s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

The trip started when we left on May 14th, but the first leg of the trip was easy, a short flight to Auckland. Due to the timing of our morning flight Saturday, we had to fly up the day before. Dave and Vanessa played host, and we had a fun time in the afternoon heading out to see Vanessa’s new(ish) foal. Curious but dubious baby horses can be rather cute!

Saturday morning we were taken to the airport early (thanks!), and boarded our plane to Seoul. Thankfully a new model 777, and while it was pretty full, watching 3 movies on the seat-back entertainment system helped pass the time (12 hours). The food was adequate at best. Perhaps the Korean food was better than the “western style” option we picked.

We arrived in the enormous Inchon Airport to be greeted by a barrage of western food outlets, from Dunkin Donuts to Baskin Robins Ice Cream. We just wanted to find out way to the hotel, which was in the middle of Seoul, which is enormous. After looking at the subway map and the number of train-changes required, we opted for the shuttle bus. Clean. Efficient, and well air-conditioned. We needed to overnight in Seoul due to the timing of the flights. We figured- “hey, we are in Seoul, why not spend an extra night and get a full day to tour around?”

Hotel Biz in Myeongdong was basic, but fine for the purpose, plus it came with a PC (free internet- but you have to figure out the keyboard in Korean) and water cooler in every room. And it was in the old part of town, and only a 20-30 minute walk to all the palaces and other neat stuff.

First up was Gyeongbokgung Palace. Strolling through Seoul at 8am on a Sunday morning revealed an empty city. An interesting experience- especially considering the transformation over the 12 hours that followed! The morning was spent exploring the palace (which gave many 12 Kingdoms flashbacks), and the National Folklore museum next door.

On the way back after lunch, the town had transformed. Roads blocked off, stages being built. Hey, did you know that today is the culmination of a long celebration/holiday, and that tonight there is a massive parade only 3 blocks from our hotel? Time for a rather memorable birthday for Tam! Who knew she and Budda have the same birthday!

Lunch was at a tasty hole-in-the-wall BBQ place. No shared language, we just pointed at the picture menu. Picture menus are important, especially when a plate of fresh, live (!) baby Octopi is one of the options! Don’t want to many surprises in our food. Tam did end up with surprise tentacle once, thinking it was a vegetable kimchi.

The afternoon activities includes all sorts of cultural song and dance performances all over the city. Buddists from all around the east, each demonstrating their own particular flavour.

In the evening there was the parade. The Illuminated Lantern parade, with oodles of giant lighted floats. It went for hours, and thousands of people, in large groups and carrying smaller lanterns, went by. Thankfully we managed to score seats. They had a section of pre-reserved seats for “foreign guests), some of whom did not show up. Empty seats look bad, so an organizer grabbed us and got us into those seats. For a 2-3 hour parade, that is very necessary. It was like half of Seoul was watching, and toher other half was in the parade.

A few reflections on Seoul
-It is a city of street vendors. Some with fixed stalls in long narrow alleys, other with mobile carts that come out at dusk and stay open very late into the night.
-Seoul, like Boston, has lots of Dunkin Donut stores, they too can be used as landmarks.
-Pharmacies have a particular style, with vast “walls” of colourful products. It reminded me very much of a Chinese medicine cabinet, with all the little drawers.
-Traffic is intense and dangerous. On the way out to the airport on Monday we passed a man who had been just hit by a bus, and was not looking very good.

Monday was a long, long day. We flew to Istanbul, and flying with the sun we had something like 26 hours of daylight. But we got to fly over all of Asia during the day. The 777 was an older model, so no modern in-flight entertainment. Thankfully most (66%) of the seats were empty, so we could both spread out and get window seats.

We flew up the Gansu corridor, between the Tien Shan and Altai mountains. Western China was stark, but signs of development were everywhere. Roads. Rail lines. And buildings with bright blue roofs here and there. (government? army?) Anywhere there was moisture coming out of the mountains, there were settlements. And somewhere in western china a weird structure of parallel lines on the ground. No road, not fire-breaks. It looked like a giant antenna array in its layout, running mainly E-W.

Once we crossed into eastern Kazakstan things changed. Roads and rail were rare, settlements moreso. Empty steppe. At one point, in the distance to the south, a black column of smoke rising miles into the air of a out-of-control oil well burning. I did manage to spot a Caravanserai in the steppe, with dirt trails converging from 6 directions on the walled compound, just visible far below.

Central Asia also has bright red lakes, much be the algae within. Very striking from the air.

By the time we passed the Caspian Sea and were over Russia the land had turned lovely verdant green. Very different from the brown of western China, or the brown-ochre of the steppe.

Upon landing in Attaturk airport in Istanbul we were met by the guide for the next leg of the trip, Hassan. Nice fellow, excellent English. He took us to the very swank Central Palace Hotel near Taksim Square. He gave us a quick tour of the square and the pedestrian street attached. We were a day early, everyone else was due to arrive tomorrow, so we had a day on our own to explore Istanbul. More about that in Part 2

The lack of posts over the last two months was not just the usual slackness on our part.

No, we embarked on the biggest and longest vacation we have ever done. Three countries, two continents, five weeks. We left May 14, and got back June 20th. Upon return I prompty fell ill from some plane-distributed illness, and my first week back became rather hazy. Then I shared the sickness with Tam, and her second week back was a loss.

But now we are both (semi)coherent, and it is time to try and blog the long and fantastic trip!