What is the best thing to do when you arrive in Korea after a 13 hour flight at 5:30 in the morning? You take a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea. We spent 3 days in Seoul and decided to start our stay out with a trip to the most militarized border in the world.

After being picked up at our hotel by the tour bus, we drove about an hour north to Imjingak Park. The park is an odd mix of war memorial, amusement park complete with Ferris wheel, and flea market. At the park itself is a small temple where people can ring the bell in memory of those lost in the Korean war, as well as the Freedom bridge which in the past has been used to send donations from the South to the North.

We next boarded an official government bus for the trip into the 3 km buffer area that runs along the length of the the DMZ. The area is prime farm land and we passed a small community of farmers that receive special incentives from the government to live and work the land.

The main stop on our trip was the 3rd infiltration tunnel. Over the years 4 tunnels from the north to the south have been discovered with this being the closest to Seoul. An amazing testament to what a crazy dictator and his underfed solders can accomplish, this tunnel has only been acknowledged by the north as a coal tunnel that went the wrong way. Considering there is no coal in that area the story raises a lot of questions.

The cutest military police in the world.

Land mine signs remind you that it is not all cute statues.

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the tunnel you can see one here. We walked down a long steep incline and then several hundred feet into the tunnel. The tunnel was moist and warm and not as narrow as I had feared it would be. Also at the tunnel was a very well done museum that looked at the sad history of the DMZ as well as the rich flora and fauna that has been able to thrive unmolested. In fact, when we were leaving the parking lot we saw two tiny water deer grazing.

Our next stop was the very odd Dorasan Station. Built with donations from South Koreans, the station is a state-of-the-art train station, that when reunification comes will be the last station before entering the north. Until then though it sits as a sad reminder of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. I especially liked this sign.

We made a few stops at tourist traps and were finally deposited back into the center of Seoul. After a few false starts we made it back to our hotel in Gangnam (arn’t we cool) by subway with a hot pizza in hand and very tired bodies.