Dates preface 26-08-2005 27-08-2005 28-08-2005 29-08-2005 30-08-2005 31-08-2005 01-09-2005 02-09-2005 03-09-2005 back home 4 Dutchies Pyongyang to Nampo Today Mr O has a surprise for us. He changed the schedule a bit and we will visit the film studio, cool! The weather today is very gray, and Pyongyang is shrouded in rain. It provides great street scenes. People are hurrying through the city on rubber boots carrying umbrellas in every color. Many ladies even have matching boots and umbrella's. It looks unexpectedly colorful for such nasty weather. The police women who direct traffic wear very large see through plastic coats, so you can still see their pretty uniforms underneath. But by far the coolest scene we see is a soldier riding a bike, wearing a bright yellow rain poncho over his uniform and transporting his folded Kalashnikov in the basket at the front of his bicycle. We drive out of the city over a little dike and I cheerfully explain to our guides that this is exactly what Holland looks like: dikes, grass, willow trees and rain! The film studio covers a large area. We first see a huge mosaic with scenes from various Korean movies. The studio has a staff of 1300 people, 200 of them actors. Kim Jong Il is a big film fan and he has visited the studio many times. Then we get a tour through the mock up streets, built in various styles to be used as backgrounds. We see a traditional Korean village, the area around Mt Paektu,, South Korea in the 50's (with bars and brothels for the American soldiers), Japan in the 30's, a Chinese shopping street and a part with European houses. With Mr O and our chain smoking film studio guide we walk through times and countries like it's nothing, followed by the van with Mr Kim and Mr Yu. Terrain of the film studio Old Korean village Decadent Japan in the 30ties In the part with buildings from the Koryo dynasty we can have our picture taken as Koryo king and queen for 1 euro. We decide to do it, mainly to tease Eric, who has himself photographed as Chinese emperor in Beijing. Mr O gets Sasja's camera. It starts to rain again, so he put us under a little roof first. When the rain stops, a throne is shoved outside to the empty square so we can have our picture taken with the government building in the background. Our guides think it's very funny. Sasja's kings robe hardly reached his knees and Mr Kim laughingly comments that he is a king on sports shoes. With dignity Sasja replies he's very modern for his time. Sas gets crowned The Koryo Dynasty on running shoes The next item on the schedule is, on our special request, a visit to the shooting range. To our surprise we read on the web this was possible. The range is in the sports district of Pyongyang, some where beyond the soccer hall and the tea kwon do building. It's a great range: 50 meters distance and equipped with an electronic shot registration system. After each shot a monitor in on your shooting stance shows you how many pints you shot (until one decimal) and at the end of s series you push a button and print the results, including average and best shot. On top of that there's a monitor above each shooting stance. Behind the range is a tribune, with about 70 bright yellow chairs from which you can follow the results of the shooters through the large window. The shooting is rather expensive: we pay 1 euro for 3 rounds .22 and that's a lot more than in Holland. But hey, we're tourists. We shoot some pistol (Margolin and Hämmerli) and rifle (Weirauch) until it's getting too expensive. We're assisted by two ladies in coat and skirt, who wear signs that say "waitress". They do not use the protective glasses that our mandatory at our range, but when we asked they pull out a pair of earmuffs. When we want to wear the earmuffs for rifle shooting as well, they just laugh at us. Since a quite value my hearing abilities I pull some rubber earplugs out of my bag and put those in my ears. Before we leave we ask if we can take home an empty ammo box, as a souvenir. This leads to some miscommunication, because at first they think we want a full box, which is off course not allowed. But in the end we get what we want. We're gonna frame that one! Mr Kim thinks its very funny that I shot better than Sasja and says Sasja has to pay for drinks tonight. Range with shot registration ...and tribune! The ammo box Today we get the lunch in the revolving restaurant at the hotel. Unfortunately it's very foggy, so our view from the 47th floor doesn't go very far. And there's no revolving either. That's probably because we're the only guests. Later more people come in and we start to move. That's quite weird: because it goes so slowly it gives me a weird feeling in my head. Actually we enjoyed standing still better, haha. I suddenly remember how I didn't think the revolving restaurant in the Berlin TV tower very relaxed either, 10 years ago. Revolving Restaurant on the 47th floor Korean strawberry soda After lunch we wrap up our luggage again, because tonight we go to Nampo. But first we visit the Mansudae Art Studio, where we came to a closed door last sunday. The art studio is totally full of all the art you can get here: aquarelle paintings, embroidery, chamber screens, ceramics, and one thing even more beautiful than the other. Everything but the propaganda posters we like so much, because those are politics, not art. We investigate all three floors and every time we leave one the light is turned of behind us. The prices are indicated in Korean won's and therefore astronomical figures. We ask about the price of an aquarelle that I really like, but it still 300 euros, an amount that kind of exceeds our budget. Apart from that, the paper is pinned to a background with push pins. Pushpins, argh! In the end we decide to buy 4 rice bowls in Koryo style. A great reminder of Korea when we eat rice or soup out of them. They are wrapped up carefully in a large sheet of bubble warp. We're done, but our van is gone. Mr Yu is probably getting gas and outside it's pouring with rains, so we wait inside until he gets back. Mr O makes his round past the art on the ground floor and then sits down serenely on a bench. There are also some big leather chairs you can really sink into. And there's a tiger. It's a life size metal tiger, realistically painted as a tiger with all stripes, hairs etcetera on it. The tiger is waiting to be sent. It has been bought buy a Japanese man for 3500 euros who wants to put it in his yard. The only thing the tiger lacks are whiskers, what makes Mr Kim remark that must be a female tiger, because she has no beard. The driver returns with the van. Because the rain is still coming down abundantly we wait on the stairs of the building, under the overhanging roof, until Mr Yu opens the side door and Mr O climbs in the rear seat. Then I run to the van. Sasja waits a few moments, until I get in, so he can get in directly without getting too wet. A lady from the art gallery seems to think he's afraid of the rain and decides to help him. With both her hands she pushes Sasja in his back and shoves him down the stairs without mercy. Real men can stand a little rain. Giggling we install ourselves in our seats for the ride to Nampo. The highway from Pyongyang to Nampo is called the "Youth Hero Motorway" because it has been "voluntarily" built in the year 2000 by youth on the occasion of the 55the anniversary of the Korean workers party. The road is 55 kilometers long and 100 meters wide. In practice this means a road that's two times 5 lanes wide, with a double continuous line in the middle, on which we are the only motorized traffic. We are watching around in amazement. This road is only five years old, but it's full of bumps and holes. Mr Yu avoids them skillfully, and uses all five lanes to do so. And when he encounters even more holes he also uses the other side of the road. There isn't any traffic anyway. What a lovely bizarre road! I would love to drive here myself! One of the few times we meet a fellow road user is when we drive behind an other car for a while, both vehicles with two wheels left and two wheels right of the double line in the middle. At Nampo we check out the West Sea barrage. The Teadong river, that runs trough Pyongyang flows into the Korean West Sea here. On high tide, the salt sea water used to come far up the river, even all the way to Pyongyang. Because of this the river water was not suitable to use for drinking water or for industrial use. That's why the West Sea Barrage was built: an eight kilometers long dam, with several sluices to let ships pass from the river to the sea and back. After five years of building the dam was completed in 1986. Since then the water of the Teadong river is suitable for agricultural and industrial use and to make drinking water. The West Sea Barrage Visitors center Video on the construction We look at the dam and the sluices that look big and impressive. On the sea there's a myriad of fishing boats, it looks cool. In the visitors center we get to see a video about the construction of the dam. When the video is over, the local guide asks us if we have any questions. We don't so we're out of there quickly. Back in the van I tell to Mr O that we can relate to the West Sea Barrage story because Holland has a long history of dams and dikes. I draw a map of Holland and start explaining about the Afsluitdijk. Sasja warns me in Dutch: We just heard this heroic story about the construction of this eight kilometers long dam, that people here are very proud of and then I start babbling cheerfully about a Dutch dike that's four times a long as this one. I quickly add that the Afsluitdijk doesn't have such an elaborate sluice system as the West Sea Barrage. Mr O in the mean time is busy studying my sketch of Holland and asks where Germany, Belgium and France are located on this map. He has been in Moscow once and in Berlin, at the Brandenburger gate. All the way by train from Korea. We go to the Hot Spring house, previously a government resort with thermal water, but now also open for tourism. It's situated rustically between villages and farmland near Nampo. From the outside we only see a concrete wall and a soldier with an AK at the gate. Inside there's a sign that welcomes us. Our group of five gets one of the spacious houses that are dotted over the terrain. Every one has their own room, decorated nicely with polished wooden furniture and a big bathtub with a faucet that give medicinal spring water. Mr O decides we will take a bath now and have dinner in one hour. So we do. The nicely shaped bathtub is covered with miniature tiles in bright blue, green and red and there's even a deck chair to relax in. Actually quite a good idea: our floating thermometer shows the water is about 38 degrees Celcius, so after 15 minutes we both are red like cooked lobsters. Our van, our house and the green environment Our room has nice furniture and a bath with spring water In the lobby of the "recreation building" there's a huge painting in the hallway. Hey, Vladimir Putin was here. Sasja recognizes the painting as the background in a picture we saw elsewhere. Mr O takes us to the karaoke room, where a video is shown about the resort. At first it's in Korean, but after some searching it gets switched for an English version. In the mean time, we're sitting there with the tree of us, in big leather chairs, with a large empty dance floor at our feet and full disco lights on, while leafing through the list of karaoke song titles. When we get into the dining room a table that could seat at least 6 people is prepared for two. That's our table. The six persons table next to it, is prepared for 3 people. That one is for our guides and driver. And the seats are chosen in such a way that we would sit with our backs turned towards them! Not our idea of fun. In a wave of touristic unruliness we prepare to move our stuff over to their table, but a waitress comes in, tells us to sit down and moves their stuff over to our table. Now it's easy to see that we get served more food than our guides and drives, that's kind of embarrassing. It's not that they get too little food by the way, it's just that we get an enormous amount again. Shortly thereafter a group of English tourists enter. They do fill a whole table with their group. Their guides see our guides sharing our table and directly start joking to them. In Korean off course, but we think we catch the drift. If maybe they are too good to share a table with their colleague guides. Al the guides know each other very well off course, because during tourist season they all live in the same hotel and they meet each other everywhere all the time, so remarks fly back and forth. The same goes for the staff at the hotel bar or in this resort. I ask the guides for help and explanation on how to properly hold the chopsticks. I can eat quite well with chopsticks, I don't drop anything and I really don't have to starve, but now I've been shamelessly laughed at by a Chinese for the second time, I'd like to know how it should be done offically. Mr Kim and Mr O both start to explain and show how to do it and I look from the left to the right and try to repeat it as good as I can, which causes some hilarious moments. Personally I feel that using the sticks official way I have less grip on them, but that doesn't really mean anything because I also hold my pen in a very weird grip when I'm writing. After a while I understand how to do it, so now I have to practice. Mr Kim ordered a half liter bottle of Korean vodka. On the label it's printed that the alcohol percentage is 40%, but the 40 has been crossed out by pen and is changed into 25. I drink water with my dinner, because due to a complicated diet I'm not allowed to drink alcohol. But halfway the meal I decide to try the vodka anyway. You're not every day in NK, after all! I empty my water glass and pour some vodka in it, from which I take small sips. The vodka tastes good and the fact that it's North Korea vodka makes it taste even better. Cool! But I drink slowly, because I'm not used to drinking alcohol anymore. Then a waitress walks by, carrying a tea kettle. And because it's a tea kettle (or so I think) I am not alert about my water glass with vodka. However, it turns out there's not tea in the kettle but water, and the waitress, very attentive, pours my glass full of water. Oh, there goes my vodka! "Nohoo" I exclaim, but it's too late. The waitress looks a bit startled when the guides translate what's going on, but I think the whole situation is rather hilarious and burst out in laughter. The rest of the vodka I consume giggling as a very thin solution. Video in the karaoke room Sas selects a song Pool in Korea! After dinner we decide to shoot some pool. I play against Mr Kim and then Sasja plays against Mr O, who even removes his glasses. Several bottles of Korean beer are being consumed and Mr Yu, who doesn't speak English, gestures that he doesn't want any more beer, or he won't be able to drive tomorrow. Sasja pretends to pour beer in his glass anyway and with lots of gestures we explain we want to get him drunk, so we get to drive on this great empty two times five lanes road tomorrow. Our driver seems to understand this very well and is laughing out loudly. Around eleven we walk back to the house with Mr O while the others are playing some ping pong. "Single men" Mr O says shaking his head. No doubt there will be lots of alcohol flowing tonight. The driver is married, but many guides are single. If you are the eldest son, like Mr Kim for example, you have the task to maintain your parents and you cannot from your own family for a while. But we are going to bed. Mr O and I plan to get up very early in the morning to see a very special spectacle. On a nearby mountain every night there sleep thousands of cranes. They wake up and fly away at the first sight on sunrise and the whole air is full of birds then. Mr O shows us from what spot we have the best view of the mountain, but this is a real bungalow parks where everything looks alike and when we walk back we almost enter the wrong building in the dark. Sidenote: This profile of Kim Jong Il on the BBC-website features a picture of him and Madeleine Albright standing in front of the Sea painting I mentioned above. Scroll down one page to see it.