I’m here! In South Korea - just to catch up on getting to Seoul as I recover from a 14 hour flight and a 14 hour time change…. I left my house on Thursday for a quick flight to Dallas as American doesn’t fly nonstop to Seoul from LAX which is what I thought my route would be. I needed to go east before heading west. With the 2 hour difference between Tucson and Dallas at this time of year, it was already 4:30pm by the time I arrived. I was staying at the Hyatt Regency at DFW so that it would be really convenient to get to my international departure on Friday morning. DFW has an amazing maze of roads between all of the terminals but luckily the hotel provides a shuttle service that will pick you up wherever you arrive and bring you to the hotel. I took advantage of that and got to the Hyatt. It is quite a nice hotel and well maintained. I had dinner of chopped brisket sandwich and a scoop of great cinnamon ice cream and a local IPA called Hopadillo from Houston.
My flight to Seoul was scheduled to leave at 10:35am so I didn’t have to get up particularly early. The trick on Friday morning was whether to join a zoom for a call with my UT Board Committee at 7:30 or head for the airport to check in. I opted for heading to the airport first as in Tucson they had mentioned “extra” paperwork that I needed to complete at DFW for an electronic visitor card for Korea. I was the only person on the 7:20am shuttle to Terminal D so it was a quick trip. I checked my bag and asked about the paperwork only to be told that their manager is lessening paperwork so I could do it online…… I got through security in a few minutes and checked online about the Korean Immigration details. US citizens are exempt at the moment so no telling why the screen at American in Tucson told me I needed to do more at DFW. I joined my zoom call via my phone and then went to find coffee and breakfast.
The flight boarded on time. I was in premium economy to try that out over business class at half the price. Katy and Bob have found it to be fine on international airlines but I wasn’t so sure about how American would handle it. We took off about 30 minutes late after taxing around DFW for a while. Much to my surprise as I hadn’t really thought about it was that when I opened up the Route map on my seat screen. we were heading north, Our route was up past Denver, Vancouver, Alaska and down over the edge of Russia and Japan then into Seoul. I wasn’t at a window so couldn’t see out. The other odd thing about leaving at that time of day is that it was light outside for the whole 14 hours. Most people had their window shades down as everyone wanted to try to get some sleep but periodically someone raised a shade and a brilliant light would come into the cabin. I did get some sleep but I also read a whole book. I was very glad that I was not in coach as when I walked through there to get to the bathroom, it was packed, didn’t look at all comfortable and the aisle was narrow.
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| Flying over Vancouver headed for Alaska |
I had a really interesting seat mate. He is a Masters level student in Montreal. He was born in Belize, moved to Montreal when he was 18. He will now be in Seoul for 6 months doing his thesis research and then home for 6 months to write his thesis and graduate.
American premium economy was okay. The leg room was decent but there was no place to put anything and the seat back pockets didn’t expand very far. I could barely fit a bottle of water in there. The food was good and we were served 3 meals - lunch, a snack (1/2 a good sandwich) and breakfast.
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| Airline lunch - mushroom ravioli with a side of kimchi |
The plane was an older 777 and at some point must have been reconfigured as there were only 4 bathrooms for all of economy and premium economy. I had to wait every time. But eventually we made our way up and over and down into Seoul. Passport control and baggage claim went smoothly and I exited into the arrivals area where the Tauck sign was being held by a representative to greet us. 7 of us were going to the same hotel - the Conrad Seoul (a Hilton brand not in the US). We got into a nice big van and took off for Seoul about 50 minutes away from Incheon airport. You could see a variety of flowering bushes in bloom - loads of azaleas especially. We went by one area where many military tanks are set up across a large dusty field - a defense against North Korea, I guess. The DMZ is really close by.
I got checked into my room on the 25th floor with a great view of the river. Janet arrived about 45 minutes later and we met up with Jim and Nina who are at the Fairmont just around the corner. There is a HUGE mall - Hyundai Center across the street with the largest food court you have ever seen. Food vendors are mixed in with open clothing stores and cover at least two basement floors plus a few more floors of stores. It was packed with people and we had a hard time finding a table. We finally decided on one place that had some bar stool seating and ordered dinner. After wandering back through another part of the mall, we found our way back to the Conrad Seoul without ever going outside! Time to go to bed.
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| View from my room on the 25th floor |
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| Dinner at the huge mall |
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