There were many tour groups besides our bus of about 30-40 people. It was quite simple to arrange, we found a flyer in the hotel lobby and called in to the English speaking number. They asked where we were staying and wanted a credit card to guarantee the reservation. All they told us was that a driver would pick us up at 7:50am ("Seven-Five-Zero" as we were told). How would they know what we looked like? They had that figured out! Because they knew my friend's name, they knew how we looked!
While the whole situation sounded shady at first, it actually turned out all right. The driver found us, we stopped outside a different hotel to catch our bus and then off we went. Our tour guide gave us some background information on the way up to the DMZ and also collected our fee. We made it to the first stop along the tour, what I understood as a simple staging area before you got to go to where the tunnel was found. Here come the pictures:
The next stop was the tunnel area and exhibit area. They showed a video about the DMZ situation and where they found the tunnels and incidents that have happened near the border. Photography wasn't allowed during the film but I took a picture of a display in the exhibit area. We then got queued up to go down the interception tunnel the South Koreans dug to find the North's tunnel. We were told it was 350m long at a steep angle. They were not kidding. The walk down was a piece of cake. You then walk even further to view the barrier walls that South Korea built and the actual place where the North stopped digging. While there was a small tram that could take you back up, our tour guide informed us we didn't get our group together in time to make a reservation. So we had to walk up the 350m tunnel we just walked down. About 150m in, I was fairly tired...about 250m in I was about to die. Luckily I survived and got back to the top...there was no photography permitted down in the tunnel area :(
After piling back into the bus we went to an observation point where we could look out to North Korea and take some pictures...although, there was a line on the ground marking the furthest up you could stand to use a camera. They had a military detail there making sure no one took any photos past this line.
Next on the schedule was a stop at the train station to nowhere: Dorasan Station. While the station was originally planned for transport of people and goods across the border, so far there has been no real activity. It's now used as a tourist attraction and a symbol of future relations between North and South Korea.
To cap off the tour, they took us to a place full of amethyst. I wasn't too into buying the jewelry myself but apparently there is quite a bit of amethyst around Korea.
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