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

[Chicken]

After being watched, we now doing the opposite: walk freely in the street. We easily worked 5 + km.

We started at this square. You see the white paint dots on the ground, they are used for soldiers doing matches parade when something is on.





Turn our bodies around at this square is this river which flows right thru Pyongyang.







I do personally like junk food, so I can't resist looking into 7-11. Packets of chips and cookies ...



I have seen a lot of solar panels, both inside Pyongyang and also in country towns. They would even stick them outside the balcony of a high rise apartment.

Since there is oil embargo from China, self reliance is a better option?







I think these are the movies on? Anyone Korean here?

 

[Alyopsis]

Very interesting report. The city has that desolate look, kind of like Civic on a Sunday. Look forward to reading more. The train trip back into China should be interesting

 

[Melburnian1]

Ara the chips and biscuits ("cookies" as you call them) mostly manufactured in mainland China, Vietnam, the USA or North or South Korea?

 

[Melburnian1]

,How could you walk five km? I thought outside the designated hotel, all travellers had to be accompanied by a guide.

 

[gazzax2]

It is hard to convince check in area that I should be let in to the business check in queue / desk, when I often turn up in a t-shirt and demon shorts.

I have the same problem! Shorts and a t-shirt is the way to go... And Because I'm in my late 20s often fly business and have been a gold member for 6 years, I often have the oldies and staff stop in disbelief.


This is a great thread BTW, very interesting.

 

[QF_Flyer]

Fascinating, great TR! Look forward to reading the rest. North Korea is somewhere which intrigues me, I aim to visit at some point in my life!

 

[lolouni]

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I think these are the movies on? Anyone Korean here?[/QUOTE]

Korean migrant here. You're right, those signs saying movie titles - one animation and another one for "Egyptian" art movie.

Like many others, for me too, this is fascinating - really appreciate your trip report.
As a Korean(South, of course) I do wish one day I could visit North.
Considering what's happening recently maybe in very near future . Who knows.

 

[dmgale1960]

Wow this is super interesting. Many thanks for sharing. I had been interested in visiting but seeing your photos .... maybe I will pass!

 

[trentusjuventus]

Thanks for sharing, enjoying this TR very much!

 

[Chicken]

More walking ......

We walked more than a few kilometres. The Singapore papa with signs of Pakinsons was getting quite tired, so his daughter and I stayed with him. The rest of the tour group was far far ahead. This gave me chances of taking photos without a big group in the photo.

















Looking at these photos after the trip, I realised that the town look very dead. I can assure you there were streets which were very quiet; but there are also many streets which were busy. This bridge was not quiet at all, we had to constantly dodge people and bicycles (bicycles share the sidewalk with pedestrians here)

 

[Chicken]

We had lunch, and tried a new beer. This is even more blend than 'number 2'.



Then we went to the village where President Kim Il Sung was born. It was the actual location, but just a recreation of what the huts looked like, the cooking equipment they had back in those days. We were also told how poor the family was, and the parents of President Kim Il Sung weren't exactly happy that he went off to fight the Japanese and joined politics.



Yeah, it wasn't special at all, so I didn't even take photo. It was less than ordinary.

 

[Chicken]

,How could you walk five km? I thought outside the designated hotel, all travellers had to be accompanied by a guide.

Sorry I did not explain well. Let me clarify.

Normally, say you go to point A, then next stop is point B, so you would get on a bus, drive from point A to point B. This time, we walked down the streets for kilometres.

We saw our Australian tour organiser that late afternoon, and he told us that, we were the first group of foreigners allowed to walk down the streets. If we have been there 6 or 8 months ago, we would see the streets full of anti American propaganda, and there was no way we would be allowed to walk the streets. We would be confined on the bus. He thought that it sucks to be stuck on a bus, so he pushed the officials to allow us to walk.

Actually, remembered how the person from USA disappeared at the airport? This time, he walked into a shop on his own, without the tour guides knowing. I ran up to our female guide, I led her back to the shop, and the 2 shopkeepers were standing outside the shop, very embarassed, didn't know what to do. Our guide had to tell him to come out.

The Australian organiser told him later that day, in no uncertain term, that he was putting himself and the tour guides at risk.

 

[kelvedon]

Fascinating TR. really enjoying it

 

[Chicken]

As a Korean(South, of course) I do wish one day I could visit North.

There are currently 3 types of passports which are unable to enter Korea: Malaysia, USA, South Korea. You can go in if you hold any other passport, even if you are ethnic South Korean.

Ara the chips and biscuits ("cookies" as you call them) mostly manufactured in mainland China, Vietnam, the USA or North or South Korea?

Since you ask, we would time travel a few days into the future, when we went to what is the equivalent of David Jones in Pyongyang.

We went into this department store well after sunset. It was multi level. We stayed on the ground floor, which was half food, and the other half selling white goods and small appliances. I think the levels above were fashions.

This is the only department store, where foreigners are legally allowed to exchange Korean Won. The official exchange rate is USD 1 = KPW 8000 . One of our guides told us that it would be somewhere between 800 to 8000 in the black market.

We all exchanged Korean Won, then we went to the food department and we were let free. Yep, that is, we mixed with the locals, and the Chinese tourists, on our own, without being watched by our tour guides. It was really really busy, I don't think Solomon Lew would be able to stir anything if Myer gets similar foot traffic.

The first hurdle was going into the food department with bags. For revenue protection, they have what are large shoulder bags, so you put your bags / handbags into it, then they zip the bag, and secure it using those round plastic security devices you see tagged onto garments at Target / Myer / etc. You cannot steal and hide stuffs. You can only have your bag unlocked after exiting check out counters.

Most of the dried ambient processed food items, think packets and jars, those things, were from Vietnam. about 20% of the floor space was for goods from Vietnam. Then there were fridges for seafood and meat. They seem either Korean or Chinese. There were also a lot of process foodstuffs from China, especially beverage like Coke / Sprite / Fanta where all 100% from China. They also had Red Bull, and they were from Thailand from memory. They had a small section of butter and cheese, all from Russia. Of course there were lots of local Korean products. These are what I am having as I write this trip report.






While everyone was busy checking out food, I spent some time at the white goods section, looking at washing machines and fridges. They were Chinese brands, including major brands like Midea and Wuxi Little Swan. Washing machines were between $170 - $380, fridges from $200 - $800 (in AUD).

 

[Chicken]

I had been interested in visiting but seeing your photos .... maybe I will pass!

Please do elaborate? Something to do with the city looking dead? Or very plain socialist theme?

 

[Chicken]

Did we say it sucks to be stuck on a bus? Well, let's do public transport - subway

First challenge; if you are scared of height, you would have problem trying to go from road surface to underground. This is steep.



Network map at the station. We are at the beginning of the red line (indicated with the red lid up light on the top left of the board). We will only do 1 stop.

There are buttons at the bottom of the board. Press the stop you want to go, and the route would light up for you (just in case you find this network a little complex )



Down to the platform. Fully Russian style: tiled pictures on the wall, all engraved, chandeliers.



In case you don't have a mobile phone (many people here have mobile phones surprisingly, if they look like having a good job), you can read today's newspaper on the platform while waiting for the next train.



Can you see our Korean tour guide here? She can't see you, because she's too busy playing with her phone, even thou she's 44

The man holding the full size video cam, like he's from TV station? He was arranged by our Australian organiser. He would film our whole tour, and burn it onto a CD, like a fully documentary from the 80s. He played half of it on the tour bus one afternoon, it was very professional. The Australian organiser said he came up with this idea, thought it would be fun, it was done in a way which looks like half doco half promo video. He said that we would watch it in a few years and think to ourselves "WTF happened?!" It was EUR 35. I will see if I can upload it later on.

Oh, we don't need to bow here, our leaders are just there to look pretty, for this one train ride.





Time to get off the train.

You can see the newspapers on clipboards in the middle of the platform.

This is one end of the platform.



Exit at the opposite end.







This is Pyongyang river

 

[Chicken]

It was already getting quite late in the evening, and there was a bit of a riot on our bus.

We were going to get dinner. We also knew that we would be going to the DMZ the next day, which turned out to be a 2.5 hours drive each way.

Some people asked our tour guide as to when would we be leaving / having to get out of bed. Our tour guide said she didn't know. And that continued, until we ended up like what is happening in the Liberal Party right now: some people trying to stay off the radar, some people trying to knife the leader. That went on for quite a while, until our leader who eventually realised that she was about to end up like Kev / Julie / Malcolm / Tony, said that, she called the army at DMZ, and they told her they had over 1000 tourists from China, they needed to clean up, and they didn't know how long it would take. Thinking back, the amount of rubbish being left behind at the stadium when we went to the mass game ......

 

[Minimalist]

Great report. Thank you.

 

[Saltywings]

My goodness, that train station is marvellous (even if it's not to my taste). Slave labour can accomplish anything.

 

[Melburnian1]

My goodness, that train station is marvellous (even if it's not to my taste). Slave labour can accomplish anything.

Similar to many stations in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.