We have just returned from 2 days in the Masingyong ski resort, near the east coast and 20km SSW of Wonsan just off the Pyongyang Wonsan Motorway. In the past 3 days we have seen the best snow of our lives, seen the national orchestra put on a show to match any other classical music concert I've seen, and viewed the bodies of two more communist leaders lying in state. 

DEAD BODIES

The first body I saw lying in state was that of Ho Chi Minh, in Hanoi in 2012. This was an experience from another world. It was a long cold wait in the morning to get into the mausoleum complex, gradually the line made its way upstairs then we found ourselves in a small silent red lit room. The centre of this had an old man's dead body lying in it. As I wasn't a local I was more filled with curiosity at how the body could have been preserved so well for so long. I still harbour the doubt that it was actually a fake. I think though that these observations are missing the point. 

Preserving a body, having it lie in state, for decades means something. That it is not a part of my culture makes me think nothing comparably significant in terms of a national struggle or strong, pivotal leadership has occurred. Preserving a body for decades, for people, crowds of people, to revere every day, perhaps reflects a profound gratitude. Alternatively, maybe a fear that what was gained through the leader will be lost if their image is vanquished by nature like happens to the rest of us. Does it also mean that the leader ultimately failed? If successful, one would think that this meant the people could move ahead independently, the strength and values of the leader within them rather than remaining in the leader so much so that he should not be buried for fear of a collapse of some sort. Is there clearer evidence required that a personality cult arose? Was it ever the leader's aim to stimulate the development of a nation of self directed people? 

Anyway, a difference between the Vietnamese dead body lying in state and the two DPRK ones is that there was a room for each afterward filled with medals, honorary degrees, keys to overseas cities, awards for bravery, peace etc from international organisations and leaders. On the wall above the display cabinets containing these was a series of photographs of Il Sung and Jong Il with world leaders, such as Cambodia's now dead king Norodom Sihanouk, Tito, a Belgian prime minister, a US foreign secretary and a few African leaders. Mongolian and Laos leaders from long past were also there, along with a Syrian leader although not the current one. Whilst perhaps half the awards were DPRK in origin, such as Jong Il being designated the Hero of the DPRK (presumably preparing the ground for his replacing Il Sung) the rest were described as being given by overseas bodies such as a number of honorary doctorates in things such as engineering, a key to Derbyshire County for Il Sung, and a handful of chieftain type awards from African nations in these trophy rooms of both leaders.

In the coat room afterward we met of all things a Vietnamese tourist! He summed it up in one word,  "mindboggling". I must confess the way it was said contained a little too much emphasis, like he might have sought to ensure he had the politically correct sounding view. It would have been interesting to talk with him more about the contrasts and similarities with the body lying in state in his own country, but the idea did not occur to me until now. After that we went outside in the freezing winter air for some photos on the grounds of Com Suzan Palace where the mausoleum was. 

SKIING

We discovered 2 whole runs of fresh snow, slopes 2 and 3. All of my skiing before North Korea, even Iran, has been on well trafficked slopes. Often these are scraped down to a slippery icy bed. So it was a magical feeling floating almost silently down a mountain, trees either side, discovering untouched territory and a feeling of complete freedom to sail through it all like it was my own. 

Skiing in the DPRK was made possible because of the construction of the world's latest ski resort. Apparently this was completed in the six months prior to January 2014, although our guides didn't know how many people this involved and I was afraid to ask how many died. This is an impressive feat for a complex of 10 slopes, a ropeway, a couple of travelators/'magic carpets', 4 chairlifts, an ice rink, a large hotel, two pavilions on the slopes, roads and a clutch of maintenance buildings. It's a very well appointed hotel with two large joined buildings about 8 storeys high. Our guides stayed in a different building to us but was still in the hotel, ironically the one with a direct view up the nearest slope (6). Whilst it had the appearance of using fine and varied construction techniques such as thin horizontal slivers of stone, wood veneer and woven reeds for the walls, these were actually 3 types of plastic wallpaper. I wonder how this will look in a couple of years - perhaps the glue, and illusion, will come unstuck. 

We had the royal treatment, eating fine Korean food every night which was a couple of steps above that on offer at the Yangakdo Hotel back in Pyongyang. For example, though the kimchee was the same every night it wasn't a random pile of cabbage and raddish. Instead it was a carefully cut 2 inch slice of Chinese cabbage and never the top or tail. This was set in a bowl, cut face pointing up, covered in mild chilli sauce. Just enough to accompany each of the five(!) courses. My favourite was the pork simply because it was succulent and covered in a perfect sprinkle of spices. .. and also obviously because it's banned in Kuwait. Usually we were given too much to eat which caused me more guilt than usual for not finishing, given the news of famines in recent years and ongoing food aid from abroad. 

In fact, that one small reflection is making me feel queasy about what we just did in the past two days. A way to make myself feel better is that the resort was packed with locals both days, with perhaps a hundred kids on the beginner slope each morning getting lessons. The guides told us they are given a trip to the resort if they do well, both students and workers. There were apparently plenty of Chinese tourists there too but these were hard for me to distinguish from locals. Myself, my friend and another man with a German accent were the only people there from the west. 

The standard of skiing ranged from rank beginner to slalom legend. They'd set up slalom poles on slope 6 and this provided great entertainment from the chairlift. Most successfully skipped side to side through the course, a satisfying thwack of each pole on the leading forearm. Due to their speed though when there was a mistake this could lead to a crash. I saw a head first somersault unfold below me the first day, thankfully he got straight up without any apparent injury.

I had my own share of crashes. My friend was a lot quicker than I... having 10 extra years of experience. Slowing down fixed the faceplanting problem. Then, however when we discovered the fresh, ungroomed slopes with old heavy powder I had the same problem again. I'd never really skied this type of snow before so had to work on my technique for turns. It's harder to pivot a long object like a ski, with 80kg sitting on it, in such soft material. The snow grabs each end, stops you moving and inertia does the rest of the face plant.  I got really familiar with wipeout physics after hitting the deck about 10 times, including on every attempted turn down a particularly steep, soft section on slope 3. Basically what I realised was I was afraid of going too quickly, so wanted to make sharp turns to maintain a low angle of attack down the slope. The only way to do this though was to do jump turns, I'm not good at those in soft snow. The other option I tried was to make slow, sweeping turns where my skiis gently rotated across the slope to the other side. This involved picking up a bit of speed in the portion my skis pointed to the bottom, but this was easily washed off by heading back up the slope a little in preparation for the next sweeping turn. I went from wiping out on every switch to 2 crashes. On the last attempt down slope 2 I even set myself up well enough at the bottom of this steep section to do my first ski jump ever, off the lip created by a snow covered road cutting across. It was nice to end things on a high.