Why? The two big, related reasons are:
1) When you think of these evil, Stalinist, totalitarian countries like the Soviet Union or North Korea you likely automatically imagine a grey, overcast, dreary hellhole where everyone shuffles around with their heads down and never experiences a moment that isn't despair, let alone anything that would qualify as happiness. But obviously that's not the case. Clearly the sun must shine and the birds must chirp just like in any other country, and surely people must make jokes, have picnics, play games, fall in love, and have sex.
And 2) With such strict prevention of information leaving the country, what does get reported and heard and imagined is often so exaggerated or far-fetched that a vicious circle of hyperbole and fabrication leads to many stories about the country being severely exaggerated and misinterpreted (a poster with example hairstyles at a barber suddenly becomes the state-sanctioned official list of the only hairstyles that can be legally worn in the country, or all the users of the Pyongyang Metro are just actors being ordered around to create a false feeling of a bustling metropolis for the deception of the gullible journalists and tourists who are dumb enough to take it at face value), entirely made up (like the reported execution of Kim Jong Un's girlfriend, whose subsequent resurrection must then have been even more surprising to those who believed the initial story, or the execution of General Ri Yong-gil, who was also later raised by the nation's top necromancers, or reports of superfluous execution methods, like being fed alive to ravenous dogs, or shot with AA guns), or what should be obvious satire being reported and accepted as legitimate news (like the North Korean documentary of American life with the parody English voiceover dub a la honey badger, or the "official" Twitter account of the North Korean state news agency). The fact that people can unquestioningly believe such ridiculous things I think says more about the propaganda and brainwashing we have in the West against Korea, rather than much about the state of things in Korea itself.
So I wanted to visit North Korea and get some firsthand information, and now that I live right next door it was the perfect opportunity to do it. Of course the big objection to that is that since they control where you go and what you see they just clean up and put on their best faces for the narrow tourist route while not letting you see the entire rest of the country, which is apparently a hellish wasteland. (See the comic at the top of this post) Well, certainly there's going to be some truth to that or else why would they not let you travel freely, but it still goes back to my original point that, for as different and repressed and controlled as things may be, these are still (mostly) regular people living in (relatively) normal cities in a (sort of) functioning economy, so to think that the experience on the tourist route is entirely staged or fabricated and is a black and white contrast with what must lie just over the horizon I think more shows the cynicism of those who believe that, rather than the gullibility of the tourists who believe otherwise.
In the end, if nothing else, I would get a good story out of the trip.
So then once you decide you want to go, a bunch of other questions and misconceptions raise their heads. Is it even legal? Sure, the North Koreans like to control the information that enters and leaves the country, but just like pretty much any other country on earth, they can't resist those sweet American tourist dollars, so they still let us in. And as opposed to that lovely tropical destination that doesn't even have a nuclear program, the US government doesn't restrict travel to North Korea at all. But isn't there a high chance that you'll get detained for doing something considered innocuous in most other countries, or even just detained to be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations? Well, out of the 16 Americans ever detained by North Korea, 5 of them entered illegally to begin with, and only four were regular tourists, one who was a Korean War vet, one who tried leaving behind a Bible, one who went there specifically intending to get arrested and still only barely succeeded in the end (they wanted to just kick him out, but he refused to leave), and the one who's still being held for trying to steal a propaganda poster off the wall of the staff only floor of the hotel, so out of the thousand plus American tourists that have visited North Korea, zero have been detained for doing accidental things or nothing at all, so I figured I should be fine. But are you even be able to bring back pictures? They've always allowed pictures, although you have to ask permission for each picture. But from the sounds of other tourist accounts they've been getting more relaxed about what they let you photo, and now they let in smartphones too, so you don't need to rely on a standalone camera either. How do you even make arrangements to go? Easy, you google "visit north korea" and get the webpages of a bunch of companies that can take you there, like Uri Tours, Koryo Tours, Young Pioneer Tours, Juche Travel Services, etc. You give them your money and a photo, and they give you an itinerary and a visa. No harder than booking any other tour (except that you have to route your trip through China, and Americans can't take the train in).
So I started by gathering all the tours that were available during Golden Week from all the various companies I could find. Since I had the whole week free, and I likely wouldn't ever be taking a second trip, I wanted something that would last the whole week and take me as many places in the country as possible. From the top three that had similar itineraries I chose Young Pioneers because they were significantly cheaper than the others. So I booked with them and they sent me back some documents to print and fill out and scan back to them, along with a copy of my passport and a passport-style photo for the visa. Well, after getting that all together, just before I was about to send it all back to them they replied to me saying that they were just informed that there were no more seats left on their flight, and being an American I couldn't take the train in, so I wouldn't be able to go after all. So I wrote them back saying it was my bad luck for not booking earlier and that I would try again in the summer or next year, and it was only after sending that and resigning myself to it that I remembered that there were other tour providers, and not knowing the details of this issue with the flights, maybe they would still be able to get me in. So I went back to my list, chose the second best tour, this one by Koryo Tours, and booked with them. They replied back with some forms to fill out, just like Young Pioneers had, I filled them out and sent them back, and they never said anything about any issues getting flights, so I paid and the deal was done.
So this tour, like all of them was leaving out of Beijing (only a couple other Chinese cities and Vladivostok have flights to Pyongyang), so I still had to get myself over there. There would be a tour briefing at the company's office Friday evening, so I had to arrive in the morning to be able to attend that. Also, since I'd have to leave the airport to go to that, I'd need a Chinese visa. Well, they have a special 72-hour transit visa you can get for just these situations, but it requires a direct flight to the Chinese destination with no layovers, and most flights from Japan I was seeing were routing through Shanghai, but after searching hard enough I finally found a flight at a normal price from Osaka that would do the trick. Now when I went to Tokyo the past couple times I took the train down in the evening after work, but Osaka is too far to be taking any train, so I was going to have to fly out of Akita Airport. There aren't many flights out of Akita, but there was an evening flight that would work so long as I left immediately after work. So here's how it all ended up working out: Thursday evening Akita Airport to Itami Airport in Osaka and spend the night, then the next morning Kansai International (also in Osaka) to Beijing and my orientation and spend another night, then finally the next morning back to Beijing airport and off to Pyongyang. So briefly: AXT->ITM->KIX->PEK->FNJ, and the same again in reverse a week later. An extremely roundabout trip to get somewhere that's only about a third of that distance from my house as the crow flies, but then crows don't have to worry about the antagonism of human governments towards each other that causes these messes in the first place.
There were other things to worry about too. Tourists can't use the local currency, but generally Yuan, Euros, and Dollars are accepted in its place, so I had to get one of those. Seeing as I would need a little money in China anyway to cover the train into the city and my hotel, and since there would be more Chinese currency floating around in the country due to the closer relations with China, thus making it easer to get change for larger denomination notes, I decided I would change my Yen for Yuan at the airport in Beijing. The other thing was that it's always suggested to bring gifts for your Korean guides to build goodwill and maybe make them a little more lax in their treatment of you, so I picked up some Japanese cigarettes, chocolate, and some baked goods from the patisserie in town, and figured I would try to look for some small bottles of Japanese whisky at the airports on my way over too. Electricity-wise, apparently round-type plugs like they use in Europe are common there, so I got an adapter for that off of Amazon before I went too. And finally, you have to dress nice when you visit the tomb of the Kims, so I made sure to pack some nice clothes and a tie for that too.
All this taken care of, I was finally ready to go. So Thursday evening after work I stopped by the apartment to drop off my school stuff and pick up my bags and headed off to the airport. This was my longest drive so far in Japan, but it wasn't so bad. I avoided the toll highways so I didn't get slowed down by having to figure out how they worked, since my schedule was a little tight, and the highway driving wasn't so bad, so I made it to the airport no problem. I knew there was long-term parking (and fairly cheaply), but I didn't see any signs for it when I got there, so just parked in the most distant lot and hoped for the best when I got back a week later. No problem on the flight, and I took some trains down into the city so I would have a closer jumping off point for the trip to the other airport on the other side of the city in the morning. Turns out, as I found out when I was booking the hotel here, that it was in a neighborhood named Abeno, and sure enough, having investigated its location ahead of time, I found the titular Abenobashi, which lent its name to one of my favorite anime series, so I was even able to fit that small pilgrimage into the trip as well.
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| Abenobashi |
So I found a little 24hr establishment early in the morning right next to the hotel where I got breakfast, and headed out to the airport. Now, the thing that Koryo tells you when you're using the 72hr transit visa for China is that you need copies of your onward flight ticket and visa to show the airport officials before they'll let you go on to China, but even then some of them aren't aware that such a visa exists (which you apply for directly at the Beijing airport rather than ahead of time), so you might have to talk to supervisors and ask them to consult their big books of travel requirements before you can get them to finally let you go. So sure enough, sitting at the departure gate I got called up to the counter and they asked to see my passport and I told them I was just transiting through and gave them a copy of the ticket to Pyongyang. Well, they were Japanese of course and didn't want to try talking directly to me any more than necessary due to the language barrier, so they just talked amongst themselves for about five minutes, consulting the supervisors and big books of travel requirements as necessary, and finally handed me everything back and gave me the okay and apologized for taking up my time.
The flight was delayed a little because of congestion in Beijing, but otherwise it was uneventful and I ended up in China. The line to get the transit visa took FOREVER, but I did manage to get it no problem, and with no Chinese ability and very little English around, managed to find the train and buy the ticket and get into the city. On the way into the city there was tons of new tree planting that had been done, probably in response to the massive pollution I guess, although the air seemed fine when I was there. Once I got into the city, the air was full of fluff from whatever those plants/trees are that make that stuff every year raining down like snow. It was also a lot warmer than I expected, so I was hoping Korea would be a little cooler since most of the clothes I brought was assuming milder temperatures.
So to get to the hotel, I found I actually had roaming on my phone apparently, but not wanting to find out what the charges would be, and having assumed ahead of time I would have no phone access in China, I had drawn out a map of the area I would be trekking around, so once I oriented myself (I seriously used the location of the sun to figure out which way was north) I managed to get to get there and check into my room. Imagine my surprise though, when I opened the door and found it already occupied by a couple guys! Luckily they were also American, so they came down to the desk with me and they sorted us out and gave me another room. The other guy was kind of a jerk about it though and was trying to get some monetary concession or something out of the poor woman at the desk.
So between the delayed flight, and the long wait at immigration, and the room mix up, I realized I was going to be late for the orientation and booked it out of the hotel. Since their office is tucked into some back corner of the city, they included instructions with pictures on how to get to it in the guidance document they emailed us, but I still managed to not be able to find it in the alleyway, so I took the printout up to a random woman washing her car and pointed at the picture of the tour office, hoping that if it was in the same alley she'd be familiar with it. Turns out she was, and actually managed to get out a little English ("Go straight." "Turn left.") to help and it seemed like she was really proud of that and that I really made her day. The office was actually in the next alley over and was easy enough to find once I got there. I was only about 15 minutes late, and there wasn't really much covered that wasn't already mentioned in any other travel advice about visiting North Korea, except for some specifics of meeting the bus the next morning and who was in what group. There were a couple other people late too, so they gave us another quick version of the orientation afterwards too before we left.
Beijing seemed like a really interesting place, so it would be nice to go back there sometime for a trip, preferable with someone who speaks Chinese. There were loads of different types of transportation on the streets: besides just busses and cars, loads of bicycles, motorbikes, and those three-wheeled "auto rickshaws". There were lots of completely separated bike lanes, and the interaction between all these vehicles at intersections was insane. Along one street I also saw some cages sitting out on tables or on top of cars with birds and rabbits in them, so I don't know if they were there for sale or what was going on. Also lots of women walking around with parasols.
Back at the hotel I decided to eat dinner there, since I figured the restaurant there would have some English ability and I didn't want to try going to a local place not speaking a word of Chinese. Well, they didn't have much English ability, but the chicken curry I got was good, and quite cheap besides. The hotel and room were nice enough looking, but there were lots of little things, like the room mix-up, that gave it a weird combination of nice and not. For example, there was a sign above the sink not to drink the water, and of all the light switches in the room, one of them worked backwards from all the others, so I got the impression that it's a country that's still developing, trying to do their best, but still with a way to go. Also interesting was that for all the things that are "made in China", the bathroom fixtures were Toto (Japanese) and American Standard. Who knows, maybe they're still actually made in China though. Then there was a knock on the door and they actually brought me a fruit plate. They had a whole cart full of them, so I don't know if it was an apology for the earlier mix-up, or if it was just something they brought to all the rooms, but it was nice either way, and I saw and ate this crazy fruit for the first time.
The next morning they had a free breakfast buffet and the place was packed. The food was interesting, mostly Chinese, fried rice, fried noodles, and various fried vegetables mostly, but it was good. So then I checked out and went to the meeting place for our bus to the airport. Along with the rest of the group and the Koryo Tours guides (Jessica, a Brit, leading the Long Tour I was on, and Nancy, an American, leading the Short Tour), was the president of the Korean International Travel Company (KITC) himself, the Korean tour company that runs all these tours once you get into Korea. After waiting for the bus a bit and it not showing up, Jessica managed to find out that, even though they do these tours all the time with the same bus company, somehow there was a mix up and the bus was sent directly to the airport rather than to pick us up here. So they hailed down a bunch of cabs for us instead, and mine was hailed by the KITC president himself.
On the way to the airport there was a road that had billboards on the ground all along one side with pictures of just green fields and blue skies to hide whatever was behind them. It had a little bit of a dystopian feel to it, but it was kind of nice at the same time. I felt kind of bad that we couldn't talk with the taxi driver while we were sitting in traffic though. But we got to the airport fine and went to check in with Air Koryo, the North Korean carrier. Since they call themselves a socialist country, you would think there would only be one class, the working class, but no, there were separate check in lanes for business class and economy class, just like any other airline. The lines moved very slowly and there was loads of cargo sitting around to be checked. There was another guy from Koryo there for some reason and he was telling us lots of stuff as we were waiting, like how a few years ago loads of the cargo was flat screen TVs for karaoke machines going into North Korea, which was having a karaoke boom at the time.
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| For some reason it was an Air China boarding pass |
The Koreans on the plane all seemed pretty well-off, not surprising as I'm sure only the most loyal and high-ranking are allowed (or can afford) to leave the country, and there was one little girl with a scooter and some Hello Kitty shoes. I ended up sitting next to a Korean guy and his wife. It was a normal plane, Russian-built, and the safety video was Korean-made, and had a sort of 80s feel to it in the way it was produced. The stewardesses all wore short skirts and Kim pins. Once we were in the air they gave us the three forms to fill out that were detailed in our Koryo Tours handbook: a health form, the normal entry/exit form like you have for any country, and a customs form, also similar to other countries. There was some amusing language on them, like "blood ant it's products" on the health form (it took us a while to realize it should be "and", not "ant"), and "exciter" listed as a type of drug on the customs form. We were also served the infamous "Koryo burger", which was actually pretty good. It was similar to McDonald's, but a little better. Pork, less greasy, room temperature, and with a thicker, untoasted, seeded bun.
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| "blood ant it's products" |
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| "exciter" |
I was now in North Korea.
Next - A Golden Week Trip to Korea - Arrival in Pyongyang
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