Sosan Hotel Pyongyang

... our Korean guides arrived, the money was all there and when we were all in the bus, the bag was handed to them. Some of the people also had small presents for some of our Korean crew, but that was something that was obviously dealt with on a case-by-case basis.<br><br>The ride to the railway station was a short one. And when we left the bus to enter the station building, for the first time during our stay in North Korea I could safely say that it was crowded outside. Other than the ...

... they were a great and friendly lot indeed. Nice people without a doubt.<br><br>But much as I liked Koreans, and much as I'd like to mingle with the local crowd, wherever there was any, I had enough of the Kims.<br><br>And one way or another, directly or indirectly, this Three-Revolution Exhibition was just more of the same. Only a bit more boring, now that the novelty of this fantastic personality cult had somewhat worn off on us.<br><br>This Three-Revolution thing basically refers to ...

... of him. That's probably why all photos of this monument look more or less the same. <br><br>After a duck meat bbq we visited the US Spy Ship Pueblo, the Pyongyang metro system, the Party Monument, the stamp shop, had a beer at the Koryo Hotel and finally we visited the birthplace of Kim Il Sung. From the house where he grew up we walked up the hill to a nice pavillion with a view of the city. <br><br><br><br>

... ja muita lahjoja. Mausoleumissa ei säästelty sähkössä toisin kuin muissa vierailemissamme paikoissa, kuten Koryo museossa Kaesongissa. Samoin tunnelipätkät maanteillä ja alikulkukäytävät kaupungeissa ovat ilman valaistusta. Ikivanhat traktorit kuljettivat ihmisiä, mutta kaikki työ näytettiin tekevän käsin (esim. ruohonleikkaus ja -kastelu). Henkilöautoissa sen sijaan istui usein sotilaita tai muita uniformuun pukeutuneita henkilöitä.

... Hm. They never found out about mine.&#8220;<br><br>&#8222;You had yours?&#8220;<br><br>&#8222;Yes, on the day we met in Beijing. The day before the trip here.&#8220;<br><br>Once in the bus, Mrs Lee wished us all officially a good morning and ran briefly down our plan for today. The first spot of call was going to be so-called War Victory Historic Site, yet another historic site dedicated to yet another victory. Or to the same victory. Well, I guess all of us began getting confused a bit ...

... inscription reading &#8222;3 daeheonjang" whose meaning I don&#8217;t know, but my guess would be it means &#8222;three charters&#8220;.<br><br>The Monument was inaugurated on August 15, 2001 to mark the 56th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.<br><br>The three chapters in question are the North Korean reunification programme, as laid out by Kim Jung Il, on the principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity. Then ...

... And Gul. He had no tie, either. Just a shirt and a wind jacket.<br><br>&#8222;Let me stand next to you,&#8220; he joked. &#8222;I'll be less conspicuous if I&#8217;m not by myself.&#8220;<br><br>But for all the talk and apparent fuss about the dress code in the run-up to the trip, no one seemed to care right now whether Gul and I had ties or not. Our Korean hosts went about their business as usual. Not a word was said about it. It turned out to be a complete non-issue. So much ...

... was the same as the day before. First down at the breakfast, followed soon by Nicole and Mathew and then another round on the Yanggakdo island promenade. And at nine o&#8217;clock in front of our bus.<br><br>Our first destination for today was another thing famous from literature on North Korea and a few documentaries made about it, the American spyship &#8222;Pueblo", moored indefinitely alongside the riverbank of the Deadong river. Probably considered locally the biggest North Korean ...

... And in ways that were, perhaps sadly, a rapidly vanishing species in the west, close to the brink of complete extermination. I can't remember when I last saw so many people out in the open, sitting on blankets, with an occasional tape recorder which must have last been used during the times of ancient Rome, with food and drink, and laughing. At the sight of us some got coy, but some didn't. Quite a few were boozed up and booze is famously often an elixir of courage. So ...

... less than sympathetic individual might look like rushing him up. Almost like pushing. I was inclined to ascribe it to the girl's not exactly perfect English and total unawareness of overtones and nuances of the language. What the guy thought was beyond me. But in any event, he was bemused. <br>A moment later we took our seats and he said: <br>"I am Mathew." <br>He was one of, as would later turn out, four Australians in our group. <br>Soon after take-off, when things became a routine like on ...