Week 6 - Annelien Pattyn - North Korea

Hello again!

As Jeroen already has mentioned, North Korea is the most isolated country of the whole wide world. So, to be honest, I’m longing to leave this weird place…
Normally, we aren’t able to surf on the internet, but Jeroen took an illegal device with him, so be happy to hear from me J.

Today, I don’t feel like doing anything… This country doesn’t interest me at all. Yesterday, we visited a lot of cultural things (read Jeroen’s blog) and in my opinion, it was so boring…
Maybe it is because we’re not feeling free in this country. Jeroen already said that we always need to be guided by a travel agency, else it’s not even possible to visit things and secondly if we visit public places, we may not take photos. Sorry for repeating things Jeroen already has said, but in my opinion, it’s really ridiculous, isn’t it???

Sorry for being discouraged…  I have to stay positive. Actually, it’s normal that some countries are more worthwhile than others, right? ;-)

To cheer me up, my mates proposed to go looking  if there are any shopping possibilities here and yes, we found…  We  went to Keason Grand Shopping Mall, centralize located in Kaesong city. It’s the best place to buy souvenirs of North Korea like traditional wear, food, craft works and antiques. Oh, it makes me remind that I haven’t bought yet souvenirs for you (mom & dad). The price is fixed  here in Chinese RMB or US dollar. Maybe, I’ll try my luck to bargain tomorrow! ;-)

By the way, the picture that you can see is not taken by us… (because it’s forbidden as I already have said). I just found it on the internet to show you what it looks like… I have no idea who has token the picture but whatever…

After some “shopping” (actually, nobody’s bought something, but you know what I mean), we decided to go to the local villages in Keason. We realized that we had a day without any spy around, so we try our luck to go around… In the village, the houses are made wood. They have very old design but oldies are goodies, isn’t it?:-) We were told that usually few families share a small piece of farm land for cultivation. The farm land that we visited was almost empty. Perhaps in another few weeks, the leaves of potato or sweet corn will comes out?

So, this was our day… Our next stop is South Korea. Hopefully, it will be more fascinating than this here, haha!

Miss you already, guys!
x Annelien

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/North_Korea/Kaesong_si/Kaesong-1254301/Things_To_Do-Kaesong-TG-C-1.html