Time to Go

January 9th, 2009

First, I would like to thank Chicago O’Hare for sending us off in true O’Hare style (about 1 hour late). I know this is really due to the snow which I hear has continued so I am glad I escaped the remainder of the blizzard conditions. Also – Jon, thank you for rescuing my car from the dumbest, albeit funny, mistake – stupid snow making things invisible. Now on to the rest. . .

Korean Airlines runs a smooth flight, I was very impressed by their flight attendants whose eye shadow matched the color of their shirts. John did not notice this, so maybe it was only the ones on my aisle – their shirts were teal for reference. So the first meal comes around and you get 2 choices, Beef or Bibimbap. All I know about Bibimbap is that it is a Korean dish that came with over a page of directions on how to prepare and eat it. Also, it can with a tube of hot sauce about the size of a traveling toothpaste tube in America (mind you the traveling toothpaste they gave us – enough for brushing 1-2 times – was waaaay smaller than the hot sauce). Needless to say I had the beef as I did not want to deal with a page of directions and pouring hot water on the plane. I assume it would have been good though!

I noticed a number of cultural differences as soon as we boarded the plane – for instance, the people sitting across the aisle from me all had their bare feet up and on the seats/armrests of the people in front of them. Their feet were also eventually on their tray tables etc. In addition, the woman who was sitting next to me did not wear deodorant, but midway through the flight it was like she remembered, she used the warm towel to wash her armpits while sitting there, then asked the woman she was traveling with (who I assume is her mom) for her deodorant and put it on while sitting there too. Needless to say she was not odor free.

Seoul Airport was very nice – it was mainly white, clean, and open with plenty of shopping. Too bad I did not have Korean money nor see an ATM because they had a vast array of fruit at their food stands that looked amazing after the first flight. In addition, it felt like a shopping mall – their were tons of high class stores (think Burburry, Dior, Fendi). Also, a stroke of pure brilliance and what I think is one of the greatest ideas ever, there was an indoor playground area for kids. If I had kids I would make them go and play so that they would be good and tired for the flight, also they would have much more patience while waiting in the airport. Chicago take note – O’Hare desperately needs one of these, stop the grumpy children. The flight from Seoul to Hong Kong was quick (4 hours) and uneventful. There we got Beef or Bibimbap again but they did serve ice cream on this flight.

When we got to Hong Kong (about 11pm Saturday evening – Jan 10th) the immigration was quick and efficient as was getting money exchanged, purchasing tickets for the Airport Express & an Octopus Card. We took the Airport Express to Central and as John noted the ride is so smooth and quiet it makes the El look like 3rd world public transit in comparison. Chicago take note of this too – we need much better transit, it can obviously be done. From Central we hailed a cab to take us to the apartments. The cab driver was a little confused and tried to have us get off at about 50 Johnston even though we are at 74-80 (good thing we were paying attention).

The apartment staff was very nice when we checked in. They gave us a tour of our rooms and brought our bags up to us. They also provided a welcome basket with a soda, water, chips and 2 soups in it. I came in and unpacked about 1/3 of my carry-on and found something to sleep in, figured out the internet and went to bed.