sudden snow in DPRK mountains

May 14, 2011 2 Comments

white PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.–21. April 2011

Ominous silence

SUDDENLY THERE was an eerie silence in our car, nobody talked any more, not even breathing I heard.

eerie silence

On our way to Wonsan on the East Coast of North Korea, we had run into a snowstorm and within 5 minutes everything had turned white.

The driver, glued to the steering wheel, changed gears driving more slowly but to me it felt much more like swimming. I had checked the tyres before we had left Pyongyang, they had no tread.

There was no oncoming traffic.

Broken down truck

Only a broken down truck was blocking the opposite lane in the tunnel. No emergency road box, no road service either. If we would get stuck we would be stuck till the weather would change. After we had put on our coats, the car heating was barely sufficient. I figured out that 5 more minutes of heavy snowfall and we would be mired in layers of sludge and ice.

Silence

sudden snow

Seeking shelter in the tunnel

It was a good time to make some photos, our two guides were tuned out there for a moment.

People were heading to the tunnel not to take cover but to cross to the other side. The tunnel on the photo was 4km long. It had light – the only one of the many tunnels we passed through – but only for 2 or 3 minutes then there was a power cut. The people walking in the tunnel were difficult to detect, some had stopped in the middle of the road… .

People heading for the tunnel

Filed under Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, Nord Korea, North Korea, Pickings, Pyonyang

SHOOTING RANGE at the LOCAL FAIR in SARIWON

May 13, 2011 1 Comment

NOSE-PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.–21. April 2011

It costs one cent to put two on a horse

URSULA COMPLAINED to our guides (at all times, we had two “permanent” guides – one walking behind us and one upfront – and additional a local guide on site wherever we stopped) that the local female guide in Sariwon City made us look like foreign monsters when she interfered and finally stopped the two girls from dancing and their parents from singing and clapping.

Luckily, I was filming how official attitude was blocking my friendly encounter. As a result we pressed our guides for more contact to let us mingle with the crowd at the local fair.

We walked up and down the “Wedding Hill” passing by the fair attractions and the stands selling ice cream, engaging with the children and their parents or grandparents with gestures and a few words.

Sariwon offers real North Korean life of a small township.

For a minute, I was one of them.

Sariwon - we were all shooting...

I was as close to them as they were to each other, not even my camera got in our way. We were successful in making instant contact with the local people. We were not looked at as extra-terrestrial beings nor harassed as foreign aggressors even though fear is part of the official propaganda and often looks down from billboards.

Newlywed husband poses above Sariwon City

Kids at a wedding

Wedding in Sariwon

Filed under Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, North Korea, Pickings Tagged with , ,

DPRK propaganda – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

May 12, 2011 4 Comments

WE ARE KOREA!

Even sport events carry a message of war

REVOLUTIONARY PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.–21. April 2011

Bellicose North Korean statements looking down from billboards.

Pyongyang center

War-like attitude in PR campaign - Pyongyang

They are threatening war.

No let-up in fear mongering

Most posters convey the message that DPRK is vigilant, not passive…

Message from the military dictatorship - Pyongyang street

…but ready for a pre-emptive strike at South Korean or even Japanese targets anytime, day and night.

KILL THE JAPANESE AGGRESSOR!

Poster in Kaesong City

With GUN and HARVEST we OVERCOME!

with the gun and the book of KIM IL SUNG

Filed under Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, North Korea, Pickings Tagged with , , , , ,

FAST HAIRCUT in a Cooperative Farm

May 10, 2011 1 Comment

The tools: 1 comb and 1 scissors

SURPRISE PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.–21. April 2011

My hairdresser at the Cooperative Model-Farm

A visit at a hairdresser is a travel experience to me I’m always looking forward to. I enjoy the special attention that comes with a hair cut or a shaving. There is also a difference in style from country to country.

Hair Salon, Cooperative Farm, Wonsan area, North Korea.

AFTER SEVERAL UNSUCCESSFUL attempts to get a haircut in Pyongyang, I got one at a Cooperative Model-Farm in the Wonsan area on the East Coast of North Korea.

Tong Hui, our female guide told me I could get a haircut at the hotel in Pyongyang but I wanted one in the City, a local one. She refused. Due to the fact that I could not leave the hotel in Pyongyang (nor in any other City we stayed overnight) and was not allowed to go for a walk on my own I saw no possibility to find a local hairdresser.

I told Tong Hui that I could move freely in China and could go to the hairdresser as I wished. She was sort of surprised. She wore Chinese cloths and had a Chinese handbag but could not grasp how worlds apart China and North Korea are. I don’t know if my China-remark helped.

North Korea exists like a hermit. In our interconnected world it looks like a proto-hermit country, totally sealed up to the outside world and tightly controlled within.

But where there are people there is flexibility! Two days later, my guide Tong Hui surprised me with a haircut offer in a very special location!

Haircut in progress

She was elated when she received the Go-ahead! from the woman in charge at the Cooperative Farm and even made some photos in the salon herself.

She was in charge of the hairdressing salon at the Cooperative Farm in the Wonsan area

It was the first haircut  she had organized for a foreigner 250km outside of the hotel in Pyongyang. She took good care, asked me if I felt satisfied and instructed the hairdresser girl. Yes, I had not expected that!

On the way out, the hair salon had a romantic bar

The salon had a romantic bar with liquor, beer, candies and dried fruit from the Cooperative Farm. Ursula bought some dried fruit, they tasted delicious.

One of my "permanent" guides together with the local guide are waiting at the bar. Who has an eye on whom? The Guides on me or the guides on each other?

Filed under Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, Nord Korea, North Korea, Pickings, Pyonyang Tagged with , , , ,

NORTH KOREAN CUSTOMS at DONGAN

April 29, 2011 1 Comment

End of China - we cross over the river to DPRK - attraction point for the Chinese

iPHONE PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.-21. April 2011

FOUR AND A HALF HOURS it took us to pass customs control from China to North Korea.

DPRK customs official comes to railcar Nr.12

It was not a pain in the neck, not at all, it just took time.

As we entered Dongan border station, there was a load of Chinese business men flooding our two railcars each with a mountain of luggage. We got two brothers into our compartment, both double my weight (I’m 95 kilos). They filled every corner with packages of all sizes.

Railway station in DPRK with portrait of KIM IL SUNG - Military hardware on a rail car

Then the maneuvering of our two rail cars took about 30 minutes, I counted 17 times back and forth till they were positioned on the right tracks to attach them to the North Korean train and move the train to the North Korean Customs.

iPhone wrapped in brown envelope and sealed with transparent tape by Dongan Customs, North Korea. Text by Customs official: GPS 2011.4.21

A Korean war photo in the "Korea Handbuch" aroused the suspicion of our French speaking customs official much more than than my professional video camera, my three photo cameras or my computer

The Chinese business guys had kind of a “Schlepper“ who immediately made contact with the customs officials but for the two brothers in our compartment it didn’t help much, because, as we soon found out, the customs official wanted to practise his french with Ursula. “Brosse à dent“, “nécessaire de toilette“ etc, she had to repeat every item in French.

He finally got to my iPhone, which really perplexed him. Several times he made a sign with his hand to the sky, meaning “something“ could descend from the clouds at any time and reveal top North Korean nuclear secrets. He wanted to learn all sorts of things about this hellish machine till his superior came and told him to finish, so he wrapped my iPhone in an envelope, wrote GPS on it and sealed it about ten times with transparent tape and gave it back to me.

In between French conversation he cut open the small, medium and large packages of our two Chinese businessmen with a Swiss! “Victorinox“ army knife, a present from a Swiss traveler.

The four hour long check was rather superficial, it was all more about the curiosity of our customs official to learn as much as possible about the items we carried he had not seen before and brushing up his French. Computer, 3 cameras, Sony professional video did not arouse much interest. But a historical photo or two from the Korean war in a travel book aroused his suspicion and made him turn the book leaf by leaf for a full hour and also got his superior involved.

Filed under BEIJING-PYONGYANG RAILWAY, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, Nord Korea, Pickings Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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