DMZ Trip!

Last Friday the culture class took a trip to the De Militarised Zone at Imingak, it was a really, really, really surreal day, it almost felt like we were in North Korea already when we got up there. First we stopped at a park just before the DMZ where we had to leave our coach and get onto a special coach for visitors to the DMZ. We arrived a bit late for the first trip there, so we waited for two hours in one of the weirdest places ever. There was a small theme park by the car park which was nearly completely empty, a group of school children were on one of the rides, but other than that it was completely deserted, although the rides were still lit up and had music playing...

Next to that was a park with really strange pieces of art strewn about. It felt like we were walking into a very odd dream, some of the sculptures were made of glass, others brightly coloured and some were just twisted and warped so much that I couldn't tell what they were. I'm still not quite sure why the park was there...

Creepy dream park

At the edges of the car park were shops selling North Korean products, although I'm not sure if they were actually North Korean, or just a tourist gimmick, I didn't buy anything.

When we got onto the coach we had to travel through an obstacle course to get to the DMZ, first we were stopped before the bridge leading to the DMZ where a soldier came on board to check the papers from the driver, then across the bridge there were loads of barriers meaning that the coach had to zig zag its way across. Once we were there were loads of no entry signs, fences heaped with barbed wire, soldiers and worrying signs warning of mines.

Our first stop in the DMZ was the third tunnel, one of the tunnels North Korea was trying to build to enter South Korea. We got onto a small cart type thing and were taken down a very narrow tunnel. At first it was really quite scary, the tunnel was so small the edges of the cart (only wide enough for three people to squish on each row) were right by the walls, the ceiling was also in an arch shape, so the two people at either edge had to duck there heads in. Once the cart reached the bottom we got to explore down the tunnel until we reached a lot of barbed wire and a big metal door with a small gap to peek through at the North Korean side. It was really fun going into the tunnel, but it did feel like a horror movie ready to happen, what with the scary looking door, low ceilings, and general damp, dark coldness of the tunnel.

Next we headed to an observation deck where we could look through binoculars at North Korea, this was definitely my favourite part of the trip. It was really weird to look into a country which is so tightly guarded and not often seen by outsiders. Looking over we could see the Kaesong Industrial park, where North and South Korea had been trying to work together to produce goods until their relations took a turn for the worse. I also spotted a few North Koreans working in the fields and got a good look at some houses.

A not at all posed photo of me pointing at North Korea

North Korea

Finally in the DMZ we headed to the train station that had been built in case North and South Korean relations improved.

Visiting the DMZ was really strange, despite all the soldiers and barbed wire it seemed like a really calm quiet place, because there were no people living there (aside from soldiers) the countryside in the area was really pretty.

If you're ever in South Korea I'd definitely recommend a trip to the DMZ, it's really quite interesting.

Gyeongsangbuk-do Overnight Trip

I'm going to start by saying that there I have been doing so much since last I posted that I'm having a hard time remembering everything! So far I've only been posting about the big events and trips I've been taking, but I think the smaller stuff is important too, so from now on I'll be trying to post at least every other week even if I haven't been up to much.

A couple of weeks ago the culture class had an overnight trip to Gyeongsangbuk-do in the East, which has many Buddhist cultural heritage sites and also UNESCO world cultural heritage sites.

The first place we headed to was the Daereungwon Tomb Complex. It was a gorgeously sunny day and we got to wander around the grounds where all the tombs were. The tombs themselves just looked like small hills dotted around, but when we went inside one it was full of thousand year old treasures and the bodies of the dead King and Queen.

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the tomb

Such a beautiful day!

Some of the tombs

Next we headed to the Gyeongju National Museum, which had artifacts from the tombs and also ancient art from the area.

Outside the museum

Then we headed up the mountain to visit the Bulguksa temple which we wandered around for a few hours. It was great fun to explore around all the different buildings surrounded by trees and rivers.

Late that evening we headed to the Anapji pond which was gorgeous. It was dark when we arrived, but the place was lit up by hundreds of lights which were reflected in the clear water. 

The next day we visited Andong Hahoe village in the foothills of the Hwasan Moutain, a traditional Korean village. This village was a lot bigger than I'd imagined and was still a functioning village with people still living in the traditional house. When we went there was an apple festival taking place, where we got to taste free samples of the most delicious apples I've ever eaten in my life (or that might just be because I hadn't eaten an apple in so long...). Near the village was an amazing mask museum, full of Korean traditional masks and a few masks from around the world.

This guy saw me about to take a photo and immediately grabbed his pipe and glasses to pose!

Love the ears on this guy

Nightmare fuel

Hopefully there won't be such a large gap between my posts from now on!