Movies, Paintings, Pictures, Postcards, Sculptures and Life Style by Da Vaz
May 22, 2011 1 Comment
Toddler group at the children's home
He will see significant changes within his lifetime
The next generation
Martial education starts at the toddler’s level. From “Womb to Tomb”: DISCIPLINE, SUBMISSION and DEVOTION to the Eternal President KIM IL SUNG, no stepping out of line, without queue-jump.
up and running
On the playground
Cooperative Model-Farm
Kindergarden
May 21, 2011 1 Comment
Beside the restaurant was the local Gallery in Wonsan. I was reluctant, to say the least, to waiste my time in cold and dark rooms looking at glorifying Korean war propaganda oil and acryl paintings being explained to me by one more local guide. But I went anyhow – and to my big surprise, I didn’t regret it.
Only look, no buy, no photo - KIM JONG IL holding CHERUBICS
Of about 300 paintings I wanted to buy 2 on the spot. One was true hardcore revolutionary propaganda. The other showed Kim Jong Il holding babies. Kim Jong Il’s painting I was only allowed to look at, I could not buy it and it was forbidden to make a photo. It was one of the many NO!…NO’S! I faced every day from my two “permanent” guides.
The price tag on the hardcore revolutionary propaganda painting was 320 Euro. Since I am an artist too, I asked for a discount and offered 250 Euro. But the gallery clerk was dead against it. He vehemently complained about my request with angry gestures.
When I told him I would come back another day, he all of a sudden “smelled the coffee“ and suggested I should choose a number between 1 and 9. The magic number turned out to be 9 and the deal was done at 290 Euro. I told him to cut the painting out of the frame, roll it up, pack it carefully and I would be back within two hours.
Out of the blue - for them and for me
As I returned to the Gallery which had been cold and totally without visitors before, I was greeted by a huge crowd, all well dressed and whispering. The truth dawned on me that the sale had seized the community like a forest fire. It came out of the blue. The 290 Euros were a huge sum for them and offered hope.
The successful sale had mellowed our two “permanent” guides for a minute or two, and as we left the gallery, I took my chance and went quickly to the local cloth shop next door. They immediately called me back but it was to late, Ursula and I had already slipped inside. I quickly went through the jackets, slacks, shirts, socks – all made in China – and chose two tights for Ursula. After some deliberations between my guide and the shop clerk – the male guide had joined us in the meantime – I was allowed to buy them at fifteen times over the selling price for local people.
It was the only! time I was able to enter a local cloth shop or supermarket though I tried hard. My two “permanent” guides kept me persistently away, drove on when I told them to stop or pretended the stores had already closed.
Revolutionary satisfaction (Jürg) - magic number (Gallery leader) - success story (local guide)
Please keep the receit for the customs
Art Gallery in Wonsan - I pay 290 Euro
May 21, 2011 2 Comments
Wonsan reflects real North Korean life
Soldier catches a cab
Rushhour
THE PORT CITY of Wonsan
Wonsan - not the usual destination
is a pleasant surprise to me though it doesn’t seem to be a big draw for foreign tourists – we were the only 2 in town. It is a popular holiday resort for North Koreans in summer judged by the two big government owned hotels I see, both second class. It has a Childrens Camp for 2000 students and a beautiful old fashioned parc. Wonsan seems to be the centre of learning on the east coast with 10 universities.
Wonsan - center of learning - students' morning class
We visited the University of Agriculture, the Cooperative Model-Farm, the Childrens Camp, the local Gallery, the little island, the cloth shop.
After “sudden snow“ we had lunch at the Tourist Restaurant in Wonsan, by North Korean standards a smallish and cosy place with a wood-burning stove which was in use, a friendly service and the best food I got in North Korea.
After “sudden snow" the stove comes in handy
At the restaurant in Wonsan - The stove is on
May 19, 2011 Leave a comment
Needless to say that if you wish to loose weight, eat SEA SHELL. Our driver offered me 4 kg of sea shell from the black market.
Black Market in North Korea!!! I must buy them! 4 kg cost 20 Euro which most likely was a month salary for some diver in Wonsan.
Most effective for sliming...
My driver was a nice guy he said he would grill them in the evening. That’s what he really did. When we arrived for the “grill party” at 7pm (sorry no photos) he had siphoned off a bottle of gasoline from the tank of his car, poured it over the outspread shells, took his cigarette lighter, lit the pile and soon the shells cracked open. I loved every one of them and ate as many as I could.
Three days later Tong Hui said that I walk “like a woman”! I felt dead sick. I had lost three kilos…(sorry, no photo).
But I got her wrong. I was mistaken in the belief that she had taken note of my misery which had slowed down my “restless eye”somewhat. She didn’t feel sorry for my physical condition.
"You move like a woman"!
To the contrary: She had observed my work habit during the last few days and let me feel that she knew what I was doing when I moved at snails’ pace gently forward, step by step to achieve a balance, holding the movie camera down, the monitor closed, looking to the other side while filming or taking a photo.
I was under constant surveillance. But I kept my focus obscured which made it difficult for her to see what I filmed, what photo I took, and to say NO to my activities.
Obscured Focus - difficult to deal with...
May 19, 2011 3 Comments
East Sea, Wonsan, DPRK
Army girls strolling back from the little island
On the way to a mini island which is not on our itinerary I approach three army girls strolling back from the light tower.
There is no life in North Korea…without at least two guides. Behind Ursula – in front of her walks Tong Hui, our female guide – I cross the small footbridge with our male guide in tow.
I follow them with our male guide behind me
In front of Ursula walks Tong Hui, our female guide.
The footbridge leads us to the landing stage of the fishing boats. People are not particularly friendly, we have to pay 1 Euro to cross the footbridge. Our guides don’t want to go further. But we do. They have no instruction to visit the island and no budget. I pay one Euro.
...a minuscule black market...
The female divers we meet along the gangway to the lighthouse are camera shy, their men, for whom they work, are openly hostile, the girls who sell drinks don’t want to be photographed.
She sells drinks
I have an idea...
Slowly I get it: we have entered a minuscule black market!
Less than happy...
To brake the “icy climate” I have an idea. I buy a big bag full of shells for the mother of Tong Hui! As we say in German I get “Zwei Fliegen auf einen Schlag”: the locals suddenly warm up and our female guide is surprised. She is excited, sea shells in Pyongyang are hard to come by – and a foreigner who makes a present to her mother, that has never happened to her and her mother before.
Having lunch in a nearby restaurant at noon, I tell my guide to get ice. “Ice, why ice?” she asks. She didn’t understand what I wanted the ice for – and I assumed the kitchen had ice in the fridge. The restaurant had a fridge but no electricity during the day…
“No ice?” Our driver had no problem with that. He put the bag in the trunk of our car… .
Two days later, back in Pyongyang, I cautiously asked Tong Hui if her mother was fine. My worries were completely unfounded. The sea shells were a real “ice-breaker”. Something little in the “chemistry“ had suddenly changed.
Port of Wonsan
May 18, 2011 Leave a comment
...fence and concrete blocks...in more isolated places...
When we go to a beachfront, we have the urge to put our feet in the water and take a swim.
On closer examination...
But there were two things we hadn’t reckoned with: We were on the road in North Korea, we couldn’t stop when WE wanted…
I could not verify my suspicion...
…and the beach outside of Wonsan had a fence in more remote places and concrete blocks that made the access to or from the sea impossible. The concrete pillars were bent towards the sea, giving the impression that some hostile foreign action had to be prevented like keeping out South Korean spies from landing. But a second look at the fortification triggered the idea that it was the other way around.
Concrete blocks against a South Korean invasion - Could it be the other way around?
Could government propaganda about the imminent danger of a “barbaric invasion“ by South Korean spies not camouflage the real threat that North Koreans could flee their homeland in small boats at the dead of night? I could not verify my suspicion… . I saw soldiers repairing holes in the fence but missed to make the photo. In some areas there was a inner fence too.
May 17, 2011 2 Comments
Our local guide and receptionist at a formerly Soviet spa
At lovely lake Si Jung, the sanatorium is tucked away...
We are located in a old Soviet-type sanatorium at lake Si Jung outside Wonsan which was built in the early 1960s, when North Korea grew rapidly. During that time a chain of resorts were built all over the Soviet Empire for the Communist Partys’ leading members to visit and consult each other, relax and go hunting.
Built on an artificial lake, the sanatorium is tucked away behind the road but close enough to the sea with a view to the mountains we had just passed. It offered privacy to the communist party members of the Soviet Empire from Georgia to Kazakhstan, from Moscow to Kyrgyzstan. Tourists nowadays pay for their upkeep (since almost no communist party boss is left over “from the good old times“ and those from China and North Korea most likely prefer more comfort.).
From "Russia" to "Kyrgyzstan."
From the "Georgia" to "KAZAKHSTAN"
We stay at this famous spa with electricity for 3 hours in the evening, almost no running water and a special fango-pack treatment that was cold because of a power cut.
We are the only guests and retire early to do some talking and writing. Unexpectedly at 10pm, the light goes off and we sit in the dark not quite remembering where the toilet was… .
From nowhere we jump awake at 5am next morning realising that we forgot to switch off the light… . Suddenly the electricity was back on… .
Waitress at the bar
Breakfast is at 8am. We are very well received by our waitress behind the bar which serves us a full meal under a big painting of a mountain scene close to the Chinese-North Korean border.
Oh! KIM IL SUNG!!... Oh! KIM JONG IL!!... Oh! Communist Party!
May 14, 2011 2 Comments
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
May 13, 2011 1 Comment
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
May 12, 2011 4 Comments
WE ARE KOREA!
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!
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