To the DMZ to the Seoul N Tower

The to do list is getting shorter and shorter. Last Friday me and some friends took a tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). To go there you almost need to go with a tour group otherwise it is quite limited on where you can actually go. We decided to go for the whole shebang and took a full day tour, that I believe was one of the more expensive tours. Started the tour at 8:30 and was back around 17:30, during that time we visited Dora Observatory ---> 3rd Tunnel -->  Iimjin Gak Park --> Unification Village --> UN Camp/Camp Bonifas/JSA and then back. 

Didn't really now what to expect of this tour from the start and I am not sure that my mind was really set for it. The first impression was that everything is really strict, while on the buss either an American soldier or South Korean went in to the buss (at least 3-4 times during the day) to check or passport and if we followed the dress-code, one violation could for anyone in the group could have canceled the tour. At the Dora Observatory you could see the river that separates South and North at that site, with that said we where looking at North Korea on the other side of the river, but in my eyes it was only hills, mountains and emptiness. The more time we spent there and at the other sites it started to come up for me what I was actually starring at. That in addition to getting fed information from or guide that talked so fast an nonstop that I can't really understand how she was able to breath :P. 

Then we went down on a monorail 70meters below surface where the North Korean had made tunnels into South that they where going to use for an instant invade. They have found 4 tunnels but think that there are even more of them. This was quite cool but the tunnels where not made for tall Scandinavian people ... even though I had a helmet I kept bumping my head against the tunnel walls and I was walking like the Humpback of Notre Dame in a Hobbit House.
At the end we got to the JSA (Joint Security Area), this was the most worth place to go to, you could really feel the tension of this place while being there. Just seeing the RoK (Republic of Korea) soldiers standing in there taekwondo stand  starring at the North Korean border (to intimidate the North Koreans) totally still and probably for an 8-10 hours a day was really cool. We did not have that much time here ... we had to walk in lines and where only given 1-2 minutes to take photos. Would have liked to stay at this place for a longer time. But I was really satisfied with the day and it is somewhat of a mandatory thing to do while in South Korea.
Also bought my first souvenir from Korea .... North Korean bills :D

Dora observatory

Dora observatory

The 3rd tunnel,

We'r not allowed to take pictures down there
... but good that another guy did it anyway ^^

They had a Camp for me there, felt nice being so privileged (Y)   

M-House crew 

Had to sit on the floor eating, works fine for a while till
your knees and legs are getting numb ...

Train rail over Han river that separates South and North

A trained that got blown up by North Korea and China during
Korean war

Standing Gard

Another day I finally went to the Seoul N Tower, had been postponing or just waiting for the right time to make that trip. It seamed like there where still some people that had not been up there yet so we went there together. We went there on the time of sunset and it was a nice time to be there. The autumn was showing us really nice colors on the trees :). Then we stayed there for a while till it got dark and we went up to the observatory deck and watched the night lights of Seoul :)