Korea 2014: DMZ

Everytime I travel to Korea, there are bound to be new sights to see. I went on a half day Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tour on my 2014 trip. My friend booked the tour for us, and as the friend's parents are more comfortable with mandarin, we went ahead with a mandarin speaking guide.

DMZ, Korea 2014

Pardon me while I make a confession. Although I am Chinese by race, my Mandarin is not very good. I can speak Mandarin - no thanks to my love for KTV sessions, but not that fluently. I prefer to converse in English most of the time, so my vocabulary for Chinese words is...limited. Ha. So needless to say, I was at the tour more for the sights, than the tour.

Perhaps I'll visit the DMZ again next time (since I didn't go for the JSA part), with an English tour guide. But now that North Korea is open for travel, perhaps I'll add it to my to-visit travel destinations list.

The places we went on the half day DMZ tour were Imjingak Park - The Bridge of Freedom - The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel - DMZ Theater & Exhibition Hall - Dora Observatory - Dorasan Station - Pass by the Unification Village (according to the tour summary).

Do wear comfortable shoes as the 3rd infiltration tunnel was actually quite a steep walk underground (Silly me was not thinking and wore ankle boots for the tour - don't do it. Just don't.).

Also, at the end of the trip, the tour stopped by a ginseng centre too (my advice - if you are not keen to buy, just take a look, it's just how some tours operate I guess). I think we paid about 36,000Won per pax for the half day DMZ tour. DMZ/JSA tours can be easily found online, so just gotta do your research on what you wanna see/do before deciding on one.