text: We do not recommend shipping chocolate items during the months of May-September, as they are prone to melt during the shipping process. We will not be held responsible should this occur.
  
  So I know people have been waiting to read this blog! I've tried to split it up into bite sized chunks and obviously haven't included everything, but it's longer than my previous ones as there is so much to write about.
  Firstly, I can only write about what I saw/heard. I'm aware of the terrible human rights abuses that happen in North Korea, but we clearly weren't about to be taken around forced labour camps. This whole trip is viewed as a PR exercise by the government so that they can tell foreigners 'the truth'. We were told things that were clearly untrue, but there were some things where I wasn't sure either way. Maybe you'll form your own views by the end (if you get that far ?).
  Standing at the gate waiting to board a plane for Pyongyang at Beijing airport, was a little surreal. I was flying with Air Koryo (North Korea's national airline) and I knew that from this point forward, anything goes!
  The plane was relatively new which was as a relief as I'd read that there are some very old planes in their fleet that don't need basic safety standards. I was given a magazine and newspaper on the plane which made for some interesting reading. Articles included how farms had delivered bumper crops after being visited by the leader King Jong Un and the life of a young national diver.
  Waiting in line at immigration, I was a little apprehensive to see what would happen as I knew we would have to through different checks to usual. The guy in front of me spent a few minutes trying to convince the semi-stern immigration officer that the photo in his passport was actually him and that his black beard had turned grey because he had aged! He was finally let through and I wasn't overly excited about it being my turn. I handed over my passport and documents and the officer looked at them, held up my passport, smiled sand said 'you are very beautiful'. It took everything in me not to fall over laughing! I just smiled and said thank you before taking my documents back.
  We then collected our luggage and I had to hand over any literature I had, my camera, phone and iPad for inspection. They handed me back my kindle, they didn't seem entirely sure what to do with it. They then looked through some photos and videos on my iPad and let me have it back. It took a long time, but was relatively painless, although I wouldn't like to see what happened if you had 'The Interview' on your laptop or tablet!
  We left the airport in our group of 17 and we had three tour guides and a driver for the duration of our four night stay. I say three tour guides....I would say one tour guide and two 'minders'. We were given a brief overview of the country, including some rules, which I think are worth sharing:
  1) When taking photos of pictures of leaders they must be the full pictures, no cropping or part photos allowed
  2) Absolutely no photos of the military (although my selfie with a North Korean soldier I took later in the trip seemed fine!)
  4) We must look after the magazine we were given on the plane as it has a photo of the leader inside and if you roll it, that's classed as being disrespectful
  5) If you have religious material on you, you must keep it on you and not even leave it in the hotel room
  6) Don't walk alone without a tour guide, people will think you are an American, the enemy, will call the police and you'll be taken into custody with a big fine to pay!
  Throughout the trip we were told about some of the ways of North Korean society, but as a group we also asked questions on other matters and had some interesting answers. For example, Maternity leave is five months (paternity leave doesn't seem to exist), and after the five months women have off, they then work six hours a day but get paid for the full eight hours, like men. I wish I'd asked about childcare, but that chance has gone now.
  Internet isn't permitted in North Korea, although the guide just told us that they only have intranet because they are a relatively new country and 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. Okay, so you can develop nuclear weapons, build some of the most incredible monuments in the world, develop sophisticated spyware, but you can't work out how to use the internet? Nice try.
  North Korea is 30 minutes ahead of Beijing, and I remember reading about this last year, as they decided to create their own time zone. This is in addition to the fact that they have their own calendar. So whilst we were there we celebrated Juche 105 (2016) as they started their calander from the year that Kim Il Sung was born.