After a short flight (about an hour) we touched down at a very small airport in Samjiyon. We hopped onto three mini-buses - the only time when the two groups travelled mixed together - to begin a 2.5 hour drive to the cable car station near the top of Mount Baekdu.
Mount Baekdu is the highest peak in Korea (both south and north) and holds tremendous cultural/spiritual significance for the Korean people (similar to Mt Fuji for the Japanese). There is a crater lake named Heaven Lake (Chonji in Korean) which is a place of stunning beauty. This site was the one I was anticipating the most before the tour. The desire to visit Mt Baekdu and Heaven Lake had been aroused as a young boy - to be told of this important and beautiful mountain but never being able to visit seemed to be an awful tease - and it was one of the primary reasons for travelling to North Korea as an Australian. A lifelong ambition was about to be fulfilled.
We were not permitted to take pictures on the drive up. We passed many military checkpoints, soldiers, and military trucks, as well as students on patriotic excursions all dressed in brown revolutionary uniforms.
I also noticed a horrendous amount of deforestation which we have heard about in the outside world. Due to the energy shortages much of the forest on the western side of North Korea has been razed bare from logging, and this unfortunately causes regular flooding in that part of the country. So valuable crops are lost, and a vicious circle continues.
As we approached the cable car station near the peak it was apparent bad weather was imminent. The peak was starting to be enveloped in thick fog, the wind was picking up, and rain looked likely. Damn!
As foreigners we were able to jump the queue of curious Korean students at the cable car station. After a short ride we were finally on the top of Mt Baekdu - life ambition partly fulfilled!
However at the peak the fog was so heavy that we could not see any of the lake (For reference this is the sort of view we were supposed to have on a clear day). And what's worse due to the strong wind our planned cable car ride down to the shore of the lake was cancelled and we were not permitted to walk down either. My disappointment could not be understated. Nature had crushed my dreams!
We did plead with our guides to allow us to walk down to the lake, but in fairness to them the weather was pretty awful and the path down was fairly steep:
So these terrible conditions gave everyone plenty of time for a chat at the highest place on the Korean peninsula. It was at this point when I had my very first conversation in Korean with a Northerner: I introduced myself to our junior Korean guide Miss Jong who in response was very happy to meet a Korean-speaking person among the tour group. I explained that I was born in South Korea but moved to Australia as a young lad, and was able to visit the DPRK as an Australian citizen. Up until this point I had no idea how North Koreans would react to someone from the south... it was a special moment for me to find out that the response was very positive.
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| left to right: Jean-Francois (Canada), Miss Jong, Tim, Peter (Canada) at the peak of Mt Baekdu |
From then on I gained enough confidence to try to speak to as many of the locals as possible in Korean, and this enhanced the trip in ways I could not imagine beforehand. You'll read examples of this in the later blog entries.
As the trip continued I was able to ascertain that I was the only Korean-speaking person in Group B. In Group A Justin was able to speak it - although born and raised in Canada he had improved his Korean speaking/reading skills later in life. Also in Group A James was able to read and speak a little - he was an American from Seattle who taught in Beijing at a South Korean international school. Considering all that I suppose I had the most "organic" speaking ability out of the three of us (and the only one to have actually lived in South Korea).
Mt.Baeck-doo is in danger -ㅁ-!!!
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