In the Beginning

After the debacle that almost was with the cancellation of my flights and the mad scramble to get me to Beijing in time for my tour safety briefing, I managed to find myself there a whole day earlier than what I originally planned. I was in China a couple of years ago, so had seen most of the Beijing sites that I have wanted to and I naturally gravitated to the Dashilan Street W area near Tiananmen Square where it almost felt like I was coming home as I know it quite well.

I arrived at Beijing Airport after a brief stopover in Hong Kong and somehow made my way via public transport (bus) into the city. Unfortunately, where the airport shuttle bus dropped me off was about 2klms from where I was headed. Not keen on making that trek through the busy and somewhat smelly streets of Beijing with my entire luggage, I sprung for a taxi. I’m pretty chuffed it only cost me less than $A16 to get myself to my hostel. Go me!

I had booked myself a bed in a 5 person mixed dorm at the Leo hostel. It’s just for 1 night, right? And set out to try to catch up with some of my fellow travellers before we officially met at the briefing.

When I checked in, I was handed my sheets and a towel and pointed to my room where to my dismay, I discovered that I had been allocated a top bunk. I’m too old for this!!!! But in my true intrepid style, I went about climbing up to make my bed, ready for what I was hoping would be a restful night. Ha!
Through the Facebook page set up by our Young Pioneer guides, I connected with Paul from London, who was staying a couple of metro stops down from where I was staying and agreed to come over to the Leo Hostel in a while for a couple of pre-tour beers.

Meanwhile, I decided to take advantage of the foot massages being offered 2 doors up from the hostel whilst I waited.

At the time Paul and I were to meet, I made my way back into the hostel bar area and saw a guy sitting at a table smiling at me. Now, the pic on Paul’s Facebook is a cartoon caricature so I really wasn’t sure who it was I was meeting. I went over to him and said ‘Are you Paul?’ He gave me a puzzled look, shook his head and some guy standing right behind me goes ‘No, I’m Paul’. I’m sure I laughed, thinking it was some other traveller having a lend of me. Nope, this big burly Brit with the shaggy hair was my new travel mate.

We enjoyed a few beers and we soon joined by the lovely and fun Lucy, another Brit, who would now make up our awesome trio! Very quickly we became friends and before we knew it we were enjoying a Peking Duck meal together.

Paul the Thatcher and Lucy the Pharmacist

So this is Peking Duck

I loved meeting these guys! So to really kick off our awesome trip, we had a most fantastic night at the Leo Hostel bar. We met loads of new people, including a German guy who Lucy had gone to a nightclub the night before with and another of our fantastic travel companions, Kalman, from Bulgaria.

Whilst we were sitting drinking at Kalman's table a funny thing happened. The guy from earlier who I asked if he was Paul was now sitting there with some friends. We got chatting and the guy says 'My friends and I were taking bets as to why you two were meeting. I reckoned that this was a tinder hook-up' What!!!! Seriously, guys? We all laughed so hard. However, I can't imagine that they would ever have correctly guess the real reason we were meeting. Part of the fun of getting ready to go into North Korea was seeing people's reactions to us telling them where we were going, I must say that Paul is an absolute sweetheart, but seriously I can't imagine in any universe that I would be seeking out a Tinder date at a backpacker hostel in China...

It was at least 2am before Paul, Lucy, our new friends and I decided to call it a night. I was most pleased that I just needed to wobble out the back to find my room and the (urgghh) top bunk that I had thoughtfully pre-made earlier for myself.

Now, when I had been in my dorm room earlier to dump my bags and make my bunk, I did not encounter any of my room-mates. However, as I so delicately made my way into that room in the wee hours of the morning, I could feel that each of the other 5 beds were well and truly occupied. As quietly as humanly possible, I did a quick change and made my way up onto my bunk. Keep in mind that probably about 20 year ago I would have relished in this adventure. As a woman of some maturity, I tried to keep my movement groans to a minimal as I pretzelled myself between the sheets spread over a piece of 2 inches of foam masquerading as my mattress.

Crap!!!! Just as I had got myself somewhat settled I realised that I had in fact left my mobile phone down on the table next to my luggage. And being in a room full of strangers necessitated me having to retrieve it should I want to still have my phone in the morning light.

This is the bit where a middle aged lady, half cut from a boozy meetup with new friends, in a dank hostel room in China, ever so inelegantly slid down the bunk ladder and landed quite loudly on my butt in the dark amidst a room full of strangers. I'm not totally sure what happened but I had this fantastic idea that rather than turn myself around and climb face first down the ladder like a normal person, in my fuzzy headed wisdom, it felt like a great idea to face outwards as I went down, using my heels to catch each rung. It didn't actually work out like that and I managed to slide downwards with my butt catching each rung until I was sprawled on my back in the middle of the dark room whispering 'sorry, sorry, sorry' to my erstwhile sleeping room-mates. No-one stirred in the room, so I sheepishly grabbed my phone and retreated back to my mezzanine of slumber to nurse my significant bruising until the morning. At least I was somewhat anaesthetised so I didn't actually realise the extent of my injuries until the  morning.

This is the bit where I drifted into a peaceful slumber, with visions of tomorrow's adventures dancing in my soon to be slightly sore head....

Time to share

Often after any significant travel, it can be very difficult to settle back into 'real life'. Although nothing has changed with our work, our homes and our family and friends, we, the traveller, have been changed and it can take quite an effort to marry who we are now evolving to be with that who we are known to be in our everyday life. This has been doubly hard for me this time, after my latest trip to North Korea. My crazy bucket list trip has come hot on the heels of a massive life change only at the beginning of this year with a move from my home of 27 years in Cairns. I had still yet to establish completely my place here in my new world here in Toowoomba.

I must admit that I have struggled since I have returned. This has been to the magnitude of questioning what exactly I am doing with my life, what is next for me and most importantly, how can I keep travelling.  I also picked up a nasty head cold on, what I believe to be, my return flights. This was delightfully compounded by a particularly awful tummy bug which I'm not completely certain wasn't just a continuation of the 'DPRK belly' I had been experiencing for what was pretty much the duration of the whole trip.

When I did get back to work I found myself on a part of my work roster that saw me working 2x12hr day shifts followed by what was almost always a 12 hour 'afternoon shift' from 1015-2215 with 3 days off before starting the rotation all over again. I know that the usual is a 2 day weekend but 12 hour shifts take it out of you and the 3 days just never seemed enough before I had to go back. I had already done the 6 weeks of afternoon shifts prior to my trip, and found myself back at the top of this part of the roster when I came back...3 months!!! I know many people prefer no night shifts and only 3 shifts, but I love my night shifts! I am also studying so I was struggling to find the time to fit all my responsibilities in.

I have muddled through the last 2 months since returning home. Only now have I begun feeling as though I have caught up with myself. I am also very pleased also to share with you all that I am now over 24 days cigarette free. It has not been an easy journey giving up but not nearly as terrible as I thought it might be. I've been quite busy since I've returned.

It has been great also having a bit of extra time to process what amounted to be an incredible trip that exceeding any and all expectations. I have made some lifelong friends, seen places that not many outsiders have, and gained an acute appreciation for a misunderstood people who are largely just like you and me, with families and friends and work and homes who must fit into the society to which they have been born....just like you and I.

I'm excited to be sharing my stories and my photos with you and appreciate the patience that has been extended to me by my friends and family. Please do note that there are elements and incidents of the trip that I will be omitting from my online writings. I would love to be able to share every moment with you but there are things that, although this is a private blog, could create some issues with those who are in country and who regularly travel and do business there. The only reason that we as visitors and guests were afforded the freedoms we were whilst in country is due to the behaviour and conduct of those who have gone before us. I have no desire to make any issues for those who follow me.

Please feel free to bookmark my blog here, follow my Travelescence Facebook Page at  https://www.facebook.com/Travelescence-1392728370988049/ or just follow along from my private FB page. I welcome any questions and observations as I chronicle my journey. I would also like to thank all my travelling companions who joined me on the Young Pioneer Tours Unseen DPRK and Complete Pyongyang Metro Tour 2018. Some people I have got to know better than others and I hopefully will do justice to recreating our experience together from my own perspective. I mean absolutely no offence whatsoever to anyone I do not mention or refer to in my stories. Each and every person on our trip was fantastic and helped make it the amazing time it has been, but for ease of narration I am writing purely from my own experience and may not be able to include anecdotes of all the amazing people I have met. I also would like to add a disclaimer...I am a story teller! I will try to remain true to all that I recollect, but I have been known from time to time to slightly embellish a story in the name of poetic license. Just saying and I do not apologise for it :)

To describe what it was like to be there....

I was quite surprised with how quickly it became 'normal' for us to be there, in North Korea, to be walking the streets of Pyongyang, smiling at locals wandering to and from work, playing with their children, making their way through their daily life. But then something would happen and suddenly we became acutely aware of exactly where we were and what was potentially was as stake should we push boundaries that should never be pushed....