North Korea

Last weekend Samantha and I went all the way to North Korea. Yes, they let Americans go, but you have to go with a guided tour. So, we booked a weekend with Adventure Korea and headed North.

The first surprise was before leaving. Apparently the US dollar is the currency that is used. Go figure. So, after I exchanged my Korean Won into US dollars we headed on a bus north through the night. There are only a few places in North Korea that are open to foreigners, the first place to open was the one that we went to, Kamggang San (Diamond Mountains). All the foreigners entering North Korea have to do it at exactly the same time each day. So, about 1,000 of us (mostly South Koreans going hiking) went through customs together first thing in the morning. We were all advised to be on our best behavior at customs, keeping our eyes straight ahead, and certainly no taking our camera out for pictures (we were only allowed to take photos at certain places during the weekend).

Once we all cleared customs (phew) we spent about four hours hiking up the mountain. It was absolutely beautiful. The hike was a little difficult because there was ice on the mountain and we had to wear spikes on our boots. But Samantha and I felt hard core because of it. We really soaked in the scenery and enjoyed the sunshine. There was a fresh water spring the flowed down the mountain where we could stop to fill up our bottles and the water was SO delicious. It is said that if you drink the water from a certain spot you gain 10 years to your life. So ok!

Don’t know why, but the way I am posed in this picture really reminds me of Martha!

By the time we got to our hotel we were zonked because we had slept (or tried to) on the bus the night before. But we didn’t have too much time to rest because we had bought tickets to an acrobat show. I don’t really know how to explain it, and it probably sounds weird to hear, but you could see the Communism in the show, which made it amazing and bizarre all in one. After the show I was feeling really tired and even though it was only 6pm I kinda wanted to go to bed. But I talked myself into going to the hot springs sauna and public bath. IT WAS AMAZING. It was so relaxing and refreshing. There were all sorts of different saunas, like a jade sauna and a mud sauna, and there were varying temperatures of hot tubs and waterfalls all from the spring water. I felt so rejuvenated afterwards that I could have hiked the mountain all over again! But instead I just went to bed and slept like a rock.

The next morning we went to the Sea of Japan coast and got to climb around on the rocks. The water was crystal clear and it was absolutely beautiful.

Then we went for a hike around a lake, over a scary suspension bridge, and up a mountain. It was more low key than the day before and Samantha and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel complex area (of course, all the foreigners were staying in this little community of 3 or 4 hotels, a handful of restaurants, and giftshops that were all set up for visitors. We couldn’t leave and couldn’t take pictures of any of the locals). We had time to visit a Dr. Fish that was by the sauna before heading back to the bus and our trek through customs and back to Seoul. We weren’t expecting it, but we got our own personal room with our own outfits to put on and pool to dip in. It was crazy cool and we both loved it.

For more of my pictures from the weekend click HERE.

It was a really fantastic weekend, but tiring and quite bizarre.