A little weary headed we were woken by our guides at 745 sharp after checking up on what was happening outside the DPRK on BBC World, thats right BBC World, apparently we as tourists are able to get it but our guides who stay on a different level to us. Which brings up another interesting point. When you enter NK you are pretty much allowed to bring in whatever you want except radios, mobiles etc but there is no ban on bringing in say the IHT or other Western newspaper. I thought this was fairly strange until I was asked to imagine the reverse, then it made sense. We in the West are told, which I believe, that NK is a repressive regime and a dangerous rogue state, if I were to read a copy of the "Pyongyang Times", I would be unlikely to change my view of the world, now reverse it and I'm a N. Korean who has just found a copy of the IHT, I'm unlikely to believe it.
Anyway breakfast as I soon learnt is the same every day. egg omelette followed by as much toast and jam as you can get, and some sort of super sweet Fanta type drink that looked as though it was from a Eastern European country judging by the writing. Having learnt the night before that the rationing in North Korea is 6 eggs and one chicken/month per person (they are able to buy over this) I again felt some guilt in having an omelette that was probably made out of 3 eggs or two weeks rations.
Our first stop for the day was Kim Il Sung's Maosuleum, who although dead since 94 is still president. I might just digress here for a moment and point out that in NK they actually have their own year numbering which is based on the year of KIS birth. So for example this year is Juche 95 and periodicals and newspapers will usually give the year as "Juche 95 (2006)", its the ultimate personality cult when you change the counting of years to reflect your own birth. Anyway my first decision of the day is what does one wear to go and see a pickled dictator on display. We had been told beforehand that the Korean's treat the palace where KIS lies in state as a very sacred area, and whether or not I agree or disagree with their politics I was in their country and should respect their beliefs. Being forewarned of this I had packed a neat little shirt and tie combo, I wasn't sure if you celebrate the life of the Great Leader at this place or mourn his death, so I went half way with a light blue shirt but dark blue tie.
The Maosoleum itself is actually KIS old palace, and when I say Palace I mean something that would make Versailles look like the maids quarters. It is absolutley immense. After KIS died they concreted up all the windows so it looks like this big grey concrete electricity substation. As this is Independance weekend (one of only two times/year Westerners are allowed to visit) the place is teeming with locals who have come to pay their respects. As tourists we were sent straight to the front of the queue we had to leave our camera and anything else in our pockets, so unfortunately I do not have any pics from inside. After that you are put on a travelator that would easily be the longest I have ever seen at least 1km (0.625miles in the old scale) long. I guess in NK people assume that if the travelator travels at this speed that is the speed the Government wants us to go at, and so we stand there travelling on this machine for a good 5-7 minutes making our way down to a small set of stairs which we climb only to find another travelator of similar distance, they either don't know how to move large numbers of people or they are masters of building anticipation, either way we finally entered into a large hall with a large white statue of KIS seated with a background that looked like morning sunrise and a soothing melody in the background. From here we were shuffled into another large hall and again to the front of the line. From there we were taken to yet another large hall but this one had a sort of walk in hair dryer that led to the main attraction, as you walk through air is blown at your from all directions, I'm still not sure what the point of this was.
After waiting in line briefly I found myself staring at a dead dictator. We had been briefed as to what to do as walked around him, we were to bow at his feet, at his left and right but, not at his head. He seemed surprisingly diminutive for a man who had ruled with such an iron fist for so long. He was dressed in a normal suit, not the Mao "Safari Suit" Zedong numbers that his son Kim Jong Il seems so fond of, and looked as though he was just catching a few hours kip time before visiting "Red Plough Factory Number 9" to provide "on the spot guidance", (if you are ever able to get your hands on any North Korean books about the Kim's you will notice "on the spot guidance" is a big part of their job as dictator, be it delicate brain surgery or increasing the local fishing village catch.
The whole viewing lasts about 2 minutes and then you are ushered into a room to view all the commendation KIS received in his lifetime. This is an interesting mish mosh of medallions celebrating "xxx anniversary of <insert european city>" that look more like something that you get free with the sunday paper, to extravagent medals from African Republics, to a surprising number of honourary degrees dished out by Peruvian universities. There is also an honourary degree from "Kensington University, USA" A google search on this revealed it had since lost its license for handing out degrees it was not entitled to.
Next room is surely one of the highlights of the trip. To tell you the truth I cannot remember exactly what was in the room but as you enter you are given a small cassette player which has a commentary about KIS on it in English narrated by an English guy. The guy becomes more and more hysterical as he is speaking, at one point describing how "the people of the world were so devastated at the Great Leaders death that they wept tears that turned to crystal that became part of the marble you now stand on". I found it extremely difficult to keep a straight face during this and everyone in the group passed looks to each other as if to say..."ummm are you hearing the same thing I am.
And that was the Maosoleum. I've put up
some more photos up
I'll try and get some more done tonight....