Sunday, 16 April 2017
Mount Myohyang, DPRK
At last. A night’s sleep without someone banging on my door in the middle of the night!
Bliss.
My ration of one fried egg for breakfast and one coffee. Although there is plenty of other food available.
Today’s highlight is to see the preserved bodies of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in the mausoleum. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun mausoleum. And by mausoleum, I mean the most enormous building and complex built specifically to display their bodies, to enable people to pay their respects. Last time I saw a building as big was in Ceacescu’s Bucharest.
There’ll be plenty of bowing today. I can assure you.
Once at the mausoleum the rules dictate that we leave everything on the bus apart from cameras which have to be checked in for collection after paying our respects.
The pre-tour information indicates that to visit the mausoleum one must be well dressed and suit, collar and tie are suggested for men whilst sober dresses for women. As I didn’t have space to pack a suit I’ve had to scrub up with deck shoes, smart jeans and shirt. What you might call smart casual at home. One of our group has indeed dressed up in suit, collar and tie. Making the rest of us look scruffy.
It’s a well organised affair and once off the bus all the visitors, mainly locals, line up in four long single file columns. Instructed to behave ourselves and be quiet and respectful. Guides are concerned that we’ll show them up. They’ll get grief if we do.
As we stand in line waiting our turn to enter, guide suddenly realises that we’ve all got handkerchiefs and tissues in our pockets which is disrespectful and that we’ll have to check them in. He’s now got a handful of snotty tissues and handkerchiefs to deal with very quickly as doesn’t want to miss our slot.
Before entering the complex, we proceed to a basement holding area and have to walk over rotating brushes, to clean the dirt and grit off the soles of our shoes, and then stand on a wet mat before drying them.
Up an escalator in twos and then on a 100m long travellator. In twos. Side by side. No messing around now. Have to stay where we are on the travellator to maintain separation from another group in front and behind. Have to stand up straight. Am told off as have hands behind by back. Apparently it’s disrespectful. Instructed to hold them in front or preferably by the sides. Guides are clearly worried that they’ll be seen to be not keeping control of their group.
And the subsequent repercussions.
More escalators and travellators as we glide by in silence looking at all the photos of the Kims. Finally enter the complex and silently directed by women in long black dresses and men in black suits through very opulent corridors, halls and stairways.
It is, quite frankly, breathtaking. The enormity of it all.
Massive chandeliers hang from the very high ceilings with smaller chandeliers (but still enormous) hanging around the perimeter.
And then. The main event.
The mausoleums of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.
Instructed to bow from the waist when at the bodies’ feet and both sides but not at the head end.
Enter as a group but in our rows of four and wait our turn. In silence.
First up is Kim Il-Sung. The mausoleum hall is very large and high ceilinged, maybe 20m high, and bathed in red light. Armed guards stand to attention in each corner.
Taking our guide’s lead we approach, in rows of four, the feet end first and level up as a row of four before bowing deeply and long at the waist. Then again at the right hand side. Bowing deeply and long. Walk past the head end without stopping and then again at the left hand side. Bowing deeply and long.
In silence.
Exit stage left.
More ornate corridors. And when I say corridors I mean large hallways.
Enter another very large hall containing Kim Il-Sung’s train carriage. Large wall map shows the routes he took on the train highlighted in flashing red lights. The routes he took by air in flashing blue lights.
Train carriage is very 50s/60s décor with a patterned carpet your Nan would have chosen, complete with chairs and a couple of desks. The following rooms contain collections of awards and medals conferred on Kim Il-Sung by various countries and universities around the world, including the DPRK.
See one such award from Derby City Council. That hotbed of communist thinking.
Most of the countries are obviously other dictatorships from South America and Africa or the former Eastern Europe and USSR. Another room displays his Mercedes Benz car, which is on jacks, and has a large photo of him by it.
And then.
The mausoleum of Kim Jong-Il. Same expanse as Kim Il-Sung’s
Process is repeated. In silence. Row of four at the feet end. Bow deeply and long from the waist. Then at the right hand side. Miss the head. Bow deeply and long from the waist at the left hand side. In silence.
Exit stage left.
Both preserved bodies are laid out with the bottom two thirds covered up leaving the top of the torso and the head on show. The head rests on a circular pillow with the body enclosed in a glass case, presumably for temperature and humidity control.
There’s also Kim Jong-Il’s train carriage to see which is notable as it’s the carriage where he died and has been left as it was when he died in December 2011. Wooden laminate flooring and big leather sofas down each side with a single table at the end full of papers he was editing/signing. Interestingly, given the USA is public enemy number one, he had an Apple Macbook Pro on his desk. And a foot massager below the desk. His clothes hang on a small clothes horse.
Another more modern Mercedes Benz car is on display. What is it with dictators and Mercedes Benz?
And if all that wasn’t bizarre enough, ushered into a larger hall which has his motor launch on display. Apparently, they built the hall around the boat and the train carriages.
It completes the tour of the mausoleum and we head back the way we came along the long travellators. And glad we got there as it opened as it’s now very busy with locals pouring in to pay their respects.
Retrieve cameras, tissues and handkerchiefs. Now allowed to take photographs outside in the gardens. And by gardens think National Trust large country house gardens.
But we’re not done with bowing.
No.
There’s more to come.
At the Mansudae Grand Monument. Back in the city centre. Up on a hill. A glimpse of which we saw yesterday. Mansudae is where the two 22m high statues of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il stand looking out over the city.
Another place of pilgrimage for locals to pay their respects.
Not only is there bowing but buying of bouquets of flowers. De rigeur to pay respects and lay a bunch of flowers at the podium upon which the statues stand.
Lots of wedding parties having photos taken with the statues in the background. We have to line up in two rows with the ones selected to buy a bunch of flowers at the front. Standing to attention, facing the statues, the two that have flowers then proceed to lay the flowers at the podium before returning to our group. And then we all bow deeply and long from the waist. In unison. Think of the solemnity of Remembrance Sunday. But with wedding parties behind us.
Great atmosphere and full of locals paying their respects. Makes you wonder if all these flowers are collected at night and then resold the following day.
Wedding party photographer intimates to me that I should join the wedding group for a photo.
So, dear reader, in decades time when the young couple are old and retired, they’ll be looking fondly through their wedding photo album and will remember the time the western giant came lolloping into their wedding photos. And they will smile. “Ah yes, do you remember when…?”
Returning to hotel for lunch in the Chinese restaurant and delighted to discover there’s no kimchi on the menu. Love kimchi. But not every meal. Am all kimchied out.
Checking out of hotel, manage to snatch a few minutes of news from the outside world on Al-Jazeera. Who report that the DPRK have conducted another missile test but that it blew up on take-off.
However.
Local TV news shows a missile taking off and in full flight.
Missile test was expected this weekend. So no surprise.
US Vice President, Mike Pence, is currently in Seoul, South Korea, for talks so will be an interesting few days as Al Jazeera also report that Japan is practising mass evacuations.
Jolly good.
It’s all kicking off.
Before heading to Mount Myohyang, 3hrs north of Pyongyang, a brief excursion on a trolley bus. Not just any old trolley bus, dear reader. This is quite a celebrity trolley bus in Pyongyang. It’s the most merited trolley bus in Pyongyang. All trolley buses gain a star when they’ve done 50,000km without an accident. This one has 132 stars.
Work that out, dear reader. How many kilometres of accident free miles? It works out as an average of 403km per day over the 45 years since it was built in 1972. Hmmm.
The driver has been driving trolley buses for 42 years. He is the most famous and most decorated driver as he’s been driving this particular trolley bus for years without an accident. His wife acts as a conductor and sits in a tiny cubicle by the rear door. There are three designated seats. One for the elderly. One for veterans of the Korean War. One for pregnant women. If you’re sitting in such a seat then you must give it up for them. It’s a great little bus and you can sense how proud the husband and wife team are of it.
Bumpy tarmac roads all the way to Mount Myohyang but doesn’t seem as bad as the Reunification Highway we drove enroute to the DMZ. Lots more paddy fields as we head north rather than the maize we saw heading south to the DMZ. Lots of people working the fields with a mix of tractors and oxen pulling ploughs.
Arrive at the Chongchon Hotel (https://asiasenses.com/accommodation/chongchon-hotel) in Myohyang. Styled in Korean pagoda architecture on the banks of the Chongchon river. Rooms have underfloor heating. Which is incredibly hot. Balcony overlooks the river and instantly reminds of a hotel I stayed at in Kanchanaburi on the River Kwai in Thailand all those years ago. Let’s hope there isn’t a grumpy gecko galloping about inside the ventilation ducts throughout the night. Old friend will be reading this and thinking of my gecko anecdote. And now giggling. You’ll have to wait for the Thailand and Vietnam blog for that particular anecdote, dear reader.
Warned that as we’re out in the sticks that there may be power and water cuts. Hmm. Brave a cold shower whilst I still have running water. No hot water. A small bucket in the corner of the bathroom can be used to store water. Discover at dinner that hot water only available from 2000hrs. Thankful for electricity.
Told that to turn off the stifling underfloor heating you push a big red button on a panel at low level behind the door. Not immune to a bit of fiddling with electrics discover that the button is not connected to anything, having removed the panel face plate to reveal a load of burnt out wiring.
A hot and stifling night beckons.
