Art installation outside Seoul train station

A Typical Day in the Life of a Full-Time Traveler

May 26, 2017

The lifestyle of a full-time traveler is not always 'all that'.

Often, people reflect on their own recent vacations of cocktails on the beach or non-stop sightseeing and might think that is what full-time travel looks like.

Sure, I occasionally have those days, but my current life most often resembles a librarian convention.

I'm all about dispelling dreamy travel myths here at Gobsmacked, so without further ado, here is a less-than-suspenseful recap of a recent day in Seoul, South Korea on Tuesday, May 23rd.

8:30 am

Traffic on Yanghwa-ro outside our apartment

I awaken to the sound of traffic. We are staying in an Airbnb apartment on a busy street in Hongdae and while I love the action here, it is loud. It's also bright despite my wearing a sleeping mask, which is all stretched out and needs to be replaced. WHINE ALERT: I just can't find one I like as so many masks strap to my head like a satin strait jacket (which I hate), while my current cashmere mask gently covers the eyes and doesn't give me a headband headache.

Anyway, I'm surprised it's this late because we went to bed at 11:30 pm, considered a 'decent hour' in this household, and the bed, shockingly uncomfortable, is not one that would tempt you to sleep in. I love many things about this apartment- it's clean, has a decent shower and is in a superb location- but the bed is one of the hardest I've ever slept on, and that's saying something for a person who has spent nearly six months in Asia, a land famed for 'firm' beds.

I drag my sore back out of bed and check email/social media for an hour while I drink coffee.

9:30 am

Sufficiently caffeinated to face the day, I make breakfast (two fried eggs topped with avocado) and open up my new website, an entrepreneurial project that I'm anxious to launch. After months of pondering various ideas, Perry and I crystallized this one over coffee in Shanghai last month and it's taken shape quickly.

We review the latest logo iterations created by a Polish graphic designer Perry found online and decide on the one we think best fits the site. Between coffee and seeing our vision come to life, I'm buzzing with energy, and work on website content for the next three hours while Perry does chocolate milk tastings.

12:30 pm

After Facetiming with Darren (our friend in Shanghai) and texting with Bob and Johanna (our Swedish friends who are on their way to Bali after a 14 day trek in Mongolia), it's time to clean up and hit the streets. We arrived on Friday afternoon after nine days off the grid in Mongolia, but have been too tired (and internet deprived) to explore, venturing only around our neighborhood and spending most of our time inside catching up on projects.

Today, we are headed to Myeong-dong for lunch and to check out several cat cafes as well as a few supermarkets (for Perry's chocolate milk website).

1:30 pm

Navigating the Seoul metro was easy-peasy and it's super clean to boot, two thumbs up!

Myeong-dong is a riot of crowds and K-pop music. If this is how a Tuesday afternoon looks, I'm afraid to think what it's like on the weekend! I'm keen on having bibimbap for lunch and we spend an hour looking for a restaurant famous for it, Jeonju Jungang Hoekwan, with no success. After passing the same girl hawking face cream for the third time, we finally give up and sit down in a family run place where we are the only Westerners in sight.

We place our order for two bibimbap stone pots and while waiting for them, are surprised when they set down six small bowls filled with a variety of vegetables, kimchi and soup in front of us. As typical, we sat there looking around, unsure if we were supposed to eat them or wait for the meal. We waited and tucked into everything all at once. It was pretty good, but I needed to add a lot of gochujang.

3:00 pm

After lunch, we locate and visit three cat cafes while unsuccessfully searching for a fourth. They are all very nice spaces- none reek of urine and the cats are super cute, with a few granting us lap privileges.

In between, we scour supermarkets and convenience stores for chocolate milk. In addition to the 35 varieties in our apartment fridge waiting to be reviewed, Perry finds three new ones to add to the arsenal.

6:30 pm

We head to Seoul train station from Myeong-dong, encountering a glittering urban landscape, a raised pedestrian walkway and an art installation featuring used shoes and flowers.

After a sardine-packed rush hour ride on the Seoul metro, we finally return to our apartment. It's been a successful outing and I reflect on how strange my standards for 'success' have become.

7:30 pm

Dinner is comprised of steamed broccoli and a pouch of Korean-style chicken I picked up at the 7-Eleven downstairs. Convenience stores in South Korea are like colorful mini-Costco's, filled with surprises- gobs of snacky delights, a jaw-dropping variety of beverages, and decent food quality.

I switch gears and work on my Mongolia video for the rest of the evening, interrupted only by the clatter of the refrigerator side shelf which falls under the weight of chocolate milk, forcing Perry to spend an hour supergluing it back together.

11:30 pm

I'm in bed now and finishing up a few to-do list items such as place an order for our Japan Rail passes and begin researching Sapporo cat cafes. After much shifting around in my bed-that-feels-like-a-table, I fall asleep around midnight.

Thanks for reading!

Next time on Gobsmacked: A Typical Travel Day for a Full-Time Traveler

China: Two Months, Nine Highs, Four Lows & Eight Tips

May 19, 2017

If you ask me 'So, how was China?', you might get a long pause.

A country so vast and diverse, China has defied my attempts to categorize it into short, tidy descriptions. The landscape, the cuisine and even the language varies more than I originally thought possible and it was overwhelming at times.

If pressed, the short answer might be 'It was never boring.'

The kicker is that even though we visited eight cities over the course of eight weeks, we barely scratched the surface. First, we started in southern Yunnan province, going all the way to Tiger Leaping Gorge before heading north to Chengdu in Sichuan. Then, we made our way north east to Xian, in Shaanxi, before turning east towards Nanjing and Shanghai. We ended our trip in Beijing before hopping a train that traversed Hebei and Inner Mongolia (the Chinese province) prior to crossing into Mongolia, the country.

Though we covered a lot of ground, it was just a sliver of the country.

What I did see, however, wowed me. From the rice terraces of Yunnan to the skyscrapers of Shanghai, there were many high points.

Here are my top nine.

Number Nine: The Pandas

Xiongmao means both panda and 'chest hair' (different tone, but I still find this amusing)

Some people (like me) go to Sichuan for the food, but most visit for dà xióng māo aka the Giant Panda.

Initially, I wasn't sure I would make it there. Sure, they are cute, but I get plenty of that visiting cat cafes. While I didn't have the urge to go, I'm glad that I went because it turned out to be a major highlight.

Sichuan, where 80% of the world's pandas live, is also home to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the official name of panda central. Of the 375 in captivity, this place houses 80 of these black and white superstars.

My reaction surprised me. Once standing just a few feet away, I couldn't take my eyes off them. I spent two hours in a hypnotic trance, watching them eat, roll around, eat, shift position and eat some more. How they use their teeth to rip the husks off bamboo stalks is fascinating.

If the bears aren't enough, the facility is also impressive. With wide, shady walking paths, a peaceful lake and several cafes, even with the crowds, I found it a relaxing place to spend a morning.

Top Tips: To avoid crowds and save money, go early morning on a weekday and take the metro/shuttle to the complex (Line 3 to Xiongmao Ave, exit A, pay shuttle 58 yuan for one-way ride and entrance fee). Once inside, skip the trolley and make a beeline towards the back of the complex. The pandas are there and they are more playful in the morning. If one area is crowded, seek out another as there is plenty of room for all the panda lovers out there.

Number Eight: The Trains

Bullet train, Shanghaihongqiao Railway Station

From one end of the country to the other, China is a rail transportation machine.

All of our travel within China was via train, and while the many types and classes took a bit of study to fully comprehend, we found our experiences on Chinese trains to be overwhelmingly positive- relaxing, safe, efficient, affordable and authentic. Did I mention they have boiling water dispensers for tea and noodles in every carriage? Even the British don't do that.

While we rode in all the varieties, my favorite experiences were on the overnight K trains. While the G (bullet) trains are very nice, they don't have much personality and I found the K trains to be a really cool way to view the countryside (see here in this video) and be immersed in Chinese culture, both good and bad.

On the favorable side, we shared a quad soft sleeper with a nice young couple and their two small boys headed to Chengdu to see the pandas. The older boy, alternating between adorable sweetheart and naughty troublemaker, wanted to show off his English skills while his baby brother kept a wary eye on us tucked in his mother's arms. It was fun (covertly) watching them go about their routine of dinner and bedtime stories and we caught a bit of footage of them in this short video.

On the not-so-great side, we sat near the vestibule on the way to Dali where half the carriage chain-smoked. Another time, I sat next to a guy for three hours who smelled strongly of both cigarettes and hot dogs. P.S. Cigarette smoke + hot dogs ≠ kielbasa.

While our fellow patrons were not super friendly, they were curious about us and we definitely had more than a few stares, giggles and requests for photos. Even things that I didn't necessarily love at the time, like the scrum that is the platform entrance gate, I now remember proudly as we were the only Westerners in sight. Part of the objective in traveling China was to challenge ourselves and throw a curve ball or two into our experiences. Train travel, especially K trains, provided us with unique and memorable adventures.

Top Tips: A great starting point for train travel anywhere in the world, including China, is the excellent website, The Man in Seat 61. Also, we used China DIY Travel to book all of our intra-China train tickets, well worth the $5/ticket fee (with the Seat 61 promo code) to avoid purchasing tickets at the train station, a bit tricky if you don't know Mandarin.

Number Seven: The Cats

We stopped to visit this cat every day in Shanghai (the shop owner thought we were crazy)

I realize 'cats' might not make many 'Top Reasons to Visit China' lists.

Karrie says 'That black kitty is having THOUGHTS!'  I agree. — Karrie says 'That black kitty is having THOUGHTS!' I agree.

For us, however, it might have ranked higher if we had seen more of them outside, (like Thailand) but the fact that we only went through one bag of treats in two months is telling. The majority of our fur ball encounters occurred in the twelve cat cafes we visited across the country- one in Chengdu, three in Xian, three in Shanghai and five in Beijing.

They ran the gamut from high rise apartments with a few street kitties to lux cocktail bars filled with pedigreed purebreds and everything in between.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful, dahling.

We spent a lot of time looking for now-defunct cafes, which leads me to believe that the bar for opening a cat cafe in China is fairly low. Got a cat, an espresso machine and an apartment? Presto, you are now a cat cafe!

Regardless of the circumstance, we enjoyed visiting China's cat cafes and searching for them provided extra opportunities for sightseeing and working off my excessive intake of dumplings.

Full reviews (and an exciting cat cafe-related announcement!) are forthcoming.

Number Six: The Food

Ah, dumplings! I thought it was possible I might lose weight in China, but because of 'plings, I didn't.

As we often struck out trying to order food in restaurants (even being turned away on occasion), we ate in many nights with my go-to specialty of steamed dumplings and a side of veg. Add a teaspoon of my new favorite condiment, Lao Gan Ma Chili Sauce to soy sauce with a drop of sesame oil, and voilà, it's what's for dinner.

The look that says 'I'm worried you aren't eating enough'

Sichuan is officially the cuisine I crave the most, but mainly because of this sauce of all sauces: Lao Gan Ma aka Old Dry Mom aka The Godmother. The chili crisp flavor is my personal favorite with the black bean version a close second. If you love Sriracha, give the Godmother a try.

When I wasn't stuffing my face with dumplings and chili sauce, I found time to experience the following foodie highlights:

Crossing the Bridge Noodle Soup in Yunnan, where you get a boiling hot bowl of broth and add raw veg, meat and noodles to it from a separate bowls.

A traditional Shanghai lunch at Hai Jin Zi with Rebecca & Darren

Zhengdan (eggs), Qiezizao (eggplant), red braised pork and pork bone soup with tofu noodles

Peking Duck with Bob & Johanna (no photo as I was too busy eating)
Sichuan Hot Pot with Bob & Johanna (& tour group)

Shaanxi street food in the Xian Muslim Quarter

In the end, I gained weight, but it was worth it.

Top Tip: Joining a food tour is a great way to try food in parts of the city that might otherwise be intimidating (due to lack of English!). Hostels are good places to find free or cheap tours.

Number Five: New Friends

We met Bob and Johanna at the front door of our guesthouse on the morning of my birthday, and when we learned we were both headed to Cangshan Mountain for a day of walking the trails, we agreed to go together.

Serendipity.

Not only did I have a wonderful birthday with a few of my favorite things (beautiful weather, a great walk, dazzling views, dumplings for lunch and cake/really great coffee for dessert), but this Swedish duo became our best buddies in China. We traveled together to Lijiang, met up in Chengdu to swap Tiger Leaping Gorge stories over Hot Pot, and again in Beijing for Peking Duck.

We just crossed paths again in Ulaanbaatar, and when you find yourself in a strange, new part of the world, it's sure nice to visit with 'old' friends over dinner.

Top Tip: Staying in hostels or guesthouses is the best way to meet like-minded travelers. Private rooms are often available if you don't fancy open dormitories.

Number Four: Shanghai

At the top of Shanghai World Financial Center

Is an entire city allowed to be a highlight?

Excuse the broad definition, but from our American-style Easter with the Larews and fellow expat neighbors, to the famous tourist sights, to the insider culinary extravaganza courtesy of our friend Darren, our time in Shanghai was an all-around outstanding experience.

There's something about the way Shanghai's old and new worlds blend (collide?) that I love.

We immersed ourselves in Old Shanghai by staying in a traditional alley of Yong'an Mill district and explored nearby options, from Yu Garden to Tianzifang to the Bund.

Tianzifang offers up unique restaurants and shops

But the new world of Shanghai, with its glittering financial district and famous skyline of world-class skyscrapers, quickened my pulse. We visited several times, including a trip to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which looks like a bottle opener.

I'm also a huge fan of Shanghai's uber-efficient subway system, and with so much to see and do, hopping on and off the metro made it super easy. Did I mention the fabulous malls? Head to Jing'an district where they delicately scent their malls with yummy perfume.

Even though I just spent ten days there, I would go back in a heartbeat.

Top Tips: Visit the Bund at sunrise or sunset for spectacular photos. Arm yourself with Google Translate and try a local hole-in-the-wall for some Shanghainese specialties. Oh, and if you go, make sure and get the three-day metro pass to save money and avoid having to queue for single-pass tickets each time you use it.

Number Three: The Great Wall

It was WAY better than I thought it would be.

I'm always a bit leery of monster attractions, but in this case, it's all completely justified. Our excursion to the Great Wall was a highlight, but there are several factors that helped put it in the Top Three.

We targeted the Mutianyu section, as it has some of the best views, including an unrestored part nearby. We also liked that there were many options to go up and down, including hiking, cable car, chairlift and toboggan. It was a little bit warm, so we rode up the chairlift (not cable car) to Tower 6, walked to Tower 23 and back (a fairly strenuous 5 miles with a lot of up and down), then ended our day with a surprisingly fun and lengthy toboggan ride to the bottom.

So, what made it such a great experience?

Wonderwall. The vastness of the structure left me in awe. I mean COME ON, this sucker is 5500 miles long and they just built it right over the tops of mountains. Definitely worthy it's 'wonder of the world' moniker.
Going Local. Getting there was a proper adventure as we took a regular city bus to Huairou and then a taxi to Mutianyu, which would have been uneventful if not for the bumper-to-bumper traffic courtesy of the Labor Day holiday. Adding to the fun, we were the only Westerners on the bus, and had to reassure an older Chinese woman (who was very concerned that we were lost) that we knew what we were doing.
Beautiful Day. We lucked out with 75F (23C), a slight breeze and tolerable smog.
Let's Get Physical. While it was only 5 miles total, the multitude of steps made it a heavy-duty workout, which I need on the road without regular access to a gym.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The ski lift up and toboggan down combo, in particular, was well worth the 100 yuan price.

All in all, it rates as one of the best days we had in China.

Top Tips: Take Bus 916 from Dongzhimen Station (next to Guoson Center) for the hour ride to Beidajie for only 6 yuan with a metro card. It's an easy 30 minute taxi to Mutianyu from there, around 40/50 yuan. This website spells it out in full detail. Oh, and try to avoid visiting during a public holiday!

Number Two: Terracotta Warriors

I could have flip-flopped one and two on this list, that's how much I loved my visit to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xian (aka Xi'an). Actually part of the larger mausoleum of the first Qin emperor, the army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. The statues were buried with the emperor around 210 BC with the purpose of protecting him in the afterlife.

Discovered by local farmers in 1974, three pits have been excavated and contain more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses. They are all individually crafted and hand painted with no two alike.

I had been itching to see them in person since I saw a TV show featuring this marvel, and it did not disappoint. I was absolutely blown away not only at the size of the complex and the sheer number of figures, but that much of it remains unearthed, the slow pace of a working archeological site.

If you have even a slight interest in history, get thee to Xian forthwith.

The detail of these statues is incredible!

Top Tips: Go as early in the morning as possible, taking local bus 306 from the Xian Rail Station, which takes one hour and costs 7 yuan ($1) per person. You do the same to return and it's a super easy way to save money and balance the relatively expensive fee of 120 yuan ($20) to get into the site.

Number One: Tiger Leaping Gorge

One of the earliest things we did and physically, the most difficult, our stunning two-day Tiger Leaping Gorge hike remains the number one highlight of our time in China.

I did a thorough write up previously, so if you missed it, check it out here.

... AND THE LOWS

While most of my time visiting China was exceedingly positive, there were a few things that routinely stoked my ire.

Smoking... and Spitting

I'm convinced one begets the other. Inside, outside- no matter - count on seeing these two with alarming frequency wherever you are in China.

The Smog

We arrived in Beijing to crystal clear blue skies and a pollution reading of 25, prompting us to joke 'what's all the fuss about' in reference to Beijing's infamous smog. Never fear, two days later, it was back in the hazardous range again.

Pedestrian Blues

Not as bad as Thailand, but still pretty deadly, my advice is to 'keep your head on a swivel' when strolling the pavement in China. Curiously, while the cars, motorbikes and bicycles seem to hurry in their attempt to run you down (even when crossing with the 'green man' light), the people on the sidewalks plod along at a pace akin to the zombie apocalypse.

Lack of Subway Etiquette

It doesn't take a degree in nuclear physics to understand that people exiting a metro train cannot do so if the people entering the metro train shove their way in at the same time, but such trivial matters don't apply when it comes to the 'dog eat dog' mentality of the Chinese underground.

You're rough around the edges, but I still love ya, China.

Thanks for reading!

For more sights around China, check out my photos posted here.

Next time on Gobsmacked: Our Biggest Adventure Yet: Trekking Mongolia

Scenery & Sandstorms: 28 Hours on a Train to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

May 5, 2017

It was midnight and I was all choked up.

Not because I was in the midst of a bucket list experience of epic proportions, traveling through Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but because I was in the midst of an enormous sandstorm.

Earlier that day, after spending fifty-seven days in China, Perry and I left Beijing for the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar (UB) on the K3, of Trans-Siberian Railway fame, a once-per-week train that traverses northern China, Mongolia and Russia, arriving in Moscow six days later.

We were only hitching a ride to UB, alighting after a day's journey to spend a week in Mongolia's largest city (home to half of its three million people) before embarking on a trek across the country. However, I was still pretty excited about it, despite not being able to snag a deluxe sleeper which had sold out well before we arrived in China. Apparently, this trip is on MANY a bucket list.

The sign reads Beijing - Ulaanbaatar - Moscow

I'm not opposed to budget train accommodations, but we had already spent two nights on K trains (slower and older than bullet 'G' trains) in soft sleepers, which are supposed to be a nicer class of travel, yet found the cigarette smoke and processed meat odor emanating from my fellow cabin mates almost unbearable during these fourteen hour trips.

So, the thought of riding in the cheapest class of travel for twenty-seven hours didn't exactly fill me with giddy anticipation.

Ultimately, we just could not pass up on such an adventure, and booked two bunks in hard sleeper class through China Highlights for around $400, a great value considering it included transport (passing through the Gobi Desert), overnight accommodation and two meals, each.

Little did we know the Gobi would deliver more adventure than we were expecting.

Perry took the top bunk.  Thanks, babe. (And no, the fan didn't work.) — Perry took the top bunk. Thanks, babe. (And no, the fan didn't work.)

I arrived at Beijing Railway Station with a terrible cold, not the best start for our journey, but felt better after I got on the train and met our neighbors, three boisterous gentlemen from Austria headed to the backcountry of Mongolia for three weeks of motorcycling.

Adding to the fun was our was our cabin mate, Koh, a Japanese student of rail engineering who was making the entire journey to Moscow, a couple of nice Korean guys, and our friendly (by Chinese standards) carriage attendant. There weren't many of us in Carriage 15, and it was a pretty laid back atmosphere.

Ours was the very last car, and while it had definitely seen better days (it's best not to look too closely at the carpet or blankets), we had the distinct advantage of being able to take panoramic photos at the rear of the train any time we wanted.

Departing on time at 11:22a.m., the first few hours were relatively uneventful. We visited with Koh and the Austrians, watched videos and took photos while trying to work around mud spots on the windows.

Attempts to eat in the restaurant car proved interesting. Even though our meal tickets had time slots on them (I assume to even out the flow of traffic), the car was packed and chaotic. We grabbed individual seats wherever we could and I ultimately had a fun conversation at a table with a Chinese man and two travelers- one from NYC and another from Argentina.

After lunch, the landscape shifted from the dry, yet relatively green Hebei province to the scrubby semi-desert of Inner Mongolia. We were entering the Gobi Desert.

As evening approached, the winds began to pick up and by the time we reached Erlian, on the China/Mongolia border, we were in the throes of a full-blown sandstorm that was so huge, it made the news after causing havoc in Beijing. Because of it, that night would prove particularly taxing.

It was midnight and I was all choked up.

My breathing, already limited by a nasty cold, was reduced to wheezing courtesy of the chain smoking carriage attendant and the fine mist of dust particles brought on by the storm. It was so thick, it made my teeth and eyes feel gritty. As I settled into my bunk, I could feel the temperature plummeting as the wind snuck through cracks near my head, howling and rocking the carriage. I pulled the rough bedsheet over my head and was reminded of being a kid on my parents' farm in northern Minnesota, listening to a winter snowstorm while falling asleep.

I was awakened by a man in uniform and a large hat tapping my leg.

Chinese border control officials were collecting passports from each cabin for exit stamps. Looking out the window, I noticed that we were inside a very large building and rail workers were starting to hoist up the carriages and change the wheels as the tracks in Mongolia and Russia are a different gauge than in China.

Three hours of pounding and being jarred around later, we were off again, only to repeat the passport ritual twenty minutes down the track with the Mongolian officials. Around three a.m., we finally disappeared into the raging sandstorm once again.

In the morning, I looked out my window to the sight of blue skies and camels.

Even after our wild night, the ride into Ulaanbaatar that morning was the most thrilling train experience I've ever had. The stark, flat desert scenery dotted with yurts and a few animals, gradually changed to rolling hills of very short grass. Large herds of horses, sheep and cows and small villages with colorful rooftops began to appear alongside makeshift roads.

It finally hit me. Holy smokes, I'm in Mongolia! Bloody freaking MONGOLIA!

We pulled into UB around three p.m. local time, nearly twenty-eight hours later, and while I'm still horribly sick, luckily I have a few days to recover before our trek begins.

Here's hoping that the next time I get choked up in Mongolia, it will be from emotion, not sand.

Thanks for reading!

For more information on the train we took to Mongolia or the entire Trans-Siberian journey, please visit my favorite resource for rail travel, The Man in Seat 61.

Next time on Gobsmacked: Two Months in China: Nine Highlights