Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2010
Edit Blog Post
So have you guessed where it is yet?
5 Days - Maximum time on budget spent in the country, the length of my trip.
So you should be able to gather that it was an expensive country to visit.
4 Names - Kim, Lee, Pakh and Chai
These 4 names make up 95% of the population’s surnames. A question I found important to bring up was if everyone has the same name what happens to the post? There isn’t so much personal correspondence as it turns out. The names should indicate East Asia.
3 Adjectives - People’s, Republic, Democratic
As a great traveller(his Travel Blog is His Dudeness) and great man(Ralf) once told me , the more political adjectives a regime had to fill its title with the more evil the regime was reputed to be. For instance...
Great Britain and Northern Ireland 0
The Republic of France 1
The Democratic Republic of Congo 2
So as you can imagine this one really ranks quite highly.
2 Leaders - The Great Leader and The Dear Leader
The first was declared leader for eternity is currently the only dead head of state, whilst The Dear Leader has reputedly the
At the Metro
Looks like Wartime Britain to me! largest Hollywood film collection outside of Hollywood but doesn’t allow anyone else in the country to watch them!
1 Mass Games - That is 100,000 dancers in costume and performing backflips, cartwheels and somersaults in perfect unison whilst a bank of 10,000 school children flip coloured squares of card over to reveal pictures of heroic efforts by the proletariat and effigies of the Great Leader as well as the united country.
Yes you guessed it, I hope, The Democratic People’s Republic of, or North for short, Korea.
And what a trip. I don’t think that it made me any closer to the truth about inside this locked country but one thing was perfectly clear, the US have been and still are making plenty of excuses for the NK Politicians to blame the US for everything. The selection of confiscated spy helicopters, artillery, maps, and the crowning item, USS Pueblo complete with crew and signed confessions of the espionage activities from their territory. Not mentioning the US citizen who felt the need to walk across the DMZ from South Korea in the name of peace, only to have Jimmy Carter come and bail him out. All these things allow
the regime to fill the newspaper maintaining its anti-US propaganda campaign. When the electricity fails in North Korea the normal response would be “Damn Americans” or when there is no Kim Chee left “Damn Americans”.
A sad indictment of the country is its crumbling soviet issue buildings and industrial sector, the minimal diversity of plain clothes and a severe lack of motorised transport. It also transports you back to a soviet era present nowhere else in the world, where the cobwebs are being swept out, albeit slowly, for new monolithic concrete structures instead.
The regime held up through one of the worst famines of the modern world, so it’s not looking rosy if you are a fan of a unified and demilitarised Korea.
But you should always look on the brighter side of life. The children still giggle and laugh when they see you. A lot of people believe that they are living in the greatest country in the world, which is quite similar to a few nations I could mention. The locals still want to talk and share their smoked fish with you. The lady at that kiosk gives you a wink as she sells you
a couple of stamps.
What if you don’t have a car or an Ipod, or know if your leader has a child or not. I can’t say I really care for these things, better to have aspiration and dreams and attempt to achieve them! It’s all about the trip and not what’s in your backpack. Anyway, to avoid sounding more cheesy I’m going to leave it there. I hope you like the insight and here are some photos for you to peruse.
Also, one final note, if you are Veronica and Alan Newall of New Abbey Publications, your grovelling letter to The Kim Family has made it into their little international collection. It was however sickening to hear how much you love the regime in such over the top language! I imagine you are part of the Juchee Party.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0313s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
LivingTheDream
Ben
One day...
I was thinking long and hard about attending the mass games two years ago, but then the price tag was too high for me in the end. One day though - your pictures are amazing! Ben