DPRK - Part 2

20 Mar 2016 . category: Travel . Comments
#DPRK

Day 1: Welcome to Pyongyang

Flight

After a couple of uneventful days in Beijing (highlights include tanghulu and spicy hotpot), we set off Tuesday morning for airport. It was really happening!

Interestingly enough, we ran into several aid workers traveling to Pyongyang on the same flight as us, from the Christian Friends of Korea. I haven’t had time to research the organization since returning, but it was my understanding from a brief chat with them that they do health-related work all around the country with the approval of the government. Given the purported opposition to Christianity and their overt name, I was certainly surprised. I’ll hopefully be doing more research on the group soon, and may update this post later.

The flight was unfortunately not nearly as eventful as I had expected. The plane, while not exactly a shiny new Boeing, seemed to be Russian and not Soviet, and was perfectly adequate though the landing in Pyongyang was a bit dicey. On the plane, we were treated to videos of the famous Moranbong Band and also got to try the (in)famous Air Koryo burger with our first taste of North Korean beer!

The burger was palatable if not good: imagine a dry and more gristly McChicken with a strange sauce. Hoping my foodpic-crazy friends appreciate the effort that went into composing this picture, I’m especially proud of that sideways bun. The beer on the other hand was very good.

It was also on the plane that we received some cryptic Korean customs forms that amongst other things, mispelled ‘meet’ and asked about ‘blood ants it’s products.’

Entering Korea

Before arriving in Korea, Aaron and I were quite careful, removing FB and several other apps from our phones, and not taking our laptops with us (I did bring a friend’s chromebook). Security turned out to be surprisingly lax though. They did a cursory look at my electronics, asking me if I had any videos, but otherwise didn’t ask me to log into anything. I believe those who entered via the train faced stricter scrutiny, but in general it seems that fears were overblown. There was a moment where I was led away to the side and internally panicked a bit, but that turned out to just be standard. We had made it into the DPRK!

Meeting Our Guides

Upon leaving the airport, we quickly loaded ourselves into the local KITC bus, and were greated by three North Korean guides from the company: Ms. Kim, Mr. Kim, and Mr. Pang. Here’s a shot of our bus, pictures with the guides to come later, they were absolutely great!

Ms. Kim and Mr. Kim were both on the younger side, and it seemed to us that Mr. Pang was the one there to watch the watchers, though he turned out to be surprisingly easy to talk to!

Pyongyang

We had some downtime before the other half of the tour joined us via the train, so we drove around Pyongyang for a bit. At first glance, the city is not that different from many in China. There are some new and glassy buildings, but by and large, it’s on the bleaker side, with gray and brown constructions punctuated by colorful commercial signs. The taxis even looked exactly like the ones in Beijing, and we also saw a couple of BMWs.

Of course, every once and awhile there was a reminder that this was not China, but a country with a strong personality cult:

But honestly the similarities outweighed the differences. From some photos and descriptions on the internet, I had expected an eerily quiet and constructed city. But it was actually quite lively, with plenty of cars on the road and people bicyling around. And there were even some things that seemed quintessentially Asian, like this opportunity to take cutesy family photos:

Before being joined by our fellow tour members, we also had the chance to check out the Pyongyang Arch of Triumph, 10 meters taller than the once in France!

Talking about Otto Warmbier

While we were waiting in front of the train station, Mr. Kim asked us if we knew about this college student who was currently detained. We were caught a bit off guard, but answered in the affirmative. Mr. Kim proceeded to say that there are respectful and disrespectful people from every country, and hoped that our week would be about only about making happy memories and not dangerous activities. We of course quickly agreed!

The Hotel

Our group was staying at the Yanggakdo Hotel, the largest operational hotel in Pyongyang. (It’s greatly dwarfed by the still uncompleted Ryugong Hotel. The hotel is literally located on an island in the middle of Pyongyang, making it that much more unlikely for foreigners to wander off in the night.

Again, the hotel was reminiscent of China, with a beautiful lobby and exterior, but rooms that felt lacking relative to Western standards (exposed piping, improper drainage, etc). It did boast a bevy of services: several restaurants, dry cleaning, billiards, karaoke, massage parlor, salon, etc. More about some of these things later. Here’s quick shot of the lobby, better pictures are easily found via Google:

That night we had dinner in the hotel. It started great, with small Korean dishes, but then oddly drifted to breaded cutlets and spaghetti. Thankfully, this was the most Western meal of the trip. Also, there was free beer with dinner, as there would be with every lunch and dinner from here on out…

Most of the group ended the night by enjoying the amenities. Aaron and I wandered around a bit between karaoke and billiards before turning in early given our continued time difference struggle and the long day ahead. Next up: the DMZ!

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