[LuganoPirate]

Well thank goodness, I’d rather be run over by a Bentley than a TukTuk! 😉

[canucklad]

Cheers travelworld2……enough not to risk breaking visa conditions yet enough to be able to get a flavour of the place…..

[RaveAroundTheWorld]

Summer skiing in Portillo, Chile.

Anyone been?

[MrMichael]

Great review Travelworld, thank you. North Korea is in my top 5, after your review it still is. Couple of questions though if you do not mind my asking.

How much did your trip cost?
What were your guides like?

[travelworld2]

Mr Michael- I don’t have an exact price for the trip as it was part of a bigger package and I’ve no longer got the breakdown but it would have been around £900 ex Beijing. You could do it on your own without a tour group but you would still have the two guides- that way it would be costlier. From my perspective it was interesting to have another seven travelling companions as they spotted things I didn’t and asked questions I wouldn’t have thought of.

The two guides were excellent, I thought- all guiding was presented factually along the lines of “The North Korean people do x, or believe y” without any criticism, uttered or implied of any Western views. The group respected that and did not ask any questions which might cause embarrassment.. There was an interesting comic interlude in the circus trip mentioned above featuring a scene with two soldiers, one drunk and one sober, with the latter clutching a direction sign to a bar.(in English) It was clown-like and the audience thought it was hilarious. As we couldn’t quite follow what was going on we asked a guide what was meant by the scene and she told us that the drunk soldier was from the US and the entire scene was acted at the expense of the US. She was clearly embarrassed at telling us this even though there were no Americans in the tour group.

[Tramor01]

LP

+1

[skywards]

Bath_VIP

Thanks for pointing that out…clearly I was not thinking. I now feel as thick as a castle wall.

[LuganoPirate]

Very interesting Travelworld and thanks for taking the time to post the review. Makes we want to visit all the more!

[TiredOldHack]

RaveAroundTheWorld – been in Chile more times than I can count, and my younger daughter spent a day skiing in Colorado (ski statio n an hour out of Santiago).

Skiing in Chile is limited in terms of lifts and vertical and really expensive. I did investigate doing it, and decided not to.

Daughter liked it because she could go back to Uni in the autumn and reply, when someone sasked “What did you do over the summer?”, “Oh, went skiing…”.

[BigDog.]

Having just seen BBC4 Wild China featuring Harbin I would like to add the Ice City to the list.

10,000 people take 18 days to build it from huge blocks of ice cut from the frozen river. The sculptures, buildings, slides etc are then illuminated to become a frozen Disney World at night.

Has anyone visited?

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/travel/chinas-spectacular-ice-city-opens-20140107-30ex2.html

[MrMichael]

Thanks for the info Travelworld, really appreciate it. I am off to Oz early next year for a months holiday, debating with MrsM whether to add on North Korea as a stopover trip via Beijing. The difficulty is persuading MrsM to either visit North Korea with me, or to stay a few days in Beijing alone. I guess another option is for her to fly out to Beijing once I get back from NK. Whichever, I have an uphill struggle akin to the chap that pushed a brussel sprout up Snowden with his nose.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/08/this-man-pushed-a-brussel-sprout-up-mount-snowden-with-his-nose/

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Thanks travelworld2, but I remain to be convinced not least because the idea of an organised tour sends shivers up my spine. Having said that, one of my best holidays ever was just that – an organised tour of Sri Lanka in a minivan with a Dutch and Belgian couple.

MrMichael, I wondered why on earth you were talking about Edward until I opened the link!!

[TiredOldHack]

BigDog – yes, the Ice Festival is on my Bucket List as well.

[maxgeorge]

Many thanks, travelworld, for the informative and encouraging report on your DPRK visit.

Group travel may be required, but as US citizens and Israelis are routinely denied visas, many would in consequence consider the experience rather more bearable.

I used to roam around the old Warsaw Pact Eastern Europe – DDR, CSSR etc, and to Caucescu’s imprisoned Romania – in the halcyon days of no traffic, no Prague pickpockets and 5p beer.

North Korea brings back happy memories. For the tourist, at least.

[travelwell]

for me it has to be:

Svalbard
McCarthy, Alaska
North Korea
Saipan
Saint Helena

I heard BA are starting direct routes to all of those places from LHR !

[Author]

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