Going West....Mongolia

Hallo!

I have been travelling the last weeks to a part west of Ulaanbaatar. I have spent 7 days on hoseback and the others in the car.

We slept in tents and traditional gers and met nomadic families. The landscape is wast and huge, to say the least. It was amazing. The weather changes rapidly many times a day and we had sun, heat, rain, cold, fog...you really must not be sensible and have a high tolerance of discomfort to travel in this country. ;)
It was great, though I was happy to be able to have a flushing toilet and to finally shower again, when I came back to Ulaanbaatar yesterday.;)
Food, quickly described, consisted of all possible varieties on mutton.
Take a look at the pictures of the journey in the jeep, the horseback riding and one of my petsonal highlights: the Yak Festival!

Best regards, Renate

Arriving in Mongolia ... with a smile :)

Hallo to all of you!

I arrived in Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar, and cannot stop smiling, looking and being fascinated. Everything is so different...to where I have been in the last weeks and months.

At first glance, Ulaanbaatar appears a bit neglected, but you learn that what a building looks from outside has nothing to do with what it looks inside or what you find inside. There are fancy restaurants, bars and coffee shops. All food I encountered so far was pretty good. The people are friendly and welcoming and speak better English than in South Korea (who would have thought that, really??)
The last two days I spent being fascinated by the Naadam Festival. Nearly everything is closed and everybody is out there, proudly wearing their best suits as well as watching the happenings: wrestling, horses racing and archery. I personally liked the archery best.
Take a look at the pictures. :)

Unfortunately my tablet broke and thus it is pretty hard for me to upload the pictures and write a post. And I managed only some (they are not - ulimately - the best, as I could not be too picky on that matter due to technical restraints :) ) But I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.

Tomorrow I will travel out of the city to the wide and open countryside and wilderness. I will return to Ulaanbaatar in about 2 weeks and will, hopefully, be able to post again then.

I hope you are all fine and enjoying summer!
Kisses and hugs!!!
Renate

Heading North again to Seoul

Hallo,

Here are the pictures of our last days in South Korea. We visited Suncheon, Jeunju und Sewon before arriving in Seoul again.

We had some rain, but it was fun nevertheless.
We spent the last days enjoying the city life of Seoul and unfortunately Rainer had to head home today.
I will continue to Mongolia on the 9.7. Let's see how it will be going there.

We are sending you regards and wish you fun with the pictures.

Kisses, Renate

The south of Korea: Busan & Southern Islands

Hallo!

The second biggest city in South Korea, Busan, has serveral beaches and is very agreable. Although it is lacking opportunities to drink a nice bottle of beer looking at the ocean. Somehow, it seems, the Koreans are not in favor of outdoor bars or comfortable terraces where you can sit and drink or eat. Although there are millions of indoor restaurants. But not many of them have any menus in english und thus we find it difficult to find some decent food...of which we know what it is, before we order it. Some days we are adventorous and order something without exactly knowing what we order, but some times, especially if those adventures were rather a failure the day before, we would prefer to know what we get. And some food here is really, really strange. Only a few days ago our neighbours in the restaurant ate somethin that was white and slimy and still lived and moved.... :-O
Thus the daily "food-part" is nearly the most difficult one. :)

But, despite of the language and signage prolem, we managed to master the public transport system..more or less. ;)
Due to old and modern means (looking nervously out of the window, holding maps and guide books under the nose of people, translation Apps, Google Maps, GPS etc.) we are able to get off the local busses at the correct spot most of the time. But, on the other hand, the language problem also caused us to purchase wrong tickets and enter wrong buses due to misunderstandings at the bus terminal booths and we ended up in places, which names were "nearly" the same of the one we actually wanted to go to. :)

However we still survive and make our way through the country. :)
We are in the southern part now. Unfortunately the weather is worse and there is more rain and clouds, which you will see, if you look at the pictures :)
So our trip to the "romantic island" turned into a rainy and wet event. :)

We are sending you our best regards and hope you are well!

Renate