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Andi C

Singapore-Pyongyang Direct Flights from Sep08

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Article is in Chinese. Roughly translated

Group tours to the DPRK in September organized by Universal Travel Corporation

Using Air Koryo Tupolev204-300 Charter Flights

Pyongyang-Singapore 17Sep

Singapore-Pyongyang 18Sep & 24Sep

 

http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp080616_506.shtml

 

Article didn't mention STA/STD though

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I will rather fly straight into Beijing first than take Air China's birds to Pyongyang...

 

That could be the longest flight in decades for Air Koryo.

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very misleading title! i thought it was scheduled!!

 

Direct flights can be chartered or scheduled. Charter flights can also be operated indefinitely.

Anyway that's what the 'title' in the article said, i just translate it literally.

I have NO intention to mislead anyone here

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Not in decades... Before the Black list, they flew to Europe quite often...

Indeed... to Moscow and Berlin. So this 6hr flight to Singapore isn't that far. I wonder if the crew will be closely guarded during their stay in Singapore?

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How easy (or hard) is it to get permit to visit North Korea? :pardon: :pardon: :pardon: Always have some wild idea to visit one of the most reclusive place in the world.

 

Maybe someday one of us in MW will do a TR on NK...?? :p :P :p

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I wonder if the crew will be closely guarded during their stay in Singapore?

Maybe they'll bring extra crew along, just is case some of the crew decided to stay a bit longer.....

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Maybe they'll bring extra crew along, just is case some of the crew decided to stay a bit longer.....

 

...and risk losing their entire family back home

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Maybe they'll bring extra crew along, just is case some of the crew decided to stay a bit longer.....

May be the Singaporean government will spy on them too. Just like they did to foreign visitors to North Korea.

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This series of charter flights is the result of a fairly sustained marketing effort by Universal Travel Corporation (UTC) over the years. In September 2003 when I visited Pyongyang, I was surprised to meet a group of 21 Singaporean visitors who had travelled there on a UTC group tour. Interestingly, the members of this group (plus several Swiss and German visitors I met elsewhere in North Korea near the Myohyang Mountains) confirmed that they were not stopped from speaking or interacting with the locals in some of the places they stopped.

 

I personally found that we were able to request unscheduled stops initially for photography and were not stopped from communicating with the locals. We were even able to interact with a wedding entourage and a family out in the park.

 

I would only like to say that while North Korea isn't your idea of a luxury tour destination, it is an eye-opener and a great showcase of a pure and communist country. Perhaps more like Vietnam and China before they were touched by capitalism . . . and might I add that there is a great deal of charm in that. I have tonnes of pictures from my trip which I treasure to this day . . . and I flew Air Koryo and would not hesitate a heartbeat to fly with them again. My flights on the IL-62s were very good and I am certain the TU-204 could only be better.

 

Go in with an open-mind and not judge . . . note the differences from what you are familiar with and you will be surprised with what you see. They are poor enough to ensure nothing is wasted . . . so do not expect to find tonnes of garbage waiting to be collected, no plastic bags lying around and polluting the environment, no huge SUVs with just one passenger spewing carbon monoxide, no sign of decadent lifestyle . . . instead expect to see a very clean environment, breathe fresh air, no billboards proclaiming the joy of McDonalds, Starbucks, Gucci, Toyota, Mercedes etc.

 

And while Pyongyang is not brightly lit . . . it isn't pitch black as much of the international press would have you believe. I do in fact find it quite nice that lighting was just as required . . . not tonnes of unnecessary lighting that consume all the electricity that could have gone to better use.

 

The one icon which I found extravagant was the 105-storey hotel that remained uncompleted . . . just 105-storeys of wasted concrete.

 

KC Sim

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The legendary Ryugyong Hotel (105 storey, 330 meter) - the tallest hotel in the world (if ever completed 16 years ago).

Ryugyong_Hotel.jpg

 

Ryugyong Hotel dominating Pyongyang's skyline.

ryugyong_hotel2.jpg

 

Ryugyong Hotel versus the tallest buildings of Malaysia and Singapore.

RyugyongMASSIN.jpg

Diagrams are generated from skyscraperpage.com

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