Korea, North

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” 
                                                                                                     ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

The first time I learned I could travel to North Korea (officially Democratic People's Republic of Korea) I was stunned. And immediately afterwards, I was uber excited. Consciously or not, it became the place for me to discover, bumping Antarctica to second.

But why was the desire to go to North Korea so powerful? What made it become the most desired travel destination so quickly? One word: mystique.

Juche Tower

Usually that word is something positive, referring to vast treasures and fabled myths hidden in wait just for you. But this time around it refers to the blanket of mystery suffocating it's people and way of life, portrayed always by our media as our sole enemy and rival. This time, the word mystique brings about an air of danger and uncertainty that I know will present itself to me when I do finally hop aboard the plane heading for the world's least visited country in the world.

I've done my research and found others' blogs and travel journals who have actually braved the tour (the only one I know of is Koryo Tours.) And it's expensive:  €780 for just 2 days plus the ticket to Beijing which is going to be at least $1,000 more. The tour price does include the flight ticket from Beijing to Pyongyang (I get so excited every time I realize I can actually go there), so that's a plus.

But one thing that really sticks out is the opportunity to interact with real North Koreans. In the face of all that there is to scare each other away from the other, I have the opportunity to go there and be the character showing one of the sole purpose's of why I travel: to show others that, though our governments may hate each other, our people do not. I want to show whoever I come in contact with that though I am foreign, I am not bad. Though I am American, I am not evil.

There have been experiences of other bold travelers going to North Korea and interacting with the people as they would anywhere else (for the most part): taking pictures, smiling, communicating via body language - amazing stuff when you consider it's being done in the capital of the world's scariest and most secluded nation.

I want to experience that. I want to see the reality of whatever it is I can see in that land (I know much of it would be staged); I want to pour the people of North Korea into my heart and learn who they truly are; I want to be in the reality of "our enemy" and be able to say I learned from them - and then pass that on to others.

I want to be that bridge between 2 cultures which are so far apart I never thought I'd ever be able to visit it, and I want to destroy as many social fabrications about Americans as I can and show that no matter what our governments say, we are all people, we are all human, and we can all smile.

Plus, how bad ass would it be to be able to say, "Oh yeah, I've been to North Korea"? ✌