[Seoul Vacation] Day 03: Bucket List Cleared: DMZ Tour

The DMZ Tour is the main highlight of our itinerary in Seoul. It's quite a popular activity for curious tourists who wish to take a rare glimpse into the North Korean border. We visited the DMZ as a half day tour by purchasing our tickets via Klook prior our trip. Taking a tour is necessary, as you cannot visit the DMZ without joining a tour. 

Sad to say, there is no cheaper option, as all tourist have to go with an official tour company and a registered guide to the DMZ. The pick-up point was at City Hall Station Exit 6 which was literally outside our hotel - THE PLAZA Seoul, Autograph Collection. 

Don’t forget your passport, as this is the most important item needed to enter the DMZ. Our guide explained that if even one guest had forgotten their passport, no one on the coach would be allowed to enter the border. 

Imjingak Park - The first stop of our DMZ Tour included seeing some statues and memorials related to the Korean War and the DMZ that cut off so many families.

The DMZ stands for the Demilitarized Zone: an area of land that acts as a buffer between North and South Korea.

Despite the DMZ being put in place, North Korea has still tried to invade and incur into South Korea several times. The Third Tunnel is the only tunnel that visitors can go inside during the tour. We had to wear helmets in case of falling rocks. The journey back up was up a very steep slope so make sure you’re in good health to do this!

Honestly, the tunnel was unremarkable as it was basically just a tunnel. However I suppose knowing its history made it a somewhat of an interesting stop indeed. How often can you say you’ve experienced visiting a living history place like this before?

Both Baby and I shared a sandwich for our lunch before heading to the last stop of the tour!

The most interesting stop for most people was Dora Observatory.  From here you can see the fake propaganda village erected by North Korea, something I found bizarre and fascinating, as from afar, it’s a colourful and attractive village.

Our DMZ half day tour lasted about 5hours, and we ended our tour by having a Jangdan Soybean Ice-Cream and Bulgogi Corn Dog. 

Overall, my experience visiting the DMZ from Seoul was decent. I can't say that it's great but it was still something that can be considered visiting once in your life at least. Visiting is so important in order to understand the history of Korea and what the people have been through. It was an educational tour to remind us that peace shouldn’t be taken for granted.

A trip to Seoul Korea is not really complete without a meal at an authentic Korean BBQ restaurant. After arriving back in Seoul from the DMZ, we headed straight to Myeongdong for an early dinner to beat the dinner crowd at Wangbijib. It is the most popular Korean BBQ restaurant that specializes in grilled meat (‘galbi’) in the area.

We noticed that it didn’t smell that bad as compared to other BBQ restaurants. With a good exhaust system in place, we could enjoy our meal freely without worrying that we would smell like grilled meat after leaving the premises.

I love the free-flow of banchan offered by Wangbijib.

We loved the Fermented Beancurd Soup very much!

This Korean BBQ chain is not the cheapest but definitely one of the highest quality ones that I had in Seoul. Service was good, and the staff could speak fairly good english and good Chinese for non-Korean speaking tourists. Another  plus point of the restaurant is that it is conveniently located in Myeongdong. It's a great place to drop by for dinner after finishing one’s retail therapy.

We did some shopping at MyeongDong after our dinner. It is truly a shopping haven to get beauty products, as they are way cheaper in Korea compared to what you get in Singapore. Oh yes, if you spend more than 30,000 won, you are entitled for an automatic tax refund on the spot. Just remember to show your passport to redeem the perks.

Both Baby and I wanted to have some street food, so we took-out a bag of Japchae for our indulgence! We found a place to sit down at MyeongDong Street Market to have them!

We parted with the fellas for a while after dinner, and we went to an outdoor library that was installed in front of Seoul City Hall in Downtown Seoul over the weekend that was organized by the City Government. This designated public areas allowed people to freely borrow and read books.

We walked down from Seoul City Hall to Anguk to visit the famous Café Onion as seen from social media! The queues are usually insanely in the morning till afternoon, so we decided to beat to the crowd by visiting the cafe at night instead!

We discovered less tourists, but mainly locals were seen at night at the cafe! I simply love the relaxing atmosphere at the cafe as there were less crowds and I am sure it was less noisy as compared to the daytime hahaha.

We took the train to Itaewon Station to meet up with the guys for some drinking session. Itaewon is a well-known party location in Seoul with loads of nightclubs and bars. It is a happening place for party-goers and diners for both tourists and the locals!

It was almost midnight, so we decided to call it a day. We went to the nearest CU Convenience Store to grab some food for our breakfast for the next day before taking an uber taxi back to our hotel!

Stay tuned for my next write up on our Seoul vacation experience!