I attended the Mass Games in Pyongyang. They were a bizarre, wonderful and very intense experience. (More photos here.) The current version of the games, the “Arirang”, tells the history of North Korea through a giant series of dance and gymnastic sequences. There are reportedly up to 100,000 participants, although only a few hundreds or […]
Browsing Posts in Travel
North Korea's Mass Games
August 3, 2011
Nagorno-Karabakh: Shushi
May 26, 2011
I took a marshrutka out from Stepanakert to the old scenic town of Shushi. Shushi was on the front-line of the 1990’s Nagorno-Karabakh war and suffered heavy damage. It was an Azerbaijan stronghold, opposing Armenian-held Stepanakert. Over the course of the war most of the population fled, and the town still has many abandoned buildings. […]
Tehran: National Jewels Museum
May 17, 2011
The Tehran National Jewels Museum is truly over-the-top, with a staggering collection of gem encrusted artifacts. I had missed this when I was in Tehran in 2008, so I made sure to catch it this time. The collection is in 37 large display cases, full of many lavishly decorated items. There are bright crowns, covered […]
Astara Border Crossing Zoo
May 14, 2011
The Astara border crossing from Azerbaijan to Iran turned out to be a bit of a zoo. The border crossing is very slow, and to maintain order the Azeri authorities have created a special queuing area with four distinct queues separated by cage-like walls. Every 30-40 minutes the authorities would open the steel door for […]
The Itaipu Dam
March 14, 2011
I caught a local bus out to the visitor center at the giant Itaipu (“it-eye-poo“) dam on the Brazil-Paraguay border. Depending how you measure it, this is either the #1 or #2 hydroelectric plant in the world, with a peak generating capacity of 14 Gigawatts. Yowza! I signed up for the “Special Circuit” tour, which […]
Brest Fortress, Belarus
December 26, 2010
The Brest Fortress complex commemorates the heroic defence of the Soviet garrison against the German invasion of June 1941. I also ambled through the Fortress Museum, which has some displays of the 19th c. fortress, and even a very short display on the 1939 Polish defence, but which is naturally focused on the 1941 defence, […]
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