring right back at me. EEK.. I think I might have jumped a little. ha.
Also, if you look closely at the Korean soldiers glasses, they're definitely wearing Ray Ban aviators. (Supposedly they're very intimidating...totally makes me think
Top Gun though..) Also, the soldiers were ball bearings in the bottoms of their pants so that when they march it sounds like more people.. interesting, right? I was really confused at first and wondered what exactly it was making that noise, but definitely didn't want to touch them to find out..ha.
And here's a picture of our group minus Mike in front of North Korea and the DMZ...
Well, moving right along, we leave that area and head out to a lookout place and check out a NK village called Kijŏng-dong, or otherwise known as the Propaganda Village. Supposedly some people think that there's really nothing there at all but soldiers patrolling because the lights in the village will turn on and off at EXACTLY the same times every day. The name also was given because they would blast information to the South Koreans with giant speakers about their country and leaders, etc. Oh, and their flagpole..haha.. I guess there's a war of who's flagpole is the tallest because at one point, North Korea had a really tall flagpole and then South Korea added theirs right next to it, which was taller. So what happened next? The North Koreans add their 525 foot flagpole with a 300 lb. flag flying on top of it. We were lucky to see it flying because, I guess, when it's raining, the flag is so weighted down that it doesn't fly.
A sweet picture of both North and South Korea all in one picture.. clever, right? ha..
Next, we make our way to the DMZ museum, which, I might add, told us a VERY idealistic view of the whole situation. I dunno what everyone else saw, but I definitely didn't see butterflies and flowers abounding with life everywhere you turned. No... only soldiers, barbed wire, and signs explaining there are live mines in the area. BUT, after our EXTREMELY fast tour of the museum, (seriously, they give you no time in these places, I think we spent a total of 10 minutes in that place.. no joke. Which also reminds me of our trip to the gift shop. I think our tour had roughly 80 people and when you cram that many people into a small little gift shop and expect EVERYONE to buy their souvenirs in less than 10 minutes.. I mean.. ridiculous, right? I barely had time to make my way through the crowded mess. The thought had occurred to me to jump up onto a table and crowd surf my way to the cash register, but I didn't want to make a scene. ;D
this is me in front of the museum with a statue of a soldier..haha..
We were then taken on a tour of the underground tunnels, or incursion tunnels, that NK had been making into SK. As of now, there are four tunnels that have been discovered the first found in 1974 and the latest in 1990. These run about 3,000 feet past the Demarcation line and when they were found, the North Koreans had explained that they were simply mining coal, but the SK's soon found out that was false due to the coal they had so strategically PAINTED onto the walls. Nice. Anyways, it was a LONG trek down and even LONGER way back up, but it was fun. You definitely feel GIANT inside of these tunnels, because as I am about average size 5'4" there were many times where I'd hit my head/helmet against the rock face shooting down from above us. Now that I think about it, it was this very thing that I was laughing about during the tour down underground. About every minute or so you could hear the clanging of heads hitting rock..haha.. quite entertaining actually. Oh, and on the way back up, we were met by about 500 elementary kids who noticed we were a large group of Americans and so they kept yelling out "HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" haha.. So for HONESTLY 10 minutes, I kept saying "Hello... hello... hello... hello... hello.. hello.. Michigan.. hello.. hello... hello... hello..." and so on..
FINALLY, they take us to a lookout to view North Korea one last time. The only thing they told us was that we could only take pictures behind the yellow line. Simple enough. Well.. here's our view behind the yellow line...
Haha.. so it was definitely a task actually getting a picture of North Korea. We all stood right on the line and reached as high as we possibly could to get some shots.
But I managed to use my zoom lens and a few good shots, so there you have it.. a view of North Korea BEHIND the yellow line. :D
Wow. again, I have seriously made this thing MUCH too long. It was a crazy day, but definitely a fun memory! Thanks for reading and until next time...
Hugs, blessings, and yellow lines
