Knocking off one more city on the way home!

So we are home! We came home to our condo clean and staged with fresh cut flowers, crisp linens and fresh groceries in the fridge to buffer the blow of coming back to reality. Thank you to our great friend Dalyn (the mother of our goddaughter, almost 2). Yes, she is superwoman, 2 year old child and time to come given the condo the Four Seasons treatment, we love her!

We always dread the end of vacation mainly due to having to go back to work but in reality Vancouver is an amazing place to come home to. The weather is 21C and sunny right now, perfection, and as I sit at the dining table, writing this, this is the view I look out over, it is pretty sweet.

But we do LOVE our travels and made most of our trip home. We had an overnight flight from Singapore to Seoul (6hrs). As we taxied to the runway the captain informed us to expect a rough flight from hour 2 to hour 4 due to us catching the tail of the typhoon that came through a day ago, sweet! We were both really tired when we boarded and both went straight to sleep on takeoff. Jess felt absolutely none of the turbulence the captain mentioned and when I did wake up I took reference of "wow, this is bumpy, but it could be worse" and feel right back asleep.

We arrived at ICN the aiport for Seoul at 7:30 am for a 9 hour layover and booked at 5 hour city tour. Quick costume change and we were off. Jess and I have this goal of trying to "pin" as many world cities and countries on our travel map as possible. A layover in an airport doesn't count but a tour of the city does, so we have now "pinned" Seoul, South Korea and the country of Korea!!

The airport in Seoul is brand spanking new, it opened in 2001 and was built on 2 islands that were filled in to make one. The building is an architectural masterpiece. The airport (just like Singapore's) is set up to make it the most appealing hub as possible. Check out these FREE amenities that were offered in either Singapore or Korea while you wait: swimming pool, suntanning area, sleeping lounges, showers, hand craft areas. The airport was gorgeous, like walking through the most beautiful high end shopping mall.

SIDEBAR: Hello Canada, America, Europe you had better watch your back. Asia has it going on. The money being spent here is amazing. Economic "turndown", not happening here!! The way our airlines/airports run and the way they treat people are light years away from the Asian philosophy. In Asia they have figured out that being nice and smiling doesn't cost alot of money. Okay, stepping down from the soapbox.

Our tour of Seoul took us to a number of city sites, the main one being Gyeongbokgung Palace (say that 5 times fast, try even say it once, I had no idea what the hell she was saying every time our guide mentioned it).



(Apparently, this is the "IN" pose when taking a photo Asia, we like to try blend in)

We were taken to a pedestrian mall to do some shopping.I think this is some kind of larva stew, icky. The old woman cooking it was tasting the sauce the way you would taste your spaghetti sauce to make sure it was perfectly seasoned, yuck!
Lunch was Korean barbequed beef. Okay but not my fave.We flew home on Air Canada in Executive First (business). Air Canada revamped their planes a couple of years ago to put private "suites" with lie flat beds in business (we call them pods). The seats are great and are actually really comfortable to sleep in (especially if you order a side of Halcion ;) ) The service though is another story, more dinosaurs on board barely hiding how much they hate their job.

Our plane had a little mechanically difficulty and we had to wait in the aircraft for 2.5 hours before we could leave the gate. The free flowing Champagne made this a non-issue.

We both slept the entire flight and it was an absolute breeze.

Home now, looking at my new "Travel and Leisure" that arrived listing the worlds best hotels and airlines and dreaming about where to next. FYI Singapore Airlines is number one (Cathay is 5, Miss Hart, luv ya) No airline from North America makes the list, shocking!! Of the hotels we stayed at on this trip the Four Seasons in Singapore, Hong Kong and Jimbaran Bay (Bali) are near top rated on this years list, nice.

Jess and I go to Comox tomorrow to pick up our angel (and celebrate mother's birthday) and we can't wait. We have missed him so much.