Back in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 14

July 26, 2012

After our couple-day stay in Halong City and finally getting to go out on the bay, we took the shuttle bus back to Hanoi with the group of tourists from our tour boat on Wednesday evening and settled back into the same hostel that we stayed in on Sunday night. Thursday morning we got up early, were in a taxi on the way to the airport a bit before 7, and got there a bit before 8 (the airport was a little ways out of town). It didn't take us long at all to get our boarding passes and check Jonathan's large backpacking backpack, so we were able to have a bit of breakfast and then went through security and only had a little time to wait before we boarded the bus that took us to our plane. Our airline was Jetstar Pacific, which serves the southeastern Asian countries and Australia. There were many Vietnamese people on the flight (and only about five other white people aboard). It seemed like most had never flown before. They were all gasping and cheering subdued-ly when we took off. Whenever we had a bit of a bump of turbulence, they'd gasp, too. It was fun to watch their excitement. :)

The flight was just two hours long, and we arrived a little before noon. It was such a breeze compared to all of the other traveling we'd done in the country so far. It was definitely worth the ~$100 each to fly back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) rather than take a 24-hour+ train back down! When we arrived in HCMC, we got a bus to the terminal, and just a few minutes later we collected Jonathan's backpacking backpack from baggage claim, and walked outside to catch a taxi to the hotel we had booked (the one we had wanted to get the first night we were in Vietnam, but couldn't because it was overbooked and we had to stay at the one across the road).

After checking in, we put our luggage in our room and rested for a bit, but soon headed back out to enjoy our last few hours in Vietnam. We spent the afternoon wandering the surrounding streets and looking into local souvenir and tourist shops. (We had only had about an hour or two in HCMC when we first arrived two weeks earlier, so we hadn't seen much of anything then.)

Peppers

Local delicacy - scorpions and snakes in some kind of alcoholic beverage

Souvenirs

More souvenirs

In the mid-afternoon, once our feet were sore and we'd bought all the souvenirs and presents we wanted and could pack along with us, we stopped by the nearby Subway restaurant and got some Western food for supper. By this time we were pretty ready to eat some Western food again, and Subway was the perfect meal! After our early supper, we walked back to our hotel, and used the computers in the lobby to write some last e-mails before leaving the country. Then we headed up to our room to made sure our new purchases were all packed up and ready to go, and that we were all prepared to head to the airport later that night, and then took a nap that turned into a pretty decent sleep.

We had both our phone alarms set so that we'd be sure to wake up in time to catch a taxi to the airport so we'd be there in plenty of time for our flight. All this went according to plan, except for one tiny detail: when we woke up around 11 p.m., I (Ali) was feeling a bit off. I took some charcoal, and we managed to wash up, change into our traveling clothes, get ready to leave, and catch a taxi by 11:30 p.m. On the drive to the airport I felt more and more sick, and between getting into the ticketing line and boarding our plane, I ended up having to use plastic bags twice... Ick! Once on the plane I started to feel better, which was such a relief. Feeling sick while traveling is no fun at all! Especially when you just want to be home and don't want to be detained anywhere.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:55 a.m., but left a little late (as per usual for all four of our China Eastern Airlines flights on this trip to and from Vietnam), although much less late than our other three flights. Our flight to Shanghai took about four hours, and we took advantage of the night and darkness and tried to sleep as well as possible.

When we were finally settled on the plane and it was taxiing, we had some time to think about the past two weeks since we had arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and then quickly taken a train up north to Mui Ne. Time sure did fly by, and we thoroughly loved the opportunity to travel up the Vietnam coast. We so enjoyed seeing a new country and learning more about it and the people who lived there. The scenery was absolutely amazing and the weather was, too, for almost the whole trip. All in all, our two weeks in Vietnam was a perfect end to our stint abroad!

Next up: Layover in Shanghai

Suwon to Seoul to Incheon

Second-to-Last Day in South Korea
Wednesday, July 11

The morning after our walk around the Hwaseong Fortress, Jonathan and I woke up, packed our backpacks, left them at the front desk of the hostel for safe-keeping, and headed out into the mist. We found a different trail leading back up the mountain that had started our whole adventure the evening before and followed it. Along the way we stopped in at some interesting sites.

Flowers on the side of the road by our hostel

Brick flower art on the street

Cobblestone art on a wall

Impressive turtle painting (Who can spot the missing brick?)

Hole in the building? Nope, just some more neat art featuring the fortress wall.

Entrance to a small Buddhist temple on the side of the mountain

Temple grounds

Two-storey-tall golden Buddha statue

Lily in the morning dew along our hike up the mountain

Once we reached the top of the mountain, we quickly found the Bell of Hyowon (Bell of Filial Piety). We went over to a lady who was sitting in the booth near the bell and paid for our bell rings (2,000 won - about $2 - for 3 rings). No one else was around, so we had plenty of time to take pictures and videos of the experience. Yep, such a touristy move, but what else are you to do when confronted with a gigantic bell that is just begging to be rung??

Bell ready to be rung

Jonathan ready to ring the Bell of Filial Piety (I missed getting his first ring in the video below...)

Ali ready for her turn to the ring the bell (the wooden ringer was pretty heavy to wield...)

Close-up of one of the pictures on the bell. This is the Hwahongmun Gate over the Suwoncheon (Suwon Stream).

More pictures of the Hwaseong Fortress along the bottom of the bell

Signpost back on the streets of Suwon

Message in the sidewalk

After we each rang the bell, we hurried back down the mountain, collected our backpacks, and stopped at the nearby bakery again for some take-along breakfast. Then we caught the bus back to the train station and bought KTX tickets back to Seoul, our last KTX ride in South Korea. We so much enjoyed the privilege of using the Korea Express Train system while in Korea and knew we would definitely miss the convenience of getting to destinations so quickly and comfortably. Although we could have taken a slower (and cheaper) train back to Seoul, we wanted to ride the KTX just once more!

Once we arrived in Seoul, we easily maneuvered our way underground and through the Seoul subway system, which once had posed quite a hardship for us. As we rode the subway to Hwegi station I thought about how much we'd learned in the past eight months of living in Korea. Amazing how things that used to seem so difficult (finding our way around Seoul, traveling throughout the country, reading Korean) had become quite simple for us! At Hwegi station, we got off the subway and walked back to the Seoul Main Campus, which we hadn't seen for the past nine days. It was nice to be back there and we made our way to our guest room where we'd be sleeping that night (we had already vacated our apartment to make room for new teachers coming to teach at the SDA Language Institute for the new term). It felt good to drop our bags off in the guest room and relax for a little bit before heading back out. We made a quick stop to the teacher's lounge to use the computers there and it was nice to see some of the teachers, who were rushing in and out of the lounge between classes, again before we left Korea for good. After checking our e-mail and looking up a few outdoor stores in the area, we walked back to Hwegi station and took the subway to a shopping district not too far away where we spent some time looking for the last few things we wanted to get before our trip to Vietnam (cool clothing, pack covers in case we encountered any torrential rain, tiny towels, and some large water bottles). Thankfully we found what we needed and then headed back to our guest room to repack our bags with our new acquisitions and do any other last-minute things we needed to do before leaving South Korea. All in all, we had a pretty relaxing evening.

A slow train leaving the station as we wait for our KTX train to arrive

Korean-style toilet in our guest room

Since our apartments had western toilets, we never did figure out what all these buttons did...

Last Day in South Korea
Thursday, July 12

The next morning we grabbed our backpacks and went to the language building to say goodbye to as many of our fellow teachers as we could find. Then we went next-door to the ad building to say goodbye to a few of the people we knew who worked over there. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but we were also excited for our trip. After the goodbyes, we took a city bus a few stops to a large shopping mall. We waited at another bus stop for the shuttle that would take us to the Incheon International Airport, about an hour out of Seoul. The shuttle arrived soon and we had a pleasant drive to the airport, passing by familiar sights of Seoul and then out of the city to places we didn't recognize, since we'd arrived in South Korea at night and hadn't been able to see the sights coming from the airport eight months before. I was a little bit nervous that we wouldn't have enough time to get our tickets, get rid of our luggage, and get through security and to our gate before our flight, but there was no need to worry. Incheon airport is not like your average North American airport where long lines and lengthy waits are normal. There were no long lines to be seen and within minutes of arriving at the airport we had our tickets, had one less backpack to carry around, and were through security and on our way to our gate.

When we reached our terminal, we found a place to eat a relaxing lunch near our gate. Then, once we'd finished lunch, I looked at our boarding passes again and realized we were in the wrong terminal! Yikes, all that relaxing and we hadn't even been in the right place. We hurried to the next terminal over and found our actual gate as quickly as we could. We still did have a bit of time to wait, and then our flight was delayed another hour, so that gave us even more time. We spent the time reading and getting a few snacks with the last of our Korean won (after I saved a couple coins of each denomination), and ended up just leaving the last few small coins in a donation box near our gate. Finally our flight was called and the boarding process went pretty quickly. Then, after all that waiting, we were taxiing to the runway and lifting off the ground, actually leaving South Korea and heading off for our next adventure. It's always strange to be leaving a place where you've lived for a long time. Often it's a sad experience, but for us, while we enjoyed our time in Korea, we were pretty excited about exploring Vietnam and then getting back to North America.

The view as we got closer to the Incheon Int'l Airport, which is on an island

Our China Eastern Airways plane that would take us the first half of our trip, from Seoul to Shanghai

Goodbye South Korea. It was such a privilege to live in Cheonan and Seoul and explore your beautiful and mountainous country, to learn about your history and about the customs and traditions of Korean society. We will forever treasure our time and experiences in this fascinating country!

Next up: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Leaving Jeju-do & traveling back north

Day 12 of Quiring-family visit (last day) ;(

Monday, July 9, was our last day on Jeju-do, and, sadly, my parents' and brother's last day in South Korea. We got up in the morning, made sure their bags were all packed, and then took taxis to the airport about 10 minutes from our hotel. We were there quite a bit ahead of time and so once they had checked in, got their boarding passes, and gotten rid of their luggage, we wandered around the airport and finally found a food court. Deciding which place to eat at took a little work, but we finally settled on some kind of a burger/fries place and got a few things on the breakfast menu. After our leisurely breakfast, we found the line for security and said our final goodbyes (well, final until two weeks later when Jonathan and I would be flying to British Columbia). It was sad to see them go because we knew our time with them in Korea was over and it meant the first part of our vacation time was over, but it was also a little exciting to know we were soon going to be off on a new adventure: Vietnam!

After saying goodbye, Jonathan and I got a taxi back to our hotel where we finished packing our own bags, and then checked out, and set off for the ferry terminal. We took a little diversion on the way to walk out on a large jetty near our hotel that I'd wanted to explore since we arrived in Jeju-si. Then it was a not-too-long, but very hot walk to the ferry terminal. Once there, we looked at all the sign boards about the various ferries going back to the mainland of South Korea to see which would be the best. After talking to a lady at the counter, we decided to take the same one we'd taken on the way over to Jeju, which would bring us to the small town of Wando. That ferry only took about two hours to make the crossing, but was leaving later in the afternoon, so we asked if we could stow our backpacking backpack behind the counter while we went back into Jeju-si for some final exploring and a bit of shopping.

The extent of our luggage during our Jeju-do vacation and for our upcoming Vietnam trip.

No fourth floor in our hotel. (The number four in Korean sounds like the Korean word for death,
so therefore four has become a superstitious number, much the same as the number thirteen for us Westerners.)

See, no fourth-floor button in the elevator.

View of the harbour from the jetty

And view of Jeju-si behind us

After popping in a few sport-clothing stores to find some lighter/cooler shirts and shorts to wear in Vietnam, we started walking back to the ferry terminal, and to our delight, found a beautiful little paved walking trail near the river. We walked back on that trail as far as it took us before having to turn onto the street sidewalk for the rest of our walk.

Interesting boat-museum by the river

Ali took pictures of many manhole covers in the Korean cities we visited during our stay. This Jeju (Cheju is the old
Korean pronunciation) one features Hallasan (Halla Mt.) in the center, the tallest mountain in Korea, which is on Jeju Island.

Pretty river with a paved walking trail on either side

Back at the ferry terminal again, we picked up our backpack, and spent the rest of our time browsing in the gift shops and finding some snacks to make up our supper. Jeju chocolates somehow found their way into our bags...

So much yummy Jeju chocolate!

Jonathan ready to board the ferry

The Blue Narae, we meet again

Goodbye ferry terminal and Jeju-do

Consoling ourselves with a cactus-flavoured, haenyeo-shaped chocolate

When we arrived in Wando, we consulted our guidebook to see how far the bus station was from the ferry terminal (on our way to Jeju the week before we'd been short on time, so had just used taxis). It didn't look too far on the map, so we set out. A fifteen-minute walk brought us to the bus station, where we'd planned to buy tickets for the two-hour bus ride to Mokpo. Unfortunately for us, our timing was wrong and the last Mokpo bus had left about an hour earlier. We looked at the other destinations to see if we could catch the train back north from another city, but in the end going to Mokpo looked like our best (and cheapest) bet, so we would have to stay in Wando overnight and wait until morning to catch the bus to Mokpo and then the train back north. That decided, we went next door to a pizza shop for a proper supper before again consulting our guidebook to find a hotel for the night. The map told us that most were in the same area and not too far away, so we headed out on foot in the dark of the evening. A few minutes later we found one that looked acceptable (all, except for the really ritzy ones and the really, really dumpy-looking ones, are pretty similar) and got a room.

The next morning - Tuesday, July 10 - we were up early and hurried back over to the bus station. This time we were right on time and didn't even have to wait too long before the bus pulled out. On the return trip to Mokpo our windows were much cleaner than the bus we'd taken to Wando, so I was able to catch some pictures of the sights we'd seen the week before, but couldn't take pictures of. They still weren't great, but better than nothing. In Mokpo we took a taxi to the train station and asked the lady at the ticket counter the best way to Suwon, a city about an hour south of Seoul. We still had an extra couple days before our flight to Vietnam and we wanted to see Suwon before we left. She handed us our tickets for the next train heading to Suwon, and since it wasn't for a few hours, we decided to head to the shops in the town square across the street to look around. Although it started raining soon after, we had a nice time seeing more of Mokpo in the daytime. Soon we were back in the station and boarding our train north. It was then that we realized we had tickets on one of the slower trains, not on the KTX (Korean Express Train) like we'd assumed. Apparently the KTX doesn't go to Suwon from Mokpo, so our trip took a couple hours more than we'd expected. Luckily we weren't on the slowest train, though, that stops at every station along the way. We stopped at more stations than the KTX does, and didn't go at nearly as high speeds, but it definitely could have been worse. The train was comfortable, though, and the grayish, rainy skies along with the brilliant green fields flashing by our windows made for gorgeous scenery.

Statue of Admiral Yi from the bus window

Footed bench in Mokpo

Fountain in downtown Mokpo

Green fields and mountains from the train

Rural scene from the train

Impressive village church from the train

Five hours later we got off the train in Suwon and headed above ground to figure out the transportation in the city. We were initially thinking of taking the subway to the hostel we'd found in our guidebook, but we managed to find an information center just outside the train station and the man at the counter told us that the best way to get to the hostel was by taking the city bus. Well, our experience with Korean city buses was iffy at best, but we got good directions and instructions from the man, and decided to try it out and save a bit of money rather than get a taxi. Just finding the nearby bus stop was a bit difficult, but once there, we looked for the correct bus number and finally saw it pull up. We watched carefully as it wound through the streets and anxiously waited for the stop where we were supposed to get out. Fifteen minutes later we saw it and quickly pushed the "get-off" button, hurrying off with a group of passengers. From there our hostel was just around a corner and up a street. We stopped at a bakery on the way to get some supper, and then headed to the hostel to get a room. After a long day of traveling from almost the most southerly point of mainland South Korea to near the north, we were tired and relaxed for a couple hours. We thought then that we were done for the day, but little did we know we had another city exploration adventure waiting that evening!

Spool palm tree in a Suwon clothing shop window

Interesting carvings by the Suwon train station info center

Next up: exploring Suwon's fortress!