DMZ Tour

So yesterday Liji and I were able to go with one of the base branch members on a base tour of the DMZ (de-militarized zone) between N. and S. Korea. It turned out to be a very long and exciting day. Since it costs about $13 dollars to take a taxi out to the base one way we thought we would wake up just a bit earlier and ride our bikes out there. I was thinking ok, yea that will be good to wake up early and get some exercise in. To get onto base you have to be checked in by one of the air force men. So Michael, our friend, was meeting us at the main gate at 6 am. We took off on our bikes at 5:20am thinking that would be plenty of time. But we had sorely underestimated the distance, and even though we did get there right at 6 we had been booking it the whole time. A lot of it was up hill so we were pretty tired when we got there. We walked out to where the bus would be picking everyone up at 6:40, then while we waited I went into a bathroom and changed from the jeans I was wearing to some shorts. We wore pants because they had said the dress code was pretty tight, but when we got there lot’s of people were wearing shorts and it was really hot so I went and changed. Well in the pocket of my jeans I had placed my base visitor’s card that you are supposed to always have with you while on base and then you need it to get off base. Well I’m pretty sure that while I was changing that card fell out of my pocket. I didn’t notice then but I did later in the day and it caused a lot of grief later on.
So we headed out on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to the DMZ. We stopped along the way twice at different sight-seeing places and to eat lunch. So it wasn’t until about 2:30 in the afternoon that we were actually at the DMZ. It was so crazy to see all the guards and stuff with their weapons and to see how serious this line between N. and S. Korea actually is. I learned so much about the Korean War and the ongoing conflicts that these two countries have had over the years. You can mostly see everything that we were able to see in the pictures that follow. There was however a lot of places that we couldn’t take pictures at because they wouldn’t let us. We got to go into this very deep and long tunnel that the S. Koreans discovered a number of years ago that the N. Koreans has built to try and get into their country for an attack. Coming back up out of that tunnel was a huge work-out in and of itself. It was 400 yds. at an 11% grade. I hope you enjoy all the pictures we took, and that it will give you a feel for what it’s like there. It was so interesting to see all of this. At one point we were surrounded on 3 sides by N. Korea. And there is just this guard who stands there all day watching the tour groups go through with binoculars. So we headed home after all the site-seeing and arrived back at the Gunsan Air Base at 11pm.
Well because I had lost my visitors card the sheriff had to come out in his car and take us to the police department so I could make a statement about what happened with my card and then it wasn’t until midnight that they finally let us off the base. It was sprinkling as we came out and it was so late that we thought about taking a taxi but there weren’t any around so we just decided to head out on our bikes. Of course just as we start going the rain picks up and it really starts to downpour. I was just laughing so hard when that happened. Some of the things that I have done since being here I just can’t even believe that I’m doing them so I can’t help but laugh at the situations that Liji and I get ourselves in. I thought it was actually really fun riding our bikes home early this morning. We got home at 1 am drenched and happy with our fulfilling day. Today Liji looked up how far we went and it was about 8.5 miles one-way, from what we can tell.
On the bike ride out to the base I thought that there was a lot up-hill, so I was thinking, ok, on the way home it should be mostly down-hill. Well, instead it seemed that there was even longer up-hill parts on the way home. So I was telling Liji this as we were riding home in the rain and he was trying to tell me that it was because the Earth had rotated. So at night what was down-hill in the morning was now up-hill at night. What do you think; is Liji telling me the truth?