TakeMeToEZE

Thanks, bensyd, for this excellent trip report. ^^

I have always had an interest in North Korea and other places where Americans typically do not have the ability to travel. Reading these FT trip reports can be an important lesson (and lets us live vicariously in the process!) and I thank you for taking the time to write this up. The pics are really great, too!!

PCTraveler

Bensyd - did the NK police track you down and delete your memory?

Hope all is well, I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting for more of the trip report. It's been 5 days since your last post, hope to see more coming. And, thanks for the contribution thus far.

bensyd

How did you know . Sorry I've just been a bit busy at work this week. Will try and post something over the weekend.

SMART51

Great we are all waiting for more.Thank you.

sgn1k

bensyd's guide was probably more or less correct. When I visited the DMZ from the other side on a USO tour a couple of years ago, I asked the GI who was showing us around whether the tough-looking ROK troops who peer across the border around buildings got tired from being on constant alert. He said that they only come out for protection when tour groups are coming through, otherwise the area is fairly deserted -- soldiers do regular patrols and watch things through binoculars, but they don't wander around or spend too much time out in the open where someone from the other side might come up with a reason to open fire. I have no idea how many NK troops are visible when no tourists are around.

BDLORD

Nice report, being in the DMZ from the other side was a trip. We were on a USO tour and my guys played an acoustic set in the DMZ. Maybe the 1st band to do so?
They made us wear flak jackets and helmets for the visit but we were in Military vehicles.

kevincure

The company the OP used (Koryo Tours) is the easiest way to get in if you're American, though they're limited to when NK will let Americans arrive (a few weeks each in 95, 02 and 05, which is when I went).

If you're American and you want to go, go on the *first* tour after they open up the border again. Subsequent tours, at least in 05, were filled with unreformed communists and media types, whereas our tour was generally just interested travelers who played games like "don't bow to the statue", "yell things in your hotel room to find the bugs" and "sing the star spangled banner on the bus karaoke machine".

It's too bad, but it's very difficult for tourists to see "real" North Korea; aside from Kaesong, Pyongyang, mountains in the north and a few coastal cities, you're not really allowed anywhere, so it's tough to get a read on what NK is actually like. I'm actually quite interested in traveled up to Dandong and the Korean AR in China, where a lot of Korean entrepreneurs scurry across the border to.

Hopeful sign: a few backwards ballcaps that I saw on Koreans; they gave me a thumbs up after I yelled out to them. Word that up, Kim. Also, despite the politics, I only got one hostile reaction from the dozen or so Koreans I told I was American (in some combination of Russian, English and Chinese, which seem to be the most standard foreign languages in DPRK).

Thanks for the post!

tsastor

I now understand better why they so seldom admit Americans in their country. Poor bus drivers!

schwarm

Excellent trip report.

When we visited from the south, there were no concurrent tours from the north. Luckily I brought by binoculars, because the only 2 DPRK soldiers visible were a long way away. One was amongst the scaffolding on top of the steps in front of the large pavilion and the other was at the base of the guard tower off to the right (or, more appropriately, stage left).

Link to my pics.

bensyd

Sorry its been a while been quite busy at work....

Anyway..

So we had left the DMZ and it was time to head back to Kaesong for a walk through the town and then lunch back at the hotel.
Truth be told there isn't alot in Kaesong, and the most amazing sight unsurprisingly is the giant bronze statue of the Great Leader which is perched on a hill overlooking the town. It's quite funny because in order I guess to keep the grandeur of the statue they have kept this enormous road that goes straight up to the statue even though there are virtually no cars in the town. During our walk our guides were quite strict about no photos being taken and although it was nice to mix it abit with the locals you could tell why they didnt want us taking photos, it certainly wasn't the image of North Korea they wanted the world to see.
Finally we strolled back into our hotel, and it was lunch time. For this meal we had been offered the option of in addition to our normal meal Ginseng chicken with sticky rice or dog soup. Having read about the way treatment the dogs go through before they are actually killed, being beaten for upto an hour before finally being killed and being skinned alive, I chose not to have the dog soup but those who did had mixed feelings, although one in the group seemed to really like it and had not only his but someone elses soup as well. The ginseng chicken was fairly bland and certainly not worth the 15 euro price tag and I actually found the normal food much better I was given a fantastic vegetable soup instead of the dog which really was A grade.
As we were boarding the bus to head back to Pyongyang something funny happened. Someone had souveniered one of the towels from the hotel room, and the guides came onto the bus "saying a towel is missing who has it", someone had actually taken one but didn't say anything. Anyway when we got back to Pyongyang he found that his room was one towel short. And remained that way for the remainder of the trip. The trip back was very similar to the trip down with the obligatory stop at the highway road house. Coming back into Pyongyang you stop at the stone "reunification monument" which is to women in traditional garb holding the Korean Pennisula over the road, very very kitsch and again I couldn't help myself and had to have a picture with me in the middle of the road.

Back to Pyongyang and it was off to the "Victorious Fatherland War Museum", remembering that in NK they won the war. The lovely lady from the Pueblo the day before was our guide again and the anti-American vitriole flowed once more. The problem with NK museums is that they tend to probably work if your from NK and your used to austere concrete everywhere then the displays in the museums which look more like something out of a 1950's school science department are probably quite exciting, but when your used to interactive colourful displays (in English) they start to get quite tedious, and I have to admit to starting to get a little bored with the constant drumming in of NK propaganda that is so blantantly incorrect, perhaps if they were a little more subtle they would have more luck convincing people that they really aren't that bad. I could tell that I wasn't the only one who was feeling a little ready for a few froth wagons back at the hotel. We trudged on into the basement, which had the same musty odour as the metro (if only "Glade" could set up a NK division). The basement was quite impressive our guide claimed that it contained every single piece of artillery captured off the Americans during the war and it certainly seemed to have quite a lot. But again it made me wonder if you "won" the war why would you still care so much about it? And again I came back to the same answer to distract the populous. After the basement we headed upto the "panorama" which was very well done and you really could not tell where the ground stopped and the wall begun. It showed a village being taken back from the imperialists by the victorious NK army, and of course many allied soliders lying dead or running away. Oh and I should mention like all good things in NK it revolved.

Across the road from the war museum we happened upon a "local shop" which like most things in NK opened especially for us. The selection in the shop wasn't to bad and it had a fair few things to buy including alcohol books and even tshirts which aren't to bad (I bought 3). We were also able to get a few great pictures of the "Ryugyong Hotel", which the North started building in 1987 but abandoned in 1992. It stands 105 storeys high and towers over everything in Pyongyang. Had it been completed it would have been the tallest hotel in the world and the 7th tallest building, with an incredible 7 revolving restaurants at the top. It was built because a South Korean company completed the Stamford Hotel in Singapore. Our guides were not very keen for us to photograph the hotel but allowed us a few pictures close up. It's seen as an embarresment to the NK Govt, and in official pictures they have been known to actually photshop the hotel so that at night it is illuminated. To me it seemed like the starkest reminder of the blood-mindedness of the Kim's that when their people are starving they go and build a 3000 room hotel in a country which even today only gets around 1200-1500 tourists/year.

Finally it was back to the hotel at about 630pm, and what had been a long day. After dinner we all settled in at the bar until someone made the suggestion that perhaps we venture down to the basement. The basement for the uninitiated contained all the fun. There was a casino a brothel and a nightclub "The Egyptian Palace". First stop was the nightclub. I should also point out that the local NK's are not permitted in the basement and everyone who works down there is Chinese, the actual complex is run by Stanley Ho. I actually showed a gambling chip to a girl who had worked at the hotel for 3 years and she had never seen one before, but I digress. As I understand the Western world, when you have a popular nightspot a cover charge is a common thing, when we got to the Egyptian Palace the music was pumping but they informed us there would be a 5 Euro cover charge, I tried to point out the inequity in us being charged to go into an empty room but they were having none of it and so I parted with my money and entered the Palace. The music was insanely loud and there was absolutley no one in there except us, and the beers were 6 euros .As it turns out the brothel and the nightclub are in cahoots and about 5 minutes after we walked in about 10 girls all magically appeared on the dancefloor, but our morals were all far to high for that and so after a few beers we decided it probably wise to go next door to Casino Pyongyang and win back our money. Now I'm no gambler, but I think Casino Pyongyang is for dealers who flunked croupier school. I have never seen a dealer make so many mistakes, at one stage actually taking the cards back and re-dealing. There were a few more people in the small casino which only had 1 table for each game and it was more fun than the nightclub, although I dont think they saw it that way there were about 8 of us in there and only two gambling at a time with the rest more like a cheer squad. Feeling thirsty again (no alcohol in the Casino) I decided to head back upstairs to the bar where a couple of the guys in our group were showing the girls behind the bar how to do the YMCA, and in return they were singing versus of the "Arirang" folksong. It was actually nice to be communicating with locals and although they didn't speak much English we managed, it was also nice to have a chance to talk to a member of the fairer sex. By now it was 130am and I'd drunk about all the draught beer I could so I said my goodbyes and finished another day.

More to come

RJ659

No alcohol in the casino? These Communists REALLY don't want your money now, do they?

Great trip report, reminds me of my own visit to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

One thing I did do on my Commie trip was to get out of the hotel and hoof it around the cities on my own after the officially-sponsored tours were completed. Met some interesting people that way. Did you ever try this yourself, Ben?

civicmon

A brothel?

that can get interesting....

Now on Blackjack.. does the dealer stay or hit a soft 17?

ironmanjt

I did the same in the USSR in the 80s as well, but in the DPRK it's not an option. You're not allowed to leave the island your hotel is on alone. Couple people in our group tried, and didn't make it more than 300-400m before the tour guide found them.

jpdx

They need currency, and they don't have a lot of repeat customers, so I'd expect AMS-style blackjack (dealer wins ties).

Fascinating report, OP. Thanks!

ironmanjt

The dealer hits soft-17s, at least as of a year ago. Fairly standard rules, but the OP was right about the skill of the dealers - absolutely atrocious.