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 Koryo Tours At the airport we meet Simon from Koryo Tours. He gives us our planes tickets and passports, which now have a tourist card for North Korea in them. Much to our regret, we do not get a nice visa sticker like for the Russian, Mongolian and Chinese visa. This paper will be taken away when we leave the country and we won't get any stamps in our passports. Maybe this is better for our next visit to the US, but still we would have liked a nice Korean sticker and some impressive stamps. Simon is the tour leader of a group of British guys who, whoever would have thought of this, go golfing in North Korea. There's also a French guy, who booked an individual tour, like us. He'll be on the same train back to Beijing so Simon introduces us to one another. When we wait for check in, we see a large group of Koreans in sports clothes, with "D.P.R. Korea" on the backs of their jackets. We guess they are returning home from a student sport event in Turkey. They are bringing back enormous amounts of luggage, lots of western consumer goods. Judging by the boxes, quite a lot of DVD players have been bought. At the counter next to us a large group of Dutch people are waiting. They're on a different flight, also to Pyongyang. Simon told us a story he heard at the Korean embassy yesterday when he went there to get our visas. A Dutch tour operator had brought the whole tour group to the embassy to get their visa. It was a long wait so they started singing songs. An embassy staff member came to them and angrily asked if they knew where they were. Apparently they responded by singing another song. Simon was quite shocked by this story. We guess this is this group. Their suitcases are aligned in front of the check in counter and the tour leader is proactively recruiting for some strong men from the group to get the luggage on the belt so the ground stewardess can label them. The stewardess does not like this plan, she just walks along the line of bags and labels them where they stand. A bit later, the Dutch tour leader has sneaked behind the counter anyway. And cheerfully says to the Chinese lady "Now we are colleagues!" Yet another culture clash. [skipped a non relevant part about Beijing airport] Our plane is an Iljoesjin, an old Russian plane. The interior looks seventies (original that is, not retro!) and from the ceiling surreal looking clouds of white mist are being released. It's undoubtedly meant to moisten the air, but I immediately start fantasizing about the possibilities of aroma therapy for passenger control. And they play Korean opera music. When everybody had been seated the mist stops. The plane it not very large and Sasja is stuck with his knees in the chair in front of him. His tray table cannot be lowered to a flat position because his knees are in the way. Unfortunately the plane is completely full so there are no possibilities for extra legroom. We hadn't expected so many people to fly to Pyonyang. Rumor has it that that an extra flight has even been scheduled for today, the Dutch group seem to be on it. What are all these people going to do there? Is the DPRK secretly becoming a kind of Benidorm after all? The flight is relaxed. As soon as everybody is in their seats custom forms for North Korea are being handed out. When we lift of at least half of the passengers (including me) are filling out their forms on their tray tables. With most other airlines you're obliged to stow away your tray table, but Air Koryo doesn't care. The idea is that take off and landing have the highest risk of accidents, and with tray tables down it's not easy to evacuate an aircraft because no one can get out off their chairs. But, as Sasja dryly remarks, it doesn't matter anyway because the emergency exits are blocked by the carts with the newspapers. And by the way, the life vest that should be under our chairs according to the safety instructions (yes I always read them) card, isn't there either. Oh well, let's hope we won't crash into the Yellow Sea then. There's nothing we can do about it now. During the 90 minutes flight we get an enormous meal. A big plastic box with several cold dishes is served, followed by a warm dish consisting of meat and rice, which would have been enough by its self. It turns out to be an indication of what we can expect food wise in North Korea: extremely big meals we cannot finish one single time. A 3D postcard of Air Koryo, the North Korean national airline. The plane is flying over the volcanic lake of Mount Paektu, Korea's holy mountain. We land at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang. The terminal is a small building with a large portrait of Kim Il Sung on the outside. Passport check is the same as everywhere else, but before we can leave the airport our luggage needs to be scanned. A number of items, such as computers, mobile phones and certain printed matter are not allowed into North Korea. That's why we left our laptop and Sasja's GSM phone in the hotel in Beijing. We brought my GSM, a rather old model, with us in case we needed to contact Simon, who was in the possession of our passports and plane tickets. I show my GSM to a customs guy and have to go to a counter where such items are being taken. Simon gets the receipt with which I can get my phone back upon leaving the country. In the mean time Sasja has a discussion with a customs guy about the portable hard disk we use to backup our photos. He needs to do some explaning before the device may enter the country. Then we're handed over to our guides. Tourists in North Korea cannot just go where and as they please. Every group (and we're a two people group) gets two guides and a driver who take them through a previously arranged excursion program. So we're outnumbered by Koreans for a week: our guides Mr O and Mr Kim and driver Mr Yu. Our transportation is a Japanese minibus (steering wheel on the right), so we have plenty of room inside. Mr O is sitting behind us and explains about the buildings we pass and the roads we drive on. We're on our way for only 5 minutes when he asks: "Are you a couple?". As we confirm this he looks at me questioningly and says: "But you are older than him, is that fashionable in Holland?" For a moment I just do not know how to respond to such directness. I mean really, within five minutes! I'm starting to worry whether I should use a different facial cream if it appears to be so obvious. When I express my amazement to Sasja that evening he starts laughing and points out that the guides got all our passport and visa information up front. They already know everything. Oh, off course! I let go a sigh of relief. More things show us that the guides are well informed. We introduce ourselves as Sasja and Hanneke, but they call us by our official names. Even my parents don't call me Johanna! We also notice little 'check' questions. When applying for a North Korea visa one must send in an employers statement in which your employer states where you work in what function. This is to not get journalists into the DPRK. For us this was a bit complicated. As we both are self employed, we are our own employers. No problem said Tiara Tours, it can also be a statement from an employee. We however, are also our own employees, so I made two statements by ourselves about ourselves, with the chamber of commerce numbers of our companies, but it was not ok. Then we heard a statement from a customer was allowed too, and things worked out. When our guides know our official first names by heart, we guess they also know our profession, but nevertheless both of them, on separate occasions, inquire about our jobs in Holland. We think it's quite funny, it's all part of the game called "tourist in North Korea". We drive into Pyongyang, while Mr O is giving us lots of information from his rear seat, such as the fact there are 70 million Koreans. For a second we wonder about this large amount, but hen he goes on to explain that from those 70 million, 30 million live in South Korea, 20 in North Korea and 20 abroad. (Note: the CIA world fact book gives the following numbers for 2005: North Korea - 22.9 million, and South Korea 48.4 million people.) After a short while we make a stop at a large arch of triumph that's been built over the road. This arch is dedicated to the return of Kim Il Sung after the liberation of Korea in 1945. Here, on this square he made his speech to the gathered people, which is shown on a large mosaic. The nearby Moranbong stadium later has been renamed to the Kim Il Sung stadium. A local guide shows us around and tells us the arch had been built in 1982 on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Kim Il Sung. Therefore, the sides of the arch have been decorated with 70 azaleas, the national flower of North Korea. All years, construction times, and sizes are precisely mentioned, numbers seem to be very important. The sizes of the mosaic also have symbolic significance, nothing has been chosen by coincidence. De guide wears a colorful traditional Korean dress with a high waist and wide skirt. She wears her hair in a neat knot. She squints her eyes to little slits and tells her story in a stern, almost reproachful tone. It almost feels like we, weird westerners, are being addressed in an accusing way. I'm starting to get nervous. Oh my! If people are going talk to us this way for a whole week, there will come moment I'll start to scream, no doubt about it. At the feet of the arch of triumph there's a small table with souvenirs, mainly books and brochures. We buy a folder about this monument and a tourist map of Pyonyang. Apparently Mr O isn't very satisfied about the local guide's story either. He takes us around once more and explains everything again, but remarkably, with different numbers for the sizes of the mosaic, which seem a lot more realistic to us. The Arch of Triumph Higher than the one in Paris! Detail of the decorations Details of the mosaic depicting Kim Il Sungs speech to the people after the liberation Our next stop is Kim Il Sung square. The square is located in the center of the city, next to the Teadong river. On the square, hundreds of school children, all clad in white shirts with black pants or skirts, are practicing for the October 10th parade, the 60th anniversary of the KWP (Korean Workers Party). They are standing or sitting in long neat rows, awaiting their turn. When you walk up the broad stairs you're standing at the bank of the Taedong. At the other side, right opposite of the square is the Tower of the Juche Idea, one of the landmark buildings of Pyongyang. Then we're brought to our hotel. We stay in the Yanggakdo Hotel, one of the largest and most luxurious tourist hotels of Pyongyang. It's built on Yanggakdo Island in the Taedong river. Our room on the 33rd floor had everything you can wish for. We've got a fridge, tea cups and a thermos bottle of hot water, nice shampoo in the bathroom and again such a cool night stand for remote lighting control. This one even has a built in alarm clock. And a great view off course! It's bit hazy outside but still the view over the city is worth viewing. Opposite of our room we see big apartment buildings, a bit further the Juche Tower. Mr O takes us to the hotel Restaurant "No 2" to discuss our travel schedule. Our schedule and his turn out to have a completely different order of excursions. Some excursion also differ. We have a long conversation about the final schedule and try to write it down so we have some clue of what to expect when. Unfortunately I couldn't find the North Korea travel guide that I planned to read on the Trans Siberian train when we left home, so we're rather blank on what to expect and we'll just see what happens. Sas has googled up some info at home and occasionally briefs me. When we're done the waitress comes by with the menu for the 4th time and finally she can take our order. Mr O leaves and we eat our meal together. And suddenly doubt hits us. We thought everything was included, the food too. But we could choose our own dishes here and the menu has prices on it. Are we mistaken and should we pay for the food? We try to dig in the corners of our memory. We're completely at a loss here. After traveling for over 3 weeks through Russia, Mongolia and China we cannot clearly remember the details of our booking. The papers from Tiara Tours do not give any information on this subject. Just to be sure, we count our money. In North Korea one cannot just hop to the ATM or the bank to get some money, so you have to bring every cent you think you'll need with you in cash. Fortunately we got some extra Chinese money from the ATM in Beijing, so we should be ok. But still. We decide to wait if a bill appears, but nothing happens. In the end we just get up and nod to the waitresses who nod back friendly, and we walk out of the door. No one comes running after us with a bill so we guess it's ok then. The Yanggakdo Hotel Remote lamp control Our view of the Juche Tower Mr O shows us around through the hotel, correctly described by the Bradt Travel guide as an "Alcatraz of Fun". Several restaurants are to be found here, a small supermarket, two souvenir shops, a bookstore and a swimming pool. The corridor to the swimming pool is not even two meters high so Sasja has to walk though it with deeply bent knees, which our guide thinks is quite funny. In the lobby there's a Tea Bar, (which off course also serves alcohol) and in the basement a casino. That last thing we didn't hear from Mr O but from Simon from Koryo Tours. The casino is run by Chinese from Macao and seems to be off limits for Koreans.