North Korea is a country that is bathed in history and most of it is war-related. While incredibly interesting, it can also being incredibly intimidating. With most of their budget going towards a ‘military first’ regime, I jumped at the chance to go to Pyongyang and find out what it was really like and what I could learn. However, with this decision under my belt, I found myself somewhat regretting it. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t get hurt or anything, but I almost felt like I didn’t get to see anything.
While we went with an outside company, all tours as I found out are run by the Korea International Travel Company. It was also their guides that showed us where to go. Entering the city, it was nothing like what I expected. We drove through and saw large concrete building and coming from someone who had only really heard about what North Korea was like from various media reports. This interested me. It was a lot more, how can I put this, put together, than I expected it to be.
Now, I don’t want you to get me wrong with the title of this article, I wanted to backpack through North Korea, but it just wasn’t possible. If you wanted to visit North Korea, you were forced to be part of a tour, so I was lumped together with a group of ten other people, and we were given a weekly itinerary telling us all of what we were going to do.
We made only a few trips out of the capital where I managed to see what I had expected. There were plenty of workers working in the field and I felt a twinge of guilt as we travelled on our bus to attractions, including museums and even the birthplace of Kim Il-Sung. This kind of felt as if it were a show for tourists. I began to question myself as to what was real and what was not real about Pyongyang.
One of the most interesting things that I found during my stay in North Korea was a severe lack of fruit. I found myself craving a good apple or even a banana (my least favorite fruit) and I was almost flush out of luck. I was unable to find anything that caught my interest, so I might suggest taking a piece with you on the trip if you love your fruit like I do.
The best part of the trip was our guides. We were paired up with guides and three North Korean guards who would stay with us on the majority of our trips. Our guides were spectacular. They were honest and open about most things and were willing to respond to most of our questions. Their knowledge of their country was impeccable and I almost felt guilty about what I had thought of the country every time I had been through it.
So that is just a very basic run down of what my trip to North Korea looked like. It was nowhere near the backpacking trip that I had hoped for. There was one thing it did do though; it opened up more questions that I had had regarding the state of affairs in North Korea. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to think about it the same way after seeing the oddly cheerful guards, the murals on the walls and those that greeted me with a cheer on the day that we were allowed to interact with a few of the natives.
About the Author: Brad Williams is a traveler, wanderer, nomad and a dreamer, who loves backpacking, hiking, swimming, sky-diving, white water rafting and every other kind of adventure sport. He went to North Korea in November 2012, just before the nuclear strike warnings, but he can still vividly remember his week long trip and he feels like, even though he is only 27, it was something that he will never forget.
Guest post by Brad Williams
