I have long maintained that one of the things that travel teaches us is that people the world over have more in common than you might expect if you only read about other countries or watch TV news and documentaries. Everyone wants to feel safe, to be in good health, to have the basic necessities of life. North Koreans too are not so very different from us in those respects.
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'When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.' I find it hard to believe that I haven’t used that quote from Ansel Adams before!
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Sometimes a few words can enhance a viewer’s understanding of an image. After all, what else are captions for if not to explain?
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On the same day that we visited the Kosan Fruit Farm near Wonsan we were also taken to this children’s holiday camp on the outskirts of the town. And while, like the apple farm, that might not sound especially worth visiting, it was, like many places in North Korea, unexpectedly interesting.
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When you visit North Korea you put yourself in the hands of your guides. There is no option to choose your itinerary day to day beyond the rough outline proposed by your tour company at the time of booking. And even that can change, as we discovered when a tropical storm hit the southern part of the country where we were staying at the time.
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Three enormous fists reach skywards, dominating the cityscape at the end of a long grassy avenue. Linked by a massive concrete belt they loom over visitors and passers-by. However this monument makes a statement not just through its grand scale but also the details of its design. This is a story told in numbers and in symbols.
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Travel is all about experiences. They may seem quite small at the time, like a chance but memorable encounter with a local person that changes your perspective on the world. Or they may seem huge, visiting an iconic world sight that you’ve dreamed about seeing for years. But whether large or small, long-planned for or serendipitous, the experiences of travel are, in my opinion, among the best to be found.
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Straddling the border between North Korea and China is a still-active volcano, Mount Paektu. Its last eruption was in 1903 and scientists consider that another one could be imminent, based on a trend of eruptions roughly 100 years apart. The crater lake, Lake Chon (‘Heaven Lake’) was formed in the 946 AD eruption.
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Among the mountains to the north of Pyongyang two vast edifices are set into a mountainside. Climate controlled and windowless, the International Friendship Exhibition buildings house thousands of gifts presented to the Great Leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, both during and after their lifetimes, and more than a few given to Kim Jong Un.
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Many people worry, unnecessarily, at the idea of visiting North Korea. Is it safe? Are the rules too strict? Will the food be tasty, and adequate? The latter question is perhaps understandable, given the well-documented periods of famine suffered in the country, but tourists, as honoured guests of the regime, have nothing to fear on that score.
