Has anyone here ever been to Best Korea? Of all places in the world it sounds like the most fascinating to visit, akin to a time machine and a glimpse on a very different way of living to put it lightly. Apparently it's about 2000 dollars to travel there plus all daily expenses. I don't expect there to be much else to see though
No but I know someone who know someone who was stationed in South Korea, and him and a friend tried to sneak across the border at a very close checkpoint to take photos. They grew back the other half of their brain though and realized how bad of an idea it was though.
>Has anyone here ever been to Best Korea?
Yes, we have multiple resident NK anons posting about their trips there and giving advice.
>Apparently it's about 2000 dollars to travel there plus all daily expenses.
It's cheaper than that, three day tours started from a couple hundred dollars, really depends on your budget and what you want to see.
>I don't expect there to be much else to see though
There's a lot to see which explains why a significant fraction of tourists go on multiple trips after their first one.
>Has anyone here ever been to Best Korea
nobody, taking a guided tour is like not going at all
you would only see fake pre-prepared tourist "landmarks"
>nobody, taking a guided tour is like not going at all
>you would only see fake pre-prepared tourist "landmarks
>nobody, taking a guided tour is like not going at all
>you would only see fake pre-prepared tourist "landmarks"
You know it's all fake from personal experience Anon?
I was a YPT tour guide and photographer there, made 10 trips, AMA
How well did you get to know the local guides?
What was the most genuinely interesting thing you saw there?
I've heard that the guides "take liberties" and show some off-the- itinerary sights if they like the group enough, did you ever see that?
Were all 10 trips group tours? I've heard of some tour operators bringing photographers/ other staff to NK for longer periods.
Were you based out of Beijing? How was that?
Do you think NK has any future as a state?
>How well did you get to know the local guides?
It depends, a couple of us western guides certainly had close friends we would request to work with, but beyond putting in a request you could never guarantee you would get paired up with who you wanted or worked best with. I had one trip the girl seemed a little hardcore and put me on edge, I thought she really disproved of me but at the end she proposed we develop a special itinerary and work with me again. When working with my friend we always caught up on her love life and gossip about her friends, but even when things are close you would avoid open talk about controversial politics - just an unspoken respect that that was not a safe zone to dive into. Some of the male guides based in Pyongyang liked to party and tell dirty jokes.
The guides up in Rason were under a different regional tourism authority, the ones my company worked with were pretty chill and cool, some worked with christian groups based at the Chinese border region and do farm volunteer work with the hope that the lord's influence rubs off to the North Koreans, one guide who works with them lamented that they suck and she wished to work with me instead.
Up in Chilbo and Chongjin area is another tourism authority and those guides are quite strict and a little uptight and really push some of the propaganda.
>I've heard that the guides "take liberties" and show some off-the- itinerary sights if they like the group enough, did you ever see that?
Absolutely, thats probably why I bristle when people who dont know better chime in that a trip to DPRK is all fake and not worth seeing as it's pre-staged and nothing but the same monuments.
Not saying you wont have a shitty visit, who knows how others in your group behave and if you loose access due to it, but as a western guide it was my responsibility and goal to increase access and seek out off itinerary events and options. If you have good guides, both western and DPRK than they are doing all they can to make it happen, especially with the North Koreans working their cells phones to find things like neighborhood dances, sporting events, or opportunities to dine somewhere special.
Pic - buying local cotton candy for New Years
>Literally just cotton
I guess I should have known but it's still shocking
>Were you based out of Beijing? How was that?
YPT, although based with office in Xian, they had a company apartment in Beijing to handle DPRK visas and operate the tours from. Beijing was OK, I actually had an apartment in Taiwan as my ship was based there for two years, so I was back and forth a bit. After having done most of the tourist stuff on my first couple trips, like hiking the Great Wall, most of my time when working YPT was tour related, prep for going in, or processing pictures or media post, as well as eating out and hanging with friends in our network.
>Do you think NK has any future as a state?
I don't really consider myself a North Korea watcher anymore where I could give an opinion on the future of the State. Back when I was involved, 2011-2014, I did believe there was a decent chance the country would open up to some degree which was part of the reason I wanted to be involved.
>What was the most genuinely interesting thing you saw there?
Having been to Kaesong a few times you get good at seeing through the camouflage and identifying hidden anti aircraft guns, anti tank gun positions, and big doors in the mountainsides. I was on tour at the very height of a nuke tension scare in 2013, I saw tanks ripping around fields down by Kaesong, but up in Pyongyang they were planting flowers and overhauling sidewalks.
I was hooked on travel there after taking this photo on my first trip, its been published in a book, hung at a European university, and I just framed it this year for my office wall.
>What was the most genuinely interesting thing you saw there?
Since these latest pics Im putting up discuss Rason at the Casino area, one of the most interesting things was using local money at the real rate at the market in Rason. We were not able to take pics in the market, but I found student badges for sale that no foriener had ever procured before, as well as buying kilos of fresh seafood and having the girls cook up at the folk hotel.
>What was the most genuinely interesting thing you saw there?
Another thought on this, one of the more interesting things is to experience the DMZ from both the North and the South. Coming up from the South everything is super strict and hard core. You have to sign and pledge that you haven't been drinking before you go and you will get shouted at for talking when you go to the line. Didn't happen to me from the South but I'm told the toughest North Korean guards put their faces in the window, look at you, and draw a finger across their throat like a knife to freak you out - but that could have been a bullshit story from the US soldier stationed there.
When you visit from the North things are much more relaxed, the scary guards disappear and the baby-face ones show you around and there are lots of smiles.
>baby-face ones show you around and there are lots of smiles
>baby-face ones show you around and there are lots of smiles
What camera if i may ask. The photos are good quality and well taken.
>What camera if i may ask. The photos are good quality and well taken.
Sony Alpha 77
>You have to sign and pledge that you haven't been drinking before you go
From the North you can buy beer at their DMZ souvenir shop and drink on site - we actually drank at the table the armistice was signed and the North Koreans laughed that we were thirsty that day....
>Were all 10 trips group tours? I've heard of some tour operators bringing photographers/ other staff to NK for longer periods.
Trips:
#1) put together a custom tour for about 10 friends with Koryo for a seven day trip end summer for Mass Games 2011. Things were over booked and Koryo didnt have enough western guides and asked us if we would be cool on our own if they set us up with the best North Korean guides. I learned the ropes as I took the lead on that trip working with the North Koreans and pulling off an epic trip.
#2) Returned next Spring 2012 for a 12 day custom trip with Koryo, again no western guide, myself taking the lead.
#3) I went with YPT to Iran and did some research trip and tour development travels in Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, and Georgia with YPT owner Gaz. Third trip I lead a custom tour via YPT - known as the brewery trip.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/north-korea-breweries
From here I kinda lose track...
>From here I kinda lose track...
#4) Directly after the third trip a good friend and I went up to Dandong to ride the Chinese speed boats into North Korean territory for a couple days, I consider that a trip in as it was a unique DPRK experience - I don't consider stepping over the line at the DMZ from the South as a trip in as I count.
#5) I did a VIP invite only trip to join with the first ever group to make the bridge crossing up in North Hamgyong province (NE Extreme Tour). Went in with Troy and for me it was a final check before fully guiding YPT scheduled tours and other YPT special interest trips.
Pic - Chongjin on the NE Extreme Tour
#6) I took a VIP guest into Rason
#7) 9 day Fishing trip via Pyongyang and out to some spots I never had been to out by Wonsan
#8) Another VIP trip into Rason to negotiate establishing a brewery and restaurant.
#9) Guided a big +30 tourist group standard Pyongyang based tour.
#10) Guided another big +30 tourist group for 2014 New Years - the same tour that Otto got arrested on two years later.
What was getting hired by and working for YPT like?
What are you up to now that NK is closed?
Do you know Korean and were you able to talk with locals who don't work in the tourist industry?
Would you visit again?
What's something about NK that you don't see discussed much?
>What are you up to now that NK is closed?
I'm back in the States running a family company. When I was with YPT I used to work as a ship's officer, guiding during my months off on leave, but I'm now retired from a life at sea.
>Would you visit again?
I would like to but I cant imagine I ever will.
1.) Falling out with YPT
2.) Illegal for Americans to go now
3.) Seems that they are getting slammed with COVID
4.) Married and settled with kids
5.) Even if I did have the time to go, I have property in the Philippines, all my effort is to develop for my retirement there.
Are you saying you fell out with YPT? What happened?
Also what's Vietnamese like? I'm seriously considering learning this language. People constantly tell me that the hardest part of the language is the hearing part, that the language supposedly has a bunch of subtleties that's hard for non-natives to percieve when the language is being spoken. What are your thoughts? Sorry if this question is somehwat off-topic.
Take a look at the archives: https://archived.moe/trv/search/username/NK%20Anon/
>Are you saying you fell out with YPT? What happened?
I have recapped this a few time before, real quick, North Koreans were upset that as an American I was an investor in YPT without their approval/consultation. After 10 trips in it was looking I was going to have to limit and tone down my involvement in Pyongyang with the Korea International Tourism Company - there was talk I couldn't go back, which was OK, I was actually interested in the Northern border China/North Korea region, doing some language study up there, and developing tours and routes in partnership with the Rason tourism company - and for them they didn't give a shit what stick Pyongyang had up its ass.
Then a super Typhoon hit the Philippines. I was going there for vacation to do some diving, but instead friends and I, with the help of the tour network, raised money to go rebuild some classrooms and help. Ended up staying and building over 300 homes, a school, ran a coral reef and fishers coastal resource management project, and started a sustainable bamboo harvesting and treatment facility - this was definitely a different direction than some in YPT had envisioned (not the SE Asian stag trips they wanted to spin off) and resulted in a falling out and hard feelings.
Pic - native style home we built in our program, with internal cross bracing and storm strapping, we could hike in all materials to remote locations and build in 5-7 days. Design survived a direct hit by a class 4 typhoon in Eastern Samar.
>Also what's Vietnamese like? I'm seriously considering learning this language. People constantly tell me that the hardest part of the language is the hearing part, that the language supposedly has a bunch of subtleties that's hard for non-natives to percieve when the language is being spoken. What are your thoughts? Sorry if this question is somehwat off-topic.
How do you plan to learn? You will really need to work with a native speaker to really make the effort worthwhile and be in a place where you get to use and practice, I would say continuously - like committing time to be in country. There are regional differences from the North, Central, and South, so depending where you learn don't expect to be able to communicate at the same level countrywide.
Its been 15 years since I spent my summer with a tutor in Hanoi, so I'm no longer conversationally fluent, but trying to remember some stuff - verbs are not conjugated and a lot of the language is strait forward, so thats the easy part, and there is some formality when greeting younger people and elders, you get that stuff down it will go far. The tones are difficult and some of it is quite nasal and foreign to westerners. I used to bob and move my head as a memory device to remember and nail the correct tone - so I probably looked a little crazy as I spoke.
Do you have any insider info you can give on YPT? Any dark secrets or are they all genuine?
>Do you have any insider info you can give on YPT? Any dark secrets or are they all genuine?
Sure, I have plenty of insider info from 2011-2015, dark secrets and all, but I'm not going to dive into that stuff here.
I would say they are genuine, but playing on the edge, yet they were open about that with the slogan “destinations your mother would rather you stay away from” at budget prices.
They operated like a club, anyone can do a trip, but for people who connected with the vibe and company culture, there were VIP trips, activities, investments, and so on - I think their latest is having crowd funded buying an Island off Belize.
Part of the club atmosphere fostered we had a North Korean theme bar in Yangshuo, China. The DMZ Bar. Some people who enjoyed their North Korean trip and wanted to hang out more with us ended up bar tending there. A lot art I bought ended up on their wall - wish I still had it 🙁
>Part of the club atmosphere fostered we had a North Korean theme bar in Yangshuo, China. The DMZ Bar.
Did you work with Rowan or Matt? What did you think of them?
>Did you work with Rowan or Matt? What did you think of them?
I knew Rowan very well, don't know Matt. I don't want to get personal with opinions here.
>I knew Rowan very well, don't know Matt. I don't want to get personal with opinions here.
That said, Rowan is a friendly guy, worked well with the North Koreans, and was able to stay happy while grinding out a lot of standard DPRK trips.
What are you 5'2"??
Rowan's a tall guy, wonder how many times he seriously bumps his head in Korea.
>Rowan's a tall guy
Yes he is
I'm 5' 8"
>What was getting hired by and working for YPT like?
You had to be able to drink....
>Do you know Korean and were you able to talk with locals who don't work in the tourist industry?
I knew all the common pleasantries. I tried to study and learn deeper but I found all the long formal words difficult - and I have learned Spanish and Vietnamese over my years. I would have liked to have based up in Yangji, China and done some focused study in the Northern dialect but never had the chance. All North Koreans study English but how practiced and shy they are depends. North Korean guides all specialize in a foreign language or two, English would be the default for a big company general tour, but specialty guides for German, French, Spanish could be assigned specialty groups as needed.
>were you able to talk with locals who don't work in the tourist industry?
Obviously you cant run around the city talking to everyone, but at parks or events you might be approached for a picture - I have been invited into about 5 different wedding photos, or you talk some pleasantries, ask light questions, get invited for a drink, play some sports, or maybe even dance with a granny. Cant guarantee it will happen but any of it could.
Can you frick girls?
>Can you frick girls?
No. Save it for Beijing cowboy....
Really no?? Never? What the frick? What happens if you do? You get disappeared and then pneumonia'd?
>What happens if you do?
You don't. End of story.
What if I do, homosexual? I'm a Chad and I can take my pic of women generally, especially asians
You don't. Even if you were not a larping virgin, it is simply impossible to bag a DPRK girl.
This dude said the tour guide was a woman. What if I seduce her? I'm charming and fricking hot bro. 9 inch dick, etc. I'm the total package. The girls there have to have sex, dude. Otherwise they wouldn't have any population to imprison. Can't imagine they wouldn't like a rich white chad
You can't seduce her. It simply does not work that way in DPRK. Again, even if you were not a larping virgin incel.
Bro, a wet pussy is a wet pussy, and in case you've never experienced this, I can tell you that women don't behave rationally in that condition, no matter what their system of government is kek.
ridiculous
Weeaboo incel/Asian diaspora detected. Koreans are desperate for white dick man. I mean you can't walk around without getting completely harassed. Couldn't imagine it being worse in the north, especially since we have the added benefits of being exotic and forbidden. I'll probably never go to NK because I don't want to get murdered by the government but I guarantee if I did I would get laid
>Weeaboo incel/Asian diaspora detected. Koreans are desperate for white dick man. I mean you can't walk around without getting completely harassed. Couldn't imagine it being worse in the north, especially since we have the added benefits of being exotic and forbidden. I'll probably never go to NK because I don't want to get murdered by the government but I guarantee if I did I would get laid
For being a waste of bandwidth you get the NK pout...
At least I got a kissed by a North Korean girl in North Korea, more than you will ever get....
You don't get laid in Nork because the police will put a bullet in you before you can put your dick in her.
>koreans are desperate for white dick
SOUTH koreans maybe, but NORTH koreans are far more desperate for food/shelter/warm winters/safety from being brutally murdered by their government than they are your dick.
>you can't walk around in south korea without girls harrassing you completely for your dick
>no way it could be worse in the north, especially because were exotic and forbidden
>I would never go to the north because the government would kill me if I did
>it can't be that bad anons, literally every single woman there would risk dying for a one night stand with me
I don't mind coomers, but you take it to a level where I think you really should go to north korea and try to frick someone.
Not sure if you're a larping pajeet or just really fricking moronic.
bullshit, if you hit on one and she likes you, she'll bang you. I know that for an autist like you hypotheticals are difficult to understand, but if it DID happen, what would it look like and what would happen in the aftermath? You are able to answer this question better than anyone here. Use your imagination.
>
>bullshit, if you hit on one and she likes you, she'll bang you. I know that for an autist like you hypotheticals are difficult to understand, but if it DID happen, what would it look like and what would happen in the aftermath? You are able to answer this question better than anyone here. Use your imagination.
You just wont quit on this will you. How's this, the waitress that was forward and kissed a few of us guides ended up disappearing from her position, I dont know what happened to her, but my guess it wasn't good. So Casanova, good luck on running game in DPRK - and BTW, I brought in Neil Strauss the author of The Game in 2011.
>I brought in Neil Strauss the author of The Game in 2011
As part of a regular tour or a private one?
>As part of a regular tour or a private one?
My first trip in on the private tour I put together, he is a friend of a friend,
Neil at the Pyongyang gun range.
What's the chances of pulling that cutie on the left?
Neil and his now wife at the Grand People's Study House.
>Neil and his now wife at the Grand People's Study House.
>
>bullshit, if you hit on one and she likes you, she'll bang you. I know that for an autist like you hypotheticals are difficult to understand, but if it DID happen, what would it look like and what would happen in the aftermath? You are able to answer this question better than anyone here. Use your imagination.
You just wont quit on this will you. How's this, the waitress that was forward and kissed a few of us guides ended up disappearing from her position, I dont know what happened to her, but my guess it wasn't good. So Casanova, good luck on running game in DPRK - and BTW, I brought in Neil Strauss the author of The Game in 2011.
>>I brought in Neil Strauss the author of The Game in 2011
>As part of a regular tour or a private one?
Here is an old podcast we all did inside DPRK on that first trip.
Why is that?
Curious to know why NK women are totally out of bounds.
>patriarch society
>xenophobic/racist society
>isolationist society
pick all three
Are NK people genuinely racist? Or is done out of fear?
They're the friendlies racists you'll ever meet.
They treat you with lowered expectations, just like western whites do blacks and Japanese do with whites, e.g. complimenting on using chopsticks or uttering the most basic Korean phrases.
Many Korean stories involving foreigners, both in the North and the South are structured to show that the Koreans explain something to the foreigner and they are amazed at how civilised Korean culture is.
In the North this is amplified by their isolation and totalitarian regime.
they are incredibly racist/ dont tolerate race mixing.
You only might be able to if you are ethnically korean but it in that case visiting NK might land you in deep shit my guy.
The only way I could imagine is going to northern china where the border is and look for a trafficked wife.
GG
>they are incredibly racist/ dont tolerate race mixing.
This.
Back in the day they justified Kim rule with the successes of a socialist economy propped up by playing soviet Russia and communist China against each other for support. But since end of cold war, late 90's famine, and the rise of the South Korean economy, nobody in North Korea believes propaganda that North Korea continues as a socialist/Juche international success story. So now they quietly push an internal racist propaganda that regime rule is the only thing protecting the purity of the Korean race - which has been polluted by mixing and loose moral values in the South. And that is why you cant get a North Korean girl in North Korea.
>it's akin to a time machine
Very same reason I want to go there myself. With more tech coming in, it's not going to stay like this forever either, it's only a matter of time but Trump banning Nork travel means you'll need a different passport to get in now.
The main issues with Nork travel, if you can even get in, is the reliance on guided tours to go and do anything. Breaking away is a serious issue, and breaking the law in Nork is the last thing you want to do. If you want open and free travel, it's the worst place to go.
This guy has made various threads here before just posting pics of his travels in Nork and some other spots, trust everything he says. If you missed those threads then you really missed out on some of the best ever posted about Nork.
>This guy has made various threads here before just posting pics of his travels in Nork and some other spots, trust everything he says. If you missed those threads then you really missed out on some of the best ever posted about Nork.
I'm still around working to answer that list of questions from above.
>Apparently it's about 2000 dollars to travel there plus all daily expenses.
That's a good budget level for all inclusive including the Beijing/Pyongyang flight, tips, and extras - food, drinks, souvenirs, for a standard 5 night Pyongyang based trip.
What about catching the train there?
>What about catching the train there?
Americans can't but others can via Beijing and are met by the guides on arrival Pyongyang, I forget, but think it's a little bit cheeper than flying in.
Yeah, it's the default for budget tours.
The Dandong-Sinuiju train also uses up a day, as it leaves in the later morning and arrives in the early evening, same for the way back.
Yes, it's pretty much what you would expect. Worth it.
>time machine
Definitely was back in 2011, but things were changing quick. Looks like confirmed COVID outbreak, who knows when it will be open again.
I would like to go to NK but the US makes you need a visa if you visit NK and then want to visit the US. Can this be avoided by using seperate passports similar to the isreali/arab stamp thing?
In theory no, as they don't care about passport stamps but ask you in the EFTA form if you've been there.
In practice I still don't see how the US knows if you've crossed the border between China and North Korea if you don't show them the stamps.
Pretty sure you can go to Dandong and they have tours that take you into North Korea. I’ve seen a lot of Chinese do it but never any westerners
>Pretty sure you can go to Dandong and they have tours that take you into North Korea. I’ve seen a lot of Chinese do it but never any westerners
I'm not sure the details on how to join a Chinese Dandong DPRK tour, but you can hop a speedboat tour to buzz inside North Korean territory and around their islands on the Yalu River just North of Dandong.
When I did it it was raining so we didnt really meet any boat shops or traders on the river.
>I'm not sure the details on how to join a Chinese Dandong DPRK tour, but you can hop a speedboat tour to buzz inside North Korean territory and around their islands on the Yalu River just North of Dandong.
You used to be able to join the day tours that Chinese could join with their national ID card.
You'd get an English guide who would sit next to you on the bus and do the guiding and minding.
Pretty sure that these tours won't be a thing for a long time both because of the Chinese and Korean authorities.
>Pretty sure that these tours won't be a thing for a long time both because of the Chinese and Korean authorities.
Were they just a day trip into Sinuiju? I believe YPT had an option for that, or was at working to develop, but Americans wernt allowed into Sinuiju anyway from what I understood.
Yeah, those were day trips, anything with an overnight stay would have to go through the regular channels.
I assume that the Emperor Casino in Rason had a similar setup, at least from how their shuttle service was advertised at the reception.
>at least from how their shuttle service was advertised at the reception.
Lol, you mean their confiscated hummer shuttles?
Yeah, but probably also plain minibuses for larger groups.
They a table of train and flight departures from Yanji and what time to leave for them, so my guess is that they have some kind of arrangements with the border control to speed up procedures.
Looking at your photo, they put up some more beach infrastructure for the locals, but the seafood farm on the left is still running, after all it got a visit by the Dear Leader.
>Looking at your photo, they put up some more beach infrastructure for the locals, but the seafood farm on the left is still running, after all it got a visit by the Dear Leader.
I never got a close look at the seafood farm on the left next to the hotel, I did see the larger processing plant about a km to the south in the photo posted here:
>I did see the larger processing plant about a km to the south in the photo
Here is Emperor Casino view from across the bay at that seafood plant to the south.
and another view
>they put up some more beach infrastructure for the locals
Out on Pipha Island, not much going on out there on my visit.
For regular visitors, not Chinese casino low rollers, you could stay at the Bipa Folk Custom Hotel just behind the casino.
>Emperor Casino in Rason
This is the pawn shop for the casino located near the folk hotel a little up the road, we didn't get access to check it out.
>Thanks for the detailed replies, always good to see you here
🙂
I have always wondered about anti-US sentiment in NK. Say you are a foreigner and you show open anti-US sentiment would they openly agree with you or look at you like you are crazy?
>I have always wondered about anti-US sentiment in NK. Say you are a foreigner and you show open anti-US sentiment would they openly agree with you or look at you like you are crazy?
While propaganda is everywhere, it seems to be just background noise as regular North Koreans just work hard to improve their lives. Explicit Anti-American propaganda had already been well toned down by my first trip in 2011. So yeah, as a visitor on a regular western tour, showing up and running wild with anti-US sentiment, they probably wouldn't really know what to do with you and regard you as somewhat off balance.
For any true believers who want to act that way the proper channel for that kind of thing would be the KFA. but I have no idea on their current status with the fallout of undercover film The Mole, and with founder Alejandro now under UN sanctions investigation.
https://kfausa.org/korean-friendship-association-organization/
Thank you NK anon. A poster who is well versed in the topic at hand and takes the time to type up detailed responses is what we need more of around here. Also checked
>Thank you NK anon. A poster who is well versed in the topic at hand and takes the time to type up detailed responses is what we need more of around here. Also checked
Thanks. I actually just found an entire folder of pics from a trip I haven't posted, working with them and going through other stuff looking for overlooked gems, so will probably start a new fresh thread one this one dies.
Good to hear. I will look out for it. Thanks again
If you want a different kind of Korean experience try North North Korea:
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China
If I remember correctly this is the main North Korean hotel and restaurant I'm Yangi where you could initiate contact to self arrange a Reason tour.
>tfw I had a trip booked from China to NK and the memeflu fricked it up.
>tfw when they didnt refund it.
I don't care about the money but its not going to be open again right. And of course no cheap tours from china...
>I don't care about the money but its not going to be open again right
Sucks, and yeah, no idea when it will ever open again.