Day 1 - b) checking into the Yanggakdo Hotel

Saturday September 4, 2010

As previously arranged our overall group of thirty four then split into Groups A and B upon arrival in Pyongyang. We would be travelling to the same places and be together for meals and accommodation - but otherwise we would travel on separate buses and our itineraries would be slightly out of synch' so that we're not overwhelming every place of interest with a huge crowd. Tim and I were both in Group B, which was dominated by Australians and continental Europeans.

During the bus ride from the airport into the city we were introduced to our Korean guides Mr Lee and Miss Jong. Mr Lee had been an English speaking guide for thirteen years while Miss Jong was less experienced, having only been two years out of tourism college.

Everyone stared out the bus windows in amazement as we caught our first glimpses of North Korea. During the drive we passed some of Pyongyang's massive monuments. The city was indeed built to impress.

The Yanggakdo Hotel would be our home in Pyongyang. It is on a recreational island named Yanggak on the Taedong River, which makes it easier to stop those pesky foreigners from running off into the city proper! There is also a film festival centre, a golf course, and a stadium on the island. With Atul dropping out and Tim having already paid the single supplement, for the duration of the trip my room mate was Raphael - a veteran traveller from Germany.

We settled into our rooms but the busy schedule had already begun - dinner was to begin in twenty minutes and we would be whisked off to the May Day Stadium for the Arirang Mass Games immediately following.

At dinner I was able to chat to some of the others in our tour group and there seemed to be more Americans than I expected, about half-a-dozen. While many restrictions on American tourists were lifted earlier this year they still had more conditions to put up with than the rest of us. For example American citizens are not allowed to stay longer than seven days, which meant that all of them would miss the last 3 days of our itinerary. We were to discover later that the Americans also could not participate in the home stay experience.