North Korea Travel Report
 

Hi,

I recently spent 10 days touring North Korea - a reclusive and fascinating travel destination.

I've written a travel report which includes lots of photos, sight-seeing, transportation, eating out and accommodation tips. Maybe this will prove useful to someone in the planning stages of a trip.

You can view the report here:

http://www.taste2travel.com/postcard-North-Korea

If you require any additional information, please contact me.

Darren

Taste2travel.com

that's a travel report I never expected to read. thank you for your insights

Otto Warmbier.

Thank you for your reply, JW.

I read his report and was appalled at how he tried to negate their propaganda by saying the west has that too so as it evens things out and that we are the ones who are biased.

I have watched every documentary about NK that I could, perhaps 5-6 of them and all depict a brutal regime.

One false move and the OP could have been the next Otto Warmbier.

And don't forget three generations of punishment for even a perceived infraction.

When a new poster shows up and does nothing but spam the board with links to his blog (the New Topics section on the Australia board was full of them yesterday) I ignore them. I figure they are just using Fodors to drive traffic to their site and I refuse to play.

I found your report really interesting - thanks for posting.

That's true, thursdays, not nonetheless, I admire jacketwatch for speaking up about Otto Warmbier. I was heartbroken to hear the parents' story during a recent interview, and it is tasteless for anyone to post a glowing review of North Korea here. Americans are no longer allowed to enter North Korea.

My older son actually went on the same Young Pioneers Trip as Otto, but a year prior. My husband and I tried to discourage him from going, but, as a fiercely patriotic American, he wanted to see the contrasts of how people live under a dictatorship. He was virtually the only American on the trip, and the rest were 30 something European professionals. Drinking is encouraged, even on the bus, and the boundaries are vague. You can, for example take pictures everywhere, even on the bus, but not of military personnel. The presentations are mostly fake, such as a "library tour" where my son noticed that none of the computers were plugged in. When viewing his pictures when he got home, I also noticed how the average person on the street looked emaciated and starving.

One day, the group went to a site, and my son, the intense photographer, was deeply involved in taking pictures. The Australian tour guide gathered up the group, but forgot to tell my son they were leaving. They all got on the bus, went back to the hotel, and only then did they realize my son was missing. When they went back to get him, the North Korean tour guide started screaming at him, and the Australian tour guide told him, "One more misstep and you will be deported." When Otto came back a mangled mess, I told my son, "That could have been you."

I hope Trump drops a missile on Kim Jon-Un's head.

CL I read that Otto's brain was deprived of O2 resulting in his vegetative state as we saw upon his arrival back here. I don't know what happened but it was not a combination of botulism which was never found in his system and a sleeping pill.

They tortured him and perhaps it was something like water boarding that went too far. We will never know unless somehow someone over there who knows lets the word out.

I once saw a documentary which depicted something similar to what your son experienced. A US tourist was threatened with ouster for a minor perceived slight to the "Dear Leader" when trying to take a picture of one of his statues. The guide acted in a threatening way too.

You mentioned "tasteless" and yes it certainly is IMHO.

Your wish, CaliLady, is incredibly foolish. Sure Leader Kim is a power-hungry madman and likes to exert his unlimited authority on the heads of his people in NorKorea, and occasionally beyond. He is easy to hate but neither Trump nor bombs will convert him to lovable and another USA Republican war against a bombastic leader will cause untold and widespread suffering for generations to come.

IMO anyone who goes there without the invite of the NorKoreans (cf Dennis Rodman) or without diplomatic papers is himself/herself a certified 'nutcase'.

I did not read CL's statement as a literal wish to start a war. To me it was meant to reflect disdain for Kim and the NK regime.


"IMO anyone who goes there without the invite of the NorKoreans (cf Dennis Rodman) or without diplomatic papers is himself/herself a certified 'nutcase'."

I totally agree!