Day 7, Monday May 6, 2002

Our last day, hurrah!
While it had been fun and incredibly interesting, I was now ready to leave. You can only look at so many monuments and climb in and out of a bus so many times during one week and I didn't want to do any more of it! I was glad I had come but I was now glad it was over.

But alas, we weren't quite there yet. A few sights had yet to be seen.

First up, the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum [details].
Had I been more interested in the history of the Korean War this would have been an undoubted highlight of the tour, as an English speaking lady guide showed us around the Museum that proves to the Koreans that their version of the Korean War is the correct one. There were many excerpts from US and SK documents referring to 'capturing Pyongyang' and 'attacking' NK', plus a confession of the US fighter pilot who had been shot down. There were NK and Allied planes in the basement (both intact and destroyed), plenty of guns and ammunitions and other trophies.

Display in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum

The huge museum has 16 (?, not sure now) half panoramas and one full panorama, which depict various scenes from the War. We saw the one about the defence of Height 1211, which I have read a description of in another travel report, so I don't know if all tourists get to see the same one, or if it's just a coincidence.

We sat down on a little tiered area, holding about 30-40 people. The lights went down, the music started playing and slowly the curtain began to rise.
Picture the scene: a dark mountainous landscape with a few lights here and there, where KIS and his men had their hide-outs and at the top right, near the top of a mountain, a small band of cars going from right to left. A few seconds later another set of cars, a bit larger in size and a bit lower down the mountain, would do the same, so it looked as if the convoy had moved down and come nearer the spectator.

This was basically as hi-tech as it got. We saw planes going across the sky, wobbling along on strings, and what surely was intended to look like ground defence machine gun fire was so feeble it was probably made from one of those spark-thingies used for lighting a gas ring in the kitchen. Disney animatronics it wasn't.

I also found the voice-over a little bit difficult to understand.

But, and that's the magic of theatre, it didn't really matter. I was quite taken in by the story. There was plenty to look at with cars and planes popping up in various places, lights going on and off, sound effects etc. The show ran for about 10-15 minutes. In the end NK had won another 'glorious battle'...

Further along through the museum we saw electronic maps, showing the progress the NK army made through SK, liberating all but 10% of the territory. This last enclave was where the Americans landed their fire power, so KIS ordered a 'temporary strategic retreat'. And so forth, I forget the details.

360-degree panorama in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum

Lastly, we saw the big 360 degree panorama. A circular room with the viewing platform at its centre, the walls around painted in battle scenes and objects strewn between the platform and the walls (tanks, signposts, plants etc). You could not actually see where the ground ended and the walls began, it all merged. The guide said that more than 40 painters created this panorama and it took them more than a year. The platform slowly turned, so that we saw the story of the "valiant battle to liberate Taejon" unfold. It was impressive, but a little too dark to take decent pictures of with my video camera. Flash photography would have worked, though.

Back onto the bus and we were on our way to our very last memorial!

It was the rather uninspiring Monument to the Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War [details]. You walk through a huge gate and then some 100-odd metres in the distance is a huge and imposing monument of a soldier shouting "Hurray" as per the picture below. Along the way there are two individual soldiers and smaller groups on either side. It's another one of those large and empty spaces that Pyongyang has so many of. I really couldn't have cared less... They were just like the ones we saw on the day of arrival on Mansudae Hill near the giant KIS statue and when you've seen one you've seen 'em all.

Entrance to Monument to the Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War

I was more intrigued by the residential apartment blocks just over the road. I'd love to see how the NK live! It's one of Nick's ideas to arrange a tour where the guests are put up not in hotels but private residences. Apparently that has been done before, but no doubt the hosts were die-hard followers of KIS, so how 'real' the experience was is open to debate.

Monument to the Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War

(At some point during the morning M told me that a maid had come into his room the previous evening to take away a lamp and replace with another one. Now, the first lamp was in perfect working order, so why would she do something like that? There's only one theory we could agree on and that's of course that the listening device planted inside the lamp wasn't working, so they needed to get another one in... How very strange!)

And so to our final sight, the Mansudae Art Studios.

It is here that the endless supply of heroic statues you see everywhere is produced, as are the KIS and soldier bill boards, paintings of landscapes, kittens, Korean national dresses and arts and crafts for sale in the hotel shops.

We'd normally be seeing the artisans at work, but for our group that didn't materialise. It was just as well, because I don't care for their landscape and animal paintings much. You see better on any given day on Bayswater Road or any small market in Paris. The crafts and pottery were nice enough, so I bought a couple of rice bowls with lids (a snip at $3 each) to be polite. It was basically a souvenir shop, only larger than the others.
On the buildings in the grounds of the complex there were huge and fantastically colourful mosaics of KIS and KJI, each measuring several meters high and wide. Brightly smiling, standing in front of bright orange sunsets. That sort of thing.
The atmosphere was rather unpleasant, surrounded by these pictures and with music playing from hidden loud speakers.

Mansudae Art Studio

And so - that was it! The end. No more. Finito.

Nothing left to do but go back to the hotel for lunch, pack our stuff and go to the airport, where we'd hopefully get away without any problems.

I had done most of my packing already, only that the suitcase wouldn't close. Eventually it did, but it was bloody heavy. Thankfully when travelling in a group it's not so bad, someone else's luggage will be light enough to compensate and so avoid you having to pay excess baggage fees.

The three handpainted posters and my little rucksack (that was absolutely indispensible through the week) were my handluggage.

Just before leaving the room two maids came in to check that the towels were still there! Mine were, so they just smiled and left. Extraordinary.

So I went down and met the others in the foyer. On checking out I had to pay my phonebill. Let me warn you now, if you do ring home, be brief! I hadn't been and paid dearly ($5 per minute!). Thankfully they accepted my credit card.

Four of us decided to go and sit in our dining room because it's got a nice-ish view over the river. We hadn't sat down two minutes and a waitress appeared, who started serving food! Of course we didn't want any and got her to take it back and stop the others from bringing more. As soon as guests sit down, food arrives. We never once saw a menu or had a choice of what to have.
It never appeared to us that this might happen because the place was otherwise empty and we had already eaten.

Onto the bus for the last time, to the airport. Finally!

Pyongyang Airport

There was no filming at the airport of course. It's small, has got one runway and Koryo Airlines, someone said, has seven planes, of which only two are actually flying. The others stand on the tarmac for show. This I cannot verify, but it wouldn't surprise me.
The arrivals/departure board showed three incoming flights and one going out, our Northern China Airlines flight to Dalian in China. There we'd have to change for the connection to Beijing.

As you get into the main building you queue to put your suitcase through the scanner. There is no check-in desk.
You may then proceed up the stairs into the waiting area and admire the view onto the one plane being tanked up and filled with suitcases. There is a VIP lounge, but I didn't go to have a look through the glass.
We had been given our passports back in the morning, but they were now collected again and checked against various lists.

It was roundabout now that I started to get angry with NK. All these sour-faced officials that frighten you into sheeplike docility for fear you may get held back over a technicality and not get out. Why are they so hostile? A group like ours is probably the nearest to 'friends' the NK have abroad.
(In reply to the man on my 'Guest Book' page, who says his Korean Friendship Association are the best friends North Korea has: Well, yes, seeing your sycophantic website I admit that your group is more unquestioningly supportive of the NK regime than I could ever be. You certainly deserve the special VIP treatment you appear to be receiving when in NK and you may therefore see things we were denied. Ours was a group of 'normal' tourists, who have an interest in the country. We may criticize, but we mean well. How your attitude helps to improve the quality of life for anybody in NK I fail to see.)

Anyway, back to the airport, where the officials looked ill and miserable. We got given our boarding cards and passports and eventually proceeded through another security check for the hand luggage and yet another passport control. I, and I believe others, asked if we could have a stamp in the passport, but we were refused. That stamp went onto the boarding card, see picture below. Also note that the flight number is pencilled in by hand.
Once through that we had to queue to go down some stairs and onto the bus. While we waited we could have done some tax free shopping, but it was a laughable counter with nothing but a few bottles of spirits. I don't think anybody bothered.
When the bus set off it did a circle towards the VIP exit, where three gentlemen, two in western suits and one in that greenish KJI outfit, joined us.

Air Koryo boarding pass, note the flight number in pencil and the Visa stamp

On the plane and leaving!

It was nice to see the Chinese stewardesses smiling as we entered the plane. Their uniforms are lovely, with embroidered blouses, buttoned up diagonally. It was a terrible tragedy, that one day later (!!) one such plane on this particular route (Beijing to Dalian) should crash into the sea, all 120 passengers and staff dead! To think that our stewardesses may have been amongst the casualties is awful.
And, as if that were not enough, also the next day, a tour bus came off the road just outside Pyongyang, killing eight Malaysian tourists and one of the NK guides! It seems, our group was very lucky!!

All through the week I had, in a spirit of solidarity, been wearing a little NK flag pin on my shirt, but before I even sat down in my seat I had taken it off in anger. You don't notice how bad things are until you get 'back to civilisation' and I was so glad to be leaving this most restrictive and inhumane of places, that I did not want to be seen to be supporting it.

Today still and all the while as I have been writing this travel diary, I have always felt strangely torn between a genuine liking of our NK guides, the people we met and even the grey masses in the street (who I felt sorry for) and an acute dislike of the regime and how it treats its people.
To deny its people even the most basic rights of freedom of information, travel, religion and even lets them starve in the name of 'Self-Reliance' can never be justified.
While I understand that they want to keep Korea 'pure' and independent in the spirit of 'Juche', in practice the Korean Occupation of Korea in the North turned out far worse than the American Occupation of Korea in the South. Is it really necessary to lock the people up like this to make them feel Korean, or do the South Koreans not feel just as patriotic, even though they enjoy all the freedoms? It is a pet theory of mine that North Korea is not actually a country, but a religious cult in command of territory and an army. Think about it: Juche is the religion, and KIS is its God. Without the unquestioning veneration of the Superior Being to the point of brain-washing (everybody wearing lapel badges, I ask you!) the whole entity would long have fallen apart. If it weren't for the unshakeable believe in the greatness of the omnipresent leader I'm sure the people would have long fought their way out of poverty and primitiveness. Add to that the unbelievably strict control over everyday life including compulsory political education and self-criticism sessions (!) several times a week (the average NK doesn't get home before 10pm usually) and you have a community tired and downtrodden, unwilling or unable to do much more than eat and sleep and go back to work the next day. Sunday is the only free day, so many prefer to spend it resting, spending time with family or do the necessary household chores.
Out of such a climate there cannot come a revolution.

Another theory of mine is that in a couple of years the NK people will wake up to find that their leadership has gone and left for exile in Thailand. Just upped and left them to it, when they realised their position had become untenable!

NK is a strange country and very complex. I went to see what it's like rather than only read about it. And I am glad I did. I know much more now, but still only little. I shall follow its fortunes and wish its people well! Hopefully one day soon the situation on the peninsula will resolve itself peacefully and in a way which both NK and SK can find acceptable. I'd like that to happen during my lifetime and witness it, but seeing the hardened positions, I can only hope it will get better soon, so it would not get any worse.

Thank you for staying with me through these seven days.

If you haven't done so yet, please sign the guest book! Thank you!

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