임진각

Man, I should've updated earlier. I went to this place on the 25th of June and haven't updated till this much later.

A few of you probably have no idea what ching chong business this entry title is called. It reads Im-Jin-Gak, the tourist site no less than 7km away from the Military Demarcation Line (DMZ). Surprisingly, it really wasn't entirely what I thought it'd be like. I always pictured the area, even the tourist area, to be all desolate and packed with soldiers, guarding their posts. But it's really pretty cool looking, with the tourist building itself having a fairly modernized architecture look. Basically, right after you get your ticket (which you need a passport for some strange reason), you walk into this small area before the actual DMZ itself, with a few attractions themed with unification. There's a small bridge titled The Bridge of Freedom, where at the end a fence marks the start of the DMZ. This little bit of fencing, which is probably no more than about 3 meters wide, is filled from top to bottom, side to side of ribbons, leaflets, posters, anything that relates itself to the unification between North and South Korea. We just so happened to visit on 6/25, the start of the Korean War itself, and as the 59th anniversary, they unveiled this train that was bombed on the night of the North Korean assault. Personally, I didn't really agree with them bringing the train up, they should leave a landmark like that at its original location, but oh well, too late.

Man, I should really post pictures. I wish I could but I don't have anything to upload it with (aka no usb cord)

Regardless, after the mini tour at the beginning, we take a bus into the DMZ itself. It's heavily guarded and the only things that can go inand out of th DMZ are the buses, which upon entering, need a lot of inspection by the ROK (S. Korea) soldiers. Anyhoo, after the first checkup, we went to this cave/tunnel that was dug by the DPRK (N. Korea). These tunnels were about 450meters deep and spanned a few kilometers, maybe a couple of miles. Height was about 1.9m and same goes with the width, so walking through these tunnels were a bit uncomfortable, having to be ducked over a little and walking forward. So, these tunnels were made at an attempt to infiltrate and attack the ROK, but the ROK found out what was up and went in there and blocked the area entirely. The DPRK tried covering it up, saying that they were digging a coal mine, and covered all the rocks with black paint, but of course, that clearly wasn't the intent of the situation. There are a total of four tunnels like this one found, and there are probably more to come, but hopefully they just unite both Koreas and just end all of this.

After this, we went to a little museum. It basically told you about the four tunnels, and efforts beforehand that the DPRK made to take down ROK but they were all foiled. Pictures would really capture what the bulk of the museum was all about, but unfortunately, I don't have that now. I will hopefully soon and they'll probably go on Facebook as well.

The bus then took us to this place called Dora Station, a train station that is the most northern station in the ROK. The train station is not connected to any other train station in South Korea, but rather is a symbol of future hopes that the two Koreas can unite and be peaceful together. To be blunt, I originally thought that it wouldn't be a great idea joining the two Koreas, but now I see that they truly do need help and it's pretty scary and sad knowing what general idea of the lives they live, but not knowing specifically of what poverty they are suffering.

After Dora Station, we go to this little village located in the DMZ where people obviously live. This village is extremely small; the entire population of students in the only elementary school is only 67, the middle school is even less, 54, and high school, only 72. Anyways, this place is where they make everything related with beans. Beans galore, tofu beans, red beans, soy beans, whatever the like. We visited the small restaurant and ate fresh tofu, something you can't do in America because the tofu is shipped, and that's probably extremely unhealthy for anyone to eat tofu that's that "fresh". The village smelled like cow-poop. It was pretty convenient.

And that was it. The tour lasts for about 3 1/2 hours and it was a hell of an experience. The pictures here are absolutely powerful, and I really want to upload some but that probably won't happen soon ;__;

Gas Prices are cheap....?

So, I noticed that gas prices here are about 1600won, roughly $1.50. I asked my older cousin what was up with the gas prices, and I told him how cheap USA's were compared to that. Turns out, gas prices there go by the liter, not by the gallon. There are about four liters per gallon, which means they're paying about $6.00 per gallon. Amazing. Good thing all the cars there are basically all hybrids. 50mpg city is the USA's 30mpg city.

So yeah, a cousin of mine around my age took me out for a nice, healthy drink and beef. Boy was it tasty. I had an amazing time, and if this is just the beginning, then I know Korea will be so awesome.