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

[Chicken]

The followings were taken by the UK tour guide.



The followings were taken by myself.

 

[Chicken]

The plane behind was the P-537 we saw back at Pyongyang. It followed us here.




This is the airport terminal. That's it. You just walk from the plane to the building or vice versa.

 

[Chicken]

Due to windy roads, the local company organised 2 vans for us - one for human, another for luggage.



We have driven from the airport, and now arriving at the highlight of this trip - Paektu-san!



Got off the bus, at a rest area / car park area.






No, this is not a military bunker or whatever. Let me draw a diagram to tell you what is inside.

We are sending nutrient back to the nature.
Did I mention that, most public toilets in the DPRK has no running water nor toilet paper? This one is definitely no exception.


We would be going on the cable car in a sec. Well, kinda.


After a 2 hour bouncy bus ride on rural gravel roads, then going to the toilet, with no running water, it is time for lunch! Inside those plastic bags were Air Koryo sandwiches. Extra tasty!

In all seriousness, most public toilets in DPRK have no running water nor toilet paper, so you always have a roll of toilet paper with you, and you generally avoid mentioning hand washing. The upside is, the junk food we share on the bus, after each pit stop, is extra tasty!

Here is a link to the satellite photo of this mountain bus trip.

Quiz time!

This question would test how observant are you.

Look at the Google route map driving direction above. Look at the map carefully, and see if there is something interesting which should be mentioned.

 

[andye]

.....No, this is not a military bunker or whatever. Let me draw a diagram to tell you what is inside.
View attachment 218622
...

Surprisingly good wifi signal in there

 

[Chicken]

Surprisingly good wifi signal in there

Yes, there is actually a lot of Wi-Fi around, especially in Pyongyang, but a lot of them have SSID hidden.

 

[p--and--t]

Due to windy roads, the local company organised 2 vans for us - one for human, another for luggage.

We have driven from the airport, and now arriving at the highlight of this trip - Paektu-san!

Got off the bus, at a rest area / car park area.

No, this is not a military bunker or whatever. Let me draw a diagram to tell you what is inside.

We are sending nutrient back to the nature.
Did I mention that, most public toilets in the DPRK has no running water nor toilet paper? This one is definitely no exception.


We would be going on the cable car in a sec. Well, kinda.

After a 2 hour bouncy bus ride on rural gravel roads, then going to the toilet, with no running water, it is time for lunch! Inside those plastic bags were Air Koryo sandwiches. Extra tasty!

In all seriousness, most public toilets in DPRK have no running water nor toilet paper, so you always have a roll of toilet paper with you, and you generally avoid mentioning hand washing. The upside is, the junk food we share on the bus, after each pit stop, is extra tasty!

Here is a link to the satellite photo of this mountain bus trip.

Quiz time!

This question would test how observant are you.

Look at the Google route map driving direction above. Look at the map carefully, and see if there is something interesting which should be mentioned.

I notice you said 2 hours rough ride, google maps says less than one hour. So close to the border as well.

 

[Chicken]

I notice you said 2 hours rough ride, google maps says less than one hour.

It was actually around 1 hour 45 minutes. There is no way we could travel at the speed suggested by Google. This particular trip is all gravel unsealed road, and it's mountain. Also, our bus was made in China, their suspensions were not up to scratch for the road in DPRK.

Actually, the roads in DPRK in Korea are quite wide, but we always travel at much lower speed than what we could be doing in Australia, because:
- If they are paved, they are just blocks of concrete, they don't use asphalt;
- If they are rural, they could be unsealed;
- Their cars are all made in China.

Their road conditions are not much worse than Australian roads, but our roads are relatively straight, while DPRK is all mountains, and their cars are all from China with standard suspensions, while cars sold in Australia are all fitted with suspensions specifically tuned for Australia (whether you buy a cheap Daewoo or Merc), so travelling speed is much lower than what we would be doing here.

So close to the border as well.

Yes, half the mountain is under Korea while the other half is under China.

So what would you do when you are close to the border? Imagine if you have been in the DPRK, and you are now at the border, what would you do immediately?

 

[Chicken]

We each paid 5 € to get onto the cable car.



Then I think we sat on the cable car for about 15 minutes.

We were eventually told that, they have lost power. Yep, cable car is now "under renovation"



Our tour guide said to us, that at least the cable car lost power when we were still at the base. Imagine if we were to lose power up half way.

We immediately got our full 5 € back each though, unlike Flight Centre.

 

[Chicken]

How did they move these rocks up here?

 

[Chicken]

You could see the top in the photo above. I only went half way. It was a tough walk. 90% of people went all the way to the top, including our 79 years old birthday boy.



So before we leave, back to the quiz question of what is interesting here. Well, half the lake is under China, half is under DPRK, the line is somewhere above the water.

What does this mean? This means checking your phone while there is mobile phone signal from China!!!

A few of us really enjoyed our time up here with 4G from China



Hope you could tell the angle of the slope from this photo, but this shows how slow we had to drive, like 5 km/h.

 

[Chicken]

The next day is 2019-09-17 Tuesday. We would be getting on the plane, and fly from Paektu san (mountain) to Mount Chilbo / Chilbo san 칠보산

A warning here. We are going to the very northern region. This is the most conservative area, so unlike what we have been doing and just taking random photos, NO PHOTO unless you have been told it is OK to take photo. Do NOT try and be sneaky. If you have been found out, then the local tour guide would never trust us, and the whole tour group will suffer, and no photo will be allowed for the whole trip, so no photo remember.

Now, let's get on the plane.

This is JS3541 from YJS (Samjiyon 삼지연) to RGO (Orang 어랑)


Yep, just handwritten. That's it.


Back on the same plane we took here.

 

[Chicken]

Don't think I have mentioned, but I talked to another Australian, and we both thought that the seats were old but actually comfortable, being the right angle and spacious. He even said that he wouldn't mind flying this back to Australia. Unlike what we 'normally' fly like Airbus, where we are just clamped together.

 

[Chicken]

We have arrived in Chilbo san, or Mount Chilbo (七寶山/칠보산), which directly translated to seven treasure mountains. I forgot what the story was, sorry (any Korean here?)

You can see that we are actually along the coast to the Sea of Japan.

 

[Chicken]

Go to the viewing platform to get some fresh air and get the view first.

Now, can you find some rock, which looks like a person playing the piano?