Day 5
DMZ day. Ever since our first trip in Nov 2014, we have been researching on new places to visit in Korea. DMZ was supposed to be checked in April 2025 but we didn't. I am glad that Bec is such a itinerary person that she took care of all the necessary arrangements. I am the kind who will just google for ideas but extremely lazy at implementation. Honestly, I didn't know we have to go through a tour agency. I remembered googling about a train station at DMZ and I thought we could just train to DMZ. Damn silly also.
So Bec booked the both of us on this half day DMZ tour. The meeting time was 8am and I was like '8am?! Meet where sia? How early do we have to wake up?' I can only be very glad that the meeting point is just at Seoul station, 5 minutes away from where we are staying. Blessed ttm. Actually, the central meeting point is at Seoul station so if you do not stay at Seoul station, the agency will pick you up from wherever you are and send you to Seoul station.
Us on the bus on the way to DMZ. No time for breakfast so Bec prepared a bread and a bottle of water for each of us. The bread was so precious that I nibbled a bite every now and then. It had to last us till late afternoon. Starving.
Once on board the bus, the tour guide kick-started the morning with a brief explanation of what to expect at the checkpoint, the history of DMZ and so on. I think both of us fell asleep shortly after the bus started moving. We could hear the tour guide saying 'I can see some people have already fallen asleep'. TSK. Tired leh. So both of us slept through the 1 hour bus journey.
After an hour, we reached the checkpoint. All of us had to stay on the bus while a soldier came on board and briefly checked through our passports. No sign of my army boy at this checkpoint.
@ the first stop point.
We were racing against time here as we were only given 20-25 minutes. There were so many things to see, pictures to capture and not forgetting a toilet break amidst the chilly weather. We were like 2 crazy women running around (literally).
That amusement park will make the perfect spooky amusement park in a horror movie.
After the 'scenic' spots, we were brought to watch a video clip on the tension/ relationship between North and South Korea. So propaganda impactful.
We had the chance to go down one of the discovered tunnels - 3rd tunnel but photography was not allowed.
The tunnel was narrow (allowing only 2 people to walk side by side) and low in ceiling height so most of the people had to walk with the head/ body slightly bent forward to accommodate to the height of the tunnel. Initially, we were feeling cold from the chilly weather so we had our thick coats and scarf on when we walked down the tunnel. It was a slope down the tunnel and we had to incline our body backwards to balance out the gradient. We walked till the "end" of the tunnel to catch a glimpse of the tunnel on the North Korea side. Nothing spectacular or much to see but you just had the feeling of 'OMG! That is North Korea. I had just seen North Korea. WOW!'.
After 'seeing' North Korea, we had to retrace every single step back. The walk back was tedious! By the time we walked out from the tunnel, I had already took off my scarf and thick coat and I was perspiring almost as much as when I go for a 1.6km jog. Sweat and hot! So we spent some time walking in the cold without the coat to cool ourselves down.
I believe this is as close as we can get to North Korea from South Korea.
The weather was kinda foggy so we could not get a good and clear shot of North Korea.
Our last stop - Dorasan Station. I think this was the station that I googled and I conveniently thought we could train to this station. I think it is a pity that it is not operating, otherwise history could be changed though.
We could pay like $5 (or lesser) to pass the gantry and take a picture on the platform. Bec asked me if we should and I was like 'No need la. Go google image can find the pictures already'.
After Dorasan station, we began to make our way back to Seoul. By then, I was super sleepy again and I was glad when the tour guide went 'I will talk less so that all of us can rest'. Heng ah but we could not sleep immediately as we need to clear the checkpoint. I remembered I fell asleep once the soldier cleared us. Everyday also super tired.
We headed for Hongdae once we were back in Seoul. Both of us were starving so we had to settle our hunger first. We wanted chimek but it seems that they only start selling at chimek from dinner time onwards. With limited choices at 3pm, we randomly walked into any restaurant.
We over-ordered and could not finish the food.
After the meal, we walked around Hongdae and covered the place in no time. I guess since we were not shopping, we could walk faster and cover the place much faster. Since we were already in Hongdae, we decided to drop by the puppy cafe again.
The puppies all became bigger in size. Not puppy-ish anymore.
This white fellow fell in love with my coat. He only wanted the coat, not us cause when we took the coat away, he never even come near us anymore.
I had new loves for this visit. Dogs are so interactive, in the sense that they take the first step to approach you, sniff you out and then cuddle onto your laps. Works perfectly fine for someone like me who is not into breaking ice with others first. Sadly, my previous love abandoned me. I approached it (cause I have no idea is it a male or female) but it totally ignored me. Ignore, never mind. It TURNED AWAY loh! Dogs in Korea are equally heartless. :(
The night ended with BBQ dinner and another walk around Hongdae. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? WE SAW HAHA at his restaurant!!! Before I could request for a picture, he already went inside his restaurant and I didn't want to ask him out for a picture. Thinking back, I wished I had asked for a picture. I was too distracted or rather contented back then. Arrgh!
This is not my first time walking around Hongdae. be it in the day or night. But I guess taking a slow walk, absorbing all busking made it a totally different and relaxing experience. You slow down and pay attention to the busking and realise these youngsters have so much pride in their performance. You start to appreciate what they are doing - to bring some joy to passer-bys amidst their other commitments. I really enjoyed those moments - just standing one side to appreciate their works. With this sense of appreciation, I tried once to appreciate our local buskers on Orchard Road. Cannot lah.~Not that their performance cannot. Well, maybe they didn't have that much pride or didn't enjoy their own performance as much due to the lack of audience but the weather was too HOT la. I stood for like max 10 minutes and decided to hide indoor. Sorry ah. Not that I didn't want to support you all but hot leh~
I think a foot massage is needed soon.
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