Korth Korea

I went with a tour group to North Korea this weekend. I'm not sure exactly how often (maybe once or twice a month during Summer/Fall) North Korea allows tourists to come see Kumgansan. This is said to be the most beautiful mountain in both Koreas.
When they let outsiders in everything has to be regulated and organized perfectly. All the different tour groups had to arrive at the same time and go through the boarder at the same time. Our buses traveled in a caravan down the fenced off narrow roads. We were not allowed to take any pictures from the bus at any time. There were NK soldiers standing along the roads watching for any tourist to take out their camera or do anything else we shouldn't be. If someone did so they would raise a red flag and all the buses would have to stop. I'm not sure what would happen to us if we got red flagged.

Along the beaches/coast there was rows and rows of barbed wire. When we were driving through the fields we could see the locals riding their bikes, fishing, and farming. We think that when the buses pass by they are instructed to turn away. We couldn't see the faces of anyone and they were kept back from the road.

I think it would be interesting to see what their cities look like. We saw a few tiny villages, but I feel like there are some villages in SK that looked just as old and broken down in the middle of nowhere.

We had to wear ID tags with our picture, name, nationality, passport etc. everytime that we were out.

We stayed in a little South Korean "bubble" inside NK. There was a hotel, a bunch of restaurants and bars, a duty free shop, a hot spa and massage place, and a Family Mart. There was even a theatre for an acrobatics show all inside this little foreigner land. There were shuttle buses that took us from place to place. We were allowed to take pictues in our bubble, but we couldn't take them in many other places. I feel like there is so much about this trip that I can't share with anyone. Some things I just can't explain. It was a weird experience.



We took a bus up a narrow winding road that crossed over waterfalls and rapids to get part way up one of the peaks of Kumgan mountain. The bus driver was in a race or something and it was raining and there were no barriers to stop us from falling a great distance. I was freaked out. Jenn was as cool as a cucumber (having just been in many buses in Nepal and India this was cake)



We hiked up the peak. My pictures don't do it any justice. It was so beautiful, so clean, so perfect. There were toilets at the top of the mountain. 1$ for a pee. 2$ for a poop.

All throughout the mountains there were these statues of woodland creatures. They were very creepy and doing strange things like pulling each others' pants down, drinking from some unidentified bottle and one even had its baby sucking from its breast. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of most of them because we saw them from the bus, and again, we couldn't snap from there. This one was excited to see the tourists.

This is our tour group in front of a painting of Kim Jung ll and his father Kim ll Sung. We couldn't take pictures of it, but the Koreans could take pictures of it for us. I guess this way they can control what images are leaving the country. (???)


Sunday we went to the coast of The East Sea (aka The Sea of Japan). I was allowed to take pictures of this rock, but not some other rock in a different direction. I don't know why exactly...something about it being sacred.



Then we went to Salipo Lake which means "Three days". Apparently many years ago the king was visiting different beautiful spots in Korea and he loved the lake so much that he decided to extend his stay to 3 days. woo hoo. After walking for so long and being over tired we were the most excited about the meat skewers that were being barbequed on the side of the lake.




We met a Korean who was so excited to talk to us and he proceeded to take pictures of us throughout the entire hike. His name was Jang Dong Gun (just like the face of Giordanno) He was a character. He went on and on for a long time about Celine Dion and Anne Murray and how much he loves Canadian music. He was even singing a little bit for us.

After that hike I got a foot massage. I actually considered going to Dr. Fish, but was a little too freaked out by it. You put your feet, legs or whole body into a pool with thousands of little fish and they nibble at your dead skin. It's supposed to be quite healthy. I opted for something a little safer. I had the only male massuse and he couldn't stop smiling and giggling at me.

It was a pretty cool experience and I'm glad I went. I'm definitely happy about living in the "good Korea", however.