ayofosho

Oh, just about everything. The fact that every single person has to wear a pin of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung over their heart. The fact that they keep their dead leaders embalmed and on view for the public. The fact that there are no cars on the highway. The fact that there isn't a shred of graffiti or advertising. The fact that there is propaganda EVERYWHERE.

Yeah, I did actually. A member of our tour group was an artist and he took off his shoes and started dancing at the DMZ. It lasted about 20 seconds before the tour guides flocked over and started telling him to put his shoes back on. They questioned him aggressively about what it all meant and separated him from the group for a while. The Western tour guide that was with us had to intervene on his behalf and said it was merely a sign of "respect". It was really nerve-wracking for the rest of our group. A few days later, the same person took his shoe off and held it in front of a statue of Kim Il Sung and took a photo. The news was filming because it was Liberation Day, so our tour guides had a fucking fit. They made him delete the photos and I'm not sure how he was able to leave the country unscathed...

It was pretty mediocre, though there was lots of it. We had some good Korean BBQ one night, and I even got to try dog soup. Here's a semi-offensive photo of me eating dog soup: http://imgur.com/oUKUJWq

When I was there he was still considered to be in good health and in power. I did ask our tour guide where he might be while we were in the country and he avoided my question for a while. Finally he said, "no one knows where he is or where he lives." And that was that.

We talked about this a lot in my tour group. All our meals were pre-planned at were held at tourist restaurants or at the hotel, so it was entirely possible for them to make these meals as opulent as possible. And we were always served too much food at these meals. Some of us felt guilty because we know that much of the country has to deal with rationing. I think a lot of what we experienced was a show for political purposes, not just the food. It was hard to tell what was part of the charade and what wasn't though.