Mr.Bean goes DMZ!

 September 23, 2011. Written in Seoul, South Korea.

Mr.Bean goes DMZ!

When I first heard that it was possible to visit the border of South and North Korea, I felt that it was one of the few touristic things that I really looked forward to do. However, it is forbidden to go their on your own. You must have a tour guide with you. That kind of made me lose my interest, since I enjoy exploring on my own a lot more. And above of that, I found out that you need a passport to go. Since I don't have my passport at the moment, I had to give up on going there.

But, when I came back to the guesthouse two days ago, the Chinese Malaysian girl Y had been so kind to inform if it was possible to somehow go there without a passport, and was told that a passport copy would be enough.
The next morning, the two of us joined a tour to the DMZ (demilitarized zone).
I had borrowed a pair of blue trousers from a Polish guy, since jeans were supposed to be forbidden to wear. Already in the bus, however, I noticed that many people were wearing jeans, so the rules have probably gotten less strict these days.

Y had heard about my visa, camera and computer troubles, but denied it when I said that I had had a lot of bad luck, and preferred to call me just plain clumsy.  So, that day, whenever I would do slip on a stone or bump into someone, she would call me Mr. Bean. Now, as long as she is comparing me to him because of my clumsiness I don't mind, but I hope she wasn't referring to his looks.

On the way to the border, I saw a traffic sign saying "Pyeongyong" on the high-way, which made me feel how ridiculously close North Korea is from Seoul. In fact, it takes only 40 minutes by car to get to the border. The bed-towns on this side of Seoul seem to be much cheaper than the ones of the other side, because there used to be rumors that of North-Korean bombs being placed in some of the apartments. But nowadays, it seems that people aren't really afraid to get close to the border. As a matter of fact, there are factories of Hyundai and LG on just a few kilometers distance from the border.

To be honest, there is not much to be seen at the DMZ. But it is probably a place were you go to feel something, rather than see. For example, the sadness of the station of Dorasan(都羅山）that has the rail-roads ready to connect the two countries without any trains departing has a very sad atmosphere.

At the observatory platform, you can actually have a view at North-Korea. Apart from a huge flag of the country and some apartments, there isn't really anything to see, but just the thought that you are looking at a forbidden country make it a place worth to visit at least once. When I used the binoculars, I could actually see people walking around.  I tried to take a picture from the observing platform, but a South-Korean military employee immediately stopped me from doing so and took the camera out of my hands to delete the pictures. Boy, was I glad that he didn't pick in my camera, since I had just gotten it back from the repair store the day before.

We also went into one of the underground tunnels that the North-Koreans dug in order to be able to make a quick attack on South-Korea, which was discovered in the 70's. It was quite a long tunnel, and the furthest point you could get to was only 170 meters away from North-Korean territory!  The ceiling was very low, and Mr.Bean would hit his head several times, causing Y to laugh at him.

On the way back in the bus, I noticed that I was now very curious about this forbidden, mysterious communist country. The Polish guy that had borrowed me his trousers is a researcher on North-Korea, and has actually been to the country for two weeks. It was fascinating to hear all of his stories, and after that actually be able to take a peak on the country.