Mass Games rehearsal in the streets of Pyongyang.
Fountain outside Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
While there are not any autowalks inside the building, the tour through the Palace of the Sun certainly bears the feeling of being on one. We go in a rather quick succession on a supervised invisible line, soldiers watching our every step. Before we are allowed into the proper mausoleum we have to go through a gate that uses air to blow away dust and dead particles from us. Many will probably have problems doing this, but at the sarcophagus containing Kim Il-Sung it is expected of the visitors to bow at his feet and left and right side. The same goes for the sarcophagus of Kim Jong-Il. I feel no need to create a fuss about it and make my bows.
Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
The sequence are the same for both the former leaders of DPRK. First we are to show our respects at the remains, then we are taken to a room containing honours and awards that the leader has received from around the world. I look for something from Norway, but I cannot find anything. What is more astonishing is the fact that they have chosen to build in one set of the leaders personal train inside the building. We can see the different styles of the age separating the two trains. One a wall is a huge, slightly interactive, board displaying the travels by train and plane that each leader did. When finishing the tour, we can retrieve our electronic equipment and walk in the park outside the palace.
Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
A captured plane on display at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
Yesterday, we were to visit the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, but it was closed due to a public holiday (Day of Songun). Today, we can walk through its tall gate. This museum is dedicated to the Korean War. A wide open space is the first we come to, almost forming a large alley with several large statues of fighting soldiers on each side. Leaving the statues, we go into a section containing a lot of war equipment that was captured during the war. Large skeletons of planes, truck, tanks and helicopters among others, with gaping holes in them. The gem in the collection is most likely the USS Pueblo, an US Navy vessel that was captured in January 1968 (hence not during the Korean War itself).
Patriotic statue in front of the main museum building at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
The USS Pueblo.
It is an interesting museum, but it is undeniably showing the history of the Korean War from their point of view (not that they are alone in doing this). The most impressive feature of the museum is the 360 degrees diorama of one of the major battles in the Korean War, the Battle of Taejon. Here we sit down on a rotating floor while both artifacts on the floor and visuals on the wall come alive as we pass by. With a voice telling us about the events that unfolds, and sounds from the various scenes. Here and there sections are lit up, we see planes fly and fall across the sky, fires in buildings, smoke rising, bombs go off and so on.
Almost everywhere you are in Pyongyang, is the ghost hotel Ryuguong visible.
Another scene from the streets of Pyongyang.
Next up is a stamp, poster and postcard shop and museum. It is the place where we can send postcards back home. Unsurprisingly, the woman from our hotel that we also met at the Arch of Triumph is also here, that figures. North Korean stamps are actually very nice. I am really not the person buying a lot of souvenirs, but I do bring back with me a set of stamps from the area around Paektusan secret camp. Here, you can also take a picture of yourself and put it on a postcard to send. We take a picture of us and sends it to Jo, hopefully he will get it.
North Korean stamps with scenery from the area around Paektusan secret camp that we visited.
The ornamented gate to the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.
For our next stop we leave Pyongyang for another mausoleum. The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng, who was the founder of the ancient Goguryeo kingdom, now an UNESCO world heritage site. The quiet, but uneven, ride from Pyongyang has taken us back in time. The tomb itself is of the type I have seen before, only in a much larger scale. It is a 11.5m high tumulus, or barrow mound. Two rows of statues leads up to the tumulus. At the tomb there is also a Cheon-Ji-In monument, which symbolizes the basic oriental trinity of East Asian Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist thought comprising Heaven (dragon), Earth (turtle) and Humanity (standing stone). An ornamented building resembling a Buddhist temple contains paintings from the life and era of Kong Tongmyŏng.
The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.
Ornamented building at the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.
Also at the compound is a Buddhist monastery with a Buddhist temple, Chongrŭngsa. Many Buddhist temples was destroyed during the Korean War, but some are still standing. Although, religious services are only allowed in a few of them. While we visit the temple, there are even some Buddhists coming to pray there. Think my pilgrimage on Shikoku is still vivid in my mind, I bowed upon entering the temple. Some of us felt that, even though it was nice, it would be more interesting to see more things related to modern day DPRK, as this looks more similar to what we may see outside the country. I partially agree to this, but I felt it was good to get out into a more natural landscape again. The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng and Chongrŭngsa lies in a more rural area outside Pyongyang.
A Cheon-Ji-In monument.
Late afternoon is approaching as take place in the minibus for the last stop of the day. This visit is maybe less interesting to me, but I feel glad that we do it. Paula did not get to climb Soyeonjibong or Ganbaeksan while we were hiking due to her knee. She races horses back home in Australia, so a visit to Mirim Riding Club is probably right up her alley. Me, being allergic to some animals, quickly finds out that I have to keep a little distance to the horses.
Chongrŭngsa Buddhist temple at the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.
Mirim Riding Club.
We have dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. In addition to all the sidedishes we eat, I eat a big plate with a kind of pajeon dish, which is a sort of a potato pancake. It is good, but takes its place in the stomach. Roger is keen to taste the North Korean makgeolli, comparing it to the ones the South Koreans make. Mr. Kim is having a dish of Pyongyang naengmyeon, a sort of speciality here, a noodle dish that you have to lift up the noodles from the soup to dry off before you eat it.
Kim Il-Sung square in the afternoon.
Pyongyang naengmyeon, a traditional dish in North Korea.
The second day of our tourist 'hike' ebbs out, it was another interesting day.
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