Hello from North Korea. You read that correctly. North. Not South.

Pictured: "The Best Korea"

While this post is on a several day delay (no internet here), if you know me really well, you know I've been fascinated with the so called "Hermit Kingdom" for quite some time. I wanted to keep it a secret because I think my family would flip out, but I have been planning to go there. Well I've gone and done it, after a lot of visa headaches. Turns out, it's not the easiest place to go.

So let me give you the rundown. In Beijing we go to the terminal, and board flight blabidybla to Pyongyang. Just seeing this listed on the terminal display was enough to give me pause. "I am actually, willingly, boarding a plane to go there. I am not in the incorrect line. That plane, with the red and white star and stripe on it, is where I am going." And go I did. They gave us the English "Korea Today" magazine. It is as amazing as you'd expect, and I kept the copy. Ask me for it. The American Imperialist aggressors are assholes, I guess. I will say though that the inflight meal was pretty damn good. Curry rice, fresh bread, fruit, veggies. I'm impressed. Especially because it was only a 90 minute journey. Along the way, we were treated to a wonderful video detailing the accomplishments of the DPRK.

We landed in Pyongyang international airport, which is the most liberal use of the word "international" I've ever seen. Honestly we land in a field that someone has decided to build an airstrip in. There is one small building as the terminal, and they use the old fashion stair cars to bring you down from the plane. (Probably supplied by the Bluth family). The terminal itself is a one room, concrete structure consisting of only 4 facilities. Restrooms, customs, baggage claim, security. If you were hoping for a convenience store, escalators, or any sort of modern amenity  you are shit out of luck my friend.

The outside of the terminal honestly more resembled the outskirts of podunk Kentucky town than an airport. There are no interstates. We are almost the only people there. There is no subway, train, or any sort of public transit. Hell, there's barely any private transit. It empties into a parking lot, really no bigger than what you find at a Walgreens. We got into our buses, met our government tour guides, and off we went into the city proper.

If I could choose only two adjectives to describe the DPRK, they would be "bleak" and "sparse". Every apartment is the same, more or less. The apartments in general are rare, mostly it contains field after field, meticuously contained of dead, yellow grass. The overly wide streets are lined with trees, and every once in a while you can see a car moving along. The roads are almost entirely made of people on bikes or pedestrians walking on the outskirts. Our guide said we are now entering Pyongyang, which is good, becuase if she didn't I would not have noticed.

Pyongyang does not look like the capital of a country. It doesn't look like the capital of a county. While there are very some cool things, they are interspersed by large stretches of grass, overly huge sidewalks, and a distinct lack of people in general. I think they could cram 5x the number it would still look sparsely populated there. It is hard to put into words, but it really does not look like a big city. It looks like some suburban town that decided to make some overly large buildings.

We went to the Arch de Triumph, which is basically a giant middle finger to the one in Paris. It documents Kim Il Sung's victory over the Japanese. I will say it's impressive as hell. In addition to being huge, it is pretty meticulously maintened. I'm sure I will include a picture to the left or right. That's right, future Weg. Put a picture here.

After that we got to see a mural about a speech Kim Il Sung made. Put a picture here too, future Weg. And then boom, suddenly back on the bus. We were not allowed to go into the arch, and they seemed in a pretty big hurry to get us to our hotel. We had a pretty great meal there, along with some incredibly cheap beer and soju (5 RMB and 10 RMB a bottle, respectively. Wow!). Tomorrow morning I wake up at 6:30am to go to the DMZ. I'm curious to see what things look like from the other side. Hey future Weg, put the picture here you have from the South side.

Sitting in my hotel room, I still can't believe I'm here. It's a combination of surreal, shock, and cautiousness rolled into one ball of emotion. I'm still not 100% sure my room isn't bugged.