Democratic People's Republic of Korea / DPRK / Korea (north) - road trip

[Chicken]

Buckets ......

 

[Chicken]

It became quite a nice afternoon, pretty cool, but sunny. We got off the ship, and there were a lot of people taking advantage of the weather along the waterfront.

We probably became their event of the year. That is, us the foreigners. Like 200 locals started following us, see what these foreigners were up to. We walked north, they followed up. We walked back down south, they would also follow us.



Surrounded by a few locals.



Now surrounded by more locals. (The ship behind is the ship we just came off)



This is Netherlands vs DPRK



This is also Netherlands vs DPRK



The conversation was:
Hong Kong : 'Can we play Hong Kong vs DPRK?'
Mother : 'No, they are playing, training, don't go annoying people.'

(OK, not those exact words, but that's the conversation)



None of these were pre-planned. We simply crashed the quiet afternoon of Wonson, and in return, we became the zoo animals, being watched and followed by the locals, with the locals thinking 'Foreigners?! White people!!! '

 

[Chicken]

I haven't really taken photos of meal times, but this photo was taken by our UK tour guide. Tonight at Wonsan, we are having hot rock BBQ.



You can see raw meat on the table. Each of us got a hot stone (see the plate at the bottom left of this photo, where someone holding knife and fork), and we would put our meat onto the rock to BBQ it.

 

[drron]

That experience reminds me of the first time we went into China in 1981.Went only over the border from Hong Kong.We had a cast of 100s following us. There was though an American body builder with blonde hair.Literally thousands followed him.

 

[Chicken]

Today will be quite a relaxing day, going to Kumgang san / Mount Kumgang 금강산 , via Samil Lagoon.


Last bit of Wonsan as we leave, and start driving up hills.


A goods train.

The roads in DPRK are not great but not bad either. They are actually about the same as some roads in country Australia. Ride is very bumpy, because they don't use asphalt, just squares and squares of cement to form roads, so you get bounced everytime you travel thru a cut on the road. Plus all the buses coaches are from China, they use really bad suspensions. So ride is very harsh for long road trips like what we are doing.

This brings us to the question of, why not travel by train? Our tour guide told us that they have asked about such possibility, but the trains are even slower (which we have seen during this trip with our own eyes), so our road trip would take forever.

Another observation about train lines. Here in Australia, we only have overhead power cables in cities, you don't see overhead power cables out the country side, because you know they won't be used, as you would need diesel locomotives. Here in the DPRK, every train line I have seen, even in the middle of nowhere, have overhead cables, yet I have never seen an electric locomotive.

 

[Chicken]

There was though an American body builder with blonde hair.Literally thousands followed him.

You mean thousands of local Chinese girls who followed her?

 

[OZDUCK]

Keep up the good work Chicked.

Even in Kuching, Sarawak, in 1997 my, then 16 year old, blond daughter was stared at all the time and continuously talked to and about - admittedly often by teenage boys. It certainly began to annoy her.

There was a bit of light relief when 2 Malay boys were making comments to each other in our hearing but in Malay. Unfortunately for them, they did not know that her Singapore born and bred Grandmother who was next to them spoke Malay. She gave them the rounds of the street in Malay and they shamefacedly apologised and slunk away.

 

[craven morehead]

We went up a hill, to a waterfall for a hike and picnic.

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Let's open the beer. It's #2 again.

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Wait, what? Is this #2 beer? Or ......

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So is this #2? Or is this Tsing Tao from China?

I don't mind the Tsing Tao from China

 

[Chicken]

Today is just a scenic day, going for hikes. Some of you may find boring.

Time for toilet stop. This is called the Sijung Lake 시중호 . You could imagine what it would look like in summer.

There was a shop with small diner. The diner was closed cos it was around 9 AM. The shop was like a typical beach kiosk, selling drinks, junk food like potato crisps and our Belgian even bought a pack of Milka chocolate from Switzerland.

Yeah, the red flamingo for sale too.

 

[Chicken]

Next stop is to see Samil Lagoon.




We are 106 km away from Wonsan



I saw a speed boat down on the lake, as joy ride. I asked if we could go for a ride and if the tour guides knew the costs. None of them knew, so one of us went down the hill and asked, I think it was something like USD $20 for a ride around the lake, which we guessed would take 10 or 15 mins. I asked if anyone was interested, but no one responsed, so it didn't happen. Meah.

 

[Chicken]

Check in at hotel first before another hike. This is Hotel Kumgangsan.



Our bus is in the photo too, didn't notice.



This hotel is not small at all. Kumgangsan or Mount Kumgang is a famous mountain, and is also kinda touristy town, hence the view from my room.

 

[Chicken]

This is actually a restaurant. I asked if we could eat here for the evening (as a joke), a tour guide said no, another guide said the food here is bad. Um, OK. (wait until this evening, hahaha)


this is a picnic area at the base of the walk / carpark. to the left of the photo where the hunts are is actually like a cafe / kiosk. It was already quite cool, I guess summer was well over, so there were only 2 kids in front of a chest fridge selling ice cream and drinks from the fridge. I think I paid CNY / RMB 15 for a small 250ml can of juice. Looks like you could be getting all sort of cooked food and lunch if it was summer (they had dining tables and chairs and a lot of food display fittings).

 

[Chicken]

I took this from a bridge high above. How clear is this water.


Can you see what I was looking at in this last photo?

Did you know?
- A major leisure activity in the DPRK is mountain hiking?
- Our 79 years old birthday boy could out run another competitor in his 30s on this mountain hike? Actually, I think he came third. That other competitor in his 30s didn't even complete the course.

Went back to the hotel for a break, then, we would be driving to the major shopping area for dinner. That area was massive, even the car park, I would say that it was bigger than Perisher shops in NSW. I didn't any photo because it was dead, it was too dark.

I got one of the tour guides to take this silly photo for me, while we were waiting to leave our hotel for dinner.

Note the name on the bus, KITC or Korea International Travel Company. This is the local Korean travel company based in Pyongyang. I have explained previously in my 2018 trip report, that you don't actually travel with the company you paid money to, but you travel with the local Korean tour company.

For this trip, my tour was organised by Koryo Tours, they planned the itinerary, I paid them the money. However, after getting off the flight at Pyongyang airport, I (we) were greeted and our tour was 'executed' by KITC.

For my last trip in 2018, it was the same logistics, my tour was organised by Uri Tours, I paid them money, but we were handed over to PKITC or Pyongyang Koryo International Travel Company once we landed at Pyongyang airport.




So this is another leisure activity in the DPRK. There is karaoki everywhere, even in some homes, and restaurants always have them. Our tour guide could not help herself after our meal ......

This night was the night when everything fell apart. We went back to the hotel after that massive waterfall hike. We had enough time to shower, so time got a bit late, you could see from my silly photo above that the sky was completely dark before we even drove out of our hotel.

We got to this restaurant, we walked in, and saw the restaurant a mess, staffs cleaning up. They clearly had just finished service, customers left, and cleaning up. The lights were quite dark. Something didn't feel right.

Turned out, the restaurant didn't have a booking for us. It was getting quite late, and there was no booking! Does that mean we are gonna go back to the hotel bar and have beer and crisps for dinner?

After a long negotiation, the restaurant agreed to do a service for us. The food would take a while obviously, so they serviced us beer and a bar snack which is salted dried pollocks. It is the whole fish, so you would need to tear the flesh off, and it was tough. Our tour guide singing above actually did most of the tearing for us. I forgot to take a photo, but it's called talpi which you can google

 

[JohnM]

Green frog?

 

[Daver6]

Are the hotels empty as they look? Who are the usual tourists that use these hotels? International guests? Average Koreans or mainly the elites?

 

[VPS]

Did you ever watch the Michael Palin show because one of the areas that he went looks very similar to the rocks in your photos above

 

[Chicken]

Green frog?

haha, yep. city slicker I know, laugh at your will

Are the hotels empty as they look? Who are the usual tourists that use these hotels? International guests? Average Koreans or mainly the elites?

They were relatively quiet. I guess there would be a few factors which affect their target markets.

Firstly, DPRK is just an area of mountains, mountains after mountains. This is why a lot of the places (including places we went) end with "san", which actually means mountains / hills in Korean and Chinese (Korean and Chinese languages don't distinguish between small hills and big mountains, they are the same thing). The capital Pyongyang is actually 2 words, 平壤 , where 平 (pyong) = flat and 壤 (yang) = land or soil, or flat land. I mean the fact that whoever named it thought naming a place 'flat land' would tell you how important or significant it is to have a piece of land that is flat in this part of the world.

This lead us to, if the hotels or if I should call them tourist spots, we went to were all on mountains, or we went to those lakes and beach resorts, who would go to those places in September, when it is school term and in the middle of nowhere season, kinda like how many people would go to Thredbo or Great Ocean Rd in our May? However, I could see kids nagging their parents to buy them that floating flemingo at Lake Sijung in summer.

Another thing I noticed is, it is more likely for us to be sitting in the lobby of a Novotel and having a drink. Yes, we finish work, we are likely to go to a pub to have a p!ss session, but we are also likely to go to the lobby of a fancy Hilton and drink beer + coughtail + wine. This does not seem to be a thing in DPRK. We would be going to a local pub back in Pyongyang towards the end of this trip, and see the locals finishing work and have very loud p!ss sessions and your ears will go deaf, and I also went to pubs in the last trip in 2018, but hotels here really seem to be for sleeping and maybe functions. And from the restaurants I been to in 2018 and this 2019 trip, the locals seem rather go to a restaurant, eat, drink and karaoke. Hence, I guess, you would either be in your room, or out of the hotel. I know that we weren't the only guests in at least half the hotels we stayed in, but we hardly bumped into other guests.

I think there is a cultural difference. I mean, how many people in China / Japan / Singapore / Malaysia would just go into an actual hotel to hang out? It is not a custom. If you are young, you go to karaoke or a club for fun or to pick up; if you have 'settled down', then you go out for dinner with your coupled up friends. 2 dudes catching up to watch sports on big screen or to escape from their families would go to a bar. I don't think hanging around the lobby of an actual hotel is a culture in Asia, for Asians, hotels are for sleeping.

Ah, also, the Koreans don't do wine and coughtails, only beer. I think Novotel would lost 80% of their bar takings if they don't have coughtails and wine.

I have seen other foreigners (especially from China) and also locals in those hotels. I don't think an average joe blow would be able to afford any of the hotels we stayed in (look at their houses).

Another factor you have to consider, is our tour was travelling outside of Pyongyang. How many people go to the DPRK? Then of the tourists who go to DPRK, how many of them go somewhere other than Pyongyang and DMZ? You can have a quick look at major tour companies like Koyro Tours / Uri Tours / Young Pioneer, and it's like 50 tours to Pyongyang DMZ for 7 days or shorter, then there would be 2 or 3 tours going a little further, then there is this 1 tour per year which takes you all round and going to Paektusan / Mount Paektu. Do the maths, and well, there is your answer.

Which I guess, explains, why we became the zoo animals back in Wonsan

I just realised that you have asked a very good question, as I am writing these answers to your question. I did this second trip to the DPRK, because I had more than enough the official museums and what not. I wanted to see the rest of the country, the rest of the people, hence this round the country road trip. Your question also created another question in my head:

Would it be better for tourists to go to places outside of Pyongyang?

People in Pyongyang would clearly have much better living standards, they have also seen enough foreigners that it is all boring routine situation normal. Having foreign inbound tourists going into all the cracks and crannies would really help breaking down the walls between people inside and outside of the DPRK, help build understandings, and have money flowing into the local economies (we ate at local restaurants, and we would actually stop in the middle of the road or a park and buy drinks or junk food from a kiosk randomly, our tour guides helped with buying and translating, no restriction at all).

On the other hand, it is much easier for foreign tourists to get used to things in Pyongyang than outside (it is more sensitive outside of Pyongyang). It is also much easier to keep naughty tourists under control in Pyongyang (see my trip report in 2018). Less change of things going wrong. Hence it is good for people to go to Pyongyang as a start.

 

[Chicken]

Did you ever watch the Michael Palin show because one of the areas that he went looks very similar to the rocks in your photos above

Oh yes, thanks for reminding. I was going to do that but I never got to. Notice my last post was 17/4, which was 2 weeks ago, then I suddenly stopped writing this trip report until today? Because I needed to work on Centrelink and SEEK.

Remind me if I don't give you an answer to this question on that scene, by next weekend.

 

[Chicken]

Before we leave Kumgangsan, I found some background story on Wikipedia, where a south Korean tourist was shot dead by the military, tourism stopped, and investment from Hyundai was seized by the DPRK government. English part of the Hyundai web site is still up promoting this area although the Korean part has been taken down. Feel free to inquire about a packaged holiday with an authorised Hyundai travel agent!

Today will be a long drive, but with stops in between. See this driving route on Google map. We are going:
- Kumgangsan / Mount Kumgang 금강산
- Kosong 고성
- Wonsan Agricultural University 원산농업대학
- Songowon International Children's Camp
- Lunch at Masiryong Ski Resort
- Pyongyang


This first photo is actually Kosong 고성 a very small town. Again, you could probably tell from the apartments.


I think they are fishing wires? Or fish farms?

From now in is back to Wonsan.


Greenhouses inside Wonsan. As I said previously, I only saw 1 greenhouse on my last trip. They are just everywhere this year. Guess the results from greenhouses are good!

 

[Chicken]

This is the Wonsan Agricultural University 원산농업대학

First we went into a room, to see the history and achievements.



The photos above show people rebuilding this university, while the war was still ongoing.


Here are some of the achievements. See photo of a pig on the top right of this picture (to the right of the tractor). This university managed to grow this pig to 250 KG.


This watermelon weighted 12 KG.


And these tomatoes were 1 KG each.