Pothonggang Hotel Pyongyang

... hotel. This being North Korea, you couldn't depend on it that they would have the change. But fortunately, they did. And so, as soon as I noticed Michael, I gave him the money back and thanked him once again.<br><br>Outside by the bus, before our last ride I returned the alarm o&#8217;clock to Nicole.<br><br>&#8222;Oh! You remembered," she said smiling broadly. It was as if she had half expected me to forget it.<br><br>&#8222;Of course,&#8220; I answered. &#8222;Did you think I ...

... Or at least in their ability to keep us interested, if not to lengthen our attention span. I knew, and I mentioned it already, that part of the explanation could be drawn down to the fact that we were simply getting weary. I did, at least. Weary first and foremost of the propaganda that unstoppably continued apace. For it was one thing to see all those grand monuments and bright and colourful murals all over the place, and quite another to have your ears permanently filled with what ...

... of Kim Il Sung. We took the elevator to the top of the tower for a great view of the city. On the way back we stopped in the souvenir shop in the base of the tower, where the interior took us back in time. <br><br>From here we went to the "Victorious Fatherland War Museum" where we were shown a video on how the US Imperialists started the Korean War. It was quite interesting. In the top of the building there ...

... korealainen tekee pyhiinvaelluksen vähintään kerran elämässään. Turvatarkastuksen jälkeen varsinaista päärakennusta lähestyttiin lentokentiltä tutuilla tasaisilla liukuportailla. Tämän jälkeen vinhanoloinen laite puhdisti kengän pohjat. Ensimmäisessä salissa valkoisen Kim Il-Sungin patsaan taustalle oli heijastettu merkillinen sini-oranssiväriyhdistelmä. Yhdessä salissa kuuntelimme Japanin raakuuksista korealaisia kohtaan, merkillist ...

... tarjoiltiin juomia, joista en ollut kuullutkaan. Aikakausilehdessä kerrottiin kuvin ja sanoin japanilaisten barbaarien suorittamista hirmuteoista korealaisia vastaan jossakin viime vuosisadan alkupuolella käydyssä sodassa. Tämä olisi kuitenkin vasta alkusoittoa kaikelle sille näkemälleni ja kuulemalleni, että Pohjois-Koreassa eletään pikemminkin menneisyydessä kuin tässä päivässä (saatikka katsotaan tulevaisuuteen).

... a solo tour. The guys from my group must have met him the night before in the hotel bar where some of them occasionally had a beer or two before they retreated to their rooms for the night&#8217;s kip. So I was the only person at the table who didn&#8217;t know Andy yet.<br><br>But Andy joined us only for breakfast, and when the breakfast was over, he was whisked off by his guides wherever their plan took him, and the rest of us soon gathered around the bus for the start of the new day ...

... a diet of North Korean music could gorge themselves on a series of characters in the mould of frowning, rifle-toting soldiers of both genders, beaming peasants working the sunny fields, happy youngsters in flowery nature and singing workers, all of them dispensing with grand gestures and undoubtedly spreading some serious message. In fact, in their own dippy way, the videos were highly amusing. But the musical part, at least to our western ears, soon grew rather irritating. I don&#8217;t ...

... Memorial Palace once upon a time allegedly served as the old Kim&#8217;s official residence and office. When he died in 1994, Kim Jr. decided to transform it into his father&#8217;s final resting place. So now, somewhere inside the palace, the old geezer was lying in permanent state inside a glass coffin. Of course, our visit clearly refuted the false claim that foreigners are not allowed to see Kim&#8217;s embalmed body. As a foreigner, you may not go in whenever you please, like ...

... so much so that at the end of the day entire population ended up scared shitless. Everyone except the Big Brother, Kim Jong Il, that is. And by extension, having fun out in the open would be like letting your guard down and exposing yourself and whatever vulnerabilities you had to whoever might consider exploiting them as opportune. That's what most of us thought. I guess I did, as well, to an extent. Even if I came from what used to be a communist country and knew first-hand that ...

... function that way. Stern-looking and straight-faced flight attendants probably had instructions to keep us westerners from their own nationals at bay at all times. Otherwise I had no way of explaining why it was so important to herd us all into as small a space as possible while most of the aircraft was empty. Not that we were really cramped. We were not. And it really didn't matter much. But it was certainly interesting as a matter of curiosity. <br>I was seated at an aisle seat ...