The next day in Seoul, I had planned on doing a DMZ tour, and Matt was interested as well so we both went. We got picked up early at our apartment (well actually downstairs conveniently at one of the thousands of Dunkin Donuts in Korea).

The roads were still pretty bad from the snowstorm, so it took us a long time to get out there. On the way up, we learned a lot of the history of the conflict, if a bit slanted with propaganda from the South Korean point of view. Unfortunately, do to the weather we were unable to visit some of the stops on our agenda, because the area is littered with minefields everywhere, and they are concerned about what would happen if you slip off the road.

We visited one of four tunnels that they found, that North Korea had dug under the DMZ and into Korea. They believe there could be as many as 20 such tunnels based on information they claim to have.

We also stopped at a monument area, where they are trying to eventually connect the railroad to North Korea. There was also an old train there that had been blown up. They also had some traditional Korean street foods there, and Matt showed me the silkworm larvae he had been telling me about the night before, so I tried it. Not bad lol!

The highlight was in the afternoon, when we were able to enter the DMZ, and visit Panmunjeom, which is the Joint Security Area. Half of it is on the North Korean Side, and half is on the South Korean side, There were very strict regulations to visiting the area, and we spent a lot of time waiting, being briefed, signing waivers etc.

Eventually we got to tour the main building, and also got to enter the negotiation room that is half on the North Korean side, half South Korean. We even got to cross the border to technically enter NK lol. All in all, it was a bit of a long day, but it was very interesting to see Panmunjeom, as well as hear the South Korean take on the conflict. And we also got to see the tallest flagpole in the world (The North Korean one on their side of the DMZ)

After the tour, we rested a bit back at the hostel, and got ready to go out. I had been talking to Andreas whom I met in Busan, and we planned on getting together again at some point on his way back to Seoul. We met up, and the three of us went to a Korean BBQ place that was recommended to us by the people who run the hostel. It was a bit pricey, (for Korea), but really good! After, we went out drinking at one of the several “Ho Bars”. With Matt’s Korean, the best we were able to determine is that in Chinese, Ho translates to Happy, so they have a lot of Happy Bars lol.