[quote=“glwillia”"]
So I’m back after 3.5 weeks of travelling. Got to see Kiev, Chernobyl+Pripyat, Minsk, Mir, Nyasvizh, Beijing, Pyongyang, Nampo and a few other places. First of all: Ukraine is a lot like Russia was in the Yeltsin era–dirty, corrupt and lawless. Belarus is basically a living museum of the USSR–everything’s still named after Lenin and Marx, and the economy is still state-owned. North Korea is just weird–like a cult with 23 million members and nuclear weapons. Most people I met don’t seem to hate Americans, but are genuinely intrigued by them. Of course, anti-US propaganda abounds. The place is the most repressive, solemn and downright creepy I’ve ever been to–the people have had the humanity drilled right out of them and are born, work and die for the Dear Leader.
Now for the pics! EDIT: I put some more pics in several posts further down.
Chernobyl Reactor #4, the one that blew up. The fence is as close as you can safely get without special equipment. However, no photos from past the memorial are allowed.
The abandoned city of Pripyat, as seen from the roof of the hotel.
The iconic Pripyat amusement park.
St Michael’s Cathedral, Kyiv
Rodina Mat, the WWII memorial in Kyiv. Nicknamed “Tin Tits” by the locals.
Main government building in Minsk, Belarus. Note the Soviet-era flag and the imposing statue of Lenin.
Me in front of the KGB headquarters, Minsk.
WWII memorial in Victory Square, Minsk.
Rural Belarusian houses, Nyasvizh, Belarus.
Now on to North Korea.
The Arirang Mass Games, 100,000 performers working in unison. May Day stadium, Pyongyang.
Bohyon Buddhist Temple. From the Koryo dynasty era.
Everywhere you go, the Great Leader is omnipresent. This is in the Grand People’s Study Hall, Pyongyang.
Kim Il-Sung Square, Pyongyang. Sorry for the blurry photos, many of these were taken clandestinely… Also, tripods aren’t allowed to be brought in.
Me at Kumsusan Memorial Palace, the mausoleum of Kim Il-Sung. Tried to hold up a sign saying “BFC OT FTW!” but the government minder confiscated it.
North Korean space shuttle!
Anti-US propaganda in an elementary school.
Koreans bowing before the statue of Kim Il-Sung. Rousing military music is blared over speakers here and everyone is required to bow.
The infamous Ryugyong Hotel.
USS Pueblo, surveillance ship captured by the DPRK in 1968.
The Demilitarized Zone, looking southward. The concrete line in the middle of the buildings is the border between North and South.
Live scorpions on a stick, Beijing.
Menu from the Pyongyang pizza parlor. I ordered the mushroom risotto.
I was on North Korean television! The announcer said something like, “foreign dignitaries have come from all over the world to pay their respects to the Great Leader”. :rofl
Here are some more from Pripyat.
Reactor #5 which was under construction at the time of the accident. The cranes are still there, frozen in time more than 23 years later.
Holding the dosimeter up directly at Reactor #4. Normal background radiation in Kyiv is 0.12.
The welcome sign for Pripyat.
Tree growing in hotel room, Pripyat
The moss and lichen are particularly radioactive in the amusement park. This is 100 times normal background…
Bumper cars, Pripyat.
Grocery store, Pripyat.
The famous swimming pool.
Me holding up a Soviet-era gas mask, which all schools were required to keep on hand in the event of nuclear/biological/chemical war.
Classroom, Pripyat. Note the Lenin poster in the back.
Abandoned boat graveyard, Chernobyl town.
Museum of vehicles used in the evacuation of the exclusion zone. They’re still highly contaminated, and you can see the radioactivity sign on the grass.
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[quote=“glwillia”"]
Thanks!
Oh it gets better. In North Korea’s museum of the Korean War (called “The Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum”), they claim that the US started the war, and that the KPA was situated in defensive positions. But due to the brilliant leadership of Kim Il-Sung, they had “liberated” Seoul and most of the Korean peninsula within two months. The commentary of the video was in heavily-accented English, and consisted of things like “The US imperialists provoked the war in Korea to prop up their post-war economy and to continue their campaign of the total destruction of the Korean people”. The first part of the video was the narrator asking rhetorically: “So who started the war?” It then cut to footage of US planes dropping bombs, with the voiceover “this film footage makes the answer obvious”. It was pretty nauseating, and very reminiscent of films like “Der Ewige Jude”.
Picture of US atrocities during the war. The North Koreans claim the US systematically exterminated between 2 and 3 million Koreans between 1945 and 1950.
Captured US tanks in the basement.
Mural glorifying Kim Il-Sung and the Korean People’s Army.
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[quote=“glwillia”"]
It’s always intrigued me as well and I finally decided to just go and see it. Highly, highly recommended. There’s really nothing like standing in the middle of a town square of a city of 50,000 people where everyone just up and left, and wild animals are roaming around. I recommend spending a few minutes alone in the place just listening to the wind.
Go soon though, Pripyat’s falling apart and the buildings probably won’t be safe to enter within a couple of years.
Here are some more Chernobyl/Ukraine pics.
Kyiv metro. Very deep, and very Soviet.
Monument to the firefighters who lost their lives, Chernobyl town.
View of all four Chernobyl reactors. On the left is #4 and #3 (separated by the chimney), and on the right are #1 and #2, which were in operation until 2000 and 1995, respectively.
Remains of the Red Forest. Immediately after the catastrophe, a wave of radioactive material settled in this area just northwest of the reactor, turning all the pine trees red. Almost all died–these two are among the survivors.
Elevators, Pripyat hotel.
Basketball court. In the same building as the swimming pool, opposite a hallway.
Scattered homework, classroom, Pripyat.
Gas masks.
Living room, apartment, Pripyat.
Inside the jail/police station.
Front door of the police station.
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[quote=“glwillia”"]
More pics!
Air Koryo safety instruction card and airsickness bag.
May Day stadium, site of the Mass Games.
Random street in Pyongyang, chock full of propaganda, memorials, crumbling nondescript concrete buildings and little else.
View of Juche Tower from Kim Il-Sung Square.
People dress their best for a visit to the mausoleum of Kim Il-Sung.
Pyongyang metro.
Elementary-school classroom
Eight-lane highway out of Pyongyang, completely empty. Sorry for the blurriness, wasn’t allowed to take this shot…
View over Pyongyang from the Yanggakdo International Hotel
Arirang Mass Games
Pyongyang metro.
Propaganda.
This is an example of how deep the cult of personality runs. Under a photo of Kim Il-Sung sitting on a mat at a cooperative farm is the exact mat he used, preserved and on display.
Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace. Note what appears to be a telescope dome on top and the completely-empty road.
MiG-15 from the Korean War.
At the front line of the DMZ itself.
View over Kaesong, historic capital of Korea during the Koryo dynasty.
Military officer at the “concrete wall”.
Fall foliage, with the Great Leader watching out over us.
Tiananmen Square, Beijing
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Crazy shit.
