The trip continues...!

Still many photos to sort, so little time to sort them.
Also, sorting pictures is boring, especially when you have 15 parallel albums you need to cut down to size and need to double-and-triple check to be sure you have as little redundant photos as possible..

Anyhoo, we visited a fruit farm (where I got some plum liqueur) then headed to Kaesong, to see the DMZ and Panjumon hall (where the armistice was signed (The benificient Kim il-Sung decided to take pity on the South Koreans and spare them annihilation for the time being)). We also went to a restaurant, and lodged at the Kaesong Folk Hotel.

The restaurant was OK (pretty lavish, being in north Korea, but then the regime has its price to uphold in front of strangers). The *taste* was OK, but the food they served, in the traditionnal fashion, with the dozens of little bowls, was pretty interesting.

Spike liked it.

The DMZ was a lot less touristy than South Korea. The trip was mostly somber, and we were told not to smile, but there still was a nice little gift shop with North Korea's famous ginseng! I got some ginseng tea and dried roots (for my Chinese friend, back in Montreal who used to tout me their virtues).
One of the guards got real friendly with me and the other Canadian guy and started to as us a lot of questions. We answered as truthfully as being politically correct allowed us to be, and it was quite interesting.
It turns out that soldier always tries to find out the Americans in a group and ask them questions. Personal Interest? Taking the pulse on what the climate is on the other side of the pond as a soldier? Who knows.

We also visited a fruit farm, and the experience was different than what I was expecting. Every explanation started with "The Great Leader"
...Told us; Taught us; Showed us; Invented; Created; Decided...
In the middle of the guided tour guides' speech, I started wondering how much of it was for appearances, and a necessity to live in their world, and how much of it they actually believed.
The lady seemed to believe in it hard enough. Then again it's her job.

Nice clean store. i really wonder how many visitors they have a year?
Then again ideas like profit, market and business are alien here, in this government sponsored farm.

Next came Kaesong city and the Folk Hotel.
The city was nice, and had this 'new city build over/alongside the old one" that Quebec city has. At least, the places we visited, that is. people were going about their daily lives at a time where western news were going on about "mounting tensions" and the North Korea border being closed..

The Folk Hotel itself was very nice, build in traditionnal fashion, and incorporating parts of a building supposedly dating back to the Joseon dynasty!

We also got lucky and had the chance to visit (another) Big Statue!

Spike! Dont imitate that man!
You'll end up.. The very rich leader of a small country. The top, as it is, of your own nation, richer and more powerful than anyone else...
Hmm... Let me think about this for a bit...

All in all that was a nice day.
I really liked the Kaesong Folk Hotel and its more subtle, passive, propaganda (Hey, our culture is 5000 years old!).
Compared to the constant barrage of monuments and zealous tour-guides, it was a welcome respire.
The shower only had cold water, and only for one hour in the mnorning.