The DMZ

This weekend I went to the DMZ, which is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. It was an unexpected disappointment. I assumed that I wouldn't really care about being able to see North and South Korea at the same time since I knew they would both just look like land, but I did think I would enjoy the rest of the tour.

The entire experience was so touristy, it ruined a lot of it for me. We did get the chance to go into one of the tunnels the North Koreans dug trying to escape to the South during the war and that was really interesting. We had to hunch over the entire time since we were all too tall, and we wore these hard hats. It was a good thing since every one of us hit our heads at least once! 

We had five stops total, the first was the Freedom Bridge, which is blocked off halfway through because it becomes North Korea. Then we went to eat traditional onju (side dishes) at a restaurant close to the DMZ. The food was very traditional, but nothing else was. They even had westernized bathrooms (I was sooo excited about that; what a rarity!). But, it just felt tacky to me. It was like we were at Disney World or something. They had all of this DMZ paraphernalia  like hats and t-shirts, even DMZ rice. The bags said the DMZ on them and they had barbed wire painted across the front. It was over the top.

Next we went to a museum where the third tunnel was, and that was interesting. Before checking out the tunnel, they made us all watch a movie about the history of Korea. It was so dramatic! They had a little Korean girl walking through the grass crying alongside a fence that was supposed to represent the DMZ. At the end she was standing with no fence in a white dress with a smile on her face. I might have really enjoyed a short documentary about the two Koreas, but this was so cheesy and so obvious.

They did not let us take pictures in many places, but there really wasn't anything to take pictures of. We could walk up to this wall on top of a mountain at the lookout point and glance through binoculars. 

After that, they took us to the subway station that will run from Seoul, the South Korean capital, to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital at a TBD date. Our tour guide said repeatedly that after Kim Jong-il died, then the Koreas would be restored. Everything was, "in a few years time."

I think every Korean I've spoken with about reunification is in favor of it. It will be interesting to see what happens when he dies. Although the tour was anticlimactic, I am definitely glad to be able to check it off the list.