Photos Taken during the Cruise(from a Chinese Website)
A Female Crew Throwing Trash Overboard
Crappy and Cramped Accommodation
Lousy Deck Condition
Spontaneous Entertainment(?)
Posted on 09/16/2011 1:25:18 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
North Korean Cruise Seeks Tourists, 8 to a Room
By EDWARD WONG
ABOARD THE MANGYONGBONG, off North Korea — It was billed as a cruise ship, but the creaking, nearly-40-year-old vessel that set sail from the remote North Korean town of Rajin had more of the trappings of a tramp steamer. With its cramped cabins, cut-rate cuisine and foul, water-deprived bathrooms, it was not about to compete anytime soon with Cunard or Carnival in the leisure industry.
Then again, it does not have to. As North Korea’s latest venture into the tourism business, it need not concern itself with rivals. The trick, as its operators conceded, will be to attract enough vacationers.
Desperate for foreign currency, officials in secretive North Korea are trying to lure tourists to holiday cruises along the length of the impoverished country’s east coast. Earlier this month, a trial run by the rusty Mangyongbong was completed in 43 trying hours at sea. More than 200 people were packed into dim and musty cabins, sometimes eight to a room with floor mattresses. Chinese tourists and businesspeople shared quarters with North Korean officials and foreign journalists.
The inaugural cruise presumably had support at the highest levels in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The organizer, Taepung International Investment Group, falls under the National Defense Commission, which answers directly to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A Female Crew Throwing Trash Overboard
Crappy and Cramped Accommodation
Lousy Deck Condition
Spontaneous Entertainment(?)
P!
Ronery Cruise Rines ?
Plastic Walmart chairs on deck! LOL!!!
You have to give them some applause. It took a heck of a lot of red-tape being cut to allow this deal to happen. Then a bunch of guys had to accept such bad conditions as acceptable.
It didn’t look nearly as bad as the article lead me to believe.
You know, I can actually smell these pictures.
Me too.:-)
The Love Boat
Soon will be making another run!
The Love Boat
Promises something for everyone!
The box holding the fire hose is labeled in English. I guess they’re expecting American ships to save them if there’s a fire.
I don’t see the firehose, is it in one of the pictures heree?
LOL...I wonder if each passenger has to bring their own wok (or whatever they call it in Korean). I imagine the cabin odors get mighty thick...when they fire up eight portable charcoal briquette cookstoves.
Did they convert the USS Pueblo?
The photo of the woman throwing the trash overboard. Center of the photo at the bottom.
Cool, Thanks.
The Mangyongbong? I don’t think any foreign national civilians ought to be riding it for a tour.
And I’ll leave it at that.
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