Spa in North Korea

We drove down to the train station with them, where the journey ended after 5 days. They’ll be spending the next 24 hours on a train traveling across the country towards Beijing. The rest of us, the remaining 9, continued on to the Changgwangsan Health Complex, which is supposedly accessible to the entire population. That’s what our guides say, but the reality is quite different. There are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a hair salon, and a massage clinic. The hairstyles you can choose from are all displayed on the wall, and it looks like the pictures haven’t been updated since the 70s. Kids were practicing diving in the large swimming pool. They start training in kindergarten, so they were all able to perform beautiful and complicated dives. For the first time, our schedule isn’t tight, so we had plenty of time to enjoy lunch at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant and pack up before checking out at 1:30 PM. Now, the bus was headed towards the southwestern part of the country. Our guides fell asleep, giving us a chance to take some pictures of working people, which they probably would have forbidden us to do. We’re a bit unsure about how much English the driver understands. We shouldn’t underestimate his importance, though—there are government spies everywhere. Today is also a national holiday, yet many people are working in the fields out in the countryside. Our guides explain that if they don’t want a day off, they’re welcome to work. What a work ethic... Or maybe every day is a struggle for survival and to find something to eat. If you look around a bit, you quickly notice the many military personnel observing whether people are working hard enough. Inside Pyongyang, many people seem to be enjoying life. Kids splash around in swimming pools. Adults dance in the square. Out in the countryside, people look different. Their clothes and homes are worn down. Many sit picking at the ground for roots and plants to eat. Who would voluntarily choose a life as a street sweeper or farmer when they could study for free and become a doctor, tour guide, or teacher? Our bus was headed to the Ryonggang Hot Spa Hotel in the city of Nambo. On the way, we stopped at a typical socialist farm called a cooperative farm. Our agricultural site was named Chongsangri and had been visited countless times by both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. That’s why a museum and a gigantic monument were built in their honor. The road there had 10 lanes but was completely deserted. There were cyclists on the side of the road, but we were the only car for miles. We were allowed to see one of the houses in the small community. Every single house in the country must have two pictures hanging in their living room: one photo of Kim Il Sung and one photo of Kim Jong Il. The smoke from the kitchen is channeled under the living room floor for heating. There were bars on the windows, even though they claim there’s no crime in the country. The family consisted of a father, mother, son, and daughter-in-law. They live together because they chose to. If the young couple wanted to move out, they just had to apply for their own housing from the government. Nice stories that our guides keep telling us. Do they really believe them? We’ve previously been told that everyone has a computer, radio, and TV. The TV was turned up so loud that we couldn’t help but hear it was on. Propaganda blared from the speakers, making it hard to hear our guides explain about the house. We didn’t see any radio or computer. There wasn’t even a stove in the kitchen; they used a fire pit. There are 1,000 men working in this agricultural community, which has 55 old tractors at their disposal. They can grow 10,000 tons of rice per hectare, and they have 5,000 hectares to cultivate. Additionally, there are greenhouses that need tending. Kim Il Sung, the great leader and founder of North Korea, would sit on the ground with the farmers during his visits to listen to them. On another occasion, he skipped lunch to help with the harvest. He visited every corner of every home to see how people lived. He even opened the oven to check what they were eating. Kim Il Sung often gave advice and guidance "on the spot," as they like to say. These stories are told with the same admiration in their voices again and again to tourists. The tales may sound banal to our ears, but they form the foundation of their lives and the structure of society... whether they are lies or not. No one ever questions the country’s history or the current government. We’re constantly told that both leaders were/are out among the people to hear what they need—but none of the people we talk to have met them. After many visits, Kim Il Sung shaped an Agricultural Revolution that the farmers were to follow to increase the harvest. The Agricultural Revolution simply states that they should use fertilizer to promote growth. It doesn’t seem like there has been much development in agriculture since then. The lucky ones use very outdated