🍱 Delicacy of the Day
Wilde - Everything But The Rain.
Violin fans rejoice!
This song by Wilde (origins unknown) will keep your ears fed.
There’s a certain relaxing feeling this track bestows upon you.
While the violins take center stage, everything about this track is optimized to bring a sense of awe.
The tempo is just right, the drums blend into the background, and the song flows like teardrops on a river.
Very esoteric way to describe it, but once you listen you’ll know what I mean.
Njoy.
Tidal includes links to Youtube, Sloptify, and Apple Music.
💭 Quick Drivel
5am.
The weather looks something like this:
I rush to get ready and make it to the meetup point on time.
Thankfully I didn’t take any wrong trains so I get there early.
I bum out at the local 7 eleven, getting some fuel.
Then, a bunch of buses start lining up.
They start calling names…
And as people start thinning I realize I haven’t heard mine.
So I start approaching some of the people that looked to be in charge.
They start giving me a bit of the same answer.
“Nah, not here”
“Not on this list”
“I don’t see your name”
Until I get to the fourth guy.
He asked to see the booking to cross-reference the information on his list.
“Yeah you’re not here… Question: Did you fill out the form we sent you by email a couple of days ago?”
…there was an email?
Before I could respond, he saw the confused look on my face, looked around, sighed, and said “third bus on the right.”
And so I managed to not lost a couple hundred bucks get a free tour!
Road to the location.
I’m not gonna lie, I knocked out the second I touched the seat.
…which didn’t last long as the tour guide had to give us some lore, as well as important instructions.
Simple things like
“Soldiers will be entering the bus”, “no cameras are allowed” and “Please be aware that you can get arrested if you don’t follow these instructions.”
But the one that sent a chill down my spine was:
“Have your passports ready.”
oh no.
I’m sure it was part of that email that I didn’t read.
“Lets practice! pull out your passport, open it to the page with the picture on it, and hold it up”
I relaxed a bit.
Surely, I wasn’t the only one who forg-
“Alright, good job everyone! Except you on seat 16A. Where’s your passport?”
I freeze.
Suddenly everyone turns to seat 16A to see the individual who forgot his passport.
“I uhhh… forgot it. But I have a picture!”
He gave me a sigh of disappointment and said “okay, no worries. I’ll take care of you.”
Top 10 most embarrassing moments.
After that, we were told the ride was an hour away and to get some rest.
Arrival at the checkpoint
Two soldiers board the bus.
One of them is holding a rifle.
As practiced, everyone had their passports out and showed them to the soldiers.
Then they get to me.
“Passport please.”
The bus man said something in Korean to them.
They looked up and down.
Almost as if it was suspicious.
…especially since my dumbass forgot to have it ready and pulled up which meant fumbling with my phone to find the picture.
After the longest minute of my life I gave them my phone so they could analyze the document.
They checked it, nodded, and gave me the phone back.
Shortly after the soldiers got off the bus.
And so, we were in.
Shortly after departing the checkpoint, the tour guide activated the microphone, and said
“Welcome… to the DMZ”
DMZ Plaza.
Now, I truly wish I could share the full depth and history of this place in this email.
But that would add another 3,000 words to these already long emails.
It’s also a very much sensitive topic that requires respect and tact when talking about it.
If anything, this portion of the email might be in a different tone than the usual “silly drivel” I like to send.
The rest of the email might have a bit more of a “serious” tone (as well as more “historian based”) so if its not in your interest feel free to stop reading here.
So to give a bit of a “respectable nutshell”
The country is still considered to be at war. (This was a genuine surprise, as I thought they were in “truce” terms?)
There is a “reunification day” where both sides can “see each other” through a fence. It’s said that this current generation might be the last, as the last generation to make it out before the regime started is very old now.
The overwhelming majority of Korean people want to reunify Korea under one country. Most of the division and “hatred” (for lack of a better word) is towards Kim Jong-un’s regime.
There’s obviously A LOT more and this is a gross oversimplification. Those were the most interesting things.
After walking around and learning more about the whole area it was time to head out to the next spot.
The Third Tunnel
North Korea built this tunnel to launch a surprise attack.
It was discovered after a North Korea defector warned the South Korean military of the tunnels.
After watching a short intro video that explained the info above, we were given helmets to explore the tunnel.
The tunnel itself is claustrophobic. It’s hard to breathe and the space is incredibly small.
It's a journey in itself and adds weight to the situation.
As they say, its one thing to hear about these things and another to SEE them.
After hitting my head a couple times and almost tripping twice we made it out and started heading to the next and most important location.
Road to the observatory
On the way there the tour guide decided to share some stories.
“South and North Korea have been having these competitions with each other for as long as the war has been going on” the tour guide started…
“For example, South Korea built a flag pole on the border. Couple of days later North Korea built a slightly taller flag pole. Do you know what happened next?”
“Did they keep going?” Replied a random guide at the front.
“Yup! shortly after South Korea built a BIGGER flagpole.
To which North Korea responded by doing the same. And they kept doing the same thing for 10 years.
In the end North Korea ended up building a massive flagpole, and after that, the South gave up”.
The tour guide continued.
“The funny thing about the flagpole story is that South Koreans built a village under the flagpole.
Shortly after, the North Koreans built a village too. Except this is a fake village. There’s no one living there and you can see that the houses are weird, almost as if they’re built out of cardboard.”
This really helped build excitement for it. I mean come on? There’s NO WAY this is real.
Right before we arrived he shared one final story:
“Of course, over the years they’ve done these type of “conflicts”. The most recent one was South Korea playing K-Pop over very loud speakers.
To counter this, North Korea sent poop-filled balloons over the border. We actually had to close the observatory for some time because of this.”
Daora Observatory.
It was time.
We arrived at the fated observatory where we got to see what North Korea was about.
There were some REALLY strict rules about photography. They told us to leave our phones and cameras in the bus.
There were also signs explicitly banning all photography, warning of arrest and fines if these rules were violated.
And so, they let us see the binoculars.
Here are some things I saw:
The flagpole thing is real. North Korea GAPPED them by having the flagpole be almost double the size
THE FAKE VILLAGE WAS ALSO REAL. THE WINDOWS WHERE VISIBILY PAINTED TO HAVE PEOPLE ON THEM.
A lot of stationed North Korean soldiers
A hollywood-like sign that literally said “North Korea #1”
A statue of Kim Jong Un and his dad.
A quaint village where you got to see people living their day to day lives. It felt kinda odd observing them but everyone was really excited about this part.
A lot of mountains
A signal blocker tower.
It honestly seemed unreal to see it. But it was true.
The contrast was also insane. If you looked south, you could see the seoul skyscrapers. You look north and its nothing but villages.
Highly recommended to go visit.
A curious thing that happened was that right as I was leaving, another tourist next to me (part of another group) I heard a weird click sound.
I looked left and saw a tourist with a big camera taking a bunch of pictures.
…yeah, very intersting to see.
Meal at the DMZ
“There are no pesticides allowed in the DMZ.” The tour said.
And man, was he RIGHT.
The final stop to the tour was at this restaurant.
It served food that was caught and grown at the DMZ.
This was THE MOST EXQUISITE FOOD I had in the entirety of Korea.
It felt like doing a full cleanse of the American Chemical Food™.
After a good 6 hours of walking and exploring around this hit the spot.
Return to Seoul.
Shortly after we had to leave and made it back to Seoul.
An eye opening experience that I recommend you go if you ever find yourself in Seoul.
The amount of history and insight you get from a place is like is not something you get from other countries.
I wasn’t able to get pictures, but I think its better that way. Seeing it for yourself will bring you your own unique experience.
Always Exploring Forward
Hz
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