Introduction

So, I decided to go to North Korea...I won't bother to explain why. Just suffice it to say I've done much more boneheaded things in my travel career. Americans can get visas up to five days, during the season of the Arirang mass games (which I'll talk about later.)

This blog probably won't be the best or the most informative blog on North Korea. This blog is by someone who has a lot more travel experience than me, including (this is important) in South Korea, and also he understands the language. I have been in China for a while and can speak a bit of Chinese, which definitely opened some doors, but it's nothing like actually speaking Korean. Also, a much more in-depth guide is this one, by the second Brit ever to actually live inside Korea. Though it's twenty years old, I suspect little has really changed that much. Many of the comments he makes about the country kind of eerily forshadow things that people have been saying much more recently. This is just the impressions I was able to get there, in the very restricted environment they create for us.

This trip has definitely taught me the importance of good photography equipment, and knowing how to use it. Though our North Korean guides of course were restricting our photography, it seemed like most of my shots were ruined because my camera was just too slow or things came out blurry. Fortunately, all of us on this trip are supposedly going to share our photos on Flickr. My page is here.

Okay, so now with the story.







..Although, if I can just add a quick message against the Chinese government, it has become a lot more difficult to publish a blog here than in was a few months ago. Probably related to the Olympics, everything is. Even most of my trusty proxy servers aren't doing the trick. For today, www.unblockanything.com is my ticket. One continues to wonder exactly what it was that China was hoping to exhibit to the outside world...

[Update: That may have been a Shenyang city or Liaoning province thing; here in Beijing I'm not having any problem.]