Uploads from FarewellFire, tagged northkorea, with geodata

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:40:46 -0800

Air Koryo P-632, a Tupolev 204-300, minutes after arriving at Beijing International Airport Terminal 2.

The North Korean national airline AIr Koryo operates from the less fancy Terminal 2 at Beijing International. In fact, they hold the worst spot, as far out on the pier as you can get. You even see the gate from the parking lot if you know where to look (and if there´s an Air Koryo plane on the spot, you´ll have to be blind to miss the characteristic DPRK-flag that their planes have painted on the tail section.

Coming back to Beijing was a weird experience. After all, I pretty much left one communist, one-party-ruled nation for another. And still I felt like the most free individual on the face of the earth while walking off the plane and into modern day China.

It had been a fascinating, thought provoking trip.

Thank you all for almost being there with me.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:31:51 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

The (in)famous "Air Koryo Burger" as served on the flight between Pyongyang and Beijing.

Flying in from Beijing always gets you a friggin´ huge serving of food while the opposite stretch always mean that you´ll treat your tummy to this piece of meat. Of course, if you are the thinking type (and come one, you´d have to be if you spend you´re time reading this) you´ll of course wonder if this doesn´t have anything to do with the food situation in the country that you´re leaving...

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:26:37 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

The 9 AM Saturday flight with North Korean national airline Air Koryo from Pyongyang to Beijing.

The tarmac looked like it did when I arrived roughly a week earlier - calm and empty of life. Clear skies and just the roaring sound of the engines revving up that grew louder as I approached the plane.

This time around we flew using a much more sophisticated craft than on my previous flight - a Tupolev 204-300. Air Koryo currently operates one of these babies and the craft pictured above arrived in Pyongyang by boat from Russia on December 27th, 2007.

The North Korean airline has another one of this exact model on order from the Russian manufacturer and having flown the much older Ilyushin-Il62M on the opposite stretch I can really underline the need of new additions to their fleet.

It still felt brand new, with shiny looking interior and lcd-screens showing the safety routine (the older crafts don´t even bother having their staff doing this). The reason why Air Koryo opted for a russian made craft by the way is very simple - thanks to trade embargos set up the EU and the US machinery from companies such as Boeing or Airbus just wasn´t a viable option at the time of ordering.

These modern crafts have had Air Koryo once again applying for permission to fly over European airspace (one thing they can´t do at the moment thanks to lacking safety standards).

This new plane could easily fly the distance Pyongyang - Berlin without any stops on the way and it is my own estimate that the German capital is exactly where Air Koryo would first set aim for if they had the chance. After all, they allready have an office up and running in the city.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:29:00 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Smiling at Sunan International Airport, North Korea.

I was dead tired and must admit that I felt pretty good about leaving North Korea - definetely up to that point my weirdest experience to date. At the same time I must admit that I, in some weird, utterly bisarre way, would miss it all.

Go figure.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:06:42 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

The departure hall of Sunan International Airport, North Korea.

Since I´ve described every possible detail of this tiny airport earlier I´ll just add that the departure hall definetely is one of the smallest that I´ve been to. And that includes some small ass domestic ones in Sweden, mind you.

There´s nothing to do here even though they have a couple of shops, selling oddities such as North Korean litterature. No, if you´re looking for the latest effort by Dan Brown this isn´t the right place to look.

Other than that I was just too tired at this point to be nervous about the grim safety control awaited...

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:50:58 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Smiles all around at Taedonggang Diplomatic Club, Pyongyang, North Korea.

This dude followed us around for the whole trip, filming our evey move with a big ass camera that looked like something straight out of the 1980´s.

He also happened to be the star of one of the most weird memories I have out of North Korea.

While driving on the empty highway to the border city of Kaesong we once came to a dead stop. There was a bang, screeching tires and before I know it this guy jumps out of the bus and starts backtracking by running.

Then, in front of my eyes I see him picking up a huge pheasant and killing the bird by snapping its neck.

In front of the whole bus.
Followed by him tossing the dead animal into the compartment where all of our bags are stored.

Nice.

Then he walks back on the bus with the grin of a lifetime on his face and sits down like nothing had happened.

The guide at this point understands that he has to say at least, uhm, something. So he starts talking about how our cameraman isn´t only a cameraslinging hero but also a trained hunter. And his love for the animal made him step out of that bus and, uhm, kill the animal.

Of course this would be a perfectly honest explanation. After all we´d hit the poor bird with our bus.

But would most people in the rest of the world bring the corpse home? Probably not. My own theory is that this smart man just followed his instinct, the very same instinct that you and me would grow if we would have been raised in a country where meat is handed out to the citizens not more than maybe twice a year.

This man didn´t see a close to dead animal walking around by the side of the road. An animal that needed to be put out of its misery.

He saw the meal of his life.

So, my friend (and I really never caught your name) - I salute you. May you live to see the day when the walls of your country come down and your local store will contain more than empty shelves and dust.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:55:15 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Karaoke at Taedonggang Diplomatic Club, Pyongyang, North Korea.

This female guide, a DPRK native, wasn´t part of my group but followed another one whos path crossed ours every now and then. She was an interesting character and at first glance I really thought that I´d figured her out as yet another stone faced flag pole. Then I started to hear these stories from other people that I met about her realy letting go and singing her heart out in the bus.

So of course it was a pleasant surprise to see this woman crack up and give it all to the merry tunes of "My Heart Will Go On" - also known as the theme song of the movie Titanic. And by giving it I really mean it. She raised her fist, closed her eyes and filled the room with her sharp voice.

It was beatiful.

Afterwards I complimented her singing and she smiled, telling me that this was her very favourite song. She also very much enjoyed Disney songs such as the ones from "The Lion King". Knowing that the more than a decade old "Titanic" was the last American film to hit the big screen in North Korea I felt a bit sad when she told me this.

Here I was standing with a woman whose job is all about to meet and show foreigners around in one of the poorest nations in the world. She sees our wealth. She must understand that the everyday banter about the horrors of the outside world can´t be completely true. And to top things off her favourite song is taken from one of the most successful American-made movies ever.

Wow.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:56:42 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

"Hit Me Baby One More Time"

Yes, this is most definetely a crash between ideologies - a young Britney Spears doing her close-to-porno song "Baby One More Time" at a Diplomatic Club in communist North Korea.

Just look at this image for five seconds.
One...
Two...
Three...
Four...
Five.

There you go.
It is weird.

Now imagine how a bunch of local men stand in one corner with their jaws down by their knees, close to drooling at the image of this saucy "imperialist prostitute" doing her thing.

Now, do you think that they were thinking something like "Oh no, oh oh no. America sure is a demoralised, dirty nation and we must defend ourselves against their horrible moral values at any cost!"?

Probably not huh?! Probably something closer to "fuck this, let´s open the flood gates and bring on the capitalist system, whohaaa!".

Oh, and the Christmas Tree in the corner is pretty damn funny too - this being August and all I mean.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:54:11 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Karaoke at Taedonggang Diplomatic Club, Pyongyang, North Korea.

I guess that I don´t really need to tell you how tired I was after a day that had involved waking up after a few hours of sleeping on the floor in Kaesong, visiting the border between North and South Korea, heading all the way back to Pyongyang by bus, walking around the city, having dinner and witnessing the largest mass gymnastic event on the face of the Earth.

Still, we decided to end the trip by visiting the Taedonggang Diplomatic Club in eastern Pyongyang. As the name reveals this place is meant for foreigners of the long staying kind. Think expats such as diplomats and UN-workers and you have things pretty much figured out. This was a nice surprise in a land where I´d quickly learned that non-planned visits and surprises in general just didn´t come cheap.

Pictured above is our Chinese guide who followed me throughout the trip. Here seen fighting the good fight to a song I unfortunately never made an effort to remember.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:52:23 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Final act of the 2009 Arirang, Pyongyang, North Korea.

They really went all in during the last five or so minutes and as you can see they also literally flooded the floor with people. A mighty, mighty impressive scene featuring some of the most skilled performers in the world. Which if you think about it isn´t that weird after all since most of these people practice for a full year, in their spare time, to be a part of this spectacle - acknowledged as the biggest of its kind by the Guiness Book Of World Records.

The kids taking part drew down the loudest applause with their energetic part of the show but at the same time once again made me feel a bit sickened by this giant fraud of a show.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:53:21 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Outside the Rŭngrado May Day Stadium, Pyongyang, North Korea.

I stalled a bit and shopped around for yet one more hand painted poster. At 50 Euro it was the most expensive one I bought on this trip (and maybe also the least useful purchase since I´d allready bought four (!) similar ones) but it sure was pretty looking.

The parking lot outside was crammed with people - "regular" citizens, people that had been taking part in the show and a lot of military men and women. Having spent the day on a bus from the border city of Kaesong and seen some really, really worn down villages on the way to the capital of Pyongyang of course it felt a tad bit supernatural to all of a sudden be back in the limelight - with fountains splashing, floodlights gulping electricty and excited people everywhere you´d look.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:47:41 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Arirang (Mass Games), Pyongyang, North Korea.

You see that sign in the background? Imagine that it is made up by thousands of thousands of small dots, each one changing colors in order to project gigantic images, images that even move.

Now you say, that isn´t very spectacular. That´s what´s happening every second on my flatscreen TV back home. Yeah, that is in fact right. It´s just that in North Korea during Arirang, the dots are made up by real people, holding up colored signs at a given time, in perfect time.

That´s Arirang for you.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:46:43 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Arirang (Mass Games), Pyongyang, North Korea.

No, you can´t really tell by these pictures exactly how impressive it really is to sit inside this 150 000 seat venue, watching around 100 000 participants move in perfect coordination. You just have to see it to believe it.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:44:30 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Lights on at the Rŭngrado May Day Stadium, Pyongyang North Korea.

I remember waiting for the elevator far up in the Yanggakdao Hotel one night, looking out of the window and seeing nothing but black, darkness and... a perverse amount of light in the middle of everything. The light was of course coming from that nights Arirang performance (also known as "The Mass Games") at the Rŭngrado May Day Stadium. Seeing this monster of an arena so brightly lit while the rest of the city was clouded in darkness was a funny and deeply disturbing image.

Anyway, arriving at the scene around 8 PM I must admit that it was a beatiful sight. The arena that is also known as the May First Stadium is actually the worlds biggest of its kind, seating a nifty 150 000 people. And it´s used for all kinds of things... Uhm, not. Sure, every once and a while the national soccer team will play a game here (allthough they as often end up playing nearby at the Kim Il Sung Stadium), but the main purpose of the behemoth is to host the Arirang spectacle.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:48:20 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Locals watching Arirang, Pyongyang, North Korea.

I asked one of the guides about the locals sitting in a section next to us. He told me that it is a great honour for a North Korean citizen to get to watch the Arirang. Not wanting to draw to much attention to me filming parts of it (which isn´t allowed) I skipped questions like "how much is it" and "are anyone allowed to come here".

Here´s what I do know though - what I paid for a "3rd Class Ticket", which was the cheapest alternative for a foreigner, is nowhere near what the average North Korean makes in a long, long, long time. Or 80 Euro to be exact.

The funny thing is that our visit to the Arirang was moved to a different date at the last minute. The local guide didn´t really want to explain why but from what I later was told it had to do with a lack of audience... True or false - not running this show with at least a sufficient number of visitors kind of makes sense. I mean, only the cost of powering this baby up must feel like a good whipping in a state where electricity is as rare as the freedom to speak your mind.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:51:50 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Entrance ticket to the Arirang (a.k.a. "Mass Games") in Pyongyang, North Korea.

To see video from the 2009 Arirang, please check out my YouTube-feed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPL4PTxF8nE

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:51:05 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

"Are We The Dining Dead?"

Prior to my trip I´d read dozens of reports on mysterious visits to so called "public restaurants", visits where the local visitors either seemed more like hired actors or simply just wasn´t there at all. I did experience the latter at more than one time. Hours before the grand finale of my North Korea adventure (that is the Arirang spectacle) we headed for a restaurant focused on some kind of korean styled barbeque.

This being a friday night the place was packed with locals and they all looked, acted and felt (no, I didn´t literaly touch them) like the real thing. Their weirded out looks, screaming "what-the-fuck-is-going-on", also helped in me figuring out that these men and women were not fake but rather locals enjoying a friday night on the town. Sort of.

This being my last night in the DPRK I also felt more relaxed than earlier and got into a discussion with a couple of people whom I hadn´t exchanged a single word with so far. Now, I´m not saying that the Koreans did put on a bad show for us. I´m just saying that I wasn´t dumb enough to believe that everything was A-OK in La-la-land. The cracks in the facade are to gross to overlook, even if you haven´t even opened up a newspaper or read a book on the subject in your whole life. So of course I was a bit saddened when I during the dinner happened to point out the irony of us eating like kings while the country itself is in desperate need of foreign food aid, only to get the following reply:

— Well, really. Isn´t that a bit of an exaggeration? Things really aren´t that bad, right?

Well...
Uhm...
Let´s begin from the start, shall we?!

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:40:03 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Pyongyang citizens involved in "mandatory" field work.

At first I didn´t know what the hell was going on. Hundreds of people where lined up in the streets. Then I noticed that all of them were armed with small brushes, cleaning dirt of the rails by the road.

No one looked very happy about this mandatory field work. Not that I judge their lack of spririt, I wouldn´t feel to jolly doing this myself on a friday night.

And where was "The Great Leader" anyway? Probably not out there on the grim streets of Pyongyang, armed with a toothbrush. That´s for sure.

May these people know peace and freedom one day in a not so distant future.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:41:12 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

Street scene, Pyongyang, North Korea.

On our way to the restaurant something weird happened. The bus seemed to break down and so we were forced out on to the streets and into a book shop. Now, I can´t claim for sure that this was the case, but the sheer look of panic in the face of the guides sure made me think that something wasn´t quite right.

Walking through the streets of Pyongyang was interesting to say the least. I have to admit that I was a bit to cautious. With hindsight I had a few great shots but didn´t want to offend the locals by sticking my camera up their noses and for once I just felt like observing in silence. I took my time and fell behind the rest of the group.

I felt... weird.

Here I was, walking around on the streets of Pyongyang, the capital of one of the most secluded nations on the planet. Some people gave me shy looks, some just boldly stared at me and even more of them obviously ignored me, putting on the stone faces, pretending not to see me.

It may sound weird and crazy. But this particular walk, that lasted for a couple of blocks, will probably remain as one of the most powerful moments in my entire life - past, present and future.

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nobody@flickr.com (FarewellFire) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:39:16 -0800

FarewellFire posted a photo:

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream, For Ice Cream

Free commerce in general is forbidden in North Korea. I´m typing "in general" since it isn´t actually all forbidden: Through one of the guides I learned (or rather got confirmation) that certain farmers are allowed to grow small, small plots of produce and then sell it. Also, reports mention markets in Pyongyang where various articles are being hustled - most of these being produced in China and then imported into the DPRK.

Seen above is a state run "mini-store". These can be spotted all over Pyongyang, hawking food and other daily necessities. This particular one sold ice-cream. Nice.