Alone in an Empty North Korean Airport

I am the only one in the Apple right now on North Korea the breaking news Matic talks between the u.s. and North Korea already stands tough good morning it's 6:00 a.m. and I'm in Pyongyang right now and I'm just about to fly from Pyongyang to Beijing on the world's worst airline the world's only one star airline let's go to the airport it's just for me [Music] just like husband [Music] as far as I can see yeah there's no one here right it's not open hilarious we just tried the doors to get in and it's closed I think it's the first time I've come to an airport and it's been closed okay the other doors are open check us out I am the only one in the airport right now like I'm waist butter and you can hear me and I check-in stuff no people battle check it out this is the only time I've been to an airport so this is the first time and only time really besides being in the hotel where I've been completely unsuited I'm not allowed to leave the airport like everywhere you go in North Korea you have guides I am completely on my own right now in a giant empty airport I think that there's other guy it's coming later but I have two hours to wait in this room we have no one doing nothing so so the first step put in the world and just need my bags down there and I feel like I'm gonna get in any trouble there's one security guide down there and nothing's open so I don't think anyone's gonna be worried about the left baggage it's kind of spooky like something from zombie art I assume this is what any app was like before - never experienced it before season big so I got Terry chance though it's about an hour later now and people have started to arrive so time to check in and go through to our site so don't if you can see this by the way but there's two flights today there's one to Beijing at 10:15 which is what I'm getting there's another to Shanghai at 10:00 to 10:00 tonight and that's it for the whole day [Music] you know what that was really easy I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that there's only two flights but getting for security and customs that was like took about me I'd saved three minutes like they looked at my passport stamped it straight for security like I don't have to get my laptop out or anything I am not even my camera or anything literally let's just put it well in and got through really quickly a lot of people say about like even people have the thought before about where you get everything checked on your memory cards and everything else looked at when you come out of North Korea but for me going through the airport then they did not care whatsoever they just I went straight through and now I'm on the other side I'm an air side now for the next hour it's funny because it's actually quite a big terminal yeah there's two flights today and one like twelve hours apart here waiting for the flight now got myself coffee this is my courier a ticket that is standard the only annoying thing I've found is there is like there's no food there at all just had a coffee there's like no food or restaurants as far as I can see available to buy these not open right now I can't see anything a whole dried fish there's actually no food at all other than gt3 shock cookies and chocolates and stuff so I'm gonna wait until Beijing it's any like an hour flight anyway I've just been told that we well I was told before but I can't really film on the plane and they don't like you but kind of did it surreptitiously from here kind of sly we're still gonna try yeah we'll see because this is the world's only one star airline it's the world's worst airline three months I have to try and film some of it here we go [Music] that was actually quite all right for the world's only one star airline it wasn't bad at all it was quite an easy flight got a little bit of food as well they call it the mystery meat burger but I've been told it's actually pork yeah that's fine I've had worse flights on Ryanair and Whizzer it was honestly no big deal and there's a reason but I'm back in Beijing though there's a reason I had to fly and everyone else got a train back you're gonna tell you in a second and I'm back in Beijing and I've got staying at a hostel just up here what a crazy few days I kind of decided on a bit of a whim to go to North Korea it's because I was coming to China already for the great wall marathon I just added this on afterwards and yeah I mean I said my real first impressions in the video I did a couple videos about the first impressions of North Korea but I just want to reiterate the I have thought before just having spent a couple of days there I'd be a lot more restricted and what I could film and take photos of and what I could say to the camera as well and I wasn't checked at all going out memory cards or camera or anything phone ly what they weren't interested so I easily could have said absolutely whatever I wanted and as it was I didn't really hold back that much anyway I sort of just filmed everything except for military and construction which you can't and didn't say anything bad about Kim jung-un or the Supreme Leader's because again that would be bad but besides that it was all easily film abort and I don't want to like say no that's the best advice going like film everyone obviously do your own research asks your guides check what they suggest but for me it felt like I was able to give my opinion on most things and we were having conversations about most things as well quite openly and able to ask questions about the country quite openly as well alright anyway that's just me collecting my thoughts but I want to say why I had to get the flight in this video because I was meant to whoever Young Pioneers the company I went with go across via the land border in the train and returned by the train no see I've got the train on the way in if you saw that video but I couldn't get the train on the way out because I only had a single entry China visa they did say beforehand to get the double entry China visa and I applied for that but unfortunately China didn't give it to me they only gave me a single entry one so what this meant is I couldn't cross back using the train because they don't do transit visas on the land border what China do do however is a 144 hour transit visa here from the UK like me which you can get if you fly into Beijing so I had to fly from Pyongyang back into Beijing and get a 144 our visa that way it didn't mean it was quite expensive because that was the last seat available on that flight and it was a 400 euro flight in the end which was yeah uh-huh but it was the only way that I had the chance to see North Korea this time around and that's just about it let me know in the comments what you thought about this series let me know if you have more questions about traveling to North Korea and honestly if you have any questions then put them below and I'm going to try and do a follow-up video to this answering all the questions that have come up in the comments but the general reaction has been to the past few videos but for now I just want to say I hope you enjoyed this and I hope you took the whole series with a pinch of salt it was never a political commentary on North Korea or is never really whether you should travel to it was more just what if you did and trying to show you a place that most people don't see or think of going to and just showing you my personal experience of being there for a few days it was only a few days I kind of wish it was longer but I only had a few days spare this time around and so at least I got to see it a little bit but I think if you did go for a longer trip then obviously you get to see a lot more of the country because I only saw Pyongyang the capital city right that's it for now bit of a ramble at the end of that but I hope that will make sense thank you for watching and see you again in the next video we

Channel: TheLifeOfJord

Views: 3,992,232

Rating: 4.8770275 out of 5

Keywords: thelifeofjord, the life of jord, jordan simons, korea, north korea, air koryo, north korea vlog, pyongyang, pyongyang vlog, pyongyang airport, north korea vs south korea, pyongyang first impressions, alone in empty airport, empty north korea airport, abandoned airport, thelifeofjord north korea, the life of jord north korea, travel north korea, kim jong un, inside north korea, north korea 2019, north korea airline, 1 star airline, simon wilson, north korea documentary

Id: Rf10ZV2dnuQ

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/kitthekat]

Surprisingly uneventful

[u/cyroxos]

comparing that to a normal airline... I would rate it 6 stars. Food, clean ramp, television screen for a one hour flight, overhead storage, open seating in the terminal, a quick security check-in are all luxuries nowadays.