After being awakened to many aspects of North Korea - the passionate pursuit of a military policy and panegyrics about the Great Leader being two examples - there were more revelations as we concluded our North Korean odyssey. One was the extremely proud nature of the North Korean people. This extended to a great pride about their history, and they make great efforts to preserve and display their historical sites. These places were always attended to by a local guide - most were women dressed in traditional flowing gowns in pastel colours, but sometimes they were men - including one who [View Full Entry]

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In a country renowned for its international isolation, North Korea is equally adept at isolating foreigners visiting their nation. I have never journeyed to a country where I was kept so separated from the local populace. On almost every occasion, we were deliberately distanced from the local people; we would always eat in the most secluded section of a restaurant, be ushered out of a separate entrance/exit to a performance or show - and if this was not possible, then only after had we exited the building, would the North Koreans be allowed the leave the same premises. We effectively experi [View Full Entry]

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Within the North Korean psyche, nothing is more despised than imperialist aggressors. Those evil, external forces that threaten to usurp the Juche idea of self-reliance, and besmirch the Great Leader. Public enemy number one in this regard are the US - and they have held this title for the past sixty years, when they overtook Japan (and their imperialist efforts in the first half of the twentieth century) as the most despised nation. It was rare to hear the word “US” or “American” without the phrase “Imperialist Aggressors” spat out immediately af [View Full Entry]

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Moments after arriving at Pyongyang train station, our hosts whisked us through a side exit and into a 25 seat van reserved only the two of us – there would be no fighting over who would get the window seat on this tour. We were introduced to our three North Korean hosts – our constant companions for the next 10 days. The Driver was a young person of about 30 years, with a wide face, darkened complexion, and a mop of black hair that swept across the head. Our Guide was in their early 50s, with a pleasant face that beamed [View Full Entry]

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“You are going where?!?!”, my friend would exclaim. “North Korea,” I would calmly reply, with a nonchalance likened to asking a flight attendant for another orange juice. “Don’t you mean South Korea?” would come the inevitable response. “No, I mean North Korea: missile tests, captured US journalists...” and the answer would always be, “Ah…you mean the dangerous one,” with particular emphasis on the second last word. I would eventually be asked my reasons: North Korea (or the Democratic People’s Republic of [View Full Entry]

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Though being only an hour before midnight, Xi’an’s train station was heaving with people waiting for the arrival of family and friends, or engaging in the Chinese pastime of lounging upon the large public areas in front of major public train stations. I could make no sense at all of the illuminated train departure board, and so after asking the helpful Information Officer, I was directed to the Soft Sleeper Waiting Room for my train to Beijing. The ultimate travelling sensation of being the only foreigner in a place came upon me again, for the rest of the people in the [View Full Entry]

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Sitting at the crossroads of history, Xi’an is famous for not only being the termination point of the epic Silk Road, but it was in this region where China was united for the first time under a common ruler, that of the belligerent Emperor Qin Shi Huang, whose other legacy is the legendary terracotta army. After what seemed a prolonged period of flight connections (mainly because it was) I wearily trudged into Xi’an airport, and I immediately headed to the Han Yanglin Mausoleum, where the fourth Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Jindi, was interred. Jindi was a far l [View Full Entry]

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The resounding thunder echoed off the dusky, engraved walls. The majority of tourists had departed as the storm approached, so this ancient temple appeared deserted. An empty and extremely long colonnade stretched away before me, where a symmetrical line of columns protected blackened reliefs of Krishna combating demons. The skies continued to darken as gusts of winds flayed the fronds on the palm trees at the perimeter of Angkor Wat. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, rains fell – and the wall carvings portrayed a scene befitting such a storm – as combatants with grimaced and [View Full Entry]

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How did I end up in this situation? Standing in the energetic and crowded Donghuamen Night Market, holding a skewer with three black deep-fried scorpions pierced along its length. “Come on, eat it!” exclaimed Fi, camera in hand and ready to record this inauspicious moment. Such an assertive statement drew even more attention to the foreigner nervously holding this delicacy near his mouth. My mind ruminated on how this started a few hours earlier when attending an afternoon session of Olympic rowing finals. Fi and I discussed exploring this market where such items as fried si [View Full Entry]

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Attending an Olympics is a far different experience than watching on television; you avoid those annoying ad breaks and sometimes those equally annoying commentators, you are not subjected to endless replays of the same event nor to other distractions of daily life. Your whole existence is geared to the Games and everything it entails: securing more tickets, queuing and moving with masses of people, swapping email addresses with other attendees; and sitting with thousands of other spectators cheering loudly for the athlete of their choice. This was my third Olympics, and as my previous two e [View Full Entry]

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