Anyone done a tour with these guys? Ive been thinking of joining one of their middle eastern tours, Syria or Iraq maybe. They seem pretty legit but I'm keen to see if anyone has some insights or can recommend alternate companies.
I'm not usually one for tours but I'm also not confident going to some of these riskier places alone.
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Why would you want to hang out with a bunch of insufferable white dengists visiting a dump like Iraq & Syria?
If you’re gonna travel somewhere dangerous at least go somewhere cool like Afghanistan or North Korea.
Im very interested in the history and ruins of Syria, I think itd be more interesting than Afghanistan in that respect. But I am keen to go to both Afghanistan and North Korea later on also! I wouldn't go to either of those places alone though. Have you got any experience to share with travelling to places like that?
North Korea is not dangerous at all, on the contrary it is about the safest possible place you can visit.
Except if someone plants you drugs in your suitcase and you need to defend yourself in a NK tribunal.
>you need to defend yourself in a NK tribunal.
You would still have better chances than in a Japanese court tbf
Has there ever been a case where this has happened? Based off what happened to that yank kid who stole the poster, this would be a death sentence.
>Based off what happened to that yank kid who stole the poster, this would be a death sentence.
There is more to that story than will ever be publicly known.
NK Anon? If so, begging you to tell us
>NK Anon? If so, begging you to tell us
Promises were made not to talk about it.....
I heard from two of the guides (one being the current co-owner) he attempted suicide in prison, hence being brain dead.
Also, there were rumors he was a legit gay, and that was one of the reasons he tried offing himself. Something something being a gay but coming from some Christian fundamentalist family.
>he attempted suicide in prison
Wasn't this ruled out by the US doctors and coroner? No sign of any neck or head damage. From the evidence, it seems like some kind of torture, probably waterboarding or electrocution, that led to cardiac arrest is almost certainly what happened. Probably accidental too, there's no way they wanted to kill him so soon after the conviction or ever. The current regime is a rational actor and killing him deliberately makes no sense.
There was no post-mortem, for “religious reasons”.
Quite strange, since signs of torture would certainly have helped with their compensation case.
There was a post-mortem but no autopsy. The US doctors and coroner all saw no signs of obvious torture and the brain damage was pretty symmetrical so it wasn't physical beating. Also NK hadn't ever physically beaten US detainees before that. It could only really be some form of torture that doesn't leave physical evidence, and which was accidentally taken too far or attempted suicide via some method which again didn't leave physical evidence. I have no idea what the latter could be, given what little access he probably had to resources. Given the secrecy and apparent repercussions within NK against those overseeing his detention, his death or any harm wasn't meant to happen.
Probably he was tortured mentally.
Imagine being a 20 year old held in North Korea, the guards telling you things like the US government has told your family that you’re dead or that they’re holding a funeral for you.
Pretty sure that would drive many people to suicide.
>Also, there were rumors he was a legit gay, and that was one of the reasons he tried offing himself. Something something being a gay but coming from some Christian fundamentalist family.
According to Wikipedia he was a israelite
>Except if someone plants you drugs in your suitcase and you need to defend yourself in a NK tribunal.
Like weed? Which they consider as cheep farmers tobacco, can be openly bought in Rason at the market, and which I openly brought back over the border into China.
If you don't like a topic, don't bother posting. How many Japan and coomer threads are there? Yet whenever someone actually wants to discuss the logistics of traveling to off the beaten path places, it gets swarmed with stupid shitposts. Discussing tour companies IS travel related. I've heard about this company and Caravanistan before so it's not some shill.
Mods PLEASE do something about these low quality posts. Thank you.
YPT is legit, used them multiple times for places where going alone would mean a lot of organisational effort.
They attract an interesting group of people, many of them returnees, only a tiny minority of them "communists", many of them interested in communist and other authoritarian regimes and what's left of them.
Definitely has one or two weirdoes per group though, high probability of meeting a SighSee poster in real life.
Outside of North Koreas, their tours feel less like "tours" but more like a bunch of people heading somewhere together for convenience and fun, in most of them, you can also drop in and out of the tour as you want.
>4xTND
I used to be a part owner of the company...
10 trips into North Korea, some as a group guide, some on private business, guided their Trans Siberian tour, and once into Iran for a overland border crossing into Armenia as a tour route research trip.
Wow didnt expect to find someone with involvement with the company here! Id love to hear your insights on what kind of people you usually had joining your tours, how to get the most out of it, things like that? I've been doing some research and getting myself pretty excited. Ive travelled overseas before but not solo, and I tend to be pretty shy in groups at first so I have a little bit of nervousness about it all.
I was involved back in 2013 - 2015, so been a few years and cant really talk about the current operation, busy at the moment, but I will be back to give an overview of how things worked and what to expect.
Referring back to the days of my involvement, almost 10 years ago, North Korea was the core of our operation, and we had company apartments in Beijing, and Xian, and a bar in Yangshuo, and plans to do so much more. It was almost like a travel club/VIP atmosphere, with people who kinda fit in with the guides on the DPRK trips being invited to hang out, join private research trips, work at the bar, and even guide - which is what happened with me. This core group of travelers would certainly make many of the tours while of course you had the more standard tick DPRK off the bragging list kinda people. Not really up on whats going on there now, with DPRK closed there has been an Africa and Middle East focus.
Tell us more
>Tell us more
I could write a book on it all....
I did do a few threads a year or two back when I had time to write, someone could probably dig them up.
Pic - Chernobyl, Trans Siberian Tour
missed the upload
>Pic - Chernobyl, Trans Siberian Tour
Nice to meet a modern day explorer.
What can you tell me about Tajikistan? Dos and don'ts, warnings, suggestions, impressions, surprises.
An English teaching job has opened up there and I am intrigued.
Those exploration days are pretty much over, settled down with a family now, but for 15 years I worked as an officer on scientific research vessels around the globe and doing the other hard core land travel during my vacations.
Never got to Tajikistan, had always wanted to journey through Central Asia and Pakistan, but never got to it, mostly because getting the visas while on my ship was difficult. But got to Iran and spent a bit of time on the Silk Road in Western China.
I am a geologist how do I get onto a science boat? inb4 a masters
I just want to be on the boat not some sheltered grad student with zero real life experience
Did you leave on bad terms?
I'm curious about the company, but if you have any reservations I'd want to know.
>Uotsig Rioizzya Totsyag
Other than North Korea, which of their tours of their tours offer the best value for money? For the anons who have experience with them.
Well that depends on what interests you.
Places like Moldova or Northern Cyprus can easily be visited without a tour, but it can be more fun to visit those lesser visited destinations with people who share similar interests.
If you want to go to Turkmenistan (or Iran as an Anglo), you'll need to go with a guide anyway, so there they're competitive, I guess.
I have no idea about their island tours, you're probably paying a lot for convenience there.
do you offer trips to somalia?
They do have Somalia tours. I was considering that one too.
I dont think it'd be more risky for me than anyone else. I've got travel experience and I'm not recklessly impulsive.
At the moment I'm liking the idea of doing some solo travel around SEA, flying to Beijing for an NK tour, then moving on to Central Asia for middle eastern countries. Would love to hear from any anons with experience travelling Iran/Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan/etc... If there are any here
Do you offer trips to Israel right now? Do you really think anyone here thinks you're not an employee?
seems risky for you
In light of recent news, I might avoid the middle east for a while.
Why, you're a ~~*dual citizen*~~?
Do you think it's too late to get my money back on this one?
Why?
It's in more than 11 months, many things can happen in that time.
Went on that one, was fun, not super adventurous. Good starter tour for YPT, banged one of the MILFs who’s a regular on those tours.
I might try their North korean tour one day, sounds mint
I won a free DPRK trip in one of their yearly prize draws years ago and was too broke to get to Beijing to use it.
messing with Bing AI image creator
>messing with Bing AI image creator
Considering the current situation in world politics I don't think it's a good idea going to a conflict prone area anytime soon.