The DMZ tour...part one

Saturday morning was one of the most anticipated mornings of my time in Seoul: I was finally partaking in a tour to the DMZ with the USO. The first thing we did was head to Camp Kim USO at Samgakgi Station (exit 10) at 10:30am. Our bus left around 11:00am and our first stop was for "lunch" at this souvenir shop at Paju City. I didn't buy lunch but I did buy some snacks for the rest of the day. Our second stop was a visit to a quick briefing on the DMZ and an area where we could take a glimpse into North Korea with binoculars.

Here are our bus drivers on break...doing the "squat":


I was thinking of everyone so I picked you up a souvenir. It's a piece of the original DMZ barbed wire fence:


I decided to invite my buddy Bill. He came along on the tour (this is a picture of him from a book on the DMZ):


Our first stop after the souvenir shop:


During our brief lecture, signs clearly said "NO PICTURES"...I stumbled across this photo taken by someone else *cough*:


If you look closely, you can see the North Korean flagpole on the far left and the white South Korean flagpole on the right:


They wanted us to stand behind this "photo line" for taking photos:


Next up...a trip the the 3rd tunnel and Dorasan Station...