A Story of Coincidence and Chance

Finally! Turns out that it was figuring out the time zone issues on my pictures (camera vs phone) and getting my Seoul album uploaded that was gate keeping getting the words describing the trip edited. I still want to add captions to the pictures, but now I have the correct spellings of place names to use, so that should go more quickly. Plus it helped that this was the shorter of the three stops in terms of time and notes so I could just go through all of it in a sitting or two. I might have to do Mongolia in parts...

I'm backdating this to June so that I can find it in my archives later. I've given up on resurrecting silentq.org, letting the domain expire. I'll grab things via the internet wayback machine and put them here as it occurs to me though.

Calgary to Seoul, June 3-4, 2026

Woke up before my alarm at 4:20am, made poached eggs on toast and finished up washing dishes and putting out garbage and was downstairs at 5:30am.
Fans were set up in the hallway and walls were marked for death when I left. Seems like they knocked after I was asleep last night to do some water damage assessment (my living room ceiling was leaking at 4am on June 2, turns out 17 units were damaged due to a three day rain storm).
Charlotte was almost caught by a slow train crossing but made it around. The sun was coming up on a blue sky day.

I hadn't been able to check in for my flights to Seoul, so I was tense as I approached the check in counter. Turns out the problem was that my first flight wasn't associated with my pnr or something, I had to call Expedia and get my ticket number, spending a patient 15 minutes on the phone with the agent. It probably didn't help it was a multi stop trip with two confirmation numbers.
In extremely good news the lovely check in agent was able to move me out of the middle seat. I may have told her I loved her.
Very glad I got there 75 mins before check in closed, now I see why they say 3 hours before your flight is recommended!

They were alternating scanner and metal detector but I got the latter. Hiking boots are annoying airport footwear but they were the biggest option in my packing list and my suitcase was stuffed as it was. I filled up my water bottle is full and the gate area was lively.

It was a smooth quick flight to Vancouver, thankfully. I listened to classical music, read, had creme tea.
It was a bit of a walk to the international gates in YVR, then I mixed up flight 63 and gate 68, but I had time to backtrack and let the walkways move me. I had a second breakfast of vegetarian chili at Salmon and Bannock for a last Canadiana hit, with 3 hours before liftoff.

I found a charging port after a couple false starts, I needed to charge my noise cancelling earbuds (key!) and my phone. I was worried the new apps for SK and China were draining my battery, but the settings said no, it was just my camera and Chrome. Brushed teeth and refilled water and then it was almost time to board. So. Many. People on the long cross Pacific flight to Seoul.

It was about 11 hours, just under, in flight. I had the chicken and rice dinner and watched lots of movies, not really sleeping at all. At one point there was a medical call one row up, I was torn over concern for the person and for the flight having to turn around. :-/ They ended up rallying and were fine, scary to hear the "is there a doctor on board" announcement though. My next meal was a chicken salad sandwich. I made a note where I stopped Dune 2 to nap (my seat reclined just enough to rest my eyes), then started it up again after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit, and a bun.

We landed an hour or so early, lots lots of time to wait for my ride, finding an ATM and Wi-Fi were first up.

Seoul, Fri June 5, 2026

We bumped down a bit hard, had a medium long taxi and people cheered when we reached the gate rather than landing, odd.

Deplaning was pretty easy, though lots of people were looking for dropped things. It wasn't too long of a walk to immigration, glad I did the e-entry online. I didn't need the printout, which was good as it was still sitting in the printer in Calgary. The officer didn't even talk to me beyond guidance for where to stand and look for the picture after I did the index finger prints. I had a bit of a wait for my suitcase, but it came out intact. Breezed through customs with nothing to declare, they didn't even look at me.

Goal: Get $200 cdn -> 200,000 won. I ended up paying a 6000 won fee at the second ATM I tried. I was ready for my 6pm pickup at 4pm, so I hung out near international arrivals and read, and at one point ducked into the restroom to wash my face, trying desperately to stay awake.
My private pick-up driver WhatsApp messaged me early, he was at the airport and willing to come get me. I was in the car by 5:10, after walking across to the pick up spot and looking around for him, but he pulled in unexpectedly.
On the one hour drive into Seoul, there were lots of green hills, wind, and misty bridges over water. There were lots of tiny shops nearby my hotel on the bigger roads though I almost fell asleep in the car despite trying to orient myself.

Then I was dumped into utter confusion as we were off in small alleys and we ended up at the wrong place with no name sign and no wifi for me to scan QR codes. The driver figured out where to go, down more small alleys and then onto a small road blocked by cars. There was a small sign and big light on the building at the end, he went down and confirmed it was iHouse Chin Chin. And then the skies opened up as I dashed up to the door, luckily only getting me a bit wet.

I checked in with my passport (returned), and the clerk thankfully carried my big suitcase up the steep stairs to the triple I booked with two lofted beds. I settled myself into the ground level bed, not a lot of floor space in there but perfect for one person. Especially with the glass bathroom just given a bit of privacy by lots of shower curtains inside. There was free tea and coffee right outside the room and a balcony in the bamboo beside the death stairs.

I ended up having a very early night, heading to bed just before 7pm Seoul time, though it was almost 4am in Calgary. The international date line and time zone changes were hard to navigate on very little sleep.

Seoul, Friday June 5, 2026

Ugh jet lag and insomnia had me up at about 4am again. Read, mapped out stuff in Seoul, and did my morning word games to pass the time.

I swapped out my hiking boots that I'd left on the balcony (slippers provided for guests) for sneakers so they were ready to go, and made more tea. When I went to leave, my room door could be unlocked without a code when I double checked it. Downstairs at the desk I used Google translate to ask about it, the clerk came up and tried to swap to a key but it didn't work. He got other staff member who spoke better English who found the deadbolt key and I made plans to grab it when I returned from my wandering.
The English speaking attendant has a best friend who lived in Calgary and was arrested in China. He told me about activists worrying about the elephant in the Calgary Zoo due to climate differences.

I walked up to the main road and got a T Money pass at the 7-11 and put 5k on it. Nice 2 C U a few doors up had a howling friendly corgi, I got a chicken salad in rice and seaweed wrap for breakfast, harkening back to my Japan trip.

The 272 bus stop was easy to find, it was on a major artery with rush hour going strong at 8:30am. The first bus was stuffed, I waited and the 700 express came that was mostly empty, so I took it instead. There were dedicated bus lanes for a bit then we joined the grid lock for a while.

Gyeongbokgung Palace right after opening was the right idea! There was free entry in a hanbok so there were tonnes of period looks wandering around (including some samurai?). I ended up spending 2 hours there strolling the extensive grounds and peeking into buildings. I didn't see a lot of people with the 3k audio guides, only noticed one, it was a great deal to me, and neat technology with a pen reading numbers on the map to trigger audio files. There was so much detail on all the buildings. Bit sad that not a lot of the time (? typo that I can't decode just yet) built around the fancy buildings were open. The lotus ponds and gardens were my favourites, the fishing pavilion was charming. It was neat that it was the location where the king charged scholars with creating a native Korean writing system. It went from cloudy to sunny, it was getting hot when I finished, going up to 27C. And the crowds had really grown, sticking to the outer edges of the palace paid off for me.

I walked around the corner from the palace to the contemporary art museum, where they had one big exhibition by Damien Hirst. He was obsessed with death and science and religion, right up my alley. I grabbed a sweet potato ciabatta for lunch at the cafe and rested my feet a bit.

The free folk museum entrance was right there so I popped in and really enjoyed the standing exhibits. The guided tours I saw seemed to be at the max size for the tight points. Korea is in fact known as the Land of Various Hats and I got a picture to prove it. :-)
I was close to the Bukchon Hanbok village so meandered that way with the last of my energy. It turned out to be a hilly residential area with visitors only allowed 10am-5pm with lots of signs asking tourists to be respectful. It was pretty crowded and it felt like I could just see older buildings like these generally wandering around.

I was hustling back toward the return bus stop when I realised that I was really close to Old Shin Tea House and a pedestrian street, Insadong, so I determined I'd head there for some fruit tea and a snack. Iced mulberry tea and rice cakes in a cool (temperature wise) chill (music wise) place was perfect to overcome the crowd crankiness that was afflicting me. I looked a bit further up the street, popped into a vintage store and a tea ware shop (how did I forget Korean green ceramics? didn't buy any though as I had the horse trek still to come).
But my feet were tired and it was hot in the sun, so I finally headed back to the bus stop and didn't have to wait more than 2 mins. Thankfully they announced stops in English last so I didn't miss my stop. I had to double check the map (downloaded for when offline paired with GPS let me tell where I was) to find my hotel's alley. The clerk had charged and reset my door handle via USB and that fixed it. I made it back at about 5pm and jumped in the shower.

I took a few minutes to rest but was tired and hungry, so soon put on fresh clothes (seersucker safari shirt breathed a lot better than my event t-shirt) and dodged the rain from the bamboo watering session to continued down the street to the next major intersection. Except the vegan restaurant Plant was in the alley not the main street. GPS got me there, and I noted a few other places to try. Mostly white faces behind the counter. I entered my order on a screen and then grabbed a table until my mango smoothie and green curry were ready. Spicy! Walked back a bit on the rail trail. So tired from being on my feet all day. 7:21pm

Seoul, Saturday June 6, 2026

Ugh, a man and woman were talking loudly at about 2:30am and woke me up. I grabbed my phone and started mapping biking and hiking options for the day. I was really happy with my hotel location wrt bus lines, so many stopped right near me, and I could get to the airport subway easily too. I was a bit upset I'd paid so much for a private airport transfer on the way in, but with how tired I was it was probably worth it for door to door service.
I tried to sleep again at 4, but then a tiny insect would buzz my ear just as I was about to drift off and I couldn't catch it.
I forgot to grab leftovers for breakfast the previous night, either a bakery pastry or a handful of seaweed packets for a biking picnic later (or both).

Cafe Parisienne was nearby and was serious about their breakfast sandwiches, it was three in one with eggs, chicken salad, cheese, tomato. I also grabbed a blueberry muffin for a snack later.
I topped up my T Money card at 711 then had a bit of a wait for the bus. I rode across the river after going through a business district. There were lots of runners and cyclists around, fully covered up against the sun - there was some sort of road race with t-shirts and swag. I sat by the river for a bit and watched a bird fight with a long fish and fight off a heron.

The first bike rental place I found wasn't open yet, so I walked for a bit. I was rental 01 when I found one with a guy unlocking his bikes. It was really reasonable, less than 5k for 90 mins. Rode (and walked and took pictures) for just over an hour along the river. It was warm in the sun, but lovely in the shade. I was given a cruiser bike with a basket, I had to move the seat up quite a bit and the front tire needed air but it worked well enough.
After returning the bike, I found a shaded bench nearby to have my muffin and a family of three immediately grabbed the other end near me.

Next, I managed to navigate the subway (Naver directions are top notch, and I just copied them into my calendar app for offline access) and bus and climbing up to the start of the old city walls walk. I ducked into the landmark of a 7-11 store for a red bean bread, stopping for a bit in a shaded entertainment area at the bottom of the climb to eat and rest before starting.

It climbed and climbed then got steeper and steeper. It started with a paved walkway alongside the restored crenellated walls, then wooden steps, metal stairs, steeper metal stairs, shallow slanted down steps worn into the rock. I took lots of breaks and drank water, and was very glad for my Tilley hat and long light sleeves. So much panting echoed during the climbs, from myself and the others labouring upward. The Tiger shaped rock was a huge rock formation we climbed over and down, looking out from there at the final climb to the peak of Inwangsan. I could look down into the courtyards of the palace once I got high enough, and I could hear the drums from the guard ceremony.
I definitely felt community with the others climbing, and accepted and offered photo taking. There was a running club at the peak when I started down, some impressive thighs on them! I'm glad I powered through to the peak, it definitely felt longer than 2.5 km, that last 0.4 km after Tiger Rock was no joke. It was mostly sunny and quite warm, had some nice breezes though and amazing views over the city, mountains, and bridges. So many skyscrapers!

Going down took almost as long somehow, my legs were shaking and knees were sore so I was stepping carefully. I also wanted to avoid any injuries before heading to Mongolia! I used the blower station to clear my boots and pants, the air felt nice on my feet.

I stopped again at the 7-11 for a Powerade and drank it all in the shaded area beside the trail again. Then I was lured in by a Korean Friend Chicken place on the main drag, doing a point and order for a mixed chicken dish. It was about 3pm then, and I got back on the bus to eat at the hotel. I was getting better at recognizing my bus stop. I ended up doing a limping power walk back to the hotel with the smell of the chicken tormenting me - the clerk helped me wedge it into my backpack, the box was bigger than I expected. Once I opened it up, it became clear: two maybe half chickens in pieces and prepared two ways, a can of Pepsi I gave to another guest, Jan from Czechia, something called "chicken radish" according to google lens, a sauce packet and two pairs of chopsticks. I kept nibbling on the chicken as I talked with Jan on the bamboo pierced balcony. Another guest was trying to check in, no sign of the owner. My brain was slow, no ideas to help occurred to me.
It was nice to sit outside and chat, Jan seemed to need connection as he was struggling with the language barrier here. Mostly travel, he was in NZ and Japan before this, and Canada.

5pm rolled up and I gave up on food for a bit, sticking it in the fridge for midnight snacks, breakfast, and probably lunch. Jan didn't hear the yelling last night, his windows were closed, do will do that tonight. Long hot shower and massaging my feet a bit, super sore after the hard surfaces of the hike.
Took a half dose of Benadryl at 6:30pm in an attempt to get a full night's sleep.

Seoul, Sunday June 7, 2027

The Benadryl helped me sleep through to midnight, then I turned over and it was 3, so I checked in for my flight that very late evening. I needed to see if I could print my boarding pass at the hotel, adding it to GPay didn't work, but I had a PDF copy and a link to it online. Boarding will be just after 1am, I needed to check how late I could keep my luggage at the hotel.
I had a midnight snack of the saucy fried chicken, so good. I planned to bring the dry fried chicken with me for daytime snacking. Rain was in the forecast for the evening right around when I had to head to the airport, and it was chilly with chance of rain in Ulaanbaatar tomorrow. I made a note to make sure that the horse trek tour voucher is with my passport for ease of entry.

I managed to sleep some more until 6am, then had a leisurely morning repacking, though wanting to wear runners today leaves boots a bit at a loss. I ended up tying them to my backpack, then I showered off the packing sweat to get ready for the day. I realised that the market is closed Sundays and the stores I was looking at going to browse in didn't open until noon and 1, so I had my leftover fried chicken and cleaned up for checkout. The owner gave me a food waste bag but then disappeared before I could ask where it went. The bamboo was being aggressively trimmed with huge piles of leaves all over. I hung out in in room until 10:30am then made my way downstairs.
The owner there, I had to bring my suitcase down myself. He said I could leave it until whenever, but I said I'd be back at 8pm.

First I scoped out the walk to the Arex station so I could navigate it without issue in the evening. I grabbed a mango juice along the way, touch screen Korean only was pretty intuitive, at least I got the expected drink!

Lockers were right by the entrance to the underground, 10k per locker, but I was hoping it would be clear when I went to fetch my bags tonight, otherwise I'd need to repack my backpack contents into dry bags. Thee was clear signage to Arex but it might need a different card with deposit? Online it said I could use T money for the all stops train though. I planned to leave lots of time before I needed to get to the airport, just in case.
I stopped in at a Starbucks for tea to use up a few minutes before Gentle Monster opened, it had forum seating that was odd but efficient for the workers grabbing their drinks. Gentle Monster was half art gallery and half eyeglasses store, not much on display that day though.

I had 5900 left on my T Money card after getting transit to my next stop, the Thug store. It was super expensive and men's only (it was a recommendation from my friend who had come with her son). The store next door, Holy Number 7, was having their grand opening with a dj and friendly staff and awesome stuff for all genders. Of course the green elven style woven leather jacket was $4k so I just pet it gingerly and left it alone.

It was raining just a bit but I decided to go up Namsan peak via the cable car.
Used another 1550 to get to Namsan as there was no pedestrian access through the surprise tunnel through the mountain when I tried walking to the cable car station.

I got on the second car up and down, and was kind of put out that I had to climb more stairs after riding the cable car up (15k return totally worth it though).
This was a totally different experience from the day before since it was so much more accessible. It was much more crowded, with a martial arts demo then a drumming performance at the base of the tower. Kids were playing with toys, a song release party was happening on a patio with clear fans given away. The locks of love were *everywhere*! With key drops too. They sold red and pink and white and baby blue locks up there, so it was a very harmonious display. I could clearly see the palace and Ingwangsan where I'd been already. I stopped in at a Starbucks for green tea and Wi-Fi to plan my return trip, but couldn't resist a stop at Olive Young first. I ended up with 13,000 worth of face masks, I grabbed lots at half price despite the young clerks trying to steer me to the more expensive ones.
I felt like a pro navigating the subway transfers on the way to the hotel. The subway cars were very wide, and generally the ride was pretty smooth.

I went back to Plant as a known good eatery and got the aloo Gobi bowl and a mango smoothie, starving after only my fried chicken and two Nori packets for food as I wandered around. I ate on the patio, the sun was out! Ticket 72 and phone at 72% amused me. :-)

I walked over to the 7-11 again and added 5000 to my T Money card for the trip to the airport. Then it was back to iHouse Chinchin to grab my suitcase and backpack, and swapped to hiking boots so the shoes could get packed away. The owner asked if I was vegetarian, I wasn't sure how to answer, but in any case I was full when he offered me dinner with him and his wife, so sweet though! I had an easy bus ride, keeping my suitcase from rolling away, to get to the Arex station (didn't feel like hauling it through the streets). But then I lost control of it on the first escalator down to the Arex. I put it in front of me on the escalator, so it went down first and I couldn't hold it. It ended up tumbling end over end and crashing into a young woman's back though I tried to warn them. She said she was okay, but she's probably going to be very bruised. I felt horrible and kept asking if she was okay. :-(

I took the elevator after the next escalator where I went first. Scanning the T Money pass worked to let me in and I had a short 2 min wait for the all stops train. The built in luggage rack was full so I stood guarding mine tucked in front. I was able to snag a seat about halfway to the airport.

I found a luggage scale to repack a bit, and put my runners and the face masks into my suitcase. It went up from 22 kg to 22.9kg, just under the max. I sat for a bit as the Mongolian Airlines check in line wasn't moving despite all the clerks. It went quickly once it started, there were lots of family groups. I didn't need to do anything other than hand over my passport. Security was pretty quick and leaving the country was just a scan and fingerprint. I realised I had 50k won cash left over, oops. Got an extra large Jamba Juice mango smoothie, my third mango drink of the day oh noes. I was early enough to make the flight before mine at 12:05am, oops. I set myself up at a charging port at a gate with a flight after 3am so I could have some quiet space. I did a quick wash of face and teeth and changed my shirt so I could feel like I was going to bed. Unfortunately the one people mover near the gate had the loudest repeating English safety announcement so it wasn't that restful there.

Stay tuned for my night flight to Mongolia in the next installment!