More DPRK

Kim Jong Il was born near Mt Paekdu, to the accompaniment of lightening flashes, but Kim Il Sung is a true Pyongyang boy and was born in a hovel in the suburbs, to which we were taken. The hovel, or "native house", looked a little....rebuilt. It consisted of three small rooms of one building facing a workshop type building opposite, with a bamboo platform at the end for sleeping in in summer. In each of the rooms were various pictures and artefacts. The pictures showed his grandparents, uncles and brothers. The 2nd generation, rather sadly, died fighting the Japanese but the grandparents lived long enough to see their grandson In Charge. Officials suggested moving them to comfy houses in the city but they nobly declined special priveleges. Communist, you know.

It was all a little bit "this is the real sleeping mat he used!" but there was a touching moment when the house guide seemed a bit teary when discussing Kim's death. She wore traditional Korean clothes as well as slapped on white powder which did not succeed in making her skin look paler at all...she was also considerably smaller than Sara and I. Afterwards she took us to the well He used to use and scooped up some water for us to drink. We parted, best mates.

Then we went for a walk through neighbouring trees to a hill overlooking the city.

Lunch was in a restaurant. To get there we walked through a clothes shop. "These are normal prices" said Ri. Yeah right, if they were there'd be people looking at stuff...

Apart from the above, I have to say very little of our trip seemed staged. We had a good snigger beforehand about our train not actually moving but was a succession of boards of views of prosperous farms carried past by Koreans-and when we stopped unexpectedly for over an hour that they were having a rest :P I had heard that the metro was not really used and that the two stops foreigners can see are stuffed with actors, but it didn't feel like that at all. For a start, people were annoyed when they arrived just as doors closed. The stations we did see were over 100m below the ground, I believe the lowest in the world (doubles as a bunker apparently) and the walls featured carvings of Communist scenes. The candeliers were tacky coloured glass supposed to represent fireworks. The trains were leftovers from East Germany and looked it. There was a double portrait of everyone's favourite leaders in each carriage. Rather quaint.

More to come, including the Children's Palace (UNISON) and the War Museum. WHO REALLY STARTED THE WAR.