Well after 4 days of updates, I'm quite tired of writing about the DPRK. But I figured one more would be good to summarize my thoughts on the country.

First of all, I didn't realize so many people were as interested in North Korea as I was. To me it was a mysterious place lost in time, and labled an axis of evil that nobody had ever visited. In fact, for Americans it's pretty damn difficult to visit. The NK government changes their mind on American visas on a near whim, and according to our guides, less than 2500 Americans have visited North Korea. Ever.

I think that's pretty messed up.

Not because it's some super hot tourist destination. Truthfully its not. Its a shithole. At very few points during the trip did I think "I am having lots of fun now." More it was "Hollllly shit, I can't believe things are like this." If you are going to have a fun time, you will not find it. Which is why I'm in a weird position if I would recommend people do what I do.

My gut instinct is to say no. You will not have fun on a trip there. It will be boring. It will be one sight after another on rails, you will not be able to interact with locals, the food is beyond terrible, there is rarely hot water, toilet paper, internet, and the entire gray and brown country is covered with desperate people

In a way I want to say yes, because the country is bizzaro world. There is nothing like it I have ever seen, and I have never in my life been so cautious of my actions. I was never in fear for my life or anything, but I was a bit cautious about being deported. Not to mention given there have been so few Americans, I felt responsible to not embarrass myself or my country. It turns out these fears were not entirely unfounded. We heard about another group that toasted "To Kim Il Sung" in a restaurant. They received an official visit and warning from the police. Apparently they do understand sarcasm, and they don't appreciate it. But going to a place like that makes you appreciate what you have. I don't want to get overly preachy and say things like "freedom", because that's pretty broad and stupidly generic. But if it allows you to not travel 10 miles each day just to get sticks to burn so you don't freeze at night, sure whatever, yay freedom.

Speaking of sticks, I'm glad I got to hang out with the people in my group in Beijing because we all noticed different things that on the surface you don't pay mind, but when you think about it are pretty interesting. The roads were full of people carrying sticks, walking in the middle of nowhere. One of my companions observed "You know how there are no trees anywhere? The entire country has been picked clean looking for something to burn. That's why they have to walk so far to find trees."

"And another thing – with all that countryside, do you remember seeing any animals? During the famine, they probably ate everything they could."

I have no way to back any of that up, but it may be true. I didn't see a single animal during my time there. These are the types of questions if I had noticed I would ask our guides, because they were very honest people. They never tried to avoid questions, though perhaps out of respect we didn't ask really controversial ones. Or at least I didn't. The thing with the guides though, after the first day or two I realized how utterly worthless they were for a conduit into daily life. These people were the 0.0001%. One had lived overseas in several countries, as her father is a diplomat. They interacted with foreigners as part of their job, and traveled to China frequently. They knew what life is like outside. But inside, life is okay for them. They live in the capital, they get hard currency from foreigners to buy luxury goods. And honestly, if the tips we were suggested to give are just spending cash for them, they are doing just fine.

So finally, so summarize NK as best I can. I have a face on the so called "axis of evil" now. And I see more "pity" than "faceless government of assholes". But it's still not a nice place. The people are living in absolute poverty minus a few elites. The elites have no motivation to change that. The countries will never be unified. The propaganda the north relies on to keep the populace content will shatter as soon as outside media comes in en masse. The south will never be able to absorb the destitute economy. But in the end, people are people. The kids are great, as all of encounters were one of complete wonder. They would laugh at our silly faces, dances, and none were scared of us, though sometimes their parents quickly brought them back into line. I guess it's a good thing to remember that we aren't born to hate anyone, it can only be taught by stupid adults.

But I'm glad I went. There's no voice there arguing the case for the west, so it's a pretty one sided argument. I really hope one day they learn how to run their country without fear. Cause ya know, the Imperials tried that with the Death Star. Then some dirt farming kid with a talking trashcan blew it up. And they've got a lot of dirt farmers.