Readers of North Korean reviews here and elsewhere might be forgiven for concluding that a visit to North Korea is all about Kim Il-Sung and his successors, grand buildings and monuments set in a sea of poverty, empty roads, berating the United States, lists of what you can do and what you can’t, electricity shortages, the sporting prowess of North Koreans, its military might and such like.
It is indeed about all of the above but there is more. People sing, people dance, people eat and drink (some more than others!), people go for picnics and sit in the park and, of course, people play bowls otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this review.
The title of the review is very accurate to the degree that Pyongyang is the only place in North Korea that you, or indeed anyone, can indulge in this pastime. It’s a case of the ordinary becoming the extraordinary when you visit North Korea.
There are two bowling alleys in Pyongyang. The first, a three lane facility, was located in the basement of our hotel, the Yanggakdo International Hotel. We literally didn’t have time to use this.
The second one is the very busy, public, multi lane Pyongyang Gold Lane bowling alley which is the subject of this review.
The first very notable thing about this place was the fact that it had a sign written in English – something I saw nowhere else in North Korea. Clearly this says something of its clientele which appeared to be predominately tourists, Pyongyang expatriates (?) and more well heeled citizens (lots of them).
Some people contend that this bowling alley is a stage managed event (like everything else in North Korea!) just to impress foreigners – they point to the high quality of bowling by locals (all actors of course!) and the fact that lanes suddenly become free when foreigners arrive. Have such negative doom-sayers never heard of booking lanes (especially when you arrive in a group of 20!) and indeed have they never been to anywhere outside North Korea where those with express passes or who pay more take precedence over others? Why should North Korea be any different? The quality of the bowling may have something to do with the fact that this is the only public ten pin bowling alley in a country of 25 million of sports crazed people. The few who can afford it perhaps play regularly and become good – hardly rocket science!
I digress, back to the reality of what I saw.
While a little dated the bowling lanes were in excellent repair and facilities were on a par with what one finds elsewhere. In addition to ten pin bowling one can partake of a limited number of arcade type games or have a drink at the small bar.
Bowling costs 3 euro per person, including shoe hire. One thing to watch here is the price of drinks – while everywhere else a soft drink or beer cost around 1 euro, here it cost 2.5 euro.
I personally did not partake of the bowling. This gave me an unplanned opportunity for a one on one chat with our main guide allowing us to broach topics which could not be discussed at a group level. There was no question of the guide letting her guard down and it wasn’t my intention to achieve this but we did have a fairly open conversation on topics such as poverty and the military with no need for either of us to score points.
All in all a very enjoyable break from the monuments and political rhetoric at the end of a very busy day, though an unscheduled and unexpected opportunity to see Kim Il-sung’s birthday fireworks display from Kim Il-sung Square brought about an impromptu end to the bowling and a race to the bus such that we could get to the square before the roads were closed for the fireworks.
This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries on my trip to Pyongyang. I suggest you continue with my next entry – Kim Il-Sung’s 102nd Birthday Fireworks – or to start the loop at the beginning go to – Pyongyang – A Capital City Unlike any Other
The Rambling Wombat 