North Korea trip report

Back to China

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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No fancy magazines on the return flight I'm afraid.

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In case you need to refuse.

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These modern Iljushin planes fly so stable that the overhead lockers don't need hatches. And they did.

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And what would be more appropriate meal on this flight from North Korea than a nice, juicy cheeseburger. I did it eat.

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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 :)

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One of the moments when landing to China feels like returning to western world.
 
Money

North Korean authorities may fine or arrest you for unauthorized currency transactions, for taking unauthorized photographs, or for shopping at stores not designated for foreigners.

The currency for everything was chinese renminbi or euros. Rmb was slightly easier as a single euro coin would buy you a lot. NK was not a very expensive country as such.

I bought three water bottles the first night and they didn't have change for my one euro coin. Instead I got a cigarette lighter.

I don't smoke so I left the lighter at the hotel. En route back we stayed at the same hotel, everyone got the same hotel room, and the lighter was still there.

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At the shop I asked to get local currency and they didn't have any trouble "selling" them. For one euro I got a bunch of these pristine 50 north korean won notes. 50 KPW is worth about 5 eurocents. I don't have a clue what 50 KPW might buy you on the street.

The swedes wanted notes in all different sized. "We will have them tomorrow morning". They took the train back so they had time to collect the notes the next morning. NK is one of those places were things can be made to happen. Want to smoke in a restaurant? Ask for an ashtray. Want to drink your own bottle of whiskey at the bar. Just ask for ice and a glass.
 
Our group included
- two senior people from Poland (who didn't like it, too much memories from communist era)
- a east-west-german couple (the girl was too young to remember much from the DDR-era)
- a dutch lawyer living in Shanghai, and his mother from the Netherlands
- a dutch 747 pilot, formerly from Dutch Air Force, living in Hong Kong
- two swedes, both living in Singapore
- a frenchman living in Singapore (or was it Kuala Lumpur)
- a singaporean-spanish couple (travel bloggers)
- an australian guy (turned out to be writer for Lonely Planet)
- a canadian guy who has been living quite a while in Japan and China, he wanted to visit every country in Asia before returning to North America
- an american woman who was travelling in Asia

A british guy from the travel agency in Beijing (lives there as well) was also with us for the most part. He has seen the sights some 100+ times so he was mostly arranging things for the future trips. They've managed to arrange a few bicycling trips, too.

For americans the only difference is that they have to return by plane, train is not allowed.
 
Petri, I'm late to this but thank you for your trip report. It was fascinating. I'm looking forward to hearing about your next adventure.
 
The air-co unit for the blue house on the border was from Samsung -- on the north korean side.
 
Petri
Great report. I was mesmerized. I felt like I was there.
You have set a new standard for greatness in "Trip Reports".
I consider this report the "gold standard" of trip reporting.
It was all the more interested because my brother in law faught in the Korean War and recently returned at the request of the South Korean government to be honored. He has pictures of the DMZ from the other side.
 
Whoops.. back on North Korean soil. Now with a proper escort, though, and UNCMAC badge.

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Sorry, no way of doing the Coke thing this time.

More to report from another perspective to North Korea later.
 
Thanks, Petri, for letting us share this fascinating journey. I thought it was striking for the lack of crowds, cars, etc. No photos of inside the cities or of busy highways and everyone looking so sharp and well-dressed. It really did look like, for the most part, scripted and posed scenes. Just fascinating!
 
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