Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Mount Kumgang, North Korea
Breakfast in the garish banqueting room. A long table is laid out with a breakfast buffet and a hot water urn and tea/coffee etc. Naturally, I go and make my own tea.
As soon as I do the others shout, “Nooo….”
Stopped in my tracks from making that all important first brew. That much needed first brew.
Am told it’s waitress service. Look around to see said waitress appear. She is not happy that I’ve done her job and made my own brew. Not happy at all, dear reader. Miffed even.
Ask for sugar but am told no. There’s going to be a rumpus if I don’t have sugar in my brew.
Fellow travellers donate their sugar cubes. Sugar is being rationed.
Served omelette and toast with the smallest pat of butter. Which doesn’t last long. About the corner of one of the slices of toast.
So I ask for more. All Oliver like.
Dear God. It’s not going well. I can’t have more butter. I am told. That’s it.
Oh well.
Can I have another brew please.
That sends the waitresses into a tizz. A discussion ensues between them as to whether I can be served another brew.
Involves one young waitress running to the kitchen to ask if I can have another brew.
A second brew eventually arrives on the table. After a lot of commotion. Deary me.
The hotel is on the beach. Pristine golden sands the like of which I’ve never seen before. Perfect beach. But it’s empty. Devoid of tourists. Shame as it’s a really nice hotel. It deserves more people.
Hamhung’s top tourist attraction is…wait for it…you’ll like this…
A fertiliser factory!
And we get a guided tour.
Actually located about 9km from Hamhung in an adjacent town called Hungnam. Clearly the jewel in the Hungnam tourist crown as we are told it’s OK to take photographs. Which surprises.
Introduced to the 71 year old Chief Engineer who retired a few years ago after 47 years of working at the same factory. A real character and I bet he’d be good to have a beer with. Taken to the compressor hall where a number of 4,000HP compressors that were installed in the 1950s are still going strong. The electrical controls are antique but seemingly still work. Huge murals on display at the gable end of the factory…for the cause. Fascinating place.
As we make our way through the 2km x 2km complex every inch of soil you see is given over to cultivating crops. Even the soil between pylon legs. People playing volleyball in one of the side streets obviously on a break.
Allowed in the main reception building but sadly the only place we can’t take photos. For some inexplicable reason. The lobby is a grand hallway with tall wooden doors, Stalinist in style, leading into a large conference room.
Fertiliser factory tour finished it’s the Dongbong Co-operative Farm next. On the outskirts of town. Met by a local guide but all conscious of a couple of men in black lurking about watching us. We’ve been more aware of this outside Pyongyang and assume they’re State Security. A couple of men in black were also watching us yesterday at the Kim statues.
Guide delights in telling us that the mosaic of Kim Il-Sung standing in a field of crops denotes the time he visited the farm. It has a farm shop. Not the sort you’d find in your local rural village. No. See photos below. Bit different to that. Kim Il-Sung rocks up at the farm shop and tells them to put more stock on display. So they did. You did as instructed. No discussion.
Now, there’s an assortment of biscuits, sweets, drinks, dried fish and a whole storage bin of salt on one side of the shop. The other side of the shop has brightly coloured wellies, shoes, cloth and dresses.
Encouraged to buy some sweets and biscuits for the kindergarten though some refuse on ethical grounds. Poor kids. What kid doesn’t like a treat now and then.
Kindergarten next door to the shop is brilliant. Teacher is playing an organ contraption in the classroom and the kids are singing. The organ works by teacher pumping a foot pedal to generate the needed air flow. Looks ancient but each classroom has one. And they clearly work. See video below.
One of my fellow travellers has had the genius idea of bringing a Polaroid camera. She takes a photo of a kid. Gives the white blank film to them. Shows them how to waft it about. And wait. Until the photo develops.
There’s a little boy of about 4 sitting on the front desk in military uniform. You can tell he’s a cheeky boy by the way he smiles. His photo is taken and is given a blank white film strip. As it develops, his face comes through on the photo and he sees it. The look on his face is priceless. Would make your heart melt, dear reader.
He’s so chuffed and surprised at what’s happening before his eyes. A few of the women in the group start crying tears of joy. I’m not an emotional person, dear reader, but may have got a little emotional myself. He’s just so happy that he has this photo of himself. He’s so captivated by it. See the photos below, dear reader, and you’ll have a heart of stone if you don’t go, “Aaah”. He starts showing his mates his photo. He’s so excited. They’ve got one as well but not quite as excited about the westerners shoving things in their hands they’ve never seen before. I mean, can you imagine. You’re 4 years old. You live in the DPRK. You know nothing about the outside world. All of a sudden, a load of white people walk in to your class, point some plastic machine at you and give you a photograph. Of you.
One of the rooms in the kindergarten is dedicated to the life and times of the Kims. To indoctrinate the kids.
Three hour drive to Wonsan. Every bit of land is given over to agriculture. Roads continue to be very rough but tree lined which reminds me of France. There are also white painted concrete posts in the verge every few metres. Sometimes it’s white painted stones lining the roadside that go on for miles. Just think about the labour involved in doing that. It is phenomenal. And then think why? Not exactly busy roads. Everywhere appears clean and tidy though. Even the railway tracks are lined with white painted stones. Every sapling or small tree has a circle of white painted stones surrounding it.
Wonsan, by the sea, has a nice relaxed feel to it. A seasidey atmosphere even. Bit like Bournemouth. And as we’re at the seaside. Has to be fish and chips for lunch. Another excellent meal.
Further 3hr drive to Mount Kumgang stopping enroute at Sijung Beach Resthouse. Like something that fell out of the 1950s. Another spotless expanse of golden sands. Told that beaches on the east coast are sandy whilst those on the west coast are pebbly. Appears to be a military exercise happening on one of the beaches we pass and there’s plenty of barbed wire preventing a sea-borne invasion further up the coast.
Continue following the coastal road but as we approach the border start climbing up into the mountains which entails a 920m long tunnel which has armed sentries in concrete shelters protecting it at each portal.
Seeing a lot more military now as we near the border with South Korea. On entering Changjon, the coastal town near Mount Kumgang, there’s a military checkpoint where our guide has to produce some documentation before we can pass. Instructed to put cameras away. A second checkpoint on exiting the town. Approaching Mount Kumgang, guide has to obtain a vehicle pass. There’s a lot of military activity here. Mount Kumgang had been off limits to tourists for years after it was leased by the South Korean Hyundai company and was administered as a special tourist region exclusively for people travelling overland from South Korea. This was then stopped in 2010 and tourists from the DPRK could use it.
Actually meant to be staying in a South Korean developed resort Hotel Oekumgang which is meant to be upmarket. However. For reasons never fully explained, we’re not. Now staying in the not so 5 star Hotel Kumgangsan (https://asiasenses.com/accommodation/kumgangsan-hotel).
A grand piano sits in the lobby. Having restarted piano lessons after 35 years start playing very badly. My beautiful young female guide sees me and practically plonks herself on my lap to join me in playing piano. She instantly starts playing like a pro. She’s amazing.
It’s one of those spontaneous moments in life you’ll never forget.
