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 Mount Myohyang and Arirang North Korea day 3! It's rather foggy in Pyongyang, but still nice and warm. After breakfast we get into our van and drive to Mount Myohyang, about 2.5 hours outside of Pyongyang. The International Friendship Exhibition is located here: two museums with the countless gifts that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il received over the years from presidents and other important people. The road leading there has abundantly blooming flowers along the rims in red, yellow pink and purple that clearly are not there by coincidence, but have been especially planted. The building in which Kim Il Sung's gifts are kept is built in traditional Korean style with a beautiful pagoda like roof. The building is made of concrete and most of the corridors are carved out of the mountains it's leaning against. At the door are two soldiers with blinking chrome plated and engraved Kalashnikov's standing on guard. The local guide who shows us around here asks met to open the door of the building. It's an enormous door, high, wide and very thick, made of solid metal, that weighs about 4 tons. Nevertheless it sways open effortlessly when I pull the door handle. It's nice and warm today, but inside the airco is blaring. A sweatshirt would not have been a luxury item here, I'm shivering in my thin t-shirt. We get cotton covers to put over our shoes, so the floor will stay nice under the many visitor feet that walk by here every day. The building of the International Friendship Exibition and its impressive door This building contains over 70.000 gifts, so we get to see a selection. In the first room are gifts from important world leaders and a white statue of Kim Il Sung that seems to welcome the visitors. After that we see gifts from China, Europe and Africa. We walk through long high corridors with an incredible amount of at least 3,5 meters high doors. From time to time we enter through one of those doors, that lead us to new treasure rooms. From China we see off course lots of jade, from Russia hunting rifles, from Honk Kong a world map made of inlaid (semi) precious stones and from several African countries gold decorated elephant tusks and impressive displays with spears and shields. Finally we reach Europe. In between the gifts from France, Italy and Spain we discover exactly two gifts from Holland: a Delft Blue plate with picturing a windmill and the party program of the CPN (Communist Party of the Netherlands) from 1985. (If I remember correctly the CPN didn't get a single seat in parliament that year.) Mr O looks surprised: Does Holland have a communist party? I explain that years ago the CPN merged with a bunch of other small left wing parties into "Groen Links (Green Left), but we still have a rather big socialist party. Mr O nods, but somehow I have the feeling this story is a bit abstract for some one from a country that actually has one real party. One of the displayed objects is, according to the local guide, is a gift from "the religious leader of the United States". That's quite remarkable, considering the not very warm relations between North Korea and the US, as well as the low popularity of religion in this country. On the gift itself (I think it was something with doves of peace) there's a small sign attached with the name of the person who gave it: Billy Graham. Ah! So now we know who's the religious leader of the US. Graham is not the only American who visited North Korea. Madeleine Albright and Jimmy Carter and his wife have been here as well. And Roger Clinton, Bill's brother. Apart from objects of art and ideologically correct gifts, there are some larger presents too, like armored cars and complete train wagons, gifts from Mao and Stalin. There's also a room with the presents Kim Il Sung received after his death. In the back of the room stands a wax statue of the president, a gift from China. The background is nicely lit and solemn music is playing. We walk to the front with our guides and make a bow for the very alive looking statue. Before we entered a group of emotional Korean women came out, some of them wiping of some tears. They probably stood eye in eye with their great leader for the first time in their lives. The local guide asks how we feel after seeing the statue. Ooh, that's a question of conscience! We truthfully answer that it's all very impressive, but that is different for us than for the Koreans who come here. We cannot make it any better than that. In the end, we come to the balcony of the building, with a great view over the mountains. The weather is still hazy, so you get this great effect of depth, of mountains that get vaguer and vaguer in the mist. But on a sunny day with clear skies it's even more beautiful here, says Mr O. From the balcony we have a marvellous view on the mountains We're asked to write something in the guest book. Hm, this is something we really have to sit down for. We browse though the book and find most feedback to be in Korean and Chinese. A Spanish visitor wrote something in English. He's happy to have gotten a better understanding of the Juche Idea now. Would this be the Spanish guy who's in our hotel? There are not so many western tourists (at the same time) in NK, so at museums and monuments you often meet the same people. We refrain from ideological phrases and write we're happy to have the chance to see this beautiful country with our own eyes. Mr O takes a piece of paper and writes this down in Korean for the local guide who has been looking over his shoulder with interest. Now it's the turn of the building with gifts to Kim Jong Il. Mr Kim and the driver think it's funny that we want to walk the few hundred yards to the other building. First we are almost asleep in the van on our way here, and no we're acting all active. At Kim Jong Il's the airco is on too. Mr O is suddenly trying to find an extra large pair of shoe covers for Sasja although the regular ones in the other building were fine. Here we also see a vast collection of gifts, including one from Billy Graham. But here's also office furniture on diplay, several radio's, a G4 Power Mac and a laser printer, mostly gifts from the South Korean company Hyunday. When we get back into the van we tell there were only two gifts from Holland. Mr Kim turns around: "Maybe you are the third gift" he says with a smile. Oh yes, that's why there are so many Dutch tourists here. I guess we have to make up for something. We have lunch at the nearby Hyangsan Hotel, decorated is a luxurious seventies style, including psychedelic looking green wallpaper. It's a bit late for lunch, so we sit, as the only people present with the two of us at a large round six people table, surrounded by other large round six people tables that are full of stacks of plates and left over food from guests who already left. Our guides and driver eat elsewhere. Again we're served a large meal, consisting of lots of small dishes. The waitress who brings us the food, saying "egg salad" or "potato soup". It sounds like she speaks English, but when I ask for a cup of tea, she looks at me as if I were speaking Dutch to her. "Tea" seems not to be part of her vocabulary. "Chai?" I try, and "cha?", combined with drinking gestures, but that just gives me the same look, so in the end I stick to my glass of water. We're starting to discover a meal pattern, by the way: every time you're completely full, you'll suddenly get served a bowl of rice or noodles. Details of Kwangbop temple Along the way, we visit the Kwangbop temple. This one also has been recently rebuilt and is freshly covered in colorful paint. Korea has it's own unique style of temple decorations, we learn. For us these are actually the first Buddhist temples we see, so we cannot really compare them to anything, but they certainly are beautiful. In Pyongyang we visit the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery. Here the fallen hero's of the struggle against the Japanese oppressors are buried. Each grave has a bronze bust of the deceased, so if you walk up the stairs in the middle of the hill rows of heads are looking at you. In the middle however, some construction workers are repairing something so we walk up on the side. When we get upstairs we lay flowers at the bust of Kim Jong Suk, Kim Il Sungs first wife, and the mother of Kim Jong Il. She was a hero in the struggle against the Japanese. Somber music is being played here too, to add to the atmosphere. At the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetary we lay flowers for Kim Jong Suk Before we go back to the hotel we visit the KITC souvenir shop. KITC is short for Korea International Travel Company, it's the Korean counterpart of the well known Russian "Intourist". The bus stops in an alley and we're unloaded right in front of the door, behind which we find a staircase that leads to the shop on the second floor. We really do not have to walk a lot in Pyongyang, in fact: not at all. The van always gets as close to the entrance as possible to let us out. The shop offers a wide range of souvenirs, from paintings and embroidery to stamps, chopsticks and even t-shirts. Unfortunately the t-shirt have a print of the Koryo Hotel, in which we do not stay, so we just get a few bookmarks and a unified Korea shaped decoration thingy to hang on the wall. Fortunately we have dinner in the evening with all five of us together in a restaurant in town. The kim chi is not so hot here, so I can empty the bowl with pleasure. Earlier today Mr O made the joyful announcement that we'll be visiting Arirang tonight, the "mass games" in the Mayday Stadium. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the workers party, from august till october gymnastic dance performances are given in which over a 100.000 people participate in total. The last time was in 2002, the next time is expected to be in 2008, for the 60th anniversary of the DPRK. We are so lucky to be in North Korea during this period because it promises to be a great spectacle. As a foreigner, one can get tickets priced from 50 to 300 euros, but according to Simon there's little difference in view, so we ordered two 50 euro tickets. Then we had to wait when we could go, because the schedule of the performances seems to be not always known up front so one has to inquire in the morning if the performance is on that night. That sounds quite weird when you think of the vast amount of participants. Dinner takes quite a while and the time of the performance gets nearer. Our guides are glancing at their watches more often, but the noodles haven't been served, so we stay at the table. When Sasja and I are completely full, the noodles for our guides and driver arrive. The seasoned Pyongyang noodles are a specialty. They are served cold in a big bowl with several decorations on top. Although it's really time to leave now, our guides enjoy their mountain of noodles. Food comes first. Then we're hastily shoved in the van and driven through the city at high speed. We're late and we run after Mr O through the empty hallways of the Mayday Stadium to the tribunes. They are already full so we get some extra chairs to sit in the path in between. This is an unexpected good fortune, because now hardly anyone is sitting in fort of us and we have a great view of the field. Simon's English golfers are sitting behind us and we're starting to wonder if the whole being late thing is just a clever strategy.   Arirang Mass Games at the Mayday Stadium The performance is breathtakingly beautiful. The Mayday Stadium covers an area of 207.000 square meters and seats 150.000 spectators. But now there are significantly less. The long tribune opposite of us is filled with thousands of schoolchildren who have to open their special books with colored pages on the right moment. Every kid is like one pixel of a picture. That's how they create an ever changing background on which the most beautiful images are being shown. On the floor we see gymnastic dances, depicting the history of Korea. We see the youth, the workers, the farmers, the war and the reunification come by, performed by thousands of dancers at once. The costumes are beautiful and colorful, the choreography is impressive and the performance super tight. For Arirang the participants have been training every day for six months and it shows. Wow! Due to our good seats we can take pictures quite well. I brought my video camera for this occasion (before we went it was not completely clear if video camera's were allowed into the country or not) en I film a bit. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes a lady from the organization tells us that filming is not allowed. Too bad! The blessings of agriculture From time to time Mr O whispers Sasja explanations in his ear about the scenes we see. A bright star goes to heaven, and it symbolizes Kim Il Sung, when it reaches the top a fire is lit on the roof of the stadium. The audience immediately starts to applaud enthusiastically and outside fireworks are lit that we can clearly see through the open roof of the stadium. But many things are clear without an explanation. Jong kids showing fun at the beach make summersaults with swimming belts, happy chickens and eggs dance about the blessings of agriculture. Acrobats at the trapeze soar high though the stadium and jump down in a hardly visible net. Uniformed soldiers make tae kwon do moves with bayonets and there are even paratroopers falling from the sky. Energy is being radiated, it's really an impressive view. The army performs The dramatic scene about the reunification of North Korea and South Korea really moves me. After visiting the reunification monument yesterday this theme has come alive for us. Everywhere in the north you see pictures of the unified Korea. On maps, book covers, etc. The separation of the country hurts. Family members haven't been able to see each other for decades because some live in the north and others in the south. Since a few years, South Koreans can travel to North Korea, but the other way around is impossible. I so wish this country their reunification, like Germany. The performance ends with a scene involving more people than ever before and a big globe on which the unified Korea is colored red. Peace doves fly over the pixeled background. It seems as if all Arirang participants are on the floor now. It's a sea of white and red flowers people are holding above their heads. I suppose the are Kimilsungias and Kimjongilias, as father and son Kim both have their own flower. Dramatic, colorfull and impressive After the final scene there's a big applause and the lights go on. The tribune starts moving, but the dancers do not leave yet. While some sort of after performance is being given on the field, we are hastily ushered towards the exit. We must hurry up! Actually, I do not want to hurry up at all, I just want to stay a while and look some more, but that's clearly not what we're supposed to do. Soldiers stop Koreans who also want to leave for a while, so the foreigners can leave first. Sasja is allowed to quickly buy himself a program booklet and then we are outside where we find our van soon and leave the crowdedness around the stadium.   The Mayday Stadium after the Arirang performance Tonight we decide to check out the Tea Bar in the hotel lobby. We run into the Spanish guy and his guide and join them at their table. The guide is happy he now only has one person to guide. That's relaxing, so he can save some energy for the big group of tourists he'll get next. After that we join the British golfers, because we have a question for Simon. These gentlemen live in Hong Kong, so Korea is almost next door for them. They've turned it into a sport to play golf at exotic locations, so they've come to the right place. After three days, they haven't seen a golf course yet, because there are tourist things to be seen first. Tomorrow will finally be the day. If it will be a very fanatical game of golf is questionable however, because one after the other bottle of Heineken is being emptied enthusiastically. And beer is served in 640 cl bottles here, even Heineken. We enjoy the British company, and it's nice to talk with people for whom English is their mother tongue. Our guides speak good English, but they have a Korean accent, so we have to ay close attention to all the information we get from Mr O. It's rather intensive and the last few nights I heard all monuments pass during my sleep.