The tour guide was awesome, very knowledgeable and interesting. He loves his job. I had a great time. Some rude people kept talking over him...RUDE. The only complaint I have is that there were not any North Korean soldiers in the blue house. I would have liked to have seen one. We got exactly what was promised out of this tour. The bimbimbap was delish. We were warned that we may not get to go to visit the JSA, but we did get to. thank goodness. Loved it. It was an ALL day tour. Left in the morning and arrived home in the evening. Long ride home. :)

We were fortunate enough to go on a day when the JSA was open. We were even luckier to see a tour going on across the border at the same time as ours. Overall, the guides (both our primary tour guide and the soldiers who guided us at the JSA) were full of stories and interesting facts, and we learned a lot from this. While at the JSA we were able to enter T2 and within that building, we were able to cross into the North Korean side, which was kind of surreal. The other sites aside from the JSA were all pretty interesting and provided a fuller view of the DMZ as well as a more complete understanding of the conflict and the current status of the day-to-day reality of these two countries. The Third Infiltration Tunnel was REALLY cool and shows the rather chilling reality of the war that's still going on, even if it's just on pause. Be prepared that while you can take pictures in every other place, you can't take photos in the tunnel or the military base right before you go to the JSA (you CAN take photos at the JSA though), and the tunnel is not an easy climb back up. You have to walk up a ramp to exit the tunnel and it's pretty long and at a rather steep incline, so be prepared for that.

The DMZ tour with the North Korean defector was a memorable and unforgettable experience. Definitely a must do when visiting Korea for the first time. This tour gained me more knowledge and a better understanding about the Korean War and the Korean Peninusla. The tourguide was one of the best tourguides I could ever imagined and gave me a better impression of the DMZ area. Also the North Korean defector revealed us about her life in North Korea and on the way back to Seoul there was a Q & A session. It was truly heartbreaking to hear her story and it made me realize how lucky I am. During the trip we have visited the Third Tunnel an amazing experience and a good physical exercise. Wear comfortable shoes as the tunnel is quite steep. After the tunnel we headed to the new Dora observatory where we could see a glimpse of North Korea. The tourguide explained and pointed out some interesting sights for us. After that we have visited the Dora train station the future gateway to North Korea. Currently it isn't in operation but you can get your stamp for Pyeongyang. Maybe one day this will be the gateway to the North.