Petri
Senior Insider
Back to China
A proper Air Koryo boarding pass.
The check-in process at Pyongyang was a bit upside down. First they check your passport and papers. Then you have security control and customs. And then you collect your mobile phone and do the check-in.
The paperwork was breeze, nothing special there. At the security check the man wanted to go through by baggage, just the bag I was going to have checked. He started going through my toiletry bag. Sunscreen. "Not allowed". Hand sanitizer. "Not allowed". He scent my parfum and declared, "not allowed". I had a bottle of beer wrapped in the bag and he asked what it was. Beer. Not interesting.
He eventually found a bottle water at the side pocket which I had forgotten there. He asked where I was from, what was my name and if I had enjoyed the trip. A nice fellow in general. He got a bottle of sunscreen (asians don't like tan), a bottle of hand sanitizer, and some nice Gucci parfum.
The water bottle? Of course I was allowed to keep it.
I didn't have any trouble getting my mobile phone back. I tried to turn it on and it was able to find the KORYOLINK network. Unfortunately my carrier had no roaming agreement with this north korean carrier so I couldn't text back home. Both our guides had mobile phones and used them all around the trip, even in the countryside. The KORYOLINK 3G network is 75% owned by built by Egypt's Orascom.
On the flight from Beijing to Pyongyang while boarding I sit next to swiss guy from Beijing who was going to visit the Swiss embassy in Pyongyang. He was going there to work on the VPN Internet connection for the embassy.
Nice view of the plane while boarding. Some passengers got rap for taking photographs
What a luck, Iljushin plane from the 70's for both flights!
The flipping seats are great for leg room. Too bad the plane turned out to be fully booked. That's the water bottle from the security check.
No fancy magazines on the return flight I'm afraid.
In case you need to refuse.
These modern Iljushin planes fly so stable that the overhead lockers don't need hatches. And they did.
And what would be more appropriate meal on this flight from North Korea than a nice, juicy cheeseburger. I did it eat.
This is the photo they didn't like. The stewardess noticed I was taking a photo and came to ask me to delete it. I deleted it but she checked the camera for other photos as well and deleted all the photos that were of north korean people. She was quite comfortable with the camera and friendly as such. (I swapped the memory cards right away and rescued the photos back at home)
While waiting for deboarding she came to chat with us, asking we we had been and if we had enjoyed the trip. Still very friendly and charming but I couldn't help thinking about all the spy stuff
One of the moments when landing to China feels like returning to western world.
A proper Air Koryo boarding pass.
The check-in process at Pyongyang was a bit upside down. First they check your passport and papers. Then you have security control and customs. And then you collect your mobile phone and do the check-in.
The paperwork was breeze, nothing special there. At the security check the man wanted to go through by baggage, just the bag I was going to have checked. He started going through my toiletry bag. Sunscreen. "Not allowed". Hand sanitizer. "Not allowed". He scent my parfum and declared, "not allowed". I had a bottle of beer wrapped in the bag and he asked what it was. Beer. Not interesting.
He eventually found a bottle water at the side pocket which I had forgotten there. He asked where I was from, what was my name and if I had enjoyed the trip. A nice fellow in general. He got a bottle of sunscreen (asians don't like tan), a bottle of hand sanitizer, and some nice Gucci parfum.
The water bottle? Of course I was allowed to keep it.
I didn't have any trouble getting my mobile phone back. I tried to turn it on and it was able to find the KORYOLINK network. Unfortunately my carrier had no roaming agreement with this north korean carrier so I couldn't text back home. Both our guides had mobile phones and used them all around the trip, even in the countryside. The KORYOLINK 3G network is 75% owned by built by Egypt's Orascom.
On the flight from Beijing to Pyongyang while boarding I sit next to swiss guy from Beijing who was going to visit the Swiss embassy in Pyongyang. He was going there to work on the VPN Internet connection for the embassy.
Nice view of the plane while boarding. Some passengers got rap for taking photographs
What a luck, Iljushin plane from the 70's for both flights!
The flipping seats are great for leg room. Too bad the plane turned out to be fully booked. That's the water bottle from the security check.
No fancy magazines on the return flight I'm afraid.
In case you need to refuse.
These modern Iljushin planes fly so stable that the overhead lockers don't need hatches. And they did.
And what would be more appropriate meal on this flight from North Korea than a nice, juicy cheeseburger. I did it eat.
This is the photo they didn't like. The stewardess noticed I was taking a photo and came to ask me to delete it. I deleted it but she checked the camera for other photos as well and deleted all the photos that were of north korean people. She was quite comfortable with the camera and friendly as such. (I swapped the memory cards right away and rescued the photos back at home)
While waiting for deboarding she came to chat with us, asking we we had been and if we had enjoyed the trip. Still very friendly and charming but I couldn't help thinking about all the spy stuff
One of the moments when landing to China feels like returning to western world.