Readers familiar with North Korea and those who have read my general review – Enjoy the darkness and bring a Torch on my North Korea – Introduction blog/list may be rather perplexed or confused by the apparent contradiction suggested by the title of this review. Continue reading “The Bright Lights of Pyongyang”
Having read about the experience of other tourists going to a funfair in Pyongyang I was really looking forward to our visit to the funfair and not because I particularly needed to go to North Korea to have a ride on a roller coaster or in a dodgem car. The attraction was that the funfair tourists typically went to was a rusted and run down 1950s affair, portrayed as the latest and greatest by guides. Continue reading “Fun, Fun, Fun in the DPRK”
I am not a big beer drinker but do like the odd one every now and then. I didn’t really expect much in this department in North Korea though I did know that the beer and water would be included with lunch and dinner.
The beer we were served wasn’t bad. Clearly the brewers had taken heed of Kim Jong-il’s 2002 on-the-spot guidance when he exhorted that what was essential was to ‘keep beer tasty’ and that ‘to produce the best quality beer it is necessary to conduct tireless research’. Continue reading “‘Kim Jong-Ale’”
On the last day of our time in Pyongyang we got to go for a (guided) walk along the bank of the Taedong River. As I have indicated in my review of that walk it could have been a walk along a river anywhere but when we reached the sculpture in the attached picture, at the end of the walk, I was somewhat taken aback. Continue reading “Cranes bound for heaven?”
Something I love doing, and always do, when I visit somewhere is to go out and just walk. This, in my view, is by far the best way to get to know a place.
In Pyongyang (and elsewhere in North Korea) we could go nowhere without our guide and walking around the streets by ourselves was absolutely forbidden. Our island hotel, the Yanggakdo International is nicknamed the Pyongyang Alcatraz for good reason. Continue reading “A Walk in Pyongyang”
This review is not about an individual shop but about shopping, or really the lack of it, generally. It also provides some detail not included in my Walk in Pyongyang review – the attached pictures were taken in Sungri Street which was the first part of that walk.
The High Street of a three million person city anywhere else in the world would typically feature the likes of Hugo Boss, Tiffany’s, Cartier, Chanel, Country Road and such like. Not so Pyongyang. Continue reading “Shopping in Pyongyang”
Having read my review of the Korean Feature Film Studio, read of Kim Jong-il’s contribution to the cinema industry and the arts in general and seen various references to revolutionary army choirs, revolutionary operas and much, much, more in various of my reviews you will, by now, be very excited to know where you can partake of these things should you visit Pyongyang though, perhaps because three hours plus of revolutionary opera or lengthy non-subtitled movies might get a bit boring, they do not often appear on the itinerary of most visitors – as they didn’t on mine. Continue reading “Some Revolutionary Opera?”
Set in a sprawling concrete park, on the outskirts of the city, are six buildings detailing the ‘three revolutions’ brought about by Kim Il-sung in postwar Korea – the Great Leader’s ideological, technical and cultural revolutions. Continue reading “Three Revolutions Exhibition”
In the otherwise dull and drab streets of Pyongyang are to be found these beacons of colour – the beautiful Pyongyang traffic ladies (police).
The need for traffic police, in terms of managing traffic flow at least, is highly questionable given the paucity of vehicular traffic in Pyongyang and the wide boulevards and roads that the little there is has to travel on. Continue reading “Pyongyang Traffic Ladies”
Until very recently, about a month after my visit in April 2014, tourists did not get to ride on a trolley-bus. Looking at my pictures attached you might think that is no big deal or, in fact, a good thing.
A short trip on a trolley-bus is now featuring on some tours. It is another one of these things, like a walk in the street, that are a must do only because you are in North Korea. Continue reading “Pyongyang’s Trolley-buses”
The Rambling Wombat 