Journey to the DMZ
The next morning we woke up really early at 6am but to an amazing view of Pyongyang from our hotel window, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky, we were soon to be headed for the DMZ, the border between South Korea and the DPRK...
We had breakfast together and everyone was a little worse for wear but of course there was an excitement in the air as this was out first full day in North Korea, we were very excited! We went to get on the bus and met Ms Kim and I asked her how she was and she said she was OK apart from the news about one of the guys from our group, she said she will explain all on the bus. By the look on her face I was thinking 'oh no, something has happened to one of our group'.
On the bus first of all she said that she had heard we had a good night and had gone to bed at 1am (first sign of how the hotel reports everything, more to come), and then she proceeded to make one of our group feel ashamed, quite rightfully though! The drunken guy had later that evening after leaving the bar, tried to get into a taxi outside the hotel and go to a bar in Pyongyang, of course everyone knows that this is strictly forbidden and never allowed without a guide and you can get into serious trouble for it. Allegedly he was giving the taxi driver a hard time as the taxi driver did not understand him and refused to take him, he put up a fight to go to Pyongyang, despite several locals from the hotel intervening, a bad move! He tried to respond by saying he did not know, we would have believed this initially but for the rest of the trip, when he was told not to do something he did it anyway, he was also 49 years old!
After that, the journey began to the DMZ, we stopped off first at a monument but little did we know what was in store for us for the next 3 hours! Along the route to the DMZ we were lucky to see loads of local DPRK life, some nice and some poor, although, nothing much poorer than what you see in countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. We often saw older ladies carrying a lot of things on their backs, there were loads of people on bicycles! The bus ride itself however was very...erm... bumpy!! For 3 hours it was like turbulence on an Aircraft, quite often severe! The roads were in really bad condition, also there was not a lot of traffic on the roads, the roads in and around Pyongyang however seemed to be in very good condition! The journey was really good and we all got to know each other more. The atmosphere on board the bus was always great!
We had breakfast together and everyone was a little worse for wear but of course there was an excitement in the air as this was out first full day in North Korea, we were very excited! We went to get on the bus and met Ms Kim and I asked her how she was and she said she was OK apart from the news about one of the guys from our group, she said she will explain all on the bus. By the look on her face I was thinking 'oh no, something has happened to one of our group'.
After that, the journey began to the DMZ, we stopped off first at a monument but little did we know what was in store for us for the next 3 hours! Along the route to the DMZ we were lucky to see loads of local DPRK life, some nice and some poor, although, nothing much poorer than what you see in countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. We often saw older ladies carrying a lot of things on their backs, there were loads of people on bicycles! The bus ride itself however was very...erm... bumpy!! For 3 hours it was like turbulence on an Aircraft, quite often severe! The roads were in really bad condition, also there was not a lot of traffic on the roads, the roads in and around Pyongyang however seemed to be in very good condition! The journey was really good and we all got to know each other more. The atmosphere on board the bus was always great!
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