At Home In The Wasteland Travel Blog

This is the lobby of the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. I stayed here in September 2009 while on a group tour of the country. Granted, it’s not quite the Atlantis Dubai, but the rooms were decent, the draft beer was great, there was a bowling alley and karaoke bar in the basement, and [...]

Several weeks ago I posted some daytime shots of the Pyongyang skyline. This is a similar view of Pyongyang, but at 1am in the morning. Remember those joke postcards you could buy that were completely black and would say something like “Los Angeles at night”? That’s what Pyongyang reminded me of when I would stick [...]

When you’re on vacation in North Korea, you don’t get to sleep in. And really, how could you, when there are so many Kim Il-Sung monuments to pay homage to and ill-maintained roller coasters to ride? Thus, your morning in North Korea typically begins with a wake-up call at 7am (and 7:05am, in case the [...]

Much like your choice of air carrier, there aren’t many hotels to choose from when planning a trip to Pyongyang. You can’t exactly go to priceline.com and put in a bid for a non-smoking room at a four star hotel with a great view and no covert listening devices hidden in the light fixtures. Perhaps [...]