I also had a good look around the place - so much so that the lady serving started following me around “adjusting shelves”. I took that as a sign to leave!
Back at the hotel we headed to breakfast which was an eclectic choice, and to be honest not that nice. Mine was covered in nutmeg, and SS had a bad stomach after his.
We checked out at 12:15pm and went for a quick final walk around before our taxi at 1:15pm.
We walked along some back streets which would have been very expensive residential properties centuries ago, but were now a little worse for wear.
I made sure to buy myself a fan from a stall just down the road from our hotel – best purchase I have ever made for 6RMB (about 60p) – it saved my bacon in the hot humid DPRK!
The trip to the airport was fine – I do love that even the toll booths have been decorated to look like a pagoda…
Checkin at nasty terminal 2 was very amusing - they scan your checkin bags in front of you, and if there is anything they want to check, basically you just leap over the checkin desks and go behind to the belts to open your suitcase). We were fine, but other people who had cigarette lighters etc were all just rooting around in the bottom of their bags in the area behind checkin standing in the conveyor belt area where in other airports you are not allowed to go!
Our flight (a Tupolev TU-240 – my first ever flight in one) was 90 minutes late leaving, but we were now on tour group time so just went with the flow. I loved abdicating all responsibility for being in charge of logistics and timing – great change. I still filled out all the weird customs and quarantine forms for both of us. Mr Strong had thought he would have his own seat, but alas not!
All electronics, currency etc has to be declared. The flight involved being given an anonymous patty in a soft bun,
and either beer, water, or fizzy orange (which they insist on calling “juice” all the way around DPRK). They also put down the video screens and piped loud music through the cabin from a recent military-esque concert held somewhere in DPRK. No headphones needed on this flight, more earplugs!
Off the plane into the new terminal in Pyongyang, through quarantine and then on to the customs line. This was all straightforward, but then came the bag collection and inspection. Not straightforward at all. All staff are in full military uniform with those giant puffy hats they like, but no sense of humour. First they take your mobiles and passports while you wait in the long baggage queues, and note down the type against your passport details. Then you get to the front of the queue and they scan your bag. Everyone in our queue had something in their bag searched. They then asked for my camera, and instead of having my bag searched, instead I was marched with my bag down to the “electronics” checking section at the end. Here people were having their tablets and cameras checked by the younger, slightly funkier looking officials (I honestly think in most cases this is just curiosity by the customs guys as to what you have). It is quite unsettling, as really you don’t know what they are looking for. In my case, I was handed over to another official, and whilst I waited for him, yet another one came over to me, handed me back my camera, WINKED at me, and indicated I could go. Which I promptly did. We had a long wait for the whole tour group to come through, but this was made more interesting by watching the 5 members of the “Australian North Korean Friendship Society” being filmed arriving, taking photos, being asked to march back and forth for the camera and so on. Weird.
Finally on to the bus where we met our local tour guides. Ms Pang, Mr Kang and Mr Li. We had to hand over our passports and visa backup documents for flying back to Beijing so that they could “process” them. You just go along with all this stuff really – I can’t think of another country where I would hand over my passport for days.
It was dark so the drive into town meant we couldn’t see anything really. Streetlights are not a feature of DPRK roads – on the highway we were on there was a light about every 500metres or so, and it was dim. We could see people walking along in the dark, but no other vehicles.
On arrival at Koryo Hotel it was 11pm but we were sent straight up to dinner in the revolving restaurant, before even getting to our rooms. This was decorated in the true lurid fluorescent brightly lit style so popular in Asia. Food was some salad, beer, fish, chicken and a sour soup. It was OK. The most interesting part was when someone asked for a soft drink rather than beer or water, and was offered "Cider". She said, sure, sounds good. Well, Cider in DPRK is their own version of Coke, right down to the style of the can!
Back to the lobby to collect our bags and room keys, then finally up to bed. The room was huge, with two small “king singles” in it, which were like sleeping on a divan without the mattress.
So uncomfortable I had bruises by the time we left. But it was clean enough, and the bathroom was fine even though it had no ventilation. Strangely, the windows opened fully – no safety regulations in DPRK! And we were on the 24th floor. Early start the next day so we went straight to bed at midnight. The undersheet on the bed was interesting - with a large cut out in the centre of the sheet to show the blanket through from underneath. It was like something for a very well endowed Orthodox Jew...
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