Day 9 – Kaesong, Panmunjeom, DMZ, Pyongyang Metro, Mansudae Grand Monument, Walking through Pyongyang, and Lunch.
Day 9 was another early start in Kaesong as we hurried to Panmunjeom, the closest city to the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone). Lonely Planet reads:
For many, a visit to the 38th parallel is the highlight of the trip – military historians and anyone interested in the Cold War will be fascinated by this hangover from the 20th century. You don’t have to be an expert, however, to appreciate the weirdness of the site where the bloody Korean War ended in an unhappy truce. Seeing the situation from the North, facing off against US troops to the South is a unique chance to witness things from a new perspective;
The eerily quite drive down the six-lane Reunification Highway gives you a sense of what to expect – the road is deserted save for military checkpoints. Just before you exit to to the DMZ, the sign saying ‘Seoul 780km’ makes your spine tingle.
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Day 8 – Jong-Il Peak, Secret Camp, Film Studio, Boring museums, and Kaesong.
I neglected to mention, and only remembered thanks to my travel notes, about my conversation with the bar girl on my first night at Paekdu. Oli, Mark and I (the two English lads I was good friends with during the trip, plus one who went to bed early, Steve) headed to the bar for a few late night beers. Not surprisingly the two Dutch boys were there drinking away and being very merry, not to mention the other South Korean teacher from Canada in the other group, who still insisted he spoke perfect Korean after only 3 or 4 months in SK. Whatever…
So anyway after a while I noticed the bar girl behind the counter looking rather bored (it was a small bar, she was the only one working there) so I thought I’d see if she wanted to have a little chat. To make a long story short we got chatting in both broken English and broken Korean. Her name is Kim Youn He and spoke a very impressive 5 different languages, Hangul, English, Chinese, Japanese and Russian and had previously been to China for 6 months on an exchange program for the government. I was rather amazed how such a talent young woman could be wasted working behind the bar, though Mark reminded me that working behind the bar in a nice hotel was a good job in North Korea and she’s probably doing better off then 95% of the population. I couldn’t disagree with that.
Being any other bar in any other place in the world I’d have surprised myself to think I was actually getting somewhere with this girl, within an hour we’re laughing loudly, talking freely, and I’d think I’d be correct in saying there was a large amount of flirting between both parties. But of course, and mentioned before, this was North Korea. By 3am I wished her good night and she told me in her best English, ‘I’ll see you again soon’, though we both knew we weren’t going to.
Seeing as we ran a little behind on the first day at Paekdu we didn’t have a chance to have a look at the the ‘Secret Camp’ or Jong-Il Peak, so we woke bright and early at 5am and made our way to the sites.
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Day 7 – Paekdu Airport, Paekdu-san, and Pegaebong Hotel.
Pakdu-san. Lonely Planet reads: Mount Paekdu, one of the most stunning sights on the Korean peninsula, straddles the Chinese-Korean border in the very far north-eastern tip of DPRK. Apart from it being the highest mountain in the country at 2744m, and an amazing geological phenomenon – an exticnt volcano now containing a vast crater late at its centre – it is also of huge mythical importance to the Korean people.
The natural beauty of the extinct volcano now containing one of the world’s deepest lakes is made all the more magical by the mythology that surrounds the lake, both ancient and modern. The legend runs that Hwanung, the Lord of Heaven, descended onto the mountain in 2333BC, and from here formed the nation of Choson – ‘The Land of Morning Calm’, or ancient Korea
It therefore only seems right and proper that for millennia later Kim Jong Il was born here ‘and flying white horses were seen in the sky’ according to official sources. In fact, Kim Jong
Il was probably born in Khabarovsk, Russia, where his father was in exile at the time, but the necessity of maintaining the Kim myth supersedes such niggling facts.
As you cam imagine this was a HUGE day for all of us as we all got up bright and early and made our way to lovely Pyongyang airport. At the airport I made the mistake of talking Korean to one of the shopkeepers and was overheard by one of the many airport officials roaming the airport. She approached me and told me that the South Korean flight (there were two trips to Incheon for South Korean businessmen at the time, highly rare) was about to leave and I needed to board. It didn’t take much convincing that I in fact wasn’t South Korean (as if my Korean could fool anyone!) and that I was heading to Paekdu-san and not Incheon. She advised me not to speak Korean in the airport, just to avoid any confusion.
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Day 4 – Pyongyang, Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Mangyongdae Native House, Mangyongdae Children’s Palace, Monument to Party Foundation, The Triumphal Arch, Revolutionary Marty’s Cemetery, and Hot Pot.
We were still all buzzing from the Arirang games the night before and we all shared stories about what our favourite parts were. I don’t think I came across anyone who didn’t enjoy the show as much as I did, they were just that good.
Today was going to be our first full day in Pyongyang so our itinerary was full. The itinerary we had been given at the start of the trip was now officially thrown out the window, based purely on there being 3 groups, and we all couldn’t do the same thing at the same time. Our guide, Hyn Neh Pak (sp?) was super sweet and she made sure we’d being doing as much as we could during our stay.
Our first port of call was the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, or Kim Il Sung’s mausoleum;
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Day 6 – Pyongyang, Tomb of King Kongmin, Department Store 3, Colourful People, Flower Show, Lunch, Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery, Roller coaster, Army Circus, and the Mass Games again.
Yet another busy day starting off with a long bus ride to King Kongmin’s Tomb and adjoining temple. The tomb was originally plundered by the Japanese during their occupation from 1905, as was most of Royal Korean tombs, and was reconstructed after it was also one of the few tombs left standing after American bombing during the Korean war.
I don’t think any of us were that excited to the see the tomb but we were anxious to make our way out of Pyongyang.
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Day 4 – Flight to Pyongyang and the Arirang Games
I started my day with another ‘free’ watery omelette, however this time they were nice enough to give me toast rather then bread, so how can I complain. We made our was to Beijing airport, checked in, and then hung around for a couple of hours. I managed to chat with an Australian girl who had been working in Korea for 2 months earlier in the year and were able share some common stories about our experiences in ROK (S.Korea).
When we finally got to the departure lounge I was quite eager to see what type of plane we would be flying. As we had 3 groups, plus the Americans, we needed 2 planes. We ended up with an old Soviet plane that I was hoping was still up to safety requirements.
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North Korean Photos and Info. | David | 
30/10/2005 - Sunday 12:54 pm | 
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