Day 3 - Seoul

 It is hot today…you can feel the difference over yesterday. There isn’t as much cloud cover but the humidity levels is still very high. Dave and I make the Starbucks run this morning and then we take our time getting ready. We had such a full day yesterday, we don’t have much left on our must do list other than getting to the Gangnam Neighbourhoods. 

We head out and take the train to what we think is a nearby station to the Gangnam statue which is famous of course for the song “Gangnam Style” by PSY.  We never do end up finding this…the heat makes my will to persevere wither up. The pictures online will have to do! 

It’s about an hour by train and most of this is above ground this time which is nice as it gives us a chance to see more of the City. 

The heat is so bad and the jet lag seems worse today so we aren’t fairing well. We stop in a massive Samsung store (think Apple) and grab a cold drink and rest. The girls are getting cranky! Lol. We aren’t far from the Coex Mall and so we make it the last kilometre or so and head inside. It is a massive mall and its the weekend so its super busy. We grab some lunch at a Pho place and then wonder around. The library is breathtaking. I’ve never seen anything like it. 

We decide that we will visit the Aquarium in the mall next to stay indoors as long as possible. It’s definitely good, but the reality is that the Vancouver Aquarium is just so superior to most aquariums, that it kind of spoils us for most other places. The shark tank is pretty cool and they have a lot of neat species….including a beaver which we stop to say hello to for awhile…it is Canada Day after all. 

After grabbing a popsicle from a vending machine (so cool!)…we head home as Brian and Robert are flying in and we plan to meet them and then head out for dinner. We get back and have a quick shower and some rest and once they arrive we head back to Saugus for dinner at a Korean BBQ place that we found online.

It is called Taemu and they bring out wood boxes with charcoal and you order beef and veggies and scallops and grill them yourself at your table. The meat is amazing and it’s great feast. 

By the time we finish eating, the streets of Sangsu are bustling with nightlife. We find the main pedestrian street and walk back to the station this way instead. 

There are street performers and nightclubs and shops. We wander down the road and grab some ice cream which we managed to successfully order by screen in Korean! The scene here is amazing and I’m really taken by the incredible night life. Again…in another lifetime our evening would have been a bit different I think! Haha. 

We get back and it’s time to pack up and get organized for our very early departure tomorrow. 

I’ve really enjoyed our time in Seoul. The City is incredibly neat and tidy and I love the mix of the old traditional elements alongside the modern. For whatever reason it seems to work cohesively and doesn’t feel jarring at all. The subway system while massive and daunting was again organized and clean and overall our experience was fantastic. I’m really glad we tacked on the extra days here. 

Day 2 - Seoul

***photos to follow…internet is too slow***
The arrival time in Seoul was great actually. By the time we landed at around 4:30 and got through immigration and made our way to our accommodation, it was already evening. We  had grabbed some snacks but I only made it until about 8:30pm and then went to bed.  This arrival time means not such a difficult fight against the jet lag. 

Looking at the forecast for the following days while we are in Seoul, today is the cooler of the two so we are hoping to make the most of it. Despite being wide awake between 2-3:30am, most of us manage to sleep until 6:30am or so and Bruce manages to find a Starbucks close by to fuel us. 

I packed some granola bars and trail mix just in case I couldn’t fin anything to eat while I’m here. This is my first time on a big travel since being diagnosed as a celiac and it has had me a little worried honestly. I did some research ahead of time and think I’ll be ok, but with language barriers it’s hard to know what might be hidden in things, so I figured I should have some snacks just in case. 

I have a long list of places to visit so we get an early start. It takes us a little while to figure out how to buy the train tickets, but we quickly become very proficient. It’s about $1.80 for a single ride to anywhere in the City. You just have to make sure you don’t go outside the turnstiles or you are paying again! 

First stop is the Gyeongbokgung Palace where we watch the changing of the guard ceremony at 10am, we then spend time wondering around the palace grounds. People are dressed in beautiful Korean dresses which we gather you can rent to wear around. The girls didn’t want to…I asked! Wouldn’t they look beautiful though. Haha. 

While the temperature is milder today, do not be fooled, it’s pushing 30 and the humidity level is off the charts. That’s the kicker. Thankfully the metro trains are air conditioned, so we get a break when we finally head back down underground. 

We then take the train to the Insa-Dong Neighbourhood and stop at a tea house for a drink and a snack and then wander the streets for a while popping in and out of shops and buying little odds and ends from street vendors. There is a wide array of stores selling traditional tea sets to modern clothing and jewelry. Fiona gets some K-pop stuff. She is a huge fan of the music and style of the younger people. 

We then head to the Cheonggyecheon Stream which is a beautiful ….. we go down below the street level and walk along the water. 

We realize it’s well past lunch and head to a Korean BBQ place to eat. They don’t speak English, but they start to place food in front of us and we manage to order some pork and steak and they grill it right in front of us. It’s delicious. First meal out and so far it’s clean and gluten free!

Next stop is the N Seoul Tower and Nam Mountain. The girls are starting to get tired but we are pushing on as we need to stay away today and beat the jetlag. We take the train to Myeongdong Station and then start the hike up to the base of the gondola. It’s a short ride up and at the top we are amazed by the lovers locks attached absolutely everywhere. It reminds us of the bridge in Prague. We rest at the top in the shade. The vantage over the city is pretty amazing, unfortunately it’s not super clear, but you still get a sense of the magnitude of the city. 

We head back down and then take the train to “Saugsu” station where we have promised Fiona that we will take her to the Meerkat Cafe. It’s definitely animals in small cages and that isn’t lost on us, however they appear to be all well cared for and well fed and the space is clean and tidy. We get to spend time with the Fox and their pups as well as Racoons (no way I was touching those crazy things - glorifying these ruthless Trash pandas was a sight to see), Meerkats of course and various other creatures. It was a good experience overall. 

We then head to a nearby pub and have a cold drink and some snacks. As we are leaving, and as the sun starts to set, we realize that we are in what must be a nightclub district. The bars are all starting to open up and we are getting a sense for a night scene which must be pretty amazing here. In a different time we would have definitely had a great time out in this area. 

We head back to our Airbnb. We grabbed some nice salads and snacks on the way home from Paris Baguette as our meals hadn’t all gone through on the iPads at the restaurant. That is the way that most restaurants seem to work here. They all have screens at the tables and you can order what you want from them and then it is brought to you. It’s great when they have an English optiion, but that isn’t always the case!

We walked nearly 20,000 steps today and the feet are definitely barking! Poor Dave is developing a blister from his new shoes, a good reminder to not buy new shoes two days before you leave on a heavy walking trip. I also did the same thing but so far I’m lucky and they are holding out…fingers crossed

Day 1 - Vancouver to Mongolia via Seoul

 Well we are off! 4 years since our last adventure. We have been talking about this particular trip for years…and its finally upon us. We are headed to Mongolia at long last. 

It’s the usual whirlwind preparing and packing for this trip. We will be headed to remote parts of Mongolia and we understand that the western may fluctuate greatly. I suspect it will be similar to when we were in Kyrgyzstan and honestly we were quite cold at night, so we have tried to pack appropriately…that being said, we are carry on travellers and it is a snug fit in these bags!

I bought zip up luggage organizers this time that compress your clothes in groupings…not sure if they are helping at all honestly, but hopefully they make it a bit easier to find things. 

I made a packing list for everyone and attached it to an IKEA organizing bin and handed it out to each of us so we could toss things into the bin over the last week or so. It seems to have worked okay and the girls managed to do most of their packing on their own. We don’t own a lot of dry fit or wool items, and those are strongly recommended as it rains quite a bit and we won’t have access to a lot of laundry services, so trying to limit the stink! So we did a couple trip to Bass Pro and similar stores to try and find a few items for each person. 

We kissed all our fur babies goodbye and were off to the airport. Our family friends drove two cars with all of us which was so nice to not have to deal with a cab to the airport. 

Unfortunately the flight ended up being delayed by an hour or so, but we ended up checking our bags during the boarding process which would hopefully mean less stress in finding overhead bin storage! We will only check bags like this if its a direct flight. We don’t have time to wait for bags that are floating all over the world lost. 

The flight was uneventful…long and cramped of course…I swear the leg room keeps getting shorter and the space between seats narrower. Somehow this nice mom ended up in a middle seat! The things I do for my kids.

What’s amazing and noticeable this time is that our kids didn’t need us at all..they wouldn’t even have spoken to us if we hadn’t engaged with them. What a change from years past. They have become some great little travellers. 

I watched a couple of movies and slept on and off. I bought myself a TRTL pillow for the plane…smaller than those neck pillows. It’s not bad. Maybe a bit big for me. For a middle seat, it was useful. 

 I have to get up and walk a lot more, my legs are too long to sit in those seats for much more than a few hours at a time. The meals were as you would expect. I ordered celiac meals and they weren’t bad and I got fed before everyone else! What a treat. Haha. We had 3 square meals which was great as we didn’t feel hungry when we arrived. 

Once we land in Seoul, we discover they have another form that we need to fill in…once we get those filled out x7 and get in the line for immigration it is brutal in length and there is no AC. The humidity of Seoul is obvious even within the airport. It’s going to be yucky. It takes us at least an hour to get through. Highly recommend jetting off the plane and getting into that line as fast as you can if you’re coming this way. Do not waste time going to the bathroom and risk getting into the line up late. And you do need to fill in the secondary yellow form…its related to health and COVID. 

Once we are through and pick up our bags we head down below the airport and catch the all stop airport train into Seoul. It’s relatively easy to find and figure out and its about an hour long ride in. 

We are staying at a cute little Airbnb that can house all of us. We are only 7 right now, but Robert and Brian show up in two days and then Erik will meet us at the airport when we fly to Ulaanbataar in a couple days. We were happy to find this place that can house us all and that is close to a major Metro Station. 

Its raining in Seoul as we make our way to the place, but its warm…did I mention its going to be humid and muggy! Haha. 

Day 16: Almaty to home (via Seoul)

It's hard to believe that its been two weeks and that in a few short hours we will be heading for home. It is always fun to travel and explore, but I have to admit that by this point in the trip, I'm always excited about the prospect of getting home.  This has been a difficult trip, with long days, extreme heat and some very terrible beds, so I'm looking forward to getting home to my creature comforts.

We wake up late today. It was a luxurious sleep. The Holiday Inn isn't fancy - but it does have comfy beds with lovely duvets.  We begin the packing process, but we have all day here as our flight doesn't leave until super late.  We have a late checkout from our room, so we can finish up the packing later.

We gather those that are awake and head out to our fave place...yes...the Big Apple for coffees and breakfast.  It doesn't disappoint. The people that work there are great. If you are in Almaty, this place is a must stop.

We hang out here for quite awhile, enjoying the space and a second coffee. Brian and Emily eventually join us and we here about the rest of their birthday festivities last night.  Sounds like they had fun! Robert eventually joins us too and once everyone is fed, we go in search of art.

On every trip, my mom and I really like to find something to take home. Something permanent that can sit in our houses to remind us of the trip.  I love looking around my living room at all the sculptures and paintings that we have gathered over the years.

I had found a clay making studio and so we head in that direction.  Emily and Brian head off on their own for a day of sightseeing.  They weren't with us at the beginning of the trip, so this is their one day to see the city.

The clay making studio is lovely - and I fall instantly in love with a very abstract bull sculpture that is in my colours! The artist is in the studio teaching, and we meet him and grab a photo. Mom buys this for me as an early birthday present.  He is going to look fabulous in our dining room!

Mom doesn't find anything, and the girls have had enough, so Dave takes our bull and the girls back to the hotel while Erik, Robert, mom and I go in search of a small art gallery that I've found online.  We wander through back streets and alleys in search of this place and finally stumble upon it.  It's a small gallery, featuring a local artist. His technique is thick oil paintings - with texture and lots of colour. I love his work and mom seems to as well as she buys a small painting showing a park scene in Almaty. Fitting - as the parks in this city are fantastic. The colours are reds, oranges and browns and will look fabulous in her house.

We wander away from here and decide we've worked pretty hard on this shopping stuff so should go get a drink and snack.  You'll never guess where we went - we are clearly creatures of habit. We head to our Fresco Cafe.  The thing is, when you find a good place on a trip, with good food, good drinks, a beautiful patio with lovely interior design, and which has kept you safe so far, I don't see the harm and going back! Sure, maybe not as adventurous as we could be, but we've had a lot of adventure on this trip, so I think we can be cut some slack.

We have a few appies and some drinks and then Erik, mom and I head back to the hotel. Rob decides to linger a little longer at order a hookah. Actually, we all take a quick puff before leaving him behind. It's a big thing here, I figured I'd better try it at least once!

We manage to get a ride to the hotel, and when we get there, everyone has moved into our room as its past checkout time.  It's a little cramped, but I get a nap in, and we all hang out for a bit until dinner time.  We will have one last supper before coming back to the hotel and getting taxis to the airport.

Our last meal is at a nice Japanese place, I have no idea what its called, but the decor is pretty awesome. I took a picture of the walkway to the bathroom which was like being in an outdoor garden.

We are well fed and we head back to the hotel to grab our bags and getting into the cars that we arranged through the hotel.  It's a cool night - actually, the temp in Almaty this time has been drastically lower, its actually been pleasant and although warm, manageable to walk around in without feeling like you might die.

Once at the airport we negotiate through check-in, passport control and security and then sit and wait for our flight.  The airport here isn't big or fancy, it doesn't have much to offer, and you all just sit in one big room and wait for the boarding to be called on the screen - they don't make announcements, so you'd better be paying attention.

We board the plane after a brief altercation with a pushy person. Dave and I must both be tired as we both turned and snapped at this guy as he tried to literally jam his way past us onto the plane.  Jeez buddy, we're all going to the same place! I have no patience for that kind of rudeness.

We are flying with Air Astana and we seem to be in the premium economy section and so we all get these really cool felt bags filled with a neck pillow, eye mask, ear plugs, headphones etc. Very fun, we all gear up and look pretty hilarious with 11 of us decked out.

The flight to Seoul is about 6 hours, and I try to sleep and encourage the girls to sleep too. We want to actually use our layover to visit Seoul, so we need a bit of stamina.  The stewardess on the flight also gives Avery and Fiona these super cool bags, one is camping themed, and has a rolled up blanket in the outside flap, a compass, a watch and some other stuff. The other one is super hero themed and has a mask and armbands and even a cape that comes out of the backpack! So fun and provides them with some entertainment.

Once we land in Seoul, we say goodbye to Wendy and Bruce, they have seen Seoul so aren't joining us, and we head for passport control.  It's a very interesting system, they make everyone come up one at a time and I can tell they don't really want me coming up with all three girls, but I do anyways, it seems weird to send a child through passport control on their own.  We explain we are only here for a few hours and they let us through. 

Robert is staying in Seoul a few extra days, and the rest of us will just tag along with him into the City, look around a little then head back.

The airport is at least an hour away from downtown Seoul.  It's a Sunday, which we are grateful for, as the traffic is very light. We hire a large van with driver at the aiport to take us all into the city, and he agrees to come back and pick us up and hour and a half later to take us back to the airport.  We only have a short time, so we need to be very efficient.

The drive takes us an hour, and we get dropped off at the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Unfortunately its raining off an on, but the temperature is warm.  We are all basically zombies anyways. We will take what we an from this experience. 

Emily had some reading and we chose the neighbourhood near the Palace as one that would interesting to explore.  We walked around the little side streets and I was really pleasantly surprised. The architecture is really interesting here. A real mix off old and new.  There isn't much open and the rain is starting to come down harder, so after walking around for awhile, we duck into a noodle place for some yummy noodles in broth and some dumplings. The owners are so nice and its delicious and so comforting on a rainy day.

Before we know it, its time to go meet our driver. We had said our goodbyes to Robert before the noodle place, so its just the 8 of us now.  We are quiet the drive back. The three girls fall asleep in the back of the van.  I wasn't sure I would want to come back to Seoul, but after seeing it, it might need to be given another opportunity down the road.

Back at the airport we head through security again and head up too the lounge.  I have a shower again, devine! I'm really hoping I can get some good sleep on this next flight.

We head to the gate and there is some issue with our bags.  They had checked them through to Vancouver for us in Almaty, but apparently I was supposed to know that I was on the flight to Vancouver or else they would pull them off. Weird! We get that straightened away and they put our bags back on. 

We board the plane, get settled into our seats,  and before we know it, we are up up and away. Home is just a few hours away now.

Day 15: Karakol to Almaty via Cheryn Canyon

We were up early early today. The hotel put on a beautiful breakfast for us of crepes and fresh fruit etc. Much more than we were expecting. Our driver and guide arrived and we loaded up and headed out. 

Bruce and Wendy had gone to get the boxed lunches late last night and it had apparently really thrown them off just before closing. They were able to make us 11 boxed lunches...which was great - so we were set for the day.

We left the city and wound through the coutryside.  I had expected that the roads wouldn't be great on this side of the border, as they hadn't been great along the lake towards Karakol, but I was quite shocked that they were as bad as they were.  There were sections that were gravol and generally the pavement was pitted and winding.  This made the going very slow.  I couldn't comprehend why the drive to Almaty could take upwards of 9 hours, but it was becoming quickly apparent. 

We sat back and enjoyed the scenery though.  It was some of the most beautiful countryside I'd ever seen. The fields and mountains were green, and there were small Yurt camps tucked into the valleys. We passed horses and cattle and bee farms which huge containers of honey setup out front of delicious looking honey.  Too bad we couldn't bring some of that home!

As the hours past we knew we were getting closer to the border and the landscape started to stretch out around us and give way to broader fields and less vegetation.

In my mind, this border crossing would be a breeze, and it turns out this one would be our most scrupulous yet.  We had already been into Kazakhstan, however they wanted each of us, one at a time, to fill out an entry card and approach the border guard in the booth.  Nobody could fill out cards in advance, it had to be one at a time...so you can imagine how annoying I found this. Very inefficient!  I was allowed to approach with the girls all together, and they meticulously reviewed everything and stamped everything. The border guards were pleasant enough, but it was a very thorough process.  Come to think of it, I actually can't remember now what happened on the leaving side of Kyrgyzstan. I'll have to ask the group - it wasn't eventful obviously.  Once we had been processed, we were told to walk down the road (past where the van was being searched, and past the very large german shepherd) to the gate, where another guard checked our passports again and then let us out.

Robert had already been processed and he recounted how he had been asked if he had any coke or heroine.  The guard had also found a pair of gloves in his bag, and asked if he could have them. Robert didn't want to say no, so gave him the gloves. I guess I didn't look like a heroine dealer.  Neither did Emily, Wendy on the other hand...they did ask her if she had any drugs. And all the men were asked and received gestures towards their arms as they said heroine.

Finally we were all through and the van search was complete.  We were through...so now all we needed was a bathroom before we left. Not worth mentioning how horrible that experience was...off we went.

The roads were comparably better once we got through a bit of construction.  The roads were also much straighter and so our travelling speed could now be a little higher.

We reached Charyn Canyon around 11:30am. Google had told us it would take 3 hours. Maybe on good roads! The drive out to the canyon was not gravel and was very nicely paved.  We had our lunch in the picnic huts and then walked down towards the canyon edge.  Very beautiful. They call is the mini grand canyon.  If we had had more time it would have been fun to go down to the bottom and explore, but we were on a birthday mission schedule. We had 30mins on the clock to spend here. Time for some pics, a quick look and then off we went.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, and the landscape was not as beautiful on this side of the border.  A good time to read!

We hit the edge of Almaty and as we know, its a big busy city.  It seemed to take ages to get to our hotel. The Holiday Inn was where we would start and end this journey!

Once we were unloaded and had tipped our guide and driver and bid them goodbye, we got checked in and cleaned up.  It was about 3:30pm, so we were going to clean up and get rested before hitting the town to celebrate Emily.

We first met on thee Terrace of the hotel at around 6pm and had some cocktails. The drinks are weird here, you order alcohol on its own, and in comes in shot glasses. I don't know if that's normal or just the way it is in some places. Anyways, we ordered some juices and some vodka and mixed our own drinks.

Then we headed down to our favourite little place with the nice outdoor patio (from the start of the trip) and had some appies and more drinks. This place is awesome! We've been here multiple times and it never misses!

We headed to the restaurant connected to Big Apple for dinner.  It was a really neat place, very eclectic and hip kind of place.  We started with a champagne toast in honour of Emily and her 30th...and also because she had survived her first true Fougner style trip with us - and we were all still talking to each other! We are so happy to have her as part of our family! We have actually swung the female ratio and took the lead with 6 females to 5 males!

The wine was delicious and the food was incredible. Almaty has not let us down. It is an incredible city that has so much to offer.  For people looking for a small taste of adventure, but with the safety and security of good food, water etc., Almaty is definitely your place. It's very European.

After dinner the girls and Dave, Mom, Erik (he's still been feeling sick) and I went back to the hotel and the youngins took to the town. Robert has a friend here in Almaty - so they will be well taken care of and will have a great night!

When you get to my age, you get more excited about getting to bed so that in the morning you can go get a great breakfast and cup of coffee! Definitely going to the Big Apple cafe tomorrow!