Jeff began to blog about North Korea, the restrictions and the things that we experienced whilst there. Although there were tons of restrictions with regards to what we could and could not take pictures of when we were travelling from one spot to another, when we hiked the mountain and around the lake we were fairly free to take as many pictures as we wanted. So we did.
Due to delays at the border on Saturday morning (there were 2,700 people crossing the border with us to visit North Korea. Our group had 80 foreigners, the rest of the people heading into North Korea were South Koreans.) we were late arriving in the North. So, the initial itinerary was thrown out the window and we all hiked Kumgansan Mountain instead. This mountain was gorgeous. After spending about 30 minutes in a small bus that drove us part way up the mountain (oh my, I thought I was going to die on this trek... narrow, windy roads and the driver taking the turns rather quickly, I expected that we would end up at the bottom of the mountain some how...) we got out and began the trek up to the top of the mountain. The view from the top was AMAZING!!! (Check out our pictures page for the link to some of our pictures.)
After climbing the mountain we went to see an acrobatics show. The acrobats were amazing, but as Sara put it, it seemed as though the equipment they were using came from Russia in the 1950s. It was old and didn't look very sturdy. There were quite a few times when I was scared for the acrobats. Most of the show was done sans nets... they were brave - or maybe just following orders... needless to say the show was very impressive.
After that we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night. We fell asleep around 8pm and woke up ready to hike at 6:30 the next morning. Sunday was a light hike around a lake. We also visited the ocean (it was GORGEOUS!) but were forbidden to take pictures of one of the cliffs for security reasons.
The rest of the day was spent in a Jimjibang - a Korean spa. Now, when I think spa, I think massage, pedicure, maybe a mud bath, cucumbers... Korean spas are very different. You must get naked, yes, stark naked, and go and sit in hot and cold pools/tubs of water. After much giggling and hiding in our lockers (don't worry, Jeff was in the men's area... it was just us girls!) we managed to drop our towels and run into the bathing area. After a bit of uncomfortableness we finally managed to overcome our embarassement and were able to thoroughly enjoy the spa experience. There were germanium pools, jade baths, hot baths, cold baths, baths outdoors (overlooking the mountains - it was beautiful!), dry saunas, wet saunas, and showers. By the end of the experience Kelly Sara and I were standing around the water cooler, naked, just chatting. Sorry, no pictures of that experience. Kelly and I did decide, however, that a jimjibang would be a great place to knit. It's warm and there are lots of adjumas (old ladies) around who would be interested in our knitting. Next Stitch and Bitch? In the jimjibang!
I will leave you with a picture of me and Kelly knitting in North Korea (this is knitting content for you Maja!) She is just learning how to knit (and doing a great job..) so I was helping her a new stitch - brioche, it's all the rage here!
So here we go. North Korea. It's always hard to convey the full picture with only words, but I think that you'll still get a good sense of our trip.
The first part of the trip was exhausting. We left Seoul after midnight on Friday night (yes, actually Saturday morning, but you know what I mean...). We were supposed to leave at 11.30 but some yahoos decided to take their time. I was a little peeved about that. I can understand 5, maybe 10 minutes late, but 40 minutes? I'm not sure what the story was, and if there was some legitimate excuse, then I'd be sorry for whatever problems were had, but holding up an entire bus of 40 people for one or two people is ridiculous. I still maintain that we shoulda left without them. They knew the schedule and in any other situation, they'd have missed their flight / train / bus, whatever. Yeah, I wasn't impressed, and the situation was not helped at all by the lacklustre organizational skills of our tour operators in several other regards, which I will not get into, 'cause really, you don't want to read about me ranting. You wanna know about the North!
Ok, onwards then. So... exhausting. After a long week, both Jen and I were ready to have a quiet evening at home. But instead, we had a rather challenging night of fitful sleep on the bus.
The next morning, we arrived at a stop where we were issued our North Korean visas and IDs, which we had to where at all times while in the North (or face huge fines). As cool as it would have been to have had a North Korean stamp in our passports, it's probably for the best that we were given our visas on lanyards that we had to wear. I can just imagine the problems if I travelled *anywhere* else in the world. "Sir, what were you doing in North Korea?"
So, you've done a whole lot of reading and you sill haven't really gotten much on the North yet. But wait! You have. You just don't know it it. Let me explain! That's exactly what it was like for us. A whole lot of waiting. And more waiting - often in one of our many buses.
Our trip was very structured and constricted, to say the least. Before we finally got to our destination, we ended up taking 4 or 5 different buses, with all the stops and processes we had to follow. All the tourists into the North stay in "The Main Square" and no one is allowed to leave this square. In this square there are a few restaurants, convenience shops, gift shops and such. Upon arriving at the square, we were allowed to take pictures, but on the bus from the border to the square, taking photos results in a $10,000 USD fine. Yikes! So, we have a couple of photos within the square, which is reasonably well developed. But outside this tourist square, the buildings that were visible from the road were noticeably more worn. Every half kilometer or so, along this road, there was at least one North Korean soldier in plain view observing the bus convoy, and probably many more not in plain view. While it was not forbidden to look at the soldiers, I'd think twice before doing it again. The soldiers' faces are stoic, but there's an odd look about their eyes. It was a little eerie.
When we left the main square to go on one of our tours, all the tourists would pile into the buses and we'd leave the square (or rather, tourist compound) in a big convoy. The compound was effectively in the middle of nowhere, a little mini city surrounded by mountains and fields of agriculture. Everywhere we went though, even though we only had fields beside us and we were stuck in our buses, the streets were lined with fences. At nearly every branch off our route, with a break in the fence, there was a soldier standing guard.
So, despite all the eyes always watching us and all the constraints on our movements, we still had an enjoyable trip. Besides the beautiful sights, which we'll share more of later, it was certainly educational. As much as I might wonder how much we saw was for show, I still feel like we've gained a little more insight into North Korea. An exhausting trip, but worthwhile.
Ok, I've written enough and if you've actually made it this far, congratulations, and my apologies for rambling on so long. We'll write more later about some other aspect of our trip. Stay tuned!
-jeff
I can't post any pictures of the really interesting stuff I was talking about since I wasn't allowed to take those pictures, so here's one of Laina, Vanessa, Jen, and Kelly in the main square. Mountains all around us. And behind us is our hotel.
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