wrote:
On 29.09.16 0:52, 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.

Actually, I found some more detailed pictures of the Pyongyang Metro, to
include the Hyeoksin Line.

http://www.earthnutshell.com/stoppin...ongyang-metro/

They changed the lighting at Kaeseon station, BTW: Whereas earlier it
was a row of fluorescent lights in a grill, it is now separate hanging
lights.

One place where you can't take a camera in is the sacred waxworks, the
Kumsusan Palace of the Sun:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7633470265514/

Did you see the bodies of the Great Leader and the Dear Leader? I
thought that this hall was closed to all, save a few categories, such as
high-ranking members of the WPK and KPA, high-ranking visiting dignitaries.

I also thought that "outer party" members could occasionally visit, and
that this was a true honour.

Yes, we saw both bodies, in their open casks. They're in separate palace
wings, each preceded by halls full of pictures and objects celebrating that
particular despot's glorious rule. You know you're getting close to the
holy of holies when the background music gets more mournful, then you have
to go through an airlock with air shower, so you don't bring in external
dust. You then form up four abreast to enter the sacred room. You have to
bow on three of the coffin sides, and try to look serious.

The locals really do get emotional, many in tears. I don't think they're
putting it on: they really think they're in the presence of god. To my
surprise, they seem more affected in Kim Jong-il's room than in his
father's, Kim Il-sung. Maybe most were too young to remember the president
(yes, Kim Il-sung remains president for all eternity, despite having died
in 1994).

After Kim Jong-il's room, each group gets treated to a lecture by a woman
who sounds just like the North Korean TV news announcer we see after each
nuclear or missile test, with exactly the same sonorous vocal cadences.
It's in Korean, of course, so she has to keep stopping for our local guide
to translate into English. As every foreign group goes through exactly the
same sequence, our guide must have done this hundreds of times, and must
know the speech by heart, but still has to translate it afresh each time.

The waxworks is only open to foreigners on certain days. This seems to be
because they have to set up a separate entrance with its own cloakroom for
possessions; foreigners have trouble understanding that they have to
*completely* empty their pockets, and not just follow airport security
rules, so you keep getting sent back if you left so much as a tissue in
your pocket. It's apparently against the DPRK constitution to take such
things into the sacred presence of the immortals. You also have to be
dressed respectfully (ties, closed shoes, etc).

Once you finally get it right, foreigners (and, I suppose, privileged
locals) are swept past the long queues of locals, all dressed in their
finest (men in uniforms or their shiny local synthetic black suits, women
in uniform or colourful traditional dess). You feel a bit guilty at being
whisked past the long, solemn queue, while treating it all as a bit of a
lark, when the queuing locals are anticipating the most profound experience
of their lives.

I reckon they were emotional than the faithful patiently queuing to get
into the Aedicule in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7661199185941/


The other is the international gifts museum, showing off the often bizarre
and tasteless gifts received by the Kim dynasty over the years:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7634297202747/

The guide was perplexed how few gifts were from the UK. They were mainly
from British admirers of the Juche ideology (people like our friend Hils),

Or a few others that come to mind.

In both places, you were free to take as many exterior pics as you wanted.
Curiously, we were far more restricted in what we could visit, see and
photograph on the southern side of the DMZ; the northern side was far more
relaxed:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...7633469222908/

Were the South Korean soldiers taking pictures of you?

We couldn't see any. The American and South Korean soldiers kept out of
sight, and of course there were no visitors on the southern side, as the
southern DMZ was closed because of the high tension at the time.

On the south, we weren't allowed into the DMZ, or even to take pictures of
it from the observation point; there were no photography restrictions on
the north, and the cooperative KPA officers were happy to join in selfies,
or take your group pics for you. I suppose the difference was that the
south was afraid the north was planning an invasion; the north knew they
had no invasion plans that day.