North Korea - A Different World

[corkscrew]

One think about traveling in North Korea: I felt totally safe from anything criminal.

good point corkscrew -in this day and age it's nice to go somewhere just for that alone- in fact I can't even think of any other places in the world which appear to be so crime free ?

The other thing we found as a " novelty " was standing in the middle of a 6 Lane freeway ( good standard as well ) when we stopped off at the equivalent of a motor way services stations on our way down from Pyongyang to the demilitarized zone - absolutely no cars coming in either direction ! This is on a weekday at about 11 AM. I live in Bangkok so you to imagine what bliss it was

It's like a fantasy movie, are you going to gawk at the scene of no cars on the road or no shops selling normal things for foreigners or the unique currency for foreign 'travellers' only?? What is your purpose of going there? Like I said before, if it was just a little bit more relaxed then I'm sure it would be a wondrous place to visit.

There is simply no crime because the whole country is sh1t scared of doing anything wrong in case they get put in one of the apparently hidden prison camps along with their whole family!

Is that the future? Maybe we should all adopt these crime prevention methods - they seem to be working very effectively in North Korea

That is precisely why NK is such an interesting place to VISIT: there is no other place on earth like it. If NK was a normal country it would not have the unique interest that it has now.

Hey. you wouldn't say "I don't want to visit Antarctica because it doesn't have sunny beaches".

[corkscrew]

" I guess I have kind of made my mind up about North Korea "

that's unfortunate, it reminds me of an adverti they used to have Guiness many years ago-

it said - " I've never had Guiness because I don't like it "

I like that!

[corkscrew]

One think about traveling in North Korea: I felt totally safe from anything criminal.

good point corkscrew -in this day and age it's nice to go somewhere just for that alone- in fact I can't even think of any other places in the world which appear to be so crime free ?

The other thing we found as a " novelty " was standing in the middle of a 6 Lane freeway ( good standard as well ) when we stopped off at the equivalent of a motor way services stations on our way down from Pyongyang to the demilitarized zone - absolutely no cars coming in either direction ! This is on a weekday at about 11 AM. I live in Bangkok so you to imagine what bliss it was

We made the same motorway service stop....was it right before the tunnel? Anyway, you are right...the highway was a ghost highway. Great for driving after living in Bangkok.

[midas]

" a little bit more relaxed then I'm sure it would be a wondrous place to visit.

There is simply no crime because the whole country is sh1t scared of doing anything wrong in case they get put in one of the apparently hidden prison camps along with their whole family!

Is that the future? Maybe we should all adopt these crime prevention methods - they seem to be working very effectively in North Korea "

Nikkijah would you go to China ? That's where they have been beating the crap out of some prisoners to give them a false confession to justify executing them and then using the " body parts " to meet the rapidly growing demand for organ transplants for medical tourists ! The BBC recently showed a very interesting documentary on this issue. It's not just in North Korea

where there are some nasty things going on

[midas]

One think about traveling in North Korea: I felt totally safe from anything criminal.

good point corkscrew -in this day and age it's nice to go somewhere just for that alone- in fact I can't even think of any other places in the world which appear to be so crime free ?

The other thing we found as a " novelty " was standing in the middle of a 6 Lane freeway ( good standard as well ) when we stopped off at the equivalent of a motor way services stations on our way down from Pyongyang to the demilitarized zone - absolutely no cars coming in either direction ! This is on a weekday at about 11 AM. I live in Bangkok so you to imagine what bliss it was

We made the same motorway service stop....was it right before the tunnel? Anyway, you are rght...the highway was a ghost highway. Great for driving after living in Bangkok.

Hey Corkscrew - that's right I remember the tunnel !

Do you remember the shop inside the motorway services -it had some really strange paraphernalia

for sale? And we had some right nutters on our tour - in the nicest possible way

- they where tremendous fun actually. Anyway one guy bought a little plastic car at the shop and decided in order to try to capture the bizarre - and with nothing else to do at our motorway services stop, he wanted to take a photo of it actually sitting on the motorway outside so there he was

lying on the ground - in the middle of the motorway - taking a shot of this plastic car

with a wide open and empty road in both directions

Yes we probably all did go a bit insane temporarily while we there - may be we just

got caught up in the sureal surroundings in which we found ourselves-but it certainly didn't stop us having a laugh and fooling around and incidentally that included with our government guides - they were great people with a superb sense of humour and in the end we were even able to get away with pulling their leg !

[cclub75]

Midas, what was the total budget of your "organized" trip in NK ?

[corkscrew]

One think about traveling in North Korea: I felt totally safe from anything criminal.

good point corkscrew -in this day and age it's nice to go somewhere just for that alone- in fact I can't even think of any other places in the world which appear to be so crime free ?

The other thing we found as a " novelty " was standing in the middle of a 6 Lane freeway ( good standard as well ) when we stopped off at the equivalent of a motor way services stations on our way down from Pyongyang to the demilitarized zone - absolutely no cars coming in either direction ! This is on a weekday at about 11 AM. I live in Bangkok so you to imagine what bliss it was

We made the same motorway service stop....was it right before the tunnel? Anyway, you are rght...the highway was a ghost highway. Great for driving after living in Bangkok.

Hey Corkscrew - that's right I remember the tunnel !

Do you remember the shop inside the motorway services -it had some really strange paraphernalia

for sale? And we had some right nutters on our tour - in the nicest possible way

- they where tremendous fun actually. Anyway one guy bought a little plastic car at the shop and decided in order to try to capture the bizarre - and with nothing else to do at our motorway services stop, he wanted to take a photo of it actually sitting on the motorway outside so there he was

lying on the ground - in the middle of the motorway - taking a shot of this plastic car

with a wide open and empty road in both directions

Yes we probably all did go a bit insane temporarily while we there - may be we just

got caught up in the sureal surroundings in which we found ourselves-but it certainly didn't stop us having a laugh and fooling around and incidentally that included with our government guides - they were great people with a superb sense of humour and in the end we were even able to get away with pulling their leg !

That must have been a blast: sitting the little plastic car on the NK motorway. Do you have a picture of it? Hey, do you have any pix of your NK trip? I have a couple books of them but they are not here in Bangkok.

Do you live in BKK? We live over by the river.

Our guide was a little bit stiff....his name was Kim so that might explain it.

Did you stay at the Koryo hotel in Pyongyang?

[Nikkijah]

" a little bit more relaxed then I'm sure it would be a wondrous place to visit.

There is simply no crime because the whole country is sh1t scared of doing anything wrong in case they get put in one of the apparently hidden prison camps along with their whole family!

Is that the future? Maybe we should all adopt these crime prevention methods - they seem to be working very effectively in North Korea "

Nikkijah would you go to China ? That's where they have been beating the crap out of some prisoners to give them a false confession to justify executing them and then using the " body parts " to meet the rapidly growing demand for organ transplants for medical tourists ! The BBC recently showed a very interesting documentary on this issue. It's not just in North Korea

where there are some nasty things going on

I have thought about a trip to China too! I think I could 'ween' myself onto that kind of place starting with China and then later NK(possibly).

I'm not totally ignorant to the things that go on in many countries, especially China, NK, Myanmar etc and I am still curious, I'm sure if I went I would appreciate what you and corkscrew are saying

Sh1t, there's been some pretty awful things happen here in LOS but it doesn't stop me living here...

[LaoPo]

Another thing, what is/are:

pre-Mauer Fall eastern Europe

Pre Berlin Wall Eastern Germany

DDR

Deutsche Democratische Republik - or East Germany

CZ

I assume: Stjechia-Slowakia (sp?)

NoKo

North Korean ?

BATA

It's a shoe-brand

CB-US$ bills

CB ? US$ bills = obvious

GosDollarPrint

???

Call me stupid asanee, but I haven't got a clue what you are trying to say here

Nikkijah

[Nikkijah]

Cheers LaoPo

[midas]

Midas, what was the total budget of your "organized" trip in NK ?

cclub you'd have to include the return airfare from Bangkok to Beijing

and then I stayed on a week in Beijing and had a good look around

- the Great Wall etc so I had extra hotel costs so to be honest I cant remember how much

the North Korean portion of the trip was-perhaps in the region of

12-1300 Euros or thereabouts - Koryo tours warn you it's not one of

the cheapest destinations - but if you're interested why didn't you just

send Koyo an mail and ask them for an up-to-the-minute quote

for one of next years trips -listed on their web site by the way

[midas]

That must have been a blast: sitting the little plastic car on the NK motorway. Do you have a picture of it? Hey, do you have any pix of your NK trip? I have a couple books of them but they are not here in Bangkok.

Do you live in BKK? We live over by the river.

Our guide was a little bit stiff....his name was Kim so that might explain it.

Did you stay at the Koryo hotel in Pyongyang?

I'm sure I would it was to get hold of the photo of the plastic car on the freeway

but I need to email a few people............. yes I do have quite a few of my own

photos of the trip. I am in Soi Ngamduphli near Sathorn.

No we were lucky our guides were a blast ........... yes we stayed at the Koryo

on the island in the middle of the river. Did you go downstairs to the surreal casino in the basement ? another bizarre world

[ccarbaugh]

.... it's O.K. - I'll wait until I can get some ciggies, a brew, and develop some meaningful, long-lasting relationships with a lot of NoKo babes ..... at a venue similar to "Soi Cowboy"

[corkscrew]

Here are some pix of my last trip to North Korea. Do you recognize the boxer?

http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/03/01/2xxx/11a.html