Welcome to the first instalment of a new series I’ve coined “whatever you do in North Korea”, where I talk about my very own odd, painful, or hilarious experiences I’ve gone through whilst in North Korea. I’d like to officially kick this off with whatever you do in North Korea, DON’T hurt yourself! Let’s begin!
Back in 2014 I was leading one of my favourite summer tours to Pyongyang which mostly consists of eating fresh seafood and swimming at North Korean beaches. One of the items I included into the itinerary was to visit Munsu Waterpark. Whatever you do in North Korea, do visit Mansu Waterpark!
Mansu Waterpark
Munsu Waterpark was relatively new at the time, it opened in December of 2013 and is the nation’s largest and prominent waterpark, but not the only waterpark! There’s a few scattered around the country. My group at the time were incredibly enthusiastic and cool, one particular tourist in my group I later hired and he worked as a YPT guide for three years (Hi Matt!).
Everyone wanted to get the most out of their visit to the waterpark and agreed to change into swimmers and test out Pyongyang’s finest waterslides. With my previous visits to Munsu, the waterpark was opened but the outdoor slides were closed due to the cold weather. Now that the weather was in the high 30s°C the park was ours to dominate.
Getting up real close to these slides were insane. I felt like I was at Wet’n’Wild back in Australia. North Korea imported these slides from overseas and did not skip on the thrill factor. They have open slides, tubed slides, slides that spiralled around each other satisfying your need for speed. I released my inner child and had to ride ‘em all.
Matt was able to capture most of the slides we took on the exact day!
Whatever you do in North Korea – Mansu Waterpark
Then I turned up to a dark green tubed slide that required you to have one of those figure eight tubes to ride down. You needed two people to do so, so I chose my North Korean guide at the time, Ms Pang. As we carried the tube up to the entrance of the slide, we were passing North Koreans walking back down the stairs, chickening out. One of them told us “it’s too scary!”. This didn’t make Ms Pang feel any more comfortable with my idea.
We finally made it to the top, we boarded our tube and was pushed off by the lifeguard to begin our descent. We were thrown into instant darkness as we gradually picked up speed down the slide. Ms Pang was screaming in sheer terror. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’ll shall be a scream I’ll never forget.
As I could feel we were nearing the end of the slide, our tube suddenly took a sharp right banked turn and our speed suddenly increased. We kept turning and turning and I could feel our tube losing control. THUMP! The water from underneath us had caught up and washed the tube from right under our bodies. Ms Pang was thrown on top of me. Unlucky (or lucky) for me her butt rammed my head into the side of the slide.
Whatever you do in North Korea – do not get hurt
Our bodies floated down to the end of the slide as we were dropped into the waddling pool below. A roar of laughter surrounded us as the North Koreans saw how wiped-out we were. I felt like I survived a tsunami. We brushed it off, took a bow and the crowd applauded us. As I was exiting the pool and felt incredibly lightheaded and my eyes starting blacking out. I sat down and Ms Pang checked where I was holding my head and saw I had an open cut.
For anyone who knew Ms Pang (she guided with us from 2009 to 2015) she was incredibly kind and caring. It was funny for me having a North Korean woman apologise for butt slamming me. She wouldn’t allow me to brush off my wound and forced me to go to the first aid office at the park.
Whatever you do in North Korea – visiting the doctor
We turned up and the doctor in charge there checked my head and said I possibly needed to be stitched up or at least bandaged. I agreed to go ahead with the bandage and asked for the costs but the doctor quickly cut me off and said he doesn’t have those materials on him. He further explained when the park first opened it’s been incredibly difficult to stock up on medical supplies and first aid kits because of recent sanctions set against North Korea.
I looked around the office and saw needles, scapples, a hospital bed, and an IV bag but the workbenches were totally bare. The doctor continued and said he can prepare a makeshift bandage for my head using towels which the park had an abundance of. I politely declined his offer; I could see the doctor really wanted to help and felt embarrassed he didn’t have the basic necessities of taking care of a small cut. I couldn’t blame him.
Ms. Pang discussed with me I could visit the Diplomatic Compound and see a foreign doctor. My head by this time had already stopped bleeding but I could tell by the panic in her voice she wouldn’t have dropped this topic so easily, so I agreed to go.
After gathering my YPT group at the end of the day as the park was closing, we boarded our bus and explained my little mishap. Told everyone Ms. Pang wouldn’t allow me to join them at the Taedonggang #2 Beer Bar and was doing a quick visit to the clinic. Much love to my group for giving Ms. Pang a little crap, and for being supportive. Our bus driver dopped Ms Pang and I off at the gates of the Diplomatic Compound.
Whatever you do in North Korea – dealing with the KPA
A Korean People’s Army officer was standing guard at the entrance to the compound. He doesn’t ask who I am and allows me to enter but wants clearance for Ms Pang. There was Korean chatter back ‘n forth for over 10 minutes, which at this time I could feel my head beginning to pound. She approaches me and asks for $5. I give her $10 and we enter the compound. I later found out that no North Koreans are allowed to enter the compound unless they’re registered to do so. She didn’t want to leave me alone in case my condition got worse.
We walk along the street that loops the compound and I ask Ms Pang which clinic are we going to. She shrugs her shoulders and laughs. She said I can speak to the foreigners here and find out. We pass the Pyongyang Korean School for Foreigners and there’s two African kids playing on the road. One of them has a bicycle and cycles up to us to say hi. He introduces himself and states he’s from Nigeria as he circles us on his bike. I say I’m from Australia and looking for a doctor. The kid says his older brother got sick last week and his parents took him to the doctor at the WFP office. “Follow me!”. Nice kid.
WFP to the rescue!
We knock on the WFP door and a man in a white coat answers, I asked if he’s the doctor and he responds with “I’m a doctor”. Good enough for me. He takes us in and introduces himself as working for the WFP. He says he’s from Bangladesh and had been in North Korea for a few months. As he begins inspecting my head I asked him if he has any medical supplies here. He told me that supplies do come in but are used very quickly in the countryside. He also added that local North Koreans get higher priority with the supplies than foreigners. Yikes. Lucky for me he diagnosed my injury as a minor cut, told me to keep it dry for 24 hours and said I won’t need anything further. Really helpful guy, didn’t charge for his time either. I got his clinic’s number and was on my merry way.
Ms Pang and I sat on the side of the street within the compound for the next hour or so as we waited for our pick up. We talked about the inconvenience of getting sick in the DPRK. She said for foreigners, they have the privilege of being able to visit the doctors based in the diplomatic compound for anything we need. For locals, whilst technically their medical treatment in the country is free, they’re still required to prepare their own medicine and supplies needed for the doctor to treat them. Which is both expensive and incredibly hard to find due to recent sanctions. That, and unless you don’t mind waiting hours, or even days, you’ll need to gift the doctors to help you skip the queues at the clinics or hospitals. “It’s not easy for us”.
Whatever you do in North Korea – Pyongyang General Hospital
Hopefully with the new Pyongyang General Hospital this is able to help rectify some of those issues we talked about that day but without any signs of sanctions being lifted, medical supplies in North Korea will continue to be a burden for the people. Make sure you always insured when you travel, and whatever you do in North Korea, DON’T hurt yourself.
Stay tuned for my next “whatever you do in North Korea” piece! Only available for subscribers!
