Long layover in Addis Ababa

An all day layover in Addis Ababa?  Funny enough, this layover option has come up for us numerous times.  Since we use airline miles for most of our international trips, and we sometimes don't book far enough advance, there are often limited options for flights at the lowest mileage trade-in.  It's come up as an option coming home from Thailand and coming home from the Philippines and both times we reconfigured our trip so we could avoid the long layover and the city entirely.  Why avoid Addis?  Well, I'll be honest.  From the quick research I had done in the past, Addis didn't seem like a city I was dying to go to, and I was a little intimidated about trying to spend a full day there.  There didn't seem to be much to see and it didn't seem like the most tourist friendly city and I was honestly just a little overwhelmed by the idea of it.  For this trip though, the only option home from Seoul (at the mileage point we wanted) was the long layover in Addis so it was either skip Seoul, or go to Addis.  We decided to finally go to Addis.  We had a 14 hr. layover and because that was a forced layover through Ethiopian Airlines, we were entitled to a free hotel room and a free transit visa so at least we wouldn't have to pay for that.  We ended up not even going to our free hotel after all and didn't have a problem spending the day in Addis.  Luckily, we found a tour group called GoAddis (that incidentally also was feature in an epsiode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown) and they took great care of us!

We signed up for a half day tour with Go Addis and since it was an off-peak time, it was just the two of us, one other guy (European dude), the tour guide, and the driver.  Our tour guide was super nice and friendly and took us to some great places!

First, we went to Shola Market where they sold all types of goods and spices.  It was really neat going there with our guide because our guide was friendly with the vendors and was able to really show us things up close.  It also helped that he would keep any aggressive salespeople at bay.

 

 

Seoul: 48 hours of LOTS of eating

The last time we went to Seoul was 8 years ago, on our honeymoon.  I remember loving Seoul.  The food was delicious, there was a ton of great shopping, and everything was pretty cheap.  However, in my quest to always find somewhere new, we haven't yet returned.  Then, upon planning this trip to Asia, we figured we might as well squeeze Seoul in, even if it was just for a few days.  So basically we went to Seoul for 2 days to eat, see some of the family (only a small portion as we were extremely limited on time), and then eat some more before heading home!  It was a glorious 2 days!  Here's a quick recap:

First, we landed in Seoul and found our hotel (Glad Mapo) which happened to be one of the nicest hotels that we'd been to!  Unfortunately for us, we only had about 4 hours to sleep before Will's aunt, two cousins, and one of the cousin's boyfriend picked us up for an entire day of family time!  They have a dog that they're obsessed with (we can relate) so the dog came along and we drove outside of Seoul to a dog friendly restaurant.  We went to a restaurant that was outdoors but "on the water" which means it is basically on a creek and you can grill outside and consequently, you can bring your dog.  Lucky for us, finding this dog friendly restaurant also meant that we ended up with the most delicious lunch.  It was SO good.

 

Afterwards, we drove to a really nice and fancy dog park where we got some drinks and watched the dog run around and play.

Japan: Tokyo Take 2 (Mega Post)

So like I mentioned in a previous post, Will LOVED Japan when we went 8 years ago.  He has been begging to come back ever since.  However, while I loved Japan too, I always wanted to go somewhere new before making a return trip.  Well, Will's dreams finally came true and while Kyoto and Osaka were new cities, we have actually been to Tokyo before.  Needless to say though, Will found plenty of new and fun experiences for us.  Our days were so full that I couldn't even attempt to write recaps when we got back to our hotel each day (the same hotel we stayed on during our honeymoon!).  Here is an overall recap of our most notable Tokyo adventures.  I'm sure that Will will quickly point out that I didn't mention every neighborhood or store that we went to, but this was the big stuff.  The stuff that made it into my iPhone photos and therefore, in my current memory.

First, let's take a moment to applaud William Choi for his detailed trip planning.  I mean, look at that custom Google map with all pins carefully picked by Will! Now you can see how we were so busy.

Back to the highlight reel...

We had the most amazing sushi with the Omakase menu at Yasuda.  Best sushi of my life. SO good.

We went to Odaiba where we saw the "Gundam Unicorn" (nerd alert!) that was a 1:1 scale.  

Then we stopped into the Toyota City Showcase where we got to try safe driving simulations and some kind of future segway wannabe.

We also went to the teamLab Borderless exhibit at the Mori Building Digital Art Museum.  It was super cool and we were lucky to be in town during the exhibit.

 

Japan: Kyoto Recap

Again, since I was a terrible daily blogger, this is going to be a recap of Kyoto.  I loved Kyoto.  The last time we went to Japan, we only went to Tokyo (and climbed Mt. Fuji) so I never got to see this side of Kyoto so I was really looking forward to it.  It was peaceful and gorgeous in it's own calm, zen type of way.  Here's what we saw:

We actually didn't stay in Kyoto, we stayed at an AirBnb in Osaka and just took the train into Kyoto for a few days.  It's a short train ride and that way we wouldn't have to move our stuff unnecessarily.  In the pic below, Will is asking for directions about which train to take.  This machine was super cool because you could speak to someone live (in English!) and there was a little camera where you could show them your ticket and they could see it and let you know if you had the right kind of ticket.  The Japanese railway is complicated so I thought this was a cool way to help in less busy stations where there weren't as many workers present.  First stop, lunch!

Then we went to the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.  This place was HUGE and there was lots of hiking/walking in the heat.  It looked really cool because of all of the red columns!

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Japan: Osaka Adventures

Will and I originally started this blog when we first got married.  Our first adventure abroad as a married couple (besides a quick little trip to Mexico) was our honeymoon and we went to Japan and Korea.  Needless to say, anyone who knows us IRL knows that Will is kind of obsessed with Japan.  He LOVED our trip there and has been wanting to go back ever since.  While I loved it as well, I've always preferred to go somewhere new but this year, Will finally had his dream come true and we are back in Japan!  However, on this trip, we were just too busy and I could not keep up with the blogging.  We crammed in so much each day and I was just passed out whenever we came back to our AirBnb.  So.... no daily posts in Japan.  Just quick rundowns of all the fun that we had.  First up, Osaka!

I really liked Osaka.  I mean, look at that picture above.  Doesn't it look like a stock photo??  Osaka is a smaller, condensed version of Tokyo but still lots to do it and a more laid back feeling to it.  It also felt less business-y and corporate which I liked.  It was awesome too because our AirBnb was literally right in the middle of  Kuromon Ichiba Market where they sold sooo many kinds of delicious food.  

  

Sky High in Hanoi

Today is our last day in Hanoi and our last day in Vietnam so we got an early start wrapping up on any last minute stops we hadn't gotten to yet.  While we started our day in the Old Quarter, we quickly left to the more developed part of the city which we hadn't gone to yet.  We headed over to the Lotte Center to go to the Observation Tower and Sky Deck on the 65th floor.  While the elevator was very smooth, you could tell it was going really fast.  And before we knew it, we were there.  We got there right when they opened and it was a weekday which meant that admission was reduced and there wasn't a soul around which made it much easier to take pics.  I can't imagine how crazy it would get on a weekend.   

  

After checking out the SkyDeck, we explored the large grocery store in the Lotte Center and got fun food souvenirs to take home.  We then made some quick stops at other tourist attractions like Bach Ma Temple and the Temple of Literature