North Korea Chapter 5

The second day of the trip started with a 6.40am wake up call. I took the call and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. The second call came at 7.40, which was when the bus was planning on leaving. Our guide was wondering where we were. We jumped up, got dressed, dealt with the mini-bar checkers at the door at the same time, and made it downstairs 10 minutes later. The bus left the hotel parking lots and parked in another lot 20 meters away, where we sat for 10 minutes. Hurry up and wait!

Half of the tour group got off the bus to go on an easier walk around a lake in the area. The rest of the group was heading to a waterfall. We got off the bus where the trail began and started on the cobblestone trail. It was like a marathon had just begun however. All the South Korean tourists pushed and shoved us to the side in order to race to the top. The trail was packed with people and behind us was a stream of tourists in their hardcore and matching hiking gear. The Korean way is all about image. So even though this hike was about the same as something on the North Shore mountains, which most of us would wear runners, all the South Koreans had poles, hiking boots, day packs, gloves, and other useless items.

Beth, Mike, Romi and I kept a nice pace because we talked the whole way. The mountains were beautiful and were covered at the top by low lying cloud. The water was as clear as the ocean in the Caribbean and flowed over the white granite of the valley floor. At the top of the valley was a waterfall that trickled over the edge. Come monsoon season in July and August, that waterfall would be violent.

Another part of the trail took us higher where we could see the top of the waterfall from above.

We made it down the trail. Near the parking lot was a restaurant and some food vendors. We stopped for some "meat on a stick", a new favourite, and my friend Bri took a picture of a North Korean woman. Bri of course meant no disrespect, but the woman lost it on her and made her delete the photos. Bri showed her her camera to make sure that the photos were gone.

We had a few hours to kill until it was time to go. Mike bought some "snakebite" booze. We walked along a path to a propaganda mural with Lil' Kim and Senior Kim on it. Romi and I got our picture in front of it. None of us were allowed to take a picture of it ourselves, so we had to ask the doorman of the hotel across the street to take it for us. Mike brought his rugby jersey on this trip. His teammates at home wanted him to wear it when he had his picture taken. The doorman misunderstood Mike's request and actually got in the picture with him and they held hands and he got his picture taken with the doorman. I think Mike was pretty touched and impressed with that whole thing.

It was finally time to leave the village. Our guide told us that the border guards will go through all our pictures to make sure we didn't have anything they didn't like. I couldn't understand how they could go through the cameras of 65 people, where most of us probably had an average of 100 pictures. I had 600. But its a warning, and they would do the search randomly. The exit from NK was smooth and no one had any problems. Instead of stamping our passports, they stamped the ID card that the tour company issued us. They also kept it as we left the country. They also do not stamp personal passports.

As we drove along the highway between the two countries, I looked out the window and a military truck was about to pass us. There were 5 soldiers in it. They all looked about 19 years-old. I stared at them and smiled. Then they all smiled back and they were the biggest smiles ever.