The third day of our trip was Christmas eve, so we avoided crowds by going to the least populated place on Earth -- the DMZ. It's technically still a war zone but somehow it's become a tourist attraction, complete with its own propaganda village and obligatory cheesy "informational" video.
Just getting there was interesting. We had our very own tour guide, who spoke barely intelligible English and picked us up from the hotel. As we drove to the site (an hour away) she rattled on about the buildings in Seoul while simultaneously warning me not to eat genetically modified food or produce from China as it may cause a "lump" (pronounced "loomp") in my girl parts, or something to that effect. She let us know that her very own loomp had disappeared after she stopped eating meat, but we should try a special ginseng chicken soup restaurant and please let me know if you would like me to take you to the restaurant after the tour, my previousu American guests really really enjoy this soup because the broth is thick oh and did you know that Korea is famous for the ginseng, the three kind of ginseng, one which comes from the DMZ and is very expensive. But we should not eat the cheap soup because it is made with productsu from China. Only the high quality. If you have the loomp it is because you are eating the productsu from China so also be careful when you have-a the baby, because the paper diapers are not good for the baby, this I saw on the television program.
Finally, we arrived at the village built for people to mourn their lost family members and ride the teacups. Luckily this is where we got on a different bus.
We went to the third tunnel after getting passport-checked. The North dug 4 tunnels into the South, under the DMZ, using dynamite. The tunnels were later discovered when a defector/engineer told the S. Korean government about them. Then the N. Koreans tried to say that it was South Korea who dug the tunnels. When that was proved impossible, the NKs claimed they were digging for coal, and proceeded to paint the granite walls black. Haha.
Before the tunnel we watched a ridiculous movie, the theme of which was THE DMZ IS OUR HOME. UNIFICATION. It had lots of rockin' guitar action and birds flying in slow motion.
Before the tunnel we watched a ridiculous movie, the theme of which was THE DMZ IS OUR HOME. UNIFICATION. It had lots of rockin' guitar action and birds flying in slow motion.
After the observatory we were taken to the train station. It's the last stop in South Korea before you hit the border, and before the war you could travel on to Pyeongyang in NK. They're trying to get that going again, or something, as a symbol of UNIFICATION. Not sure of the details, we were too busy getting souvenir stamps and posing with the S. Korean MPs.
After the tour we went back to the hotel and its American-style mall, picked up our backpacks and headed out to the Bong House, our hostel for the night.
We were staying on the other side of the city now, near a University. Can you tell?
That night we had a great Korean BBQ dinner with Bong, one of the owners of the Bong House. Yes, his name was Bong. He showed us how to cook/eat everything properly. It was so good I'm going to scout out some Korean places in Hong Kong.
Later we hung out with people from the hostel and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus in 7 different languages at the stroke of midnight. We're all going to hell but it was really the only way to celebrate Christmas, given the circumstances. ^^
