Reading this made me nostalgic for the old internet and sad about what it's become since.
I miss the days of blogs and forums and authentic content like this.
Today it's all hyperpolished platforms filled with clickbaity influencers. Every step of the way, somebody's trying to extract as much money as they can.
I can't help but think that we in this community played a big part in turning it into what it is now and that thought fills me with regret.
greenavocado · 12m ago
I am reposting one of my favorite Quora adventure stories for the sake of posterity:
What is the strangest thing you've seen at the airport?
By Aurelio Germes: The strangest thing I've seen was to find nobody not even police or security at the airport, so I took a plane and left the country without anyone noticing it. It was at the international airport in Malabo, island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea.
It happened that I had missed my flight from Malabo to Madrid departing on Sunday and I didn't want to wait a whole week for the next weekly flight, so I decided to call a pilot in Cameroon and charter his plane to come and pick me up in Malabo and take me to the Douala airport in Cameroon where I could more easily catch a plane to Paris. We arranged date and hour of his arrival to Malabo.
On the date agreed I went to the international airport only to find out that it was closed since that day no flights, neither international nor domestic, were scheduled. There was nobody there not even a guard or a clerk, but it was already too late to cancel the trip. The only way out was to jump the wall surrounding the airport and wait on the runway until an aircraft arrived, and that's what I did.
I didn't have to wait long. A small plane with a French pilot arrived and soon we were ready to fly to Douala with me in the copilot seat. We could not take off in our first attempt since a door of the aircraft opened unexpectedly when we were about to take off, but we succeeded in our second attempt.
Due to lack of security, nobody noticed that a plane had arrived at the international airport and left with a passenger.
steamrolled · 1h ago
The old internet is still there, it just hasn't scaled as quickly as everything else. And frankly, we have a role to play if we want to preserve and nourish it. You say you liked the site. Drop the author a thank you note. Amplify it beyond pressing the "up" arrow on HN. It's not just about the author: show others that this kind of stuff is valued.
Today, the signals young content creators get is that they can make dumb videos on YouTube or TikTok and get 10M subscribers and ad revenue, or set up a geeky blog that will get 100 views a month. But it's not Google or TikTok that did this: it's the content consumers.
jazzyb · 57m ago
> But it's not Google or TikTok that did this: it's the content consumers.
Given the intentionally addictive algorithms and psychological manipulation used by the big tech companies, I think at least some of the blame can be placed on them.
ch4s3 · 4h ago
The follow on posts and photos are amazing. The photos of crowds of North Koreans are really interesting, as were the earlier station photos. The material culture of the place is kind of fascinating.
It's also kind of mind boggling to contemplate the lives Arirang performers[1]. What must that be like?
I was like "wow that is a big screen although not very bright".
> Each background picture is created by about 40.000 childrens holding tables containing pages with different pictures/colours
[zoom of the "screen" with endless pixels: a color square a little head on top of each - impressionist style] https://imageshack.com/i/exw2BFluj
Loughla · 3h ago
There are just no people anywhere. Do they clear everyone out when westerners come through?
bobmcnamara · 2h ago
They are pixels
bananaboy · 1h ago
This reminds me a bit of Paul Theroux’s “The Old Patagonian Express” where he tries to make a trip from the northern US all the way to the southern tip of South America. It’s a great read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Patagonian_Express
ValentineC · 2h ago
I think I spent maybe 2 hours appreciating the author's journey.
This has been one of my best reads of the month, and I hope that I'll one day get to visit Pyongyang myself, without the US visa waiver issues that come with it.
Klonoar · 4h ago
I think I probably refer a stupid number of people to this post each year when the topic of trains and/or North Korea comes up. Read it when it came out and always found it fascinating.
geye1234 · 3h ago
If you wanted to explain to someone what the 00s-blogging phenomenon was all about, and to given them an example of the best of it, you may well point to this.
Photos of NK like these are incredibly difficult to come by. What a beautiful country.
Also, I admire his courage. In several photos, military people are staring at him, as they may well be. He was lucky as well. He states he hid the photos in a zip file in his C:\windows folder when leaving the country, having deleted them from his SD Card.
sira04 · 2h ago
Is there anyone who has archived this into a PDF or ebook format? I'd love to save and read it in another way.
starik36 · 55m ago
A throwback to more hopeful times. The new internet really did a number on us.
te_chris · 3h ago
This is one of the best bits of the internet and should be at the top.
cenamus · 5h ago
Fascinating article, didn't know the border is/was that open via Russia
decimalenough · 3h ago
It normally isn't (unless you're Russian or North Korean), which is a large reason why this story is so fascinating.
cyberax · 1h ago
This is from 2008. Back then, North Korea was still living under the previous Kim. Back then, the border was very leaky and Koreans could move to China and Russia without a lot of barriers.
ubermonkey · 2h ago
Pretty sure I read this when it was new. Wild.
oatsandsugar · 4h ago
did he end up going?
willidiots · 4h ago
Yes! There are a whole series of posts with photos and maps. Click the red "Tumangan, we are coming!!!" link at the bottom of the first post to jump to the next one, etc.
echelon_musk · 4h ago
Thanks. I didn't realise the red text was a hyperlink either.
To save anyone else the hassle, this is where he finally crosses into NK:
Keep going and going and going. There are a lot of trains (of course) but once you get past that there are a lot of very interesting photos, especially the shows that look extravagent and unique. This guy documents his trips well!
Hope it is backed up well (guess on the archive sites).
izacus · 3h ago
What hassle are you talking about? Reading about the trip?
cosmicgadget · 3h ago
Yeah only after clicking the home button did I realize that '<' is next. It suddenly got a lot less ominous.
netsharc · 2h ago
Ah, the blogosphere "Reverse chronological" order: Hit "< Prev" to read the chronologically next post...
I miss the days of blogs and forums and authentic content like this.
Today it's all hyperpolished platforms filled with clickbaity influencers. Every step of the way, somebody's trying to extract as much money as they can.
I can't help but think that we in this community played a big part in turning it into what it is now and that thought fills me with regret.
What is the strangest thing you've seen at the airport?
By Aurelio Germes: The strangest thing I've seen was to find nobody not even police or security at the airport, so I took a plane and left the country without anyone noticing it. It was at the international airport in Malabo, island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea.
It happened that I had missed my flight from Malabo to Madrid departing on Sunday and I didn't want to wait a whole week for the next weekly flight, so I decided to call a pilot in Cameroon and charter his plane to come and pick me up in Malabo and take me to the Douala airport in Cameroon where I could more easily catch a plane to Paris. We arranged date and hour of his arrival to Malabo.
On the date agreed I went to the international airport only to find out that it was closed since that day no flights, neither international nor domestic, were scheduled. There was nobody there not even a guard or a clerk, but it was already too late to cancel the trip. The only way out was to jump the wall surrounding the airport and wait on the runway until an aircraft arrived, and that's what I did.
I didn't have to wait long. A small plane with a French pilot arrived and soon we were ready to fly to Douala with me in the copilot seat. We could not take off in our first attempt since a door of the aircraft opened unexpectedly when we were about to take off, but we succeeded in our second attempt.
Due to lack of security, nobody noticed that a plane had arrived at the international airport and left with a passenger.
Today, the signals young content creators get is that they can make dumb videos on YouTube or TikTok and get 10M subscribers and ad revenue, or set up a geeky blog that will get 100 views a month. But it's not Google or TikTok that did this: it's the content consumers.
Given the intentionally addictive algorithms and psychological manipulation used by the big tech companies, I think at least some of the blame can be placed on them.
It's also kind of mind boggling to contemplate the lives Arirang performers[1]. What must that be like?
[1] https://imageshack.com/i/exNHDHTVj
I was like "wow that is a big screen although not very bright".
> Each background picture is created by about 40.000 childrens holding tables containing pages with different pictures/colours
[zoom of the "screen" with endless pixels: a color square a little head on top of each - impressionist style] https://imageshack.com/i/exw2BFluj
This has been one of my best reads of the month, and I hope that I'll one day get to visit Pyongyang myself, without the US visa waiver issues that come with it.
Photos of NK like these are incredibly difficult to come by. What a beautiful country.
Also, I admire his courage. In several photos, military people are staring at him, as they may well be. He was lucky as well. He states he hid the photos in a zip file in his C:\windows folder when leaving the country, having deleted them from his SD Card.
To save anyone else the hassle, this is where he finally crosses into NK:
https://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/tumangan-north...
Hope it is backed up well (guess on the archive sites).