Santiago, Chile

Mendoza, Argentina

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Bariloche, Argentina

Colonia, Uruguay

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Auckland, New Zealand

Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand

Christchurch, New Zealand

Queenstown, New Zealand

Seoul, South Korea

I arrived at Seoul Incheon airport just before 5am on a red-eye from Hong Kong.  I had bought my ticket with a built in fifteen hour layover in Seoul, just so I could pick up another country for my list.  I spent the first hour sitting in the arrival terminal in a daze, chugging coffee and trying to get enough motivation to figure out how to buy a train ticket into downtown Seoul.  I sat on the hour long train-ride that started before dawn half-filled with Koreans on their way to work.  Nearly all of them were asleep. 

 I finally arrived at Seoul Station, and exited to the near-freezing autumn air.  I walked and walked and walked and shivered, and looked at big buildings.  Then back into the station to ride over to Changdeokgung Palace

Changdeokgung Palace,  a World Heritage Site.

The World Heritage Site palace was an enjoyable diversion, though the guided tour seemed to go on about an hour longer than it needed to in the bitter cold.

Gangnam Style!

After the palace, I made a pilgrimage over to the Gangnam section of Seoul, made famous by Psy in 2012.  I had plans of asking some locals to do the horsey dance with me in front of the sign, while someone else took video.  But, every Korean looked really busy and serious and on their way to work in a hurry, so I chickened out.

 

In my 15 hours in Seoul, I didn't see anything of much interest to tourists.  It strikes me as a working mans city.

Hong Kong

 

Our hydrofoil ferry zipped past small islands covered in high-rise apartments, in ninety minutes we had arrived at the ferry terminal on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.  Just across the harbor we could see Hong Kong island.  Above us dozens of skyscrapers loomed. We struggled with our bags across thick traffic to hail a cab to take us to our guest house on Nathan Road.  By now night had fallen and our cab ride was a kaleidoscope of neon lights right out of Blade Runner. 

This intersection in Kowloon is considered to be the most densely populated spot on earth.  I was worried that Aaron and I would get separated in the crowd and never find each other.  Aaron said, 'Naah, that wont be a problem, look around."  I realized that as we were both over six feet, we could find each other in any crowd in Hong Kong!

I've been lucky enough to have a couple friends come along on international trips every now and then.  On this one I hit the jackpot.  Derek happened to have business in Singapore, and flew in to meet us in Hong Kong.  I posted pictures of us on facebook, then get an email from Ted asking if we are really in Hong Kong?  Turns out he was in mainland China for work, and he flew in to HK for the weekend!  It is a small world when you have friends with global business.