Naked in North Korean Part 2

Next comes the Onjeonggak Village. This village is located in the Kumgang Mountains that straddle South and North Korea. They have allowed a tourist village to be built there. As you drive up to this Tourist Village, you pass a few small villages and cross over civilian road. When you do cross over such a dirt road you can see the soldier posted on either side. You can also see the random soldier standing out in the fields. Mixed in with this scene are the residents of these villages walking along or riding bikes (there are no cars except for military vehicles). Now in this village there is a mixture of South and North Koreans working there – various hotel, shop, and restaurant position. I am really not sure how that all works, but you know who is a NK because the have to wear this red lapel pin with the government leader’s face on it all the time. You of course can talk to those that work there but are told to avoid any topic that would be remotely interesting such as politics, daily NK life, religion and so on – after all of that I am pretty much left mute. You are told that you can definitely not talk to any resident that you may cross paths with. Being that in order to get to the hotel spring or this painting of the leaders at this one hotel ( I will tell you about this later) you have to cross one of the main village roads these encounters are very possible. But being that once again there are soldiers on either side of the road, it is really best not to make eye contact with anyone. And it should by this time go with out saying that you cannot take a picture with a NK. Okay there is one loop hole in this – you can ask a NK who works in the village if they would have their picture taken WITH you, but it must then be taken by another NK.

In this village there are about three hotels and another that is being built. These hotels are very, very nice – a stark contrast to the town beyond the gate with building that look like they took a few rounds of fire 50 years ago. There are also a few restaurants, souvenir shops, and a culture center building where that North Korean acrobatic performance company does their shows – I went to see one of the shows and once again I will get to that later. This place really looks no different than any other hiking resort you might find anywhere else (with the exception of uniformed guys with guns around the fence). So we got there around noon-ish, grabbed some food and headed off to our first hike. We were going to go up about 4 km to this water fall, and we were warned that it would be rather ice so I rented spike for the bottoms of my shoes (I am so glad I did because 2/3 of the way up it was nothing but ice). The hike was cold and very wind but beautiful. Everything is so very clean – the color of the water alone takes your breathe away. Going up was rather annoying because it was very crowded and Koreans take their hiking very seriously here so they so not leave much room for standing and enjoying the surrounding. What was really cool to see was all the places where Korean and Chinese writing has been done in the side of the mountains. I have a few great pictures. It is not obtrusive at all – it even kind of adds to the experience. I met a very nice young girl from Busan as I was walking up. As a SK teenager she was very excited to be on this trip with her parents. Now Busan is quite a big warmer that Seoul and much warmer than where we were – so poor thing was freezing. We walked most of the way up together. I first met her as I was rounding a corner. I stopped to take in the view and she walked up to me and pushed a candy into my hand. It was one of these very yummy peanut flavored candies they have here. She said, “Here traditional Korean candy eat.” Okay. And we started talking from there. She was very excited to learn that I was from the US. She had a friend studying in New York and said she was very jealous and that she wanted to go there someday. I giggled and told here “No don’t go to New York- it smells funny – go to Chicago!”

Coming back down was lovely because by then everyone was rather spread out so there actually moments where you were all alone. So we come back down to the bus, and in order to get to the parking lot you walk passed this restaurant and rest station (I have a picture of it – it is the one white building with the rounded side and blue accents – not to be confused with the another building of the same exact design by the lake). Outside of the building people are making various types of food for people to buy. One of the girls walked up to one of the stand to order these pancake looking things. The woman behind the counter is NK – you know this because of the red pin she is wearing. The girl comments to her how cold it was and the woman replies by tapping her fist to her chest and says “Makes you strong”. I laughed.

We come back to the tourist village and checked into our hotel –let it be stated again very nice hotel. And the rest of the evening was free time. So I decided to go see the acrobatic show. This is definitely where the full force of the weirdness that is NK hit. As nice as everything else is in the tourist village, the inside of this cultural center looked like an old high school auditorium. But okay no big and then the show begun. Now mind you anything that was to be spoken would be in Korean – so these impressions are strictly taken fro the visual and emotional sense. A gentleman came out to welcome everyone (I knew that much Korean) and make a few announcements – one of which was no Photos until curtain call – understandable. Well what I noticed about him first was that he was wearing a rather nice dark grey pinstriped suit; however, he had on the rattiest – I have been farming in these – pair of brown shoes. It was just odd. And way the lights go down and the music starts and the best way I can describe the next hour and a half was that I had been sucked back in time to German or Soviet Union cabaret in 1932. Everything from the clothes, to the make-up on the men, the music, and even the way they moved (particularly the very creepy slow motion twist of the wrist hand wave that the women did) – It made my skin crawl. They show was very good, but it was good in that I am watching a piece of living history good. Definitely no creativity or imagination in the presentation. Now this leads me to the following question: With the preserve the Korean way idea, is the show this way out of tradition or has no one been able to smuggle in a copy of Cirdus Soule? Both are very possible. After the show I made my way up to the Hot Spa. Man that felt good and definitely not for the shy. I will not go into great detail except for – it is very cool to sit out under the stars in NK while relaxing in a mineral hot spa. I could have stayed in there forever. Anyway being that we had driven all night and started our day at 6:00 AM, hiked, and would be getting up at 7 AM to start our next day - that day I was out before 8 o’clock.

Our next day, after breakfast, we had the choice of two different hikes. The first went up another part of the mountain, but the second (which one of my friends had told be about) went over to the East Sea and over to a lake for a short hike. Now I already knew I would go on the second. I had been told by my friend that in order to get to the sea and to the lake the buses had to go right through one of the actual villages. Once again there was the no picture rule while on the bus or in the parking lots. But there I was in arms length and you are not even comfortable enough to wave at the people you see looking at you from behind wall and buildings and from windows. At one point the caravan of bus slowed to an actual stop – I look out my window and see that we stopped less than five feet from a building – and staring at me from the corner of this window is a boy maybe 10 years old. I really wanted to know what that kids was thinking. What has he been told about the foreigners who he sees in these buses on the weekends?

It was also on the second day that I get in trouble – twice. I mean really folk what else did you expect. The first was on the beach. I was moving my way down this very, very rock shoreline, and I see this little concrete shelter with three rectangular hole along the top standing against the rock face. OOHH cool that is for shooting guns out of. Now no where in my mind was I concerned about here being anything in the shelter. I was simply curious and there were a couple people standing right in front of it so I figured no big let’s take a look behind. Well as I was rounding my way back five tour guides yelled out over the beach for me to get away. Okay no big at least I tried but really did not understand why an old concrete shelter was so taboo. Then I also hear them tell other tourists that they cannot take pictures in the direction behind and to the right of the shelter. The rock face was very nice so people were trying. Turns out there is a military base just behind that rock face – AAHHH Jennifer says. I could not go in so I slyly took a picture instead. You think I would have learned my lesson, but alas friend who are you talking to. After the shoreline, we went over to this lake for a hike. Very lovely. The view from up on the hills there is comical. On one side you look back over the forest you have just walked through, and on the other is this barren mixture of winter farmland and rocky mountains that have been stripped bare. Kind of like a bad slight of hand artist. OOHH and AAHH at my magic hand to the right but ignore the coin I just dripped on the floor from my left. Anyway, as you walk along the guide in the bright jackets are pretty good about keeping you from going in a direction you should not. Except for this one little cliff where me and two of the people in my group walked over to. Now it was not like we wandered off into the woods and jumped a fence – we simple were on a cliff that was up a well-traveled and clean path not 20 feet off the main path. It had a great view of the fields below. Also right below us at the time is a little traditional building and you can here saws being used. Well as we are up there taking picture (mostly of the farm) this man in a pair of grey pants and a black puffer jacket comes out from a rock below. He yells at us to back away and motions for the one guy’s camera. He gestures to be shown how to look at the pictures and instructs the guy to delete certain ones. Now as this is going on, I start deleting pics on mine just in case he asks to see it – I was rather bummed because he did not. Yet as he was looking through the guys camera I notice his clothes (of course) the jacket is wearing is open and as he moves around I can see the banned Mandarin collar of his grey jacket underneath as well as the red bars and insignia on the right side – oooohhh lovely he is NK government. Long story short – he had the guy delete pics, never asked for my camera and walked us back to the main path. As Jennifer breathe a big sigh of relief and then relates her clothing observation to the two people she was with. hahahahaha oh what fun.

Anyway we go back to the tourist village, eat, do some shopping – by the way everything to buy is actually made in South Korea – it is from the mountain region there but it is still SK. Yet another oddity of this magical place. We then had a bit of time to walk around the tourist village more. Me and two other ladies decided to walk up to one of the other hotels where there is the bizarre painting of the NK leaders. Now to get a picture of the painting you must be in the shot and it can only be taken by one of the doormen of the hotel. Okay ?!? That makes sense but sure. The really interesting part was the walk up to the hotel. The walk takes about 15 minutes at a very slow pace. And the path you walk up runs along side a road and this space is about equal to four city lanes wide defined by bright green fence that separates you from the NK villagers. It was really nerve racking walking up there because although you know you are allowed to walk up here as long as you follow the green signs, you still are worried you are doing something wrong. At one time we passed a group of soldier listening to opera and working on a building, and we really wanted to stop and take the moment in, but then we realized that they have all stopped and are now staring at us. We started walking again, but not too fast because you do not want to be thought of as suspicious. Crazy way to live. Oh, our way back as we came up to the intersection with the NK road, one of the guards started blowing his whistle and waving his flag. The three of us look at each other – all with the same question in our eyes – What? What did we do? The next minute lasted ten. We could not figure out what was going on and what we were supposed to do. And you did not want to stare at the soldier because you did not know if you could. So realizing that the NK residences were not moving - we just stood there. Then we heard the goose steps (I am not kidding you) of five NK soldiers coming down the NK road. Once a again we looked at each other – Crap what did we do? Well in fact it was not for us – they were doing some kind of inspection of the guards there, but man that was freaky. When we could finally move forward we bolted out of there. We were ready to go.

After this we then make our way back to NK immigration – same annoying music but no Brown Bear – I was sad. We get back to our NK bus and head through the DMZ to SK immigration. You could actually here the collective sigh on the bus as we passed into SK territory and waved at the SK soldier who was smiling and waving back.

It was definitely an experience. If you ever have the chance to go – do it. I am still trying to get my mind wrapped around it all. There is supposed to be another NK village that is opening up in February. Supposedly you will have more access to the actual village. I am going to try and go there as well. I cannot imagine this being my life everyday. But then again if that is all you know. Begging the question again – what has that little boy in the window been told?

The other interesting thing was to see the similarities in the SK and NK way of thought. For many Koreans the idea of asking why you are told or expected to do something is never a thought. You do this said thing because you were told to. And does the person who told you know why it is to be done. No not really – they had been told by someone else. Example: Last month one of the female teacher got married. The thing that struck Sarah ( they other English teacher) was that this guy’s family had A LOT of Money, and this could be a draw for a young woman, but this teacher did not seem to be that kind of person. Then on top of this she is very well educated, has a great sense of humor (something hard to some by with some of the women here), and beautiful – this guy although wealth and educated was quite lacking in other areas. Why was she marrying him? Sarah made this to one of the teachers that we know rather well – and her reply? “Well, it is an arranged marriage.” What?! Are you kidding me? This teacher did not seem to be someone who would go in for something like this – but apparently it had been arranged long ago. And when we asked the other teachers why would this still be done – they shrug their shoulders. Or the hitting of students thing. Children here do not ever seem to learn to discern right and wrong for themselves – they only know what will get them smacked. They are told do or do not do the following things, but are never told why it maybe the right thing to do. How are you ever expected to know how to figure out new or unfamiliar situations if you never have models to base anything off of? North Korean is very similar in the you do this because you have been told and do not worry about the why.

Okay that is all for now. Check out the pictures. At the end of this month I am heading to Hiroshima, Japan with Josh, so I am sure I will have a word or two about that.

Take care all.