North Korea Travel Vlog – Rozz Recommends Season 3: EP4

[Music] North Korea's been on my bucket list for years now it's painted by media to be a dystopian state of hot labor camps large-scale military parades and starving people ruled by decades of brutal dictatorship naturally it got me interested now I've visited many terribly misunderstood countries like Iran for example and Cuba but both turned out to be amazing places with the awesomest people I'm hoping for a similar takeaway from my trip to North Korea I want to go beyond the politics and visit the notoriously secretive country that 25 million people call home the only way to enter North Korea is via China international visitors like myself would find it easier to depart from Beijing now you could either take a flight from Beijing to Pyongyang on Air Koryo or catch an overnight train I decided for the full experience I would train in and fly out this is the general hallway and no doors and it's a three aside so that's the topmost cut in the middle and the thing about being in the bottom bit is you have to share seating space it's just courtesy now this train journey will take me 800 kilometers to the Chinese border city of Dandong so I just arrived in dental up to 24 hours in a train the space has definitely seen better days I haven't showered I'm not sure how I smell I hope not bad I'm just standing by the bridge here in Dandong and it's pretty much North Korea across so we're at the China side of bridge and then a lot to walk on this coverage but you must be wondering where that's trying to stop in North Korea start well 3 abrupt I'm gonna zoom in for you the bridge just cut off right there crossing the Yellow River via the sino-korean Friendship Bridge got me super excited and really nervous 10 minutes later I arrived at the North Korean border city of sinuiju feels like I've traveled back in time I caught sight of the portraits of the two leaders hanging on the wall and that was super unnerving this was where everyone had to disembark for no Korean customs check contrary to popular belief cameras and smartphones are actually allowed the only items not allowed our religious texts foreign newspapers North or South Korea travel guidebooks and brochures telephoto lens GPS devices and drones after an intense hour-long wait we were allowed back on a train to Pyongyang there I caught my first sight of North Korea kids bathing and rivers stretches of farmland as far as the eye can see very basic architecture some farm animals people commuting on bicycles wide roads with not a single car in sight at this point with no data roaming signal I'm effectively cut off from the outside world for the next 10 days we arrived to 1950s architecture and fashion with propaganda songs blaring loudly throughout the station it was really strange like nothing I've ever experienced before we have arrived at the young got dough International Hotel this is gonna be our home for the next three nights this is one of the few hotels where international visitors get to stay at this is room see what's outside the window Wow the room is squishy and everything but the one thing that really caught my attention was the calendar on the wall tada what is going on move aside black pink North Korea girl group is here to stay in conquer all right throw it here at the hotel restaurant for dinner this is our first dinner in yum-yum can you guess what this is before I cut into it okay this is bread mystery mean nothing about this hotel excites me not even the so-called recreation center which really looks more like a gloomy bomb shelter than a Center for fun and relaxing activities you know what in fact there's nothing relaxing about this hotel heading out to breakfast right now I'm saying that the floor as you can see this if you're wondering is the hotel where the American tourists was staying at and he went to the forbidden level five and he stole one of the slogans and he got caught and pretty much died after he was released so yeah this was that hotel I am definitely not going to the fifth floor for stealing anything for sure so if you see oh the floors is one two three four and then five is missing and six this is pretty much what goes on exploit the telecom and TV relates to do and then six and seven Florida's staff only so fifth of seven floors are no excess zones for our guests first night in Pyongyang sorted now I'm going to go on to explore the city today I'm here in downtown Pyongyang this is pretty much the central of the central of districts are about 17 all together mostly residential areas now what stood out about Pyongyang is that there are no advertising billboards anywhere only propaganda murals with ideas and their leader spaces there are wide open roads with hardly any cars the Soviet style concrete apartment blocks remind me a little bit of a HDD flats back in Singapore only they're much larger here in North Korea now here's a fun fact colored paint on buildings was only introduced ten years ago by Kim jong-il before that the city looked like pretty much 50 shades of gloomy gray we're pretty much on a shopping street but they're not really marked out this is beauty saloon for ladies the beauty salon seat can tell supermarkets oh you can tell and what's this oh okay I can somewhat tell that it's a noodle restaurant why is it all covered [Music] okay maybe don't be okay this is like China as well this across the road is the Kim il-sung square where all the military parades are held is what a cabinet ministries are located as well we're not allowed on the square just a view of it the cross these walking's that you see on the floor are the exact positions and wettest end for the mass demonstrations when people dance and arch and sing and whatnot these are the exact spot city status if you're lucky to get chosen you gotta memorize your spots a public holiday and we're celebrating the 66th anniversary of the Victory Day [Music] now's a bit confused then in the war end in armistice Eddie who's it's a national holiday that celebrates it with nationwide mass dances that go on for one hour rain snow or shine I'm here at the Pyongyang indoor stadium to watch university students dance away to upbeat propaganda tunes most of them turn away when they see me hovering around with a camera all but this guy he looks straight at me and smiled I am at Lauren Logan National Park this is where the locals hang out oh my god like carriages they are approaching a snack stall right now tribe I just got offered I got like invited some picnic – hot outside so we decided to retreat into the coolant areas of the bowling alley this is the largest bowling alley I've ever seen that 40 in the DPRK so we're here at the arena where we're gonna catch the circus sure what's happening right now I'm gonna rush to get in oh my god this is the interior of the building I love the architecture in here I was told that I'll be watching human acrobats now the show sad to say was largely boring and borderline repetitive until boobs out came to brown bears acting stage assistants I mean it's so wrong on so many towns but I found it quite refreshing at that very moment to be in a space where zero fucks are given to political correctness so just done with the circus I was told no animals but there were two bears I'm a bit disturbed that I should pay to support animal fur for I mean there's no Cirque de Soleil but pretty death-defying sighs I hardly saw a Hana who's Gladys kind of over and everyone to say no one died I'm here the maid a stadium this is the largest stadium in the world with a seating capacity of 150, 000 can you imagine that this is where the mass games is gonna be happening at cannot wait to see the very famous flat card wall I paid 100 euros from my third-class ticket which is a little expensive but the mass games is a must watch when you're visiting North Korea the backdrop looks like a large digital screen except that it's not is made up of 17, 500 students manually flipping placards to create images throughout the show can you believe that this spectacular show really puts Singapore's National Day Parade to shame in terms of a sheer scale and level of showmanship the North Korean Mass Games happen six days a week for five months a year performed by tens of thousands of students who do this on top of their classes in school this over-the-top display of military might really amused me on one hand I couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it looked but I also thought about how I'll never want to fuck with a guy who looked tougher than a bed of nails he laid on I'm here at the top of a tower is the world's tallest stone tower and it gives me a if you're wondering about that building this jutting out from the landscape it's actually a shell hotel it's not an operation don't know when it's gonna be open but it still makes for a very magnificent addition to the skyline now here in North Korea it's mandatory for a local guy to follow you everywhere but that's not the case here at the Monceau water theme park a favorite amongst locals and tourists alike because here were allowed to roam around freely on our own and despite everyone being half naked here we're also allowed to take as many pictures as we like hurry I don't understand but I quickly learned that nothing quite makes sense in North Korea and to just go with the flow and go with the flow I did didn't think I need a swimsuit in North Korea so I didn't pack mine in my luggage but lucky there's one full rent a chance to do right now stand by stand by so I'm a scaredy-cat I come through the big riot so I gotta roll with a kid and this it's my jam no matter where I am in the world I'll always find a hair salon because I hate washing my own hair plus today at the shower room there's too many people sometimes two or three people at one shower I may not look it but I'm actually quite limited to get my hair washing hair salon guess what I'm the only one here some of the highlights include chancing upon a room full of topless men in tights playing pool they sucked fear inside the DMZ we're doing a little work there from DPRK side when DPRK there's some rules you have to observe you can take photos and videos but just not a military personnel okay this guy this is the very table where the armistice agreement was signed from the DPRK side I'm actually sitting on the original chair is to see the DPRK flag behind and the armistice agreement behind me tutorial so I'm here at the JSA very thin concrete line separates DPRK from South Korean that's behind me that great building in the background is this line here so what is concretely reply Scrabble so the concrete part is DPRK and the crebbil part is South Korean so that's case on city behind me this is satellite city for the DMZ this is pretty much a bird's eye view of Kaesong old town the house is a bit more traditional single storied tradition from here now having a traditional Korean lunch they said that you can tell how the guest is regarded by the number of dishes to get the serve of course the more number of dishes the more highly regarded and we have eleven which is the maximum number of courses served in both Brad Ford being revered piece of a bitch is on the way back to Pyongyang we stopped by a town called sorry one for a spot of dancing in the middle of the road in Korean traditional gear but I still can't believe I was allowed to do this in North Korea Sooni on what the hell did I just do the first time for me to see this kind of actually this is kind of a uniform for the cream oh my god lady I wore respective missing the poor I cannot believe I just wore a royal outfits a traditional royal outfit and did a chicken dance we're about to take the metro right now and see what it's like underground yes it's soon-young whenever she wears white rings right yes please thanks mrs.

snow rate thank you so there no science depicting Metro but one clueless you get a clock at the top of every single Metro entrance that's when you know that you're entering the metro taking the metro with locals in Pyongyang was a really special experience that started with riding the longest escalator I've ever been on to get down to the tracks 110 meters to be exact and what has it that these stations double up as bomb shelters this is the most beautiful and grandest metro station I've ever been in just look at the ceiling art Wow and the wall are amazing of now you must be wondering is the Pyongyang natural real well yes it is despite having only two main lines that serve a total of 16 stations the world's deepest metro is a real and functioning subway system I got to stop at three out of sixteen stations the giant mosaic propaganda murals smart retro uniforms commuters gathering around newspaper stands to read the Daily News brutalist architecture train interior all made for great photos now this probably doesn't sound like a big deal to you but to me the pyongyang metro counts as one of the most mysterious and beautiful transit systems in the world the mungyeong de children's palace is managed by the Korean youth corps a political organization linked to the incumbent Workers Party of Korea now it's the largest palace dedicated to children's extracurricular activities such as performing arts foreign languages computer science and sports are a bunch of girls on guitars my absolute favorite this is super cool thing I'm thinking of the strength and all that super I've been told that in order to understand North Koreans I first need to understand the role of their leaders they can never be criticized and are revered like living gods so strict rules apply when photographing them after stand a distance away statues must always be shot in their entirety no selfies no hand signs and definitely no Asian jump shots okay so we drove about four hours from Pyongyang to this amazing area code blue in this is a mountainous region or just right by the waterfall this is a lunch area stop here for about an hour before you drive to one by the beach it's not just sitting here at who lives on the waterfall right now this was discovered in 2001 it rained yesterday so or treated to this amazing waterfall check this out after one and a half hours drive from the waterfall I finally arrived to the beach this is the city of one son and I have one son sounds familiar to you that's probably because you heard it on the news this is where the DPRK government has launched to test missiles you know towards the direction of Japan but we're not here to talk about politics today I'm really grateful that we're here and there on the beach it's summer and I just want to get into the water now everyone pays to use the beach the left pot cost more than the pipe pot so naturally it's more party vibes on the right because that's where everyone's at because it's cheaper come follow me I'm gonna go under this is where the locals part is it's under this so many people here everyone is SuperDuper friendly here I love it this is a great day out so it's been a while since my trip to North Korea and either all this time to process my ten days there because it's not like any daily just pop into North Korea for a holiday I still remember my very first day in North Korea stepping into that country felt like a very surreal experience the environment was very unfamiliar slightly threatening almost felt like I was walking on eggshells the whole time and all I wanted to do was be on my best behavior for obvious reasons but then after 10 days I remember feeling a bit more relaxed it almost feels like I know the country and its people a little bit better North Koreans are extremely shy and guarded people and I like to think that it's because they are not really that exposed to foreigners being around thankfully there's no proverbial ice that the odd dance battle on the beach or snapchat filters come break I even got invited to crash a friend's barbeque party at a park that was pretty dope I wasn't expecting that at all but it was like come on and join us I'm like okay perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry but I found that it's simply the intent to want to connect at a basic human level that makes such a profound difference and maybe one day we can all get along despite our differences don't forget to follow us on social media and download The Clique Network app to watch the episodes way before they get uploaded on YouTube til the next trip bye.