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 Nampo to Pyongyang We're going to watch the cranes! It's important to get up early or they will all be gone. It takes about half an hour before the mountain is empty, so we should not oversleep. Mr O thinks it will get light around 4.30 to 5 o clock. Sasja is not even thinking about to getting up at such a ghastly hour early for a bunch of birds, so I set the alarm of the alarm clock at 7 and decide so sleep "alert" so I will wake up as soon as Mr O knocks on the door. That was a real bad idea. Afraid to oversleep I wake up all the time to look at the clock. The first time it's 1 o clock at night, then 1.30, then 2, then 3, then 4.30 and finally 5 o clock, but it's still pitch dark outside. At 5 I'm totally wrecked and I couldn't care less about all the cranes in the world. Annoyed I fall asleep again, until I suddenly wake up at six because it's light outside! I run to the balcony, and yes: there they go! Just as I reach for my camera Mr O knocks on the door. Come on, outside, quickly! Hurriedly I slip on some clothes and there we go: I with both my photo and video camera, and Mr O in his under shirt. Fast paced we walk to the spot with the best view and admire the birds flying overhead. Really, i t's a cool sight. We may be too late for the big flock of birds, but there are still a lot of them winging their way through the grey morning light. The mountain, now dark green with a rapidly diminishing number of with dots, is completely white with birds at night. I film and take pictures, while Mr O enthusiastically points out "Look, there's a big one!". And then his guide routine kicks in. In the past, he tells me, there weren't any cranes here at all. But since Kim Il Sung once visited this place they come here every night in large numbers to sleep on this mountain. "Ah…" I manage to squeeze out. This is an unexpected bit of information on an empty stomach at six in the morning. Cranes are very early birds! From 6.30 to 7 make a doomed attempt to get some sleep and then the alarm goes of and it's time to take our bath. We make the water a little cooler this time so we arrive clean and fresh downstairs. In the breakfast room we initially sit down at the wrong plates: this is the breakfast for our guides. They get kim chi for breakfast, we get toast, butter and fried eggs. To be honest I'm a little jealous. I would have liked some kim chi for breakfast too. We drive back to Pyongyang over the "Youth Hero Motorway" that could easily give you agoraphobia. Sasja and the guides soon fall asleep, and I'm staring out of the window, enjoying the vast empty stretch of asphalt around us. Mr Yu and I do a little pantomime. We gesture to each other that we don't understand why every one is sleeping, and it really makes us laugh. It turns out there has been karaoke singing last night, hence the sleepyness. Along the way we're halted by a soldier who gives us a stop sign, as happens a few times every day. The drivers slows down, but not fast enough to the liking of the soldier. He has to go into a turnout, that's hard to see behind some bushes. Mr Kim and Mr Yu are not happy, but the soldier doesn't give in. Behind the turnout is a car control post, behind a wall, invisible from the road. Passing traffic is being inspected here. As soon as they see us we get waved through after all. It's obvious that tourists should not be sent through here. In Pyongyang we visit the Central History Museum at Kim Il Sung square. The square is crowded because there are exercises going on for the big parade on october 10th, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the workers party. Thousands of children, clad in black pants and white shirts, are awaiting their turn, either standing or sitting in neat rows. You can see them everywhere in the city, walking around with their practice sticks shaped like flares or flowers, they will have to wave in de parade. Today they're al wearing yellow baseball caps, earlier this week we saw all white caps. And sometimes you'll see loads of children wearing caps with Nike or Adidas logos. That looks odd. The only other people you see wearing brand logos on their clothes are tourists. Mr Yu is really making an effort again to drop us off right at the door of the museum. To do this he has to drive very closely along the sitting children. I'm not so amused, I'd rather have walked these 10 meters in stead of being manoeuvred between the people like a kind of VIP. But well, that's how things go over here. They wish to unload us right at the doorstep. Well, at least we won't get lost this way. Lots of practise going on in front of the Central History Museum at Kim Il Sung square The museum offer little new insights, because we've heard most of the stories before, this week. What's cool is a model of the so called Korean "turtle boat". These were war ships with a roof over the deck that's covered with sharp stings to avoid entering and other attacks from enemies. They were invented at the end of the 16th century to keep the Japanese neighbours out, who've been persistently intrusive though the ages. These boats also have been sent after the General Sherman, it seems. They are quite creative, and look a bit Viking style with the dragon head up front. An other high light is a demonstration on an old traditional musical instrument of which I've forgotten its name. It looks like a kind of carillon, and the guide gets some pretty good melodies out of it. In one of the last rooms we visit, Sasja discovers some Dutch documents. They are two old bills: one for renting a room and one from an undertaker. It seems that some one passed away during negotiations ore something like that, but it has escaped my mind whether it was before, during or after the Korean war. The guides listen with interest as we translate the papers. And then we're done and the local guide asks me the favorite last question of all the guides: "Now you've seen all this, what do you think of it?" Ha, that's an easy one. Enthusiastically I tell her that it's all very interesting, because we've been here for a week and everything we heard starts to fall in place and we're really getting the big picture now. "So it's very interesting!" I add again. She's content with my answer. It's our last day in North Korea and we have a burning question: where can we get a nice propaganda poster? So far, we've only seen tigers and landscapes, which are all very beautiful, but not what we would like to get. Mr Kim knows the solution. He thinks it odd that western tourists want to hang Korean political posters on the walls of their living room in stead of an idyllic waterfall, but if that's what they want, it can be arranged. He's seen similar cases. He takes us to the souvenirs shop in the basement of the Yanggakdo Hotel where a bunch of posters gets retrieved from behind a curtain. We roll em out on the floor one by one. We choose a nice poster with lots of orange and some fist shaking workers on it. The message is that one should support the party and thus the country. We're very happy. We have lunch in the Revolving Restaurant and this time we have a great view, because it's a bright and sunny day for the first time we're here. Sasja wants to get Korean strawberry soda with his lunch, and the waitresses think this is rather hilarious. Real man drink beer! Especially men who are two meters tall. I asked if we could make a stop by the Juche Tower again to see it the elevator is working again and Mr O is willing to squeeze this into this afternoons schedule. It's our last day today! When we arrive at the tower, the lift is still under maintenance. Mr O is not amused. Some irritated words are being exchanged and suddenly a lady arrives who opens the door for us. We can go up. As an exception. On the elevator. The Tower of the Juche Idea. We're at the platform under the flame. Decorations View from the Juche Tower, with us blocking it There's a viewing platform at about 150 meters, just under the torch of the tower. Pyongyang is bathing in sunlight and looks radiant today. We can see almost all the sites visited or seen this week: Kim Il Sung square, the ice rink, the Mayday Stadium, the workers party monument, the Ruyongong Hotel pyramid, the Yanggakdo Hotel on it's island in the Teadong, etcetera. We take the elevator down again and browse through the always present souvenirs. Because it's our last day here now is the time to decide what last minute souvenirs we should get. It's not like you go to North Korea every week. Sasja, who doesn't really fancy heights gets himself a miniature Juche Tower. It looks like it's plastic, but it's actually carved and painted wood. The saleswoman even demonstrates who it can be taken apart in several pats to better fit in our luggage tomorrow. We get to see some historic relics: the ancient eastern city gate of Pyongyang, nowadays located in the center of the city, near the Teadong river. It's nice at the river banks. People are sitting on benches in the shade of the trees and a girl in black and white school outfit is making homework. Or maybe she's going over the choreography of the parade: at the other side of the street, at the Kim Il Sung square practice is still going on. ` We cross the street and walk a little. We're walking in the street! Just like that! Between Koreans! It's hardly a week ago that we walked between people in the subway station, but in the mean time we've gotten completely unused to it. What's more: we've tried so hard to behave perfectly that I almost feel like I'm doing something illegal. The uneasiness is mutual. A little girl who sees Sasja approaching quickly hides behind a tree. Help, it's a western giant! As he walks past she circles the tree it is always in between them as a safe barrier. We arrive at the street corner where the Foreign Language Bookshop is located. Here one can buy all kinds of books about North Korea in English, German, French and Spanish. But first we can take pictures of the female traffic cop on the intersection. The traffic policewomen (In Keasong we also saw men, but in Pyongyang only women) are a tourist attraction by themselves and this is the dedicated tourist photo spot. The Pyongyang police women are clad in a white uniform jacket and a turquoise blue skirt above the knee. Under it they wear nice black shoes and cute white socks. With their bright white gloves they hold the baton they use to direct traffic with an elegant series of arm movements and well choreographed turns around their own axis. Today the weather is sunny, so the policewoman wears a hip pair of sunglasses under her big police hat. Her carefully red colored lips complete the ensemble. Pyongyang has the cutest traffic cops in the world! At the door of the book store two girls start talking to us. In English! For a moment I'm totally taken aback by the simple fact some one talks to us who's not our guide. They look Asian, but not from here. Too hip haircuts. "We are from Japan" they confirm when I ask, "but we are Korean!" and then they leave. Sasja buys a photo book about the DPRK, called "Fifty Glorious Years" and some video CDs with Korean songs. Then the van takes us to the stamp shop. We expect a small stamp shop, but we enter a big room, full of displays with Korean stamps. It's simply too much to see all of it, so overwhelmed I sit down in a big leather chair, while Sasja studies the impressive collection. Among other things, he gets a few A4 size prints of stamps with Kim Il Sung on them. They are wrapped up very carefully, separated from the other stamps, into a flat packet. A portrait of the president is off course not to be rolled up. You also have to be careful with newspapers that have pictures of the Kim's in them. Old newspapers are not, like we do at home, used to wrap up fish. That's for sure. The next item on our schedule is a visit to the Embroidery Institute. This is not something we're really looking forward to. I mean, embroidery, how exiting can that be? I didn't like it when I was in school and it never got any better. This is a mistake: the Embroidery Institute turns out to be unexpectedly interesting. The Embroidery Institute was founded by Kim Jong Suk, the mother of Kim Jong Il. Day after day women and girls work here, bent over their embroidery work. This is where the girls end up who we've seen embroidering at the Schoolchildrens Palace. One of the places their work is being sold is in tourist shops. They are working hard. In one room we see women working with special foot powered sewing machines, making lace table clothes and embroidering flowers on traditional dresses. A bit further, girls are sitting bent over flower patterns. In a different room paintings of landscapes and cranes are being copied in embroidery. Small items are being made by one person and on large items sometimes six women are working at the same time. The largest pieces we see are 20 meters long red banners, on which Korean characters are being embroidered in bright yellow. All by hand. Some ladies smile when we enter and take pictures, others are shy and pretend not to see us, but no one pauses their work, not even for a moment. Flowers on traditional dress Working hard... with lots of colors In the hallway's we see "paintings" made with a kind of 3 dimensional embroidery technique. De image get real depth by the differences in height. Very special. The specialty of the house is double sided embroidery. It's embroidered on very thin, see through, fabric and on the other side the exact same image is embroidered, but then mirrored. the loose end of the treads disappear inside of the dense embroidery. The result is put between glass so both sides can be admired. This is high class embroidery: very difficult and loads of work. We conclude the tour in the gallery/shop of the Embroidery Institute. We inspect all displayed items thoroughly, but buy nothing. There are lots of landscapes and flowers, and off course pictures of the volcanic lake at Mt Paektu, the birth place of Kim Il Sung at Manyongdae, the popular Korean tigers, cranes and several rather kitsch looking cats and dogs. Mr O sat down for a minute, behind a desk. With the wooden desk in front of him and a artistically embroidered chamber screen behind him, he looks like the president of a multinational company, so I ask him to pose for a picture. That's ok, but then he also want his photo taken with an embroidered picture of a large tiger. That's more to his liking. Cheerfully we leave the building and take some more pictures outside. The unfinished Ryugyong Hotel rise up high behind the building of the Embroidery Institute, so we can take a good look at it. Although construction has stopped about ten years ago, there's still a construction crane sticking out of the top of the building, like the construction workers just have gone out for lunch and the work will be resumed any moment. Lots of Embroidery Mr O and the tiger The Embroidery Institute Yay, we're going to the circus! The Pyongyang circus is not located in a tent, but has it's own building. When we arrive its turns out Mr Kim didn't get tickets yet. Mr O parks us in the waiting room and I use this opportunity to go to the bathroom. That's interesting. I've gotten used by now to not having locks on the door, but this chic looking, polished wooden door also has a very large window, that covers almost all of the door. Only your shoes are not visible for people waiting outside. Fortunately no one else needs to use the bathroom, that's good. When we walk upstairs, Mr Kim is waiting for us with the tickets and a big grin. The look on his face says "Where were you?" The show is announced by a lady in a red traditional dress, who's telling a lengthy story of which we only understand "Kim Il Sung". Don't think you can "just" go to the circus, the president is omni present, always and everywhere. The stage has a round swimming basin in it, that gets closed later in the show, so the whole floor can be used. That's funny, we saw something like that before, in Las Vegas in the theatre of the Cirque de Soleil where they perform the show "O". Would some one have gotten that idea here? We watch synchronous swimming, an act with trained pigeons, and beautiful acrobatic acts, one by a very young boy, a student of the circus school. Trapeze workers fly high through the air and clowns perform different in between acts. It's a colorful spectacle. The Pyongyang circus Our goodbye meal is Korean Duck Barbecue. The table has a grill built in and every one gets a plate with pieces of raw duck meat to put on it. The guides operate the switches to turn the fire lower or higher. There are different sauces to dip the duck meat in. Our guides think Sasja and I aren't eating enough and start dropping pieces of meat in our sauces. But off course in the end we're completely full while they are still happily going on. This time Sasja also orders the Pyongyang noodles in stead of rice. They're very tasty, but eating them all is not so easy after all this duck meat. Especially not with the smooth metal Korean chopsticks!! Our guides The whole party Korean Duck BBQ That's how to hold your chopsticks to eat Pyongyang noodles In a melancholic mood we drive back to the hotel. Our last night in North Korea. Tomorrow we get on the train back to Beijing and tonight we have to pack our bags. Bleh. I hate packing and when I am at some place I usually don't want to leave. Especially not now, because Korea is the last country we go to on this trip, so the inevitable journey back home is coming nearer. And besides, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this fascinating country. In the hotel lobby we run into the English tourists we saw yesterday at the Hot Spring House. They will be on the same train tomorrow. One of the men asks if we're ready for the trip back. "No" I say from the bottom of my hart, "I don't want to leave yet." He looks at me as if I've just said something really really weird. We make a last round through the book shop and the souvenir shop and take the elevator up to our room on the 33rd floor. In the corridor we see the guides of the English group ring the doorbell of a room. A fat British guy opens the door. The guides tell him at what time breakfast will be served tomorrow, but this does not land well with him. Simon already told us about English people who want to have English food where ever they are. Well, this guy is obviously one of them. He starts screaming at the startled guides: "I don't want your food! I want English food! Give me my train ticket so I can get out of this country! This is all crap!" We are standing there, glued to the ground. The man's face has become all red by his own screaming and he pauses for breath. The guides answer dryly: "We leave tomorrow 9.30" and leave without any further ado. The Briton slams his door shut. When the guides have disappeared around the corner we're still standing in the corridor, open mouthed and feeling ashamed for his behaviour. Where does some one get the nerve to complain this way about the food? In Korea of all places, which had a massive famine only a few years ago and still gets donated lots of foreign food aid and where, as a tourist, you get treated like a king and get served meals too big to finish every day. We consider running after the guides to apologize for his behaviour, but they've disappeared from our sight so we just open the door to our room and go inside. When some body only wants to eat English food, what's he doing in North Korea, one wonders. Why did he ever leave England? And besides, the English food doesn't seem to do him much good, his belly stretches from London to Liverpool.