Blogs from Pyongyang, North Korea, Asia

A good night's sleep in a comfortable bed made me feel more human today. I headed down to the breakfast room and a few others from the tour were already there. The room can only be described as very pink. It would definitely fulfil a young child's dream of a princess room. The breakfast was a buffet and there was a good selection of stuff. I also liked the egg station, where you could get eggs fried or omelettes made as you wanted. We all assembled in the lobby at 9 am and headed out for the day to explore Pyongyang. It was going to be a long day as we were going to the Mass Games that evening too. We drove through the streets of Pyongyang and I tried to take in as much as ... read more

The Day of the Shining Star is a public holiday in North Korea that celebrates the anniversary of the birth of King Jong-il. Depending on whether you believe the Soviets or North Korean propaganda (I'm inclined to believe the former in this instance) King Jong-il was born in Siberia in 1941 as Yuri Irsenovich Kim, though the official North Korean biography state he was born on 16th February 1942 at Mount Paektu; an important location in Korean mythology - the origin of the Korean people. Legends go that there was a bright star in the sky the night Kim Jong-il was born, hence the name of the day, the season changed from winter to spring and there was a double rainbow. The day is celebrated with mass demonstrations of gymnastics, dancing, musical performances, military processions, flowers, ... read more

"Early up and you go early to bed, that's the way for a little farmer boy". Those are some words from a Danish song and that one sure goes for North Koreans as well. Maybe it is a kind of shock treatment, to keep us in a drouse through our stay as the hotel phone alarm goes off at 6:30 like South Korea just invaded Pyongyang. But no, it's the Chinese's time to get up and get in the bus. I ate breakfast alone in an almost empty restaurant no.1, which is the restaurant, where western people eat. This is where I saw a buffet, so this is where I eat. But where was everybody? In this buffet there was pancakes, toast, butter, jam, porridge, twisty donut bread and a guy only to make omelettes. And ... read more

I have opened my first Flickr account and here's the link Philip Gray on flickr It covers St Pancras through to leaving Moscow. It seems to loaded them backwards. Sorry about that! Philip... read more

That would be a better name than the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Of course any country that feels the need to shore up its credentials by affixing such prefixes as 'democratic' and 'peoples' is bound to be dubious. As a rule the more a regime emphasizes its democratic values through the amount of adjectives in its name the more ruthless and undemocratic it is. As such the D.P.R.K is the worst of the lot, as it not only claims to be democratic, but also to be governed by its people. The reality is much more bleak, it is governed by a ruthless tyrant and his cronnies, all belonging in one way or another to the Kim-clan. North Korea is in effect Kim's personal playground, a fiefdom if you will. It is ruled with an iron ... read more