Day 5: Victorious Fatherland Museum and Leaving the DPRK

First thing in the morning after breakfast is this museum.  It's dedicated to the Korean War.  First thing you see is a painting of Kim Il Sung.  Once again we're shown an anti-American documentary and then shown around the various exhibits.  The elevators are broken here. 

Another Kim Il Sung painting. 

After WWII, the USSR donated a large amount of it's T-34 tanks to the North Koreans.  Apparently each little white star on the gun barrel represents an American tank that this tank destroyed,

Another WWII Soviet-made North Korean tank, also marked with its number of kills.  This is a pretty lightly armored vehicle, not sure how feasible it is for it have scored that many given that the North Koreans weren't particularly experienced with mechanized warfare.

The basement of the museum contains American weapons and vehicles either captured or destroyed during the war.  

To top it off, the museum has a massive rotating diorama, it takes about 15 minutes to see the whole thing.  It depicts some Korean War battle.  We asked what this is based on, whether photos, documents, etc?  The girl guiding the tour answers, "the artists' imagination."  I don't doubt it.

Candid shot of North Korean soldiers taken from the bathroom window the Victorious Fatherland museum.

Picture with the girl who guides the museum tour.  Apparently she's an actual soldier with weapons training and all; we asked.  Note my crooked glasses... hot, I know.  After the museum, we headed for the international airport, our flight was to leave at noon.  Our minders finally relinquished our passports and tourist papers.  

View of the airport from the plane.  Very fancy.  Bye, Kim Il Sung; thanks for the hostil...err... hospitality.

The plane we left in, was thankfully enough, a new production Russian Tupolev Tu-204, with such luxuries as plasma screens and even overhead baggage compartments that close.  It's not really much better than Western equivalents, but it is actually remarkably quiet, probably the quietest jet I've ever flown on.  

Day 4: Myohyang-san Mountain

This day starts with a drive to the International Friendship Exhibition.  Sadly photography is not allowed here, our cameras (as well as hats, watches,etc) are taken away until we leave the exhibition.  Basically, this place is a museum of gifts that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have received from various people and places all over the world.  There's an electronic counter keeping track of how many gifts there are, as far as I can remember there were 59,000+ gifts,  There's also a map with illuminated dots indicating places that gifts have come from.  There are a handful of neat things (like a bulletproof limousine made in the USSR) but also a lot of really funny things like ashtrays from Jimmy Carter, two plastic menorahs, a stuffed crocodile holding a tray, an iMac computer from 1999, a Bulgarian television set, a set of chopsticks from Mongolia and so on.  They're quite proud of this place; it's guarded by soldiers with silver-plated AK-47's  We have to go through metal detectors and are required to wear shoe covers.  

One of the few photos I was able to get from around the International Friendship Exhibit.  There appear to be a number of tourist buses parked out front but there weren't any other tourists.  

A rare photo of the quieter, friendlier of our two minders, Ms. Li.

Another shot outside the International Friendship Exhibition

After the exhibition, we went to some 700-year-old Buddhist sites.  The North Korean government allows this place to remain because of the role Buddhism has played in Korean history.  However despite an official claim of guaranteeing religious freedom, religious belief and worship are disallowed.  Some of the news magazines touted that a Russian Orthodox church has recently been built in Pyongyang, but this is apparently more for Russian diplomats as well as their families and staff rather than for ordinary North Koreans.  

After that, we had something of a picnic in this area.  Once again we finished too quickly and had to hang around for 45 minutes or so before the next spectacle in our itinerary was prepared.  Several military trucks drove by, which made us suspect that they may be a military base in the area.  We waved at each passing truck loaded with North Korean soldiers, few soldiers smiled and waved back. 

Love that delicious North Korean bottled water.

Afterwards, it was a two-hour drive back to Pyongyang to the Children's Palace.  It was described to us as a place children go after school where they can learn an art form of their choosing, whether dance, painting, music, etc they make sure to add that it's all free of charge.  

The kids here are freakishly good at all that they do, it makes me wonder if they're really here by choice and what exactly it takes to get kids so young to be as good as they are at their respective arts.  Seems like every room had those same watchful portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.  

Some hall inside the Children's Palace.  According to the abridged biography I skimmed in one of the book shops here, Kim Jong Il personally participated in the construction of this building, hauling large blocks even though his shoulders began to swell and skin began to peel.  It seems they genuinely believe Kim Jong Il does everything, knows everything, and is everywhere, the notion crosses deeply into the realm of the absurd, but it seems here in the DPRK it's all said and written with a straight face.  

After we toured the Children's Palace, we attended a 1-hour performance.  Have to apologize for the quality of the photos but the lighting in the auditorium was pretty awful.  Didn't understand a word of the show, but seemed to be entirely about how awesome North Korea is in every way.

Orchestral performance to a video backdrop of a military parade.

On the way to the restaurant.  Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung make yet another appearance.  According to minder Mr. O, Pyongyang has a population of 4 million people, leaves me wondering where they all are.  Then again, he also told us the DPRK has a population of 70 million.  Western and South Korean estimates place the number at 25 million and 29 million respectively.  

After the concert, we went to a restaurant in Pyongyang that apparently specializes in duck.  Here's another variety of North Korean beer.

The food here was remarkably good, probably the best meal of the entire trip.  It's pretty clear ordinary North Koreans can't even imagine eating this way, they'd all get fat.  In fact there were never any ordinary people eating at any of the restaurants we went to, and we went to quite a few.   

After dinner we head back to the hotel and challenge one of our minders to a game of pool. First time around I'm easily able to beat him.  When we play for money, his performance improves significantly.  I'm out only 10 euros, in North Korea that's about a week's worth of pay, however.  

Mr. O, our chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, Chinese-bashing minder. He claimed to be 28 years old.  According the our contact in China who'd met with Mr. O just a few months prior, Mr. O claimed to be 23.  Strange. 

Day 3: Downtown Pyongyang

The reunification monument.  The North Koreans do want to reunite the two Koreas, but under Kim Jong Il's rule.  The two sides of this sculpture, obviously enough, represent North and South Korea.  The driver made too good a time heading back from Kaesong and the next act in the North Korean tourism song and dance wasn't quite ready.  We pulled over here and waited around this monument for 30 minutes before it was time to move on. 

The North Korean side is portrayed as strong, dignified, and willing to help their needy brothers.

South Korea is shown as desperate, impoverished, and pleading for help from their neighbor to the north.

The USS Pueblo, captured by the North Koreans in 1968 and is the only US Navy ship in currently captivity anywhere in the world.  The guy in the foreground is the other minder assigned to us, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Mr. O.  When we arrived there about a hundred North Korean soldiers on board who weren't too thrilled to see us.  Seemed awfully tense and awkward, especially considering anti-American documentaries are screened here.  Some of the soldiers look like kids, couldn't have been much older than 15... if at all.  

The bullet holes from the fire-fight that resulted in the ship's capture.  One US sailor was killed, the rest of the crew, some 80 men in all, were captured and tortured for 11 months before they were released.

The ship's flag, as well as the captain's uniform.

Manning the ship's only armament.

The girl is the one who runs the tours of the ship.

After seeing the Pueblo, we took a ride on the Pyongyang metro, here's the ticket.

Statue of Kim Il Sung at the national library.  We had to bow to a Kim Il Sung statue on one occasion.  Refusing to do so can land you in some trouble, people that aren't willing to play along apparently shouldn't so much as think about traveling to North Korea.  Here we got a chance to use North Korea's intranet.  Supposed to be a lot like internet, except it allows access only to North Korean sites approved by the state, and apparently only accessible to select few anyways.  They allowed me to do a search using their search engine (they took a few steps to allow the whole process to work in English).  I looked up the most innocuous thing I could think of, "cars."  I got 3 or 4 results and I don't think any of them were relevant. 

Ridiculous Kim Jong Il painting.

Kim Il Sung square... largely empty aside from the people practicing for the Arirang mass gymnastics that take place every August.

The tower near the center is the Juche Tower. Named after the Juche philosophy created by Kim Il Sung.  The whole city goes dark at night and this tower is the only thing that remains lit at all times.  The Juche philosophy centers around self-reliance and the notion that man decides and controls his own fate. Ironically North Korea relies heavily on foreign aid and the North Korean state determines the fates of its  people.

Kim Il Sung once again, he's pretty much everywhere. 

The only other non-Korean or Chinese people we saw the whole time are these portraits of communist icons Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.  

North Korea's Arch of Triumph, they're quite proud that it's taller than the original in Paris.  It commemorates the Japanese being driven from Korea, which is attributed solely to Kim Il Sung and his resistance movement.  In fact, during the closing days of WWII, the Russians drove the Japanese out in a matter of days and faced little resistance; Kim Il Sung played only the most minor of roles.  The few Chinese tourists present did manage to ruin my shot. 

Pyongyang as seen from the top of the Juche Tower.

Plaques from various places that study the North Korean permutation of communism, located at the entrance oft he Juche Tower.  Looks like Kim Il Sung has a following in the USA too, or did back in 1975 anyways.

Pyongyang's not bad-looking from a distance.

Building across the street from the Juche Tower.  Don't remember what it is, it's a bit over-exposed, so much so you cane barely see the Kim Il Sung portrait on it.

Monument that commemorates the founding the Korean Workers Party. The sickle, hammer, and brush represent the three facets of the Party, the peasant, worker, and intellectual, respectively.

Had lunch in yet another restaurant that lacked electricity.  One of the interesting things about restaurants in North Korea is there doesn't ever appear to be a menu.  Most tourist meals consist of several courses but you really don't have much say over what you get, if you don't like something, you simply choose not to eat it.  The minders do attempt to ascertain any dietary restrictions tourists may have (for example, they would ask, "You do eat meat, right?")  

The Pyongyang Metro, clean but old, run-down, and kinda smelly.  Got lots of stares from North Koreans here.  I was never able to determine for certain whether it's true that regular North Koreans aren't legally allowed to interact with tourists or if they're simply wary about it because everything they're taught about foreigners.  Maybe both, but either way they kept their distance.  The two Koreans I sat by on the metro quickly changed seats and preferred to stare from a distance.  According the US State Department, if a tourist attempts to interact with any of the locals, it can be construed as espionage.

A Kim Il Sung painting that suggests he had a personal hand in building the Pyongyang Metro.  It seems the dude knows everything about everything.

Some real North Koreans, these people are quite privileged, life tends to much worse outside of the showcase capital city.

Every subway car is adorned with a Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il portrait.