Sunday morning, at the seaside for more Beauty O' Nature action.

The bus ride to get here was fascinating and beautiful. But, of course, cameras were off limits.

Soldiers are posted every 200 meters to enforce this. They are dead serious.

Cool rock island.

This is a view looking south. The border is about 30 km away.

In the distance, you can see a battleship. Apparently, it is always stationed here, just off the coast.

These rocks had a vaguely Dr. Seuss style.

"...On a mountain half way between Reno and Rome, we have a Machine in a Plexiglass Dome, which Listens and Looks into everyone's home..."

If you go the long way round, this rock is exactly half way between Reno and Rome.

The woman in orange is deaf and extremely aggressive.

Sarah, posing with the rocks.

What's that in the background?

Could that be... tanks? stationed in caves?

Funny kind of coastal defense. Tanks half hidden in caves.

This is the last picture we got before our minder got wise and shooed us away.

Just up the hill from the coast, some evidence of agriculture.

We were not really sure if taking pictures here was allowed. God forbid we get a picture of a farm. The peasants (here the word truly applies) have absolutely no farm machinery. It's all done by hand.

Another view from the bus parking lot.

The whole tour consisted of 20 buses. Two of them were filled with us English speakers.

This is just the contingent that opted to sea the oceanside. Another group went on further mountain hikes.

Next stop, a beautiful lake.

In the upper right you can see some huge engraved koran writing.

The engraving celebrates achievements of Our Beloved Leaders, and threatens anybody who might stand against his might.

This is how you spell....

KIM IL SONG.

View from the top. There is a pagoda on the rocks in the middle of the lake.

This pagoda was off limits. Some of the fun of North Korea is the sheer bulk and random diversity of things that are off limits.

We got a chance to almost get Sarah alone with the lake. Everybody was moving off to listen to the Real Live North Korean guy, who gave a lecture (and a song!) through a bullhorn.

Here he is singing. SItting next to me during this performance was a really old Korean man, maybe eighty years old. We commiserated that we didn't understand a damn thing the guide was saying. My newfound old friend was born in Moscow. He had never learned to speak Korean.

Bridge. Up on the right you can see the highest lookout point.

At the lookout point, we were treated to another bullhorn lecture.

There was a minder walking around who was suspiciously peering into everybody's camera, checking to see what they were taking pictures of.

Back in "town square" we decided to eat at the downmarket food court. Sarah is displaying her chicken-in-a-pot.

Matt is pretending to sleep so that Sarah can pretend to take a picture of him. But really, we are trying to score a verboten snapshot of a North Korean Soldier.

Here is the upper left corner of the shot. There was a ban on any lens with more than a 4X zoom.

You had to actually bring out and show your camera at the border, to prove there was no telephoto lens.

Bambo! We totally got them. You can see that one soldier is carrying a red flag. If he had seen us taking his photo, he would have waved the red flag. Thence a chain of events would have resulted in our losing our camera. But. We got him.

Matt, in North Korean Soldier pose.

Sarah, in North Korean Soldier pose.