Our second day in Seoul was our most stressfull but we also had the most fun. The tour the previous day started at nine so I assumed the tour would start at the same time. We were wrong, we were supposed to meet the bus off base at 7:50. So I was really surprised when after just waking up our hotel room phone rang at 8 and they were asking if we were going to make it to the tour. We literally threw our shoes on and ran out the door. Bob had a bowel of cereal with milk poured that he just left in our hotel. Then we ran to the bus and were still at least 15 minutes late. I felt so bad because the bus was completely full of people waiting.
We were going on the DMZ tour and it was amazing. I didn't know much about North Korea beforehand so most of the information was new to me. For those who don't know the DMZ is the demilitarize zone between North and South Korea. There is no official line separating but more of an off limits area for both sides. They are actually still at war, but are just under a cease fire and have been for some time.
There were a couple stops on the tour, one was to see the recovered train from the war. It was full of bullet holes.
On the fence we saw lots of ribbons tied up. I think they were messages or wishes for family members. So many families were split up when the war happened. The people were not prepared for a barrier that they couldn't cross to be suddenly put up. Now they have a program where you can get on a wait list to meet with family members stuck in North Korea. You both have to go back after the visit, but you can see each other for a few hours.
Next you can see our tour guid explaining the tunnel to us. She said she has done this tour about 800 times over 15 years.
North Korea has dug four tunnels into South Korea that have been found, but it is expected that there are many uncompleted tunnels. They think that this is North Korea's plan for invading the South for an attack. I guess 30,000 soldiers can get through a tunnel in one hour, which is kind of scary. Especially as we are right there when they are telling us this like it could happen at any moment. I wonder why they decided to make it a big tourist thing. The tunnel we got to tour is the closest one to Seoul. It went underground and then we were in the DMZ zone, then we went all the way to the center line of the DMZ, after which is considered North Korea. There was a locked fence which we couldn't get through.
We took some pictures of North Korea.
The last stop on the tour was the train station that connects North and South Korea. It is the last stop and is not currently running trains but they hope to in the future.
After the tour we went on a boat cruise.
It wasn't the greatest, and it was pretty empty. But it was something to do and we had fun.
After that we met a sister missionary from Bob's mission. We went out to dinner with her and then she showed us this place with an amazing view of the city. It was our earliest morning and our latest night.
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