I've had a lot more readers than usual bug me about finally getting into blogging again. I never abandoned it, just lacking some serious motivation for a few months. These things happen - but I've been keen to write a few posts for a while now, it was just a matter of actually getting all the text down from my journal to the computer, then getting the photos right to make a publishable post. The transfer from the journal to the blog is the worst part, at least for me, as I can write and let things flow with no problems. But with typing you have editing and spell checking and what not - which can be somewhat tedious. Anyway enough rambling...

So following on from the big life-changer of getting my driver's licence at the start of the year, I decided it was about time I bought myself a car. Isn't it pretty?


After I got my licence I was more than happy waiting a while and driving a hired car around before having the money to buy one, but then I found out you can't hire a car in most places in Dubai until you've had at least 1 year of driving experience on your licence. It took me 8 months to buy this for a few reasons, the main reason was that I didn't want to get out a car loan for something that will only depreciate in value over time. Also by waiting until the summer months to make a purchase a lot of the prices went down on used cars for sale, so I think getting a 2012 Mini Cooper (Baker Street edition) with only 3000km on the odometer for just under 80,000 AED cash wasn't too bad. I knew I wanted a small car, as I wasn't entirely confident in my parking skills yet, and this is perfect for me and my lifestyle in Dubai. I'm seeing Dubai in an entirely different light, and getting out of my area a lot more now and quickly filling up my time with gym, shopping at the Fruit & Veg market, cooking said produce, driving to cafes to work on my research project. I'm trialling different jogging paths around the city so I don't get bored with the same route. So if you live in the city and see a bad driver driving this car, it's likely me. I already had a mild accident in the Dragon Mart car park which was my fault, nothing major thank goodness.

My January so far has been less than great. New Years was celebrated on a flight from Amsterdam back to Dubai, then I had a deadhead Milan flight (which was all kinds of awesome!) but then the night that I landed I was hit with the worst bout of gastro I've ever experienced. I'll spare you guys the very disgusting details, but it was downright brutal.  I spent 5 days on the 'BRAT' diet and by the third day I was going nuts - stomach was getting better but it messes with you mentally as your taste buds crave proper flavour and spice. It isn't going to do next month's pay packet too well either - there's a massive gap of about 10 days where the only flight I've operated is a Muscat, 37 min there and 50 minutes return. It's all good though, in a way it was my body's way of telling me I needed to recharge.

Next up on the agenda was the city tour...


We were in for a treat as there were school students rehearsing for the Torch Festival to be held in a few weeks time. (Even though we were there for the 'Liberation Day,' we were told that there wasn't expected to be anything particularly grand in Kim Il Sung Square, and especially none of the military parades that the DPRK had become famous for.) The first stop on the tour was the Mansundae Grand Monument.



Bouquet with the Kimjongilia flower, named after the late Kim Jong Il.

Now in our briefing notes, the Mansundae Grand Monument was the only place where we were, I wouldn't say forced, but told that if we weren't prepared to bow at the monuments, to basically not bother turning up to the tour. To be honest, I cast any political feelings aside the second I signed up for the tour, so bowing at the Monument didn't bother me greatly, and if it meant that the North Korean guides could trust us and, in turn, perhaps mean that the guides were more lenient with our photo opportunities, then great!

About half of us bought flowers as well and we walked up numerous steps to see the Monument of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.


In addition to bowing at the Monument, out of respect, every photo we took of the Great leader and the Dear leader must be complete - we couldn't cut off their legs, arms, head, torso - nothing. Any newspapers in the DPRK that had a photo of the Kims on the front page had to be folded in such a way that their bodies were not over the fold.


What was really amazing was the statue of Kim Jong Il was added only recently; up until December 2011 there was only the statue of Kim Il Sung, but since his death the construction of Kim Jong Il commenced and was finished by April 2012 - astonishingly fast!


And here I've accidentally chopped off Kim Il Sung's forearm :-S


In front of the monument, just to give you all an idea as to how massive this was. 



The detail here was insane. At the bottom you can see a US soldier's helmet. Anti-US iconography can be found in many of the monuments in the DPRK. 

So onto the Grand People's Study House... Which obtained the name after Kim Il Sung decided that calling a building a 'Library' would somehow make his people reluctant to go there. I think it was well attended when we went - it was certainly the nicest library I've ever seen, though if you knew what public libraries I had access to growing up in northern Perth you'd understand why.


Statue of Kim Il Sung.


Hallway of the Study House.


The lecture hall where we were encouraged to walk the stage and speak.


We also attended one of the English class being held.


The music room, where our guides played 'Yellow Submarine' and Madonna's version of 'American Pie'. Foreign books and music could only be borrowed by the locals only with special permission.

The best part of the building was the view. You could see the whole of Kim Il Sung Square and the Juche Tower in the distance. I felt like a sniper targeting a spy in a movie on this roof - sans gun.


The left and right views of Kim Il Sung Square.


Schoolchildren practising their formations ahead of the Torch Festival.


The next stop on the city tour was the Art Shop - however my budget didn't allow for much shopping here, especially being depleted of funds following 6 weeks off work with a broken ankle some months earlier.


In house artist at work...


A massive embroidery piece. The detail on this was exquisite.


Madame Tussauds, eat your heart out!

We also made a not-so-Kosher pit stop to an information centre, which just happened to be located in a great spot to take photos of the infamous Rungyong Hotel, the 105-story pyramidal hotel that had been under construction since 1987. Basically we had to make a dash for the Info Centre, take 1 to 2 shots of the hotel, pop into the convenience store, look around and feign interest (or in my case, go completely mental seeing a can of grape-flavoured Fanta) and then pop back on the bus.


On a side note, the guides from my tour group have since been inside.

Next up was the cabin of Kim Il Sung.


Now, you know how there's this perception in the West about the local people being somewhat robotic and brainwashed? Well up until this point I thought it was all BS, and ever since my arrival in North Korea everyone has been super friendly, relaxed, sweet, not strange at all. Then I met this guide.


She was very enthusiastic about how the Great Leader lived and was raised. Perhaps a little too passionate. I got a strange vibe from her, I guess.


On the left, a well that Kim Il Sung used to drink from (and most of the Chinese tourists who were there at the same time as us all made sure to drink from the same well), and one of the rooms in the cabin, with photos of Kim Il Sung and his parents.


Here is one of our guides, Mr Oh, finding great amusement out of an umbrella hat fellow Australians, Mark and Liz, purchased in Beijing. I guess he'd never seen such a thing before. 

The last stop of the day was to the Mangyongdae Children's Palace.



Murals on either side.


Statue outside the Children's Palace

Spaceship structure


Our guide inside the Children's Palace, who had the best posture out of anyone I've ever seen.

I actually like the concept of this place - somewhere central where children from all over the city get together and participate in purely extracurricular activities. It seems this is a purely Soviet concept - they have Pioneer Palaces in former USSR countries and a Children's Palace in China.


We were taken to an accordion class.


Calligraphy class


Embroidery class


And the tour of the Palace finished off with a performance in the auditorium. And so followed the second strange vibe of the day - the way these kids performed was exactly in the way in which the West had described to us - none of them looked relaxed at all, like robot children.


Girls choir. This uniform is also used in a lot of children's animation on North Korean television.


She has a jar on her head! And she's spinning!


Accordions are about as popular in North Korea as guitars are to adolescent teenage boys back in my country. By the time we saw the performance my batteries had died. The last few intensive days took their toll and halfway through the performance I nodded off to sleep.


That kid in the white tux then proceeded to play virtually every single instrument on stage. It was as if he was the North Korean Prince.

Believe it or not I was in an orchestra once. I played piano which is mainly accompanied material, hardly any solo material, which suited me and my skill level well as it was pretty easy chord work. But I also played with some violinists, who did have solos, and the sound that came from them was horrendous. No one could play a note which did not sound like nails against a blackboard. I own a violin myself and I'll be the first to admit that I sound exactly the same.


But this girl was very skilled. If that boy in the white tux was Prince, this girl was the North Korean Nigel Kennedy.



Also, if you're interested, I've finally put together my video of the Arirang Mass Games. I hope you all enjoy this :-)