May 30, 2006
Yesterday, Leah and I arrived safely in Seoul. The plane, a 777-200, was not one of the new, 50-percent-more-space-per-person that I had thought, but rather a workhorse of the overseas industry. Seating arrangements, duration and the uninspired food reminded me of the flights from SFO to Munich I used to take for work when we lived in Italy. Leah wisely missed the uninspired food by ordering Indian vegetarian meals, which looked great. Unfortunately, the second meal remained uneaten. Leah had started to slump in her seat, tired and a bit airsick.
I had forgotten how sick she really gets from travel. Her sickness only got worse on the one hour bus trip from the international airporat in Incheon to Seoul. Just before our bus stop at An-Guk subway station, she was coiled over her backpack. If I asked her how she felt, her arm would slowly rise and her hand would move a bit from side to side to indicate she was so-so (or, maybe she was trying to form a fist to punch me for asking such a silly question; it's difficult to say.) Once we were on our feet moving toward the hotel, she started feeling much better.
Our first choice, a backpacker's hostel, did not have a double available, so we ended up at a quiet hotel only a minute down the very narrow road. The room only cost a few dollars more and surprisingly, proves that Korea is indeed the most wired country. We have a flat screen computer with free internet in our room, a luxurious whirlpool bath/shower, a very nice (and firm) bed, and an enormous flat screen TV. In fact, the screen is about half the width of the wall, which reminds me of a mathematical truth: as the ratio of the TV size to the room size approaches 1, the more likely you are to dream that you live in a cheesy sci-fi TV series. Or, maybe the dream was because I didn't sleep well on the plane.
For a moderately priced room, there are also needlessly fancy automatic lights, which tend to turn off at the wrong times. There are also a myriad of sundries: toothbrushes, hairgel (in case you were wondering, my hair looks the same with the hairgel in), electric kettle (which, with our pot, we used to make noodles) and a condom. And, there is an unusually shaped mini-fridge too close to the computer, which was the source of a odd arguement. I'll omit most of the details, but here are the key comments, "The computer is on, Leah! That's the refridgerator, David!" In my defense, I have been out of the electronics field for a year.
Well that's enough about the room. Hopefully, today, after exploring Seoul, I'll have something more interesting to write.