I’m back at our hotel now after a long, but very enjoyable, day visiting the DMZ plus other sights in Seoul.
From Seoul to the DMZ
Our bus was due to leave from Myeongdong at 07:30, with us needing to be there at least 15 minutes in advance, and so we left the hotel just before 06:30 to give us enough time to head into down, grab a coffee, and buy some snacks for the journey.
As we would be on a coach for much of the day we decided to walk to stretch our legs, heading from our hotel across the Cheonggyecheon Stream before making our way towards Myeongdong.
We bought a few snacks from a supermarket before grabbing a coffee from Starbucks, which was all that was open at that time of the morning. After drinking our coffee we made our way to the meeting point where we were greeted by Alex, our tour guide for the day from VIP Travel – one of the operators who offer tours to the DMZ.
Alex directed us to our coach for the day and, after waiting for a little while for the other people in our group to arrive, we made our way to the other pick-up locations before heading out of Seoul for our journey to the DMZ.
The other locations you can get on the coach are Seoul City Hall and also near Hongik University. We chose Myeongdong because it was most convenient for our hotel but it ended up being the right choice anyway because, since it is the first stop, it is a lot less rushed because the coach will wait there until the departure time. Plus, you can get on first and pick the best seats.
Imjingak Peace Park
The journey to the DMZ took around 90 minutes, half of which was getting through Seoul traffic, and our first stop was the Imjingak Peace Park. This is outside of the controlled area but it contains a lot of the highlights of a visit to the DMZ.
Some of the things that we saw during our time here include:
- The Bridge of Freedom, which was used to repatriate Prisoners of War
- A steam locomotive that was destroyed during the Korean War, which contains hundreds of bullet holes. This was the last train to cross the border between North and South, I have read online
- Various memorials to those who fell during the war, and other memorials that those with separated families visit to pay their respects
- A statue of President Truman, located in a peaceful park
You could easily spend a couple of hours exploring the park if you want to do it in detail. However, as you have to visit the DMZ as part of a group tour, most people only spend a short time here like we did.
At Imjingak you can also purchase North Korean currency as a souvenir, which a lot of people did. Unfortunately it was a bit of a scrum in there because two groups, including ours, arrived at the same time and its only a small shop – plus the other guide, I won’t say her name but it began with an N, was really rude and kept shouting at us for being in the way because her people wanted to get to the counter (even though we were there first).
So yes, I’m definitely glad that we got Alex as our guide – he was so friendly, and we really liked him.
The Third Infiltration Tunnel
After Imjingak we made our way to the Third Infiltration Tunnel, which is one of the infiltration tunnels that North Korea built under the border and into South Korea. Several have been discovered, and either destroyed or blocked, but they think there are others still out there that they haven’t discovered yet.
On our way there we passed the checkpoint for the road which links North Korea and South Korea. At the moment it is, as it to be expected, completely closed. However, it is opened for special occasions when traffic does pass through – for example, when the North Korean athletes travelled south to compete in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.
The Third Infiltration Tunnel is the only one that visitors are able to enter, and I found it a really interesting visit. You have to put all of your bags and other belongings into lockers, and put a hard hat on, after which you make your way down the tunnel that the South Koreans dug to intercept the infiltration tunnel, which is very steep but very big compared to the infiltration tunnel itself.
Once you reach the infiltration tunnel you are over 70 metres underground and you are able to walk along a section of it that is almost 300 metres long. The tunnel is very cramped and I did hit my head a few times, even bending down, so I was glad of the hard hat!
Unfortunately, no photography is allowed in the tunnel but there are photos online if you search on Google that people who somehow smuggled cameras in were able to take. But the reason for no photos is that it’s a sensitive military area and, once you get to the end of the section that you can walk along, you’re less than 200 metres from the MDL – the border with North Korea.
Even though it was really cramped, and I had to spend half of the walk each way bent over at an angle that meant I couldn’t really look in the direction that I was walking, I really enjoyed my time underground. The climb out was a little less enjoyable, however.
The tunnel that the South Koreans built to intercept the infiltration tunnel is very long, and quite steep. This isn’t so bad on the way down, although it does mean that you walk quickly, but unless you are very fit it is a real workout to walk back out and I was completely exhausted by the time I got back to the surface.
This is the reason that my Mum decided not to do the tunnel, as it would have been too much for her, and she instead spent some time exploring the park surrounding the tunnel area. I met up with her once I was back at the surface, after buying a few souvenirs (and some much needed cold drinks) in the shop.
There is a small museum located near the tunnel, which we spent a brief time in, along with a statue saying DMZ that a lot of people took photos in, but we were soon back on the bus for the short journey to the next location – the Dora Observatory.
Taking a look into North Korea
The Dora Observatory is one of the few places that you can visit in the DMZ where you can actually see across the border with South Korea. At the time we visited, tensions were still high because of the incident where Travis King, an American soldier, ran across the border to the North after facing disciplinary action in the South.
Due to these tensions it’s not possible to visit the actual border at the Joint Security Area – which I visited from the North in 2010 – which is a shame. However, you can still see across the border from the observatory.
Our timing was really good, as it turns out, as the whole observatory had been closed for a while due to the tensions and had only re-opened last week. We weren’t able to visit the roof, which has lots of telescopes on, as it was being used by the military, but we could visit the 2nd floor where there is a café and a big window where you can see across the border.
From the windows you could see the fence along the border, several North Korean guard huts, the jamming towers, and the giant flags that both countries built on their respective sides of the border. You could also just make out the roof of the big building at the JSA, although you couldn’t see the blue huts that straddle the border, and in the distance you could see the city of Kaesong which I spent some time in during by visit to North Korea.
In the photo above you can see multiple key features. In the foreground you can see a white track and fence that mark the southern perimeter of the DMZ, and in the distance you can see Kaesong City and the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.
You can also see several North Korean guard posts to the left of the photo, including one on the top of the hill covered with dark trees. To the right of the photo, in the distance, you can see the giant flag on the South Korean side of the border and just to the right of that you can just see the tops of both pavilions on either side of the JSA.
Below you can find photos showing a closer view of both Kaesong and the tops of the buildings at the JSA. The buildings of the JSA are the two close to each other near the tree line just to the right of the centre of the second photo.
I found it fascinating to look across the border and to think that we were less than 10 miles (15km) from the city that I had visited previously but that because of the DMZ it was impossible for people to travel there and back. Even though I had visited the DMZ from the North, being able to see both sides properly put everything into perspective.
Our last stop in the DMZ was a café where we relaxed with an ice coffee, before exploring some of the surrounding area to stretch our legs one final time before the journey back to Seoul.
The journey back to Seoul was without hold up and we arrived back in the city at around 3:30pm, leaving time to see some more things before dinner.
Seoul Olympic Park
We decided that we had visited enough museums and exhibits today and so decided to spend our remaining time before dinner visiting the Seoul Olympic Park, after a quick detour back to the hotel to freshen up.
Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics and you are able to visit the original Olympic Park in the East of the city. This is somewhere that had been on my to-do list since booking this trip because, while volunteering at the London 2012 Olympics, I was assigned to be the driver for the then-President of the Korean Olympic Committee Mr Park Yong-Sung, and I had promised him that one day I would visit his Olympic Park.
It may have taken me just over 12 years to fulfil that promise but I was glad to finally visit it, even if we didn’t have much time to look around due to it being late in the day. We did, however, spend around an hour exploring the park in the vicinity of the World Peace Gate, where you can see the flags of all of the countries who competed in Seoul 1988, and I really enjoyed it.
Next time I’m back in Seoul I’ll have to dedicate more time to visiting the Olympic Park, and explore more of it, but because we’re only here for 4 nights this was the perfect time to visit it. It’s a 45 minute subway ride out of the centre of the city and to visit it on any other day would have meant missing out on some other things that we wanted to see.
The end of a long day
After a pit stop in Starbucks to rest our legs, we made our way back into the centre where we grabbed some food at the Myeongdong street food market before heading back to the hotel.
It has just gone 10pm and we left the hotel at 06:30am so it has been a very long day, but I had a great time.