DPRK

Home From Home

Beer advert. Home from home in Pyongyang! Forget the paranoia about the hotel room being bugged (or indeed the bed bugs). Taedonggang Brewery on the outskirts of Pyongyang is the source of the local beer which happens to be pretty good. The entire equipment at the brewery was purchased from the Ushers Brewery of Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 2000 and commenced production in 2002. A 75ml bottle of beer costs half a Euro (the foreign currency favoured by the DPRK in preference to the US dollar).

Telling everyone at home that you wish they were in North Korea was a challenging experience but at least it was possible. Telephone calls and faxes were extremely expensive (although you aren't paying for privacy). Sending an email was a laborious task on a dial-up connection – after sending an email you were required to log the addressee's details on a form as if the information wasn't available in the 'sent' folder. Internet browsing was out of the question. Sending a postcard wasn't a straightforward process either – the stamps didn't have any adhesive and wouldn't stick properly (which might explain why they took a fortnight to be received).