By the time dinner was finished and we were driven to the home stay village it was quite late (about 10pm). Rural life in North Korea is tough, with the locals walking home in complete darkness. The only light they had was our mini-bus headlights momentarily passing by, and some of the luckier people had a torch to see where they were going.
Our home for the night was in a village built especially for western home stays. All the houses within the village were double storey, with the hosts staying downstairs and the guests staying upstairs. Quite obviously these houses are far nicer than actual rural homes in North Korea... However even considering that running water was scarce and the electricity supply was sketchy. The only way to heat water was via the kitchen stove - we were promised hot water for washing in the morning but it could not be fulfilled as the electricity was cut. Our hearts felt for the locals living in normal country housing.
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| "home stay village" |
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| Our home stay house and hosts. (Photo courtesy of Tim) |
The three of us decided they were just being shy and made an approach downstairs with some gifts (I had a bottle of beer and Tim had chocolates) and a request for a photo. This broke the ice and our host couple became more comfortable and started asking questions... the conversation started flowing once I told them I was born in the south and had travelled here as an Australian.
We then had a wonderful 45 minutes of drinking beer, enjoying dried squid (local produce!) and talking about life in North Korea, Australia and Germany. I did plenty of translating for Raphael and Tim, so all five of us were in conversation. Tim and I even showed them our family photos, and the lady of the house had a go at filming with my camcorder. The hosts were very proud that their house was the one Kim Jong Il personally inspected a few years ago on a visit to the village. If you know me in real life ask me offline about other topics we talked about (it has all been captured on video), and Tim's observation of the man's arm.
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| Dear Leader visiting the home stay house, our host family on the left. (Photo courtesy of Tim) |
Having arrived in darkness one revelation that surprised us was that the village was located right on the beach! Fortunately we were able to appreciate this beautiful setting in the morning with a clear sunrise.
We went to bed (the floor) late that night satisfied that we took full advantage of our home stay experience. It was heart warming to finally have an extended chat with locals who were not our guides!
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