Mangyeongdae, October 10, 2008, Friday
Trip Start
Sep 26, 2008
1
19
31
Trip End
Oct 18, 2008
Pyongyang,
Korea Dem Peoples Rep
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Well, whatever the case, the cabin was an anticlimax, to put it mildly. After an intense day full of wonderful contacts with locals, here we toured a place which was basically nothing. For all the knowledge of who hailed from there, in terms of any visual impression, it offered nothing. Its only significance was clearly historical. And even that, I would bet, will probably be heavily revised one day the regime collapses.
We were shown two little rooms, a kitchen, a nearby well from which the Kims hauled out their water and that was it.
And then it was time for dinner. We were taken to a restaurant nearby, also outside Pyongyang, and this time we were all seated at a long row of low tables, Korean style, on mats on the floor.
Mangyeongdae 1
The meal followed pretty close at the footsteps of all others we had had up to that point, with all sorts of everything lumped in and even people like me, vegetarians and those who avoided spicy stuff, had no fear of going hungry.The restaurant was very clean, and fairly luxurious. There were three young and cute waitresses there, serving the stuff, all dressed in that brightly coloured attire, and tirelessly tending to our every whim. And when it was clear that they had given us all we would ever remember to ask, and that there would be no more orders on our part, one of them switched on the karaoke machine and the girls in an instant transformed from waitresses into singers. That really caught everyone's attention.
The songs were that same old syrupy Asian stuff, only with the North Korean spin on what pop music should sound like, spiked with lyrics about friendship, peace and understanding. Videos running in the music background were full of sunny weather, grassy meadows and bright flowers, people shaking hands and scores of smiling faces, which everyone in the west would inevitably label as either a soc-realist kitsch or tasteless camp. But girls sang beautifully and it was obvious that they were not random employees in this restaurant. They had definitely picked them for their singing, as well.
Each song drew an enthusiastic applause from us. None of us enjoyed the music particularly, but you just couldn't deny the girls their reward for their effort and, sincerely, great singing.
Mangyeongdae 2
They all seemed to be very happy with our response.And the short karaoke show ended with the best of them singing a song titled "Bangabseubnida", a phrase which I understood since it was, of course, one of the most basic Korean phrases and one of the very first a foreign student of Korean language was likely to learn. It simply meant "pleased to meet you". The message was clear and with it our dinner ended.
It was time to go back to the hotel.
By the time we got out of the restaurant, it was pitch black outside. Back in the bus I told Nicole how sleepy I had been during the Mass Games and how it had been a tall order for me to simply stay awake there. I said I'd been yawning like there was no tomorrow.
"Oh, you shouldn't do that!" she said.
"Really? Why?"
"It's a grave offence to yawn during the Mass Games. People get punished for that."
I didn't know that. Even it may be true. If half of what they say about North Korea is true, than this would be entirely possible. But no one had caught me yawning. Or they just didn't care even if they had seen me as I was a foreigner anyway. And as such I could probably get away with a thing or two that locals couldn't.
Well, either way, Mass Games were behind us, so from now on I reckoned I could yawn all I please should I feel like that. And particularly now, at the end of a long day in Pyongyang.
And at the end of my first full day in North Korea behind me, I had to say I was fascinated with the place and I liked it very much. Pyongyang was easily one of the most bizarre capitals I'd ever visited and maybe the most bizarre one. With huge multi-lane avenues often with almost no traffic, with even huger statues and monuments routinely rising tens of metres up in the sky, with a lot of pompous and ridiculously pretentious soc-realist architecture, it was most definitely in a certain way a caricature of a city. On the face of it, you'd be tempted to hand it to Americans who call it "hermit kingdom" and agree with them that people of this country deservedly belong to the "axis of evil". Add to it dark streets where all light after dusk is that pale one from windows of huge, drab tower-blocks, which in translation means no light on pavements whatsoever, and you are just half a step away from joining all the forces from free and democratic world and banging your fist loudly on the table, demanding that North Koreans shape up and start behaving. But enter this October 10th, their national holiday. Visit parks and squares, and meet people of Pyongyang in the early afternoon after their picnic out in the open has been well under way and quite a few of them are sozzled, and some outright pissed. Then all the alleged fear of foreigners is gone, all masks and maybe real fear - that of local authorities - has fallen by the wayside, and you see some of the most wonderful, honest and simple people in the world. Boozed up, their tongues untie and they speak all languages, they dance with you and invite you to share their snacks and booze. Then be a bastard and keep your ideology straight, so don't. And instead look down on them and sneer on them when you return home in your reports and articles. Be patronising and assume that you have a cure for every of their own problems.
Now, I knew they wouldn't show us hunger and poverty. I wouldn't try to deny they existed. After all, my day and a half in North Korea, in probably what is the best hotel in the country, with as much food and hot water as I please, hardly gave me any right to pretend I knew much about this place. But that's never been a point anyway. The point is people. And they were fantastic. From that guy whose only English phrase he knew was "hello, I'm sorry" to stunningly pretty traffic girls on almost empty road intersections, to guys who kicked the ball with us on the fun fair grass, to the ladies who danced with us till we couldn't dance any more - that was North Korea I had fallen for in short order.
Poverty may be there. But it can be eradicated. Even fast if people in right places decide to do so instead of tending only to their own interests. And by that I don't mean only those in North Korea.
However, I saw first-hand that people here were rich in their hearts. And that made up for much more than many in the world are prepared to realise and admit.
