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!
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