Korean Demilitarized Zone

I have been MIA lately, which I apologize for. A lot has happened in the past month, so I've been taking a break from updating this. I hope this entry is sufficiently long enough to make up for it.

On May 1st, Yelena (a teacher at my school that I'm becoming good friends with) and I went on a trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. We went to an area along the DMZ called Cheorwon (although knowing how Korean pronunciation is done depending on where a certain symbol lies in the syllable box, I'm pretty sure it should be Romanized to spell Cheolwon). We went to a section of the Han Tan river that is used to get boats and rafts ready to go down the river. There was a big rock there, too, that was kind of cool.

There's a waterfall here you can't really see

We then went to an observation deck that had an insane hill to climb. There was a tram that could have taken one to the top, but Yelena and I are cheap like that, so we walked the hill. That was the tip of that iceberg. We got to the top and one can see the area that is the Demarcation Line (the official "line" that separates North from South Korea, and into North Korean territory).

On one of the hills to the left there a small North Korean post. On the hill at the very right there's a South Korean post


Here's a closer look at the South Korean post

Can you spot the North Korean post on this hill?

Me with South Korean and North Korean land behind me. Can you tell it was super windy?
Me with a Korean soldier

Afterwards we visited one of the tunnels. Back in the day during peace talks North Korea was secretly building these tunnels they could use to invade South Korea. Well, South Korea found these, and they are not a tourist attraction. We went into Tunnel #2. Unfortunately, I have no pictures because you're not supposed to take pictures there, so I left my camera on the bus. There was a TON of stair climbing in that one. My glutes got a workout, that's for sure. I was very sore from this trip the next day.

I also bought North Korean beer. I have yet to try it, as I haven't been in a beer mood, but I'm told it tastes better than South Korean beer. We shall see.

I hope this entry makes up for not updating for so long. I shouldn't go too long without another entry as this coming weekend I will be going to a Russian restaurant, a Korean baseball game, and salsa dancing, and the following weekend I have a Temple stay trip at a Buddhist temple in southern Korea, as well as a trip to the beach that same 3-day weekend. I'm excited for this as today I bought a swimsuit here in Korea, which impresses the hell out of me that I even found a swimsuit that fit as I'm not a stick and I have boobs. Yay!

-AALA