Well, hello again wonderful readers!
I know we've gotten really behind in our blog posts about Korea. We will definitely get all up-to-date on those when we get back to North America and in some kind of regular schedule again. We'll also have to post about our travels to Southeast Asia. Right now we're traveling up the coast of Vietnam. We arrived early Friday morning, July 13, in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC - formerly Saigon, although it's still commonly referred to as Saigon here). We traveled north to Mui Ne for a lovely and peaceful Sabbath by the bay. The next morning we visited two sand dunes near Mui Ne before catching a bus further up the coast to Nha Trang, which is where we are right now. Yesterday we took a great snorkeling tour (and got red backs as a result...), and today we've been exploring the city and seaside of Nha Trang. This evening we'll be taking a night train further up the coast to Hoi An. It was highly recommended to us by a South African couple on our snorkeling tour, so we are looking forward to seeing the culture and ancient architecture there. From there on our plans aren't exactly solidified yet, but we want to see a cave not too much farther north from Hoi An, and eventually we'll get to Hanoi near the top of Vietnam. From Hanoi we really are looking forward to seeing and touring Halong Bay and maybe some islands in the bay or another bay nearby. That might very well take us the rest of our time in Vietnam, but if it doesn't, we plan to fly back down to Ho Chi Minh City and then see if we have time to see Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat near Siem Reap in Cambodia. We'll see if we have time. We VASTLY underestimated how long this country is and how long it takes to travel from city to city along the coast. We will almost assuredly not be able to make it to Laos like we'd hoped we could before arriving. So Laos will have to wait for another time; maybe someday we'll try to pair it with Northern Thailand. Anyway, that's the short version of what we've done and where we've gone so far, and a little snippet of some of our ideas for the rest of our time here.
Stay tuned for the rest of Korea and for our Vietnam/maybe Cambodia trip! And, as always, thanks for reading our blog so faithfully!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Oh, the places we've been
I can't believe that we've come to the end of our time together with my parents and brother already! It seems like they just arrived. But alas, tomorrow they will be boarding a plane in Jeju City and flying back to Seoul to catch their flight back to North America. We've done so much in the 11 days (or 12 partial days) since they arrived. I am kind of amazed we got so much packed in to less than two weeks! We don't have time now to go through all our pictures before our trip to southeast Asia (well, we don't have enough time and also, by tomorrow we won't have our laptops anymore either, since we're sending them back home with my family)*, but I just wanted to share a quick overview of how we spent our time together the past 11 days.
- Picked up my parents and Tyler at Cheongnyangni station
- Got kimbap on the way back to the apartment, and then ate and talked for a long time until their eyes couldn't stay open any longer
Thursday, June 28
- Went to the COEX aquarium
Friday, June 29
- Took a DMZ tour (Demilitarized Zone, the area between North and South Korea), walked through the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel
- Visited Deoksungang Palace to watch the changing of the guards ceremony
- Explored Insadong traditional market
Saturday, June 30
- Attended church at the Seoul Main institute church, took pictures with our church choir members, ate potluck lunch at the church
- Hung out at the apartment talking all afternoon and into the evening
- Ate a late supper at the New Delhi (Nepalese food, not Indian) restaurant near our apartment
Sunday, July 1
- Went to Kyungbok Palace for the changing of the guards ceremony, looked around the palace grounds
- Experienced a free Korean cultural concert on the lawn in front of the palace
- Took a Han River cruise in the evening, watched part of the Banpo Bridge light-and-water show from the boat
- Did last-minute final packing for Jonathan and me in the late evening
Monday, July 2
- Did more last last-minute final packing for Jonathan and me in the morning, and last minute running around and finishing stuff up we had to get done before leaving on our trip
- Said last goodbyes to people on our campus
- Mailed a couple boxes home
- Went to Namsan (South Mountain) and up N Seoul Tower
- Caught our KTX (Korea Train Express) train bound for Mokpo
- Arrived in Mokpo, found a hotel, wandered the streets of Mokpo looking for food
- Ate Korean food at a nearby restaurant
Tuesday, July 3
- Reworked ferry plans
- Caught a bus to Wando (a small island south of Mokpo)
- Rode the ferry to Jeju Island
- Found our hotel in Jeju-si (Jeju City)
- Found Pizza Hut for our supper
Wednesday, July 4
- Took the bus eastward along the coastline to Seongsan Ilchulbong (an extinct volcano)
- Some of us climbed the mountain for the view from the top
- Jonathan and I happened upon a mother cat and her two adorable kittens
- Bought Jeju chocolates
- Visited a small nearby Buddhist temple before taking the bus back to Jeju-si
Thursday, July 5
- Took the bus to Seogwipo (the city on the south part of Jeju Island)
- Spent lots of time at Yeomiji Botanical Garden
- Some of us saw some interesting waterfalls
- Ate supper at Gecko Island restaurant before taking the bus back to Jeju-si
Friday, July 6
- Took the bus to Hallim Park (on the western side of the island)
- Explored the very interesting and packed-full park, walked through some lava tubes
- Ate lunch in a traditional Korean house in the Korean traditional folk village at the park
- Got a taxi to the Glass Castle and explored the outdoor museum of glass sculptures
- Took the taxi/bus back to Jeju-si
Saturday, July 7
- Slept in and had a nice relaxing Sabbath together in our hotel room (we wanted to go to the Jeju institute church, but they weren't having church this weekend because of a Korean campmeeting in Seogwipo)
- Read Bible passages, discussed, listened to an Audioverse.org sermon, etc.
- Ate out at Zapatas, a Mexican restaurant in Jeju-si
Sunday, July 8
- Took the bus to the U-do (U Island) ferry
- Took the ferry to U-do
- Rented a quad (my parents) and two scooters (Tyler, Jonathan and I) to tour the island for two hours
- Relaxed (and got a bit red) at a beach
- Took the ferry/ bus back to Jeju-si
- Stopped at E-Mart for a last-minute shopping trip
- Ate supper at Baghdad Cafe (Indian food) in Jeju-si
It's been soooo wonderful to see my parents and Tyler again! I'll be sad to see them leave tomorrow, but at least I know I'll see them again in a few weeks when we're back in BC!
*Look for pictures of all the fun in a few more weeks when we get back to BC. Or you can check out my mum's blog at expressionsbyglendq.blogspot.com to see some of hers. I'm sure she'll get right in to sorting through them and blogging about our travels when she gets home.
_______________________________________________________
Wednesday, June 27- Picked up my parents and Tyler at Cheongnyangni station
- Got kimbap on the way back to the apartment, and then ate and talked for a long time until their eyes couldn't stay open any longer
Thursday, June 28
- Went to the COEX aquarium
Friday, June 29
- Took a DMZ tour (Demilitarized Zone, the area between North and South Korea), walked through the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel
- Visited Deoksungang Palace to watch the changing of the guards ceremony
- Explored Insadong traditional market
Saturday, June 30
- Attended church at the Seoul Main institute church, took pictures with our church choir members, ate potluck lunch at the church
- Hung out at the apartment talking all afternoon and into the evening
- Ate a late supper at the New Delhi (Nepalese food, not Indian) restaurant near our apartment
Sunday, July 1
- Went to Kyungbok Palace for the changing of the guards ceremony, looked around the palace grounds
- Experienced a free Korean cultural concert on the lawn in front of the palace
- Took a Han River cruise in the evening, watched part of the Banpo Bridge light-and-water show from the boat
- Did last-minute final packing for Jonathan and me in the late evening
Monday, July 2
- Did more last last-minute final packing for Jonathan and me in the morning, and last minute running around and finishing stuff up we had to get done before leaving on our trip
- Said last goodbyes to people on our campus
- Mailed a couple boxes home
- Went to Namsan (South Mountain) and up N Seoul Tower
- Caught our KTX (Korea Train Express) train bound for Mokpo
- Arrived in Mokpo, found a hotel, wandered the streets of Mokpo looking for food
- Ate Korean food at a nearby restaurant
Tuesday, July 3
- Reworked ferry plans
- Caught a bus to Wando (a small island south of Mokpo)
- Rode the ferry to Jeju Island
- Found our hotel in Jeju-si (Jeju City)
- Found Pizza Hut for our supper
Wednesday, July 4
- Took the bus eastward along the coastline to Seongsan Ilchulbong (an extinct volcano)
- Some of us climbed the mountain for the view from the top
- Jonathan and I happened upon a mother cat and her two adorable kittens
- Bought Jeju chocolates
- Visited a small nearby Buddhist temple before taking the bus back to Jeju-si
Thursday, July 5
- Took the bus to Seogwipo (the city on the south part of Jeju Island)
- Spent lots of time at Yeomiji Botanical Garden
- Some of us saw some interesting waterfalls
- Ate supper at Gecko Island restaurant before taking the bus back to Jeju-si
Friday, July 6
- Took the bus to Hallim Park (on the western side of the island)
- Explored the very interesting and packed-full park, walked through some lava tubes
- Ate lunch in a traditional Korean house in the Korean traditional folk village at the park
- Got a taxi to the Glass Castle and explored the outdoor museum of glass sculptures
- Took the taxi/bus back to Jeju-si
Saturday, July 7
- Slept in and had a nice relaxing Sabbath together in our hotel room (we wanted to go to the Jeju institute church, but they weren't having church this weekend because of a Korean campmeeting in Seogwipo)
- Read Bible passages, discussed, listened to an Audioverse.org sermon, etc.
- Ate out at Zapatas, a Mexican restaurant in Jeju-si
Sunday, July 8
- Took the bus to the U-do (U Island) ferry
- Took the ferry to U-do
- Rented a quad (my parents) and two scooters (Tyler, Jonathan and I) to tour the island for two hours
- Relaxed (and got a bit red) at a beach
- Took the ferry/ bus back to Jeju-si
- Stopped at E-Mart for a last-minute shopping trip
- Ate supper at Baghdad Cafe (Indian food) in Jeju-si
_______________________________________________________
It's been soooo wonderful to see my parents and Tyler again! I'll be sad to see them leave tomorrow, but at least I know I'll see them again in a few weeks when we're back in BC!
*Look for pictures of all the fun in a few more weeks when we get back to BC. Or you can check out my mum's blog at expressionsbyglendq.blogspot.com to see some of hers. I'm sure she'll get right in to sorting through them and blogging about our travels when she gets home.
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