On 29.09.16 10:21, Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 23:52:59 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 15:25:56 +0100
Recliner wrote:
The Pyongyang Metro uses ex-West Berlin U-Bahn stock dating from
around 1960. It looked clean and in good nick when I travelled on it
in 2013:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...57633424928749

I'm impressed you got away with taking those pictures without getting hauled
off for interrogation. Very ornate stations tho I don't think it'll ever be
on my to-visit list frankly.

Yes, those three stations are very ornate; others we passed through were
more utilitarian, like most things in North Korea. With a couple of
exceptions, photography wasn't restricted in the areas tourists can visit.
The bits they really don't want you to photograph aren't open to visit at
all.

Just out of interest, whats this?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7633470265514/

Looks like some sort of cremation memorial but it got loads of different
languages. Is this where old western stalinists come to be cremated these
days?

It's the foyer in the base of the Juche Tower, which celebrates the DPRK's
ideology, a weird sort of communism crossed with religion (ie, worship of
the Kims). Those plaques are from foreign supporters of it (mostly extreme
leftwing nutjobs, like our friend Hils). I took this picture of the tower
from across the river, from the balcony that the regime's leaders use to
inspect the grand parades through Kim Il-sung Squa

https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/8729042313/in/album-72157633470265514/

The tower is claimed to be the world's tallest free-standing stone tower,
and it's deliberately slightly taller than the Washington Monument.
Pyongyang also has an Arc de Triomphe bigger than the Paris one, and a
fountain bigger than the Geneva one (when they have enough electrical power
for the pumps, which is seldom):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/8727878551/in/album-72157633470265514/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/8735159420/in/album-72157633470265514/



You forgot the Ryugyeong Hotel and the building on the DMZ's northern
side.

I have indeed noticed that the North Koreans were trying to one-up their
Western counterparts, though they weren't the only ones.

The boulevard in Bucharest leading to Palatul Parlamentului, which the
late Nicolae Ceaușescu built in the 80s, is deliberately longer than
Champs d'Elysee -- but only by a few centimetres, IIRC.