TheRamblingWombat Wonsan - 2018

Wonsan – The Drive from Hamhung and an Introduction

Pyongyang is often referred to as a showcase capital, for good reason. Anyone who is anyone lives in Pyongyang, anyone who is not anyone is only permitted to enter the city under special circumstances and they certainly cannot live there. The infrastructure, buildings, services and facilities are the best North Korea can offer.

With a few noted exceptions, North Korea outside Pyongyang is a different world but it is a world that is changing, albeit slowly. While only the fifth largest city with a population of around 365,000, Wonsan, in terms of recent development, comes (a distant) second to Pyongyang.

Continue reading “Wonsan – The Drive from Hamhung and an Introduction” →
TheRamblingWombat Sydney

RAN Heritage Centre (Naval Museum)

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For two reasons, I suspect, not many people visit the RAN Heritage Centre.

Firstly, from the name they have no idea what it is – it is the flagship museum of a small number of Australian navy museums – and secondly, they hear reference to its location on Garden Island, an active naval base, and assume it is going to be difficult to visit for security reasons – it is not. Continue reading “RAN Heritage Centre (Naval Museum)” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Kim Il-sung Square

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Many readers will have seen video and pictures from North Korea showing parades of thousands of goose stepping soldiers (and they do it very well) and armoured vehicles carrying the most up to date military hardware including rockets and missiles (though many are just mock-ups) passing a review stand of the military top brass, barely able to stand upright due to the weight of medals on their tunics. Continue reading “Kim Il-sung Square” →