Blogs from North Korea, Asia

7th Oct: I'd had a fairly decent night's sleep in my heated bed. I was looking forward to soaking in the bath as the water was pumped in from the Oncheon (hot spring), well I was out of luck as the water was freezing and didn't seem to be heating up at all. Nevermind, I'm sure I still got some of the benefit from the cold water. It must come from the sea as there was a slight salty taste to it. Walking round to the main building for breakfast felt so much better than the night before. It was a lovely, sunny day and I couldn't feel the oppressive atmosphere that I had felt the previous evening. In the dining room, I was surprised to see some Koreans. When talking to the others, a group ... read more

Another early start as we were heading down to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). After another filling breakfast in the 'pink room', we headed out to board the bus. It seemed to take ages for us to get going. That was a bit annoying as our guides had said it was better to get to the DMZ early. We drove out of the city and onto the Reunification Highway, which connects Pyongyang with the Joint Securtiy Area at the DMZ. The highway runs for around 170 kilometres, but due to the conditions of the road, it would take about three hours or so to reach the DMZ. The route also passes through/besides the towns of Kaeseong and Sariwon, which would visit on the return journey. Construction of the highway began in 1987 and was finished on the ... read more

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

Von gezuckerten Tomaten, über Massengymnastik bis hin zum Hundefleisch oder: Wie ich 10 Tage ohne Internet überlebt habe Ja, ich habe es tatsächlich getan. Ich bin nach Nordkorea gereist. Aufgrund all der negativen Berichte, die es in unseren Medien gibt, wollte ich mich selbst von diesem Land überzeugen, ob es wirklich so „schlecht und böse“ ist. Man kann Nordkorea derzeit nur in Form einer organisierten Reise besuchen. Also habe ich meine Reise auch über eine deutsche Reiseagentur gebucht und 10 Tage im Land verbracht. Alles wurde organisiert, und die größte Umstellung für mich war, dass man keine Minute aus den Augen gelassen wurde (außer auf Toilette gehen und abends bis morgens allein im Hotelzimmer… das war erlaubt). Ich wurde also direkt am Flughafen von meinen 2 (!) Reiseleitern abgeholt, die mich von da an ständig begleiteten. ... read more

North Korea or the DPRK was an incredible experience. Seeing what the rest of the world only hears about from the media and how the people on the inside see both the outside world and their own country is not something I will soon forget. I'm extremely glad I made the difficult decision to visit North Korea. Our first NK day consisted of meeting with the tour group and flying to Pyongyang on Air Koryo, the so called "Worst airline in the world". Honestly I thought that the China Eastern plane we took from Osaka to Beijing was in worse repair and the staff on Air Koryo seemed much more professional. Our check in was aided by the fact that the CEO of the company who had organized the trip was accompanying us for the first ... read more