earthnutshell

There are so many, but this one stuck with me: About an hour east of the JSA at the DMZ, through villages there is what is known in propaganda as "The Concrete Wall". You arrive to a military outpost with KPA, machine guns visible etc. and walk up a bunker to the top. Inside you are greeted by a general, he has a lot of medals and he proceeds to tell you all about how South Korea and America built a concrete wall from coast to coast (America/ROK denies it completely), but theres a kicker - you can't see it from the South side. He says it provides proof to the aggression towards the North, and they hide tanks and infantry behind it ready to pounce and he's pointing to a map before finally getting us to come outside to see it for ourselves.

We go outside, gaze across the DMZ into South Korea, there are binoculars etc, and he urges you to take a look. It was a perfect day, we all take a look, look at eachother with that 'errr do you see it?' look, nobody sees it. But the general is there with that 'I told you so, see!' look on his face. We take further looks, and just kind of...accept that theres a wall.

Except, there is no wall.

Haha, was waiting for this. Yep, can confirm I didn't beat the man himself. He's a true master of the game, his round was 25 strokes lower than the best PGA score ever recorded - incredible right?

I asked the caddy about this at the course, and she said she remembers it, but wasn't here that day. She said other caddies either knew about, or witnessed the feat, though. She seemingly 100% believed it, even as a golf caddy knowing its impossible.

Absolutely. The people in Pyongyang know, mainly about China - which I guess isn't exactly the peak of being uncensored, but there is direct interaction in Pyongyang with Chinese products and market. Cars, televisions, air conditioners - their supermarkets are stocked with Chinese goods. On the plane going into the country, and heading out on train - there are quite a number of DPRK nationals, they are entrusted to leave Pyongyang into China and come back. Even one of my guides had been to Beijing before, but he was watched and controlled as we were in North Korea. People in Pyongyang live a reasonably good life considering. They obviously don't get any television other than state-controlled channels, or radio - of course, their idea of censorship might be markedly contrasting to yours, but they know it's different outside.

There is also a huge blackmarket all through North Korea in foreign goods, especially South Korean media.

In the countryside? In smaller towns, cities? Absolutely not. I am convinced the average civilian is detached from the outside world as remote civilisations of the past. They can't even go to Pyongyang. There are military checkpoints all through the country preventing locals from even traversing between provinces, it's mental. You need a special ID card with stripes to get into Pyongyang, is this reminding you of an event in our past history?

1. It's really expensive for Asia, but it includes flights. I went with Koryo Tours as do most other western foreigners, it's cheaper to go with a number of Chinese companies. It was close to 4000 Euros, so 250 euros a day. but absolutely everything is included except for snacks, and anything else you want to purchase like souvenirs (yes they have them).

2. You aren't allowed to handle local currency, North Korean Won. It's illegal. You have to (ironically) use USD most of the time, and can pay in Euros and Chinese RMB. You almost never get change, if you do - it'll be a mix of currencies, and I even got a can of Sprite and bubble gum as change multiple times. I also paid $10 USD for a beer when my change never came back. The price is a total lucky dip, they use this huge big buttoned calculator to come up with a seemingly arbitrary figure - two of us that bought the same items paid over 20 USD difference in the same place, 1 minute apart.

3. North Korea is exceptionally safe for tourists as long as you play by the rules. If you don't you'll have a very bad time. Chance of robbery, violent crime etc. is absolutely non-existant.

4. In some areas outside of Pyongyang, there appears to be a universal shunning of foreigners, inside Pyongyang it isn't as obvious, if true at all.

A standout meal? We had raw fish in Wonsan. As in, so raw, the fish was moving on the plate. Scared the hell out of a guy at our table as he went to dig in he almost fell off his chair and thought he'd seen a ghost. But, my goodness I am glad you mentioned the food. It was so bad, I can't describe it. Actually, I can. In the Vice documentary on North Korea, the guy describes it as 'matter'. This is the best description. It was the worst food I've ever had in my life. Everyone felt sick from the food at some point during the trip, half the time you had no idea what you were eating, and they bring out a ton of it.

Huge selections come out on plates, mostly it was cold and nothing tasted fresh. Because it probably wasn't.

Some food was ok. We had pizza in the only pizza restaurant in North Korea, where they sent the chefs to Italy to learn how to make them. It was ok. Kimchi was with every meal, so was tofu. We had sushi one day which was odd. We had Korean BBQ which was good, that was on my birthday. Bibimbap we had twice which was good, too. I passed on the dog meat soup. 'French fries' were mangle pieces of potato, as in, bigger than your hand - a giant piece of crisp potato, took us a while to figure that out. We drunk a lot of Soju.

The waitresses flounder around the table watching you eat, as you get even close to finishing a plate of food - it's replenished instantly. The food portions for foreigners are so insane it's hard not to believe it's a way to show it off, at the very least...going above and beyond for the guest.