Korean Air are great. The flight from Auckland on Korean air was long - 11.5 hours. The hostesses were delightful, young and attractive and gave fantastic service the entire journey. When we checked in at Auckland, the Air NZ check in person noticed how tall I was and proactively changed my seat to an exit row! We were so chuffed. The only downside was Kathy was next to this big guy with gold rings on his thumb and fingers etc who did not really acknowledge our existence for 11.5 hours! He was one of those people who over flow their seat and commandeer the arm rest.
The Incheon Airport is also modern and high tech. We had checked our main luggage through to Zurich, so we were through Customs quite quickly and then had to find our hotel (which is allocated only after you arrive in Incheon). After some investigation we found the place for the booking and waited while other passengers arrived. We were then herded onto a bus, which when inside looked more like a bordello than a bus - it was decorated with gaudy purple fabric on all the seats and panels with decorative yellow tassels. It was very hot and humid when we exited the terminal, but the inside of the bus was like a cool store. Just as the bus pulled in to the hotel I figured out that I could stop the icy blast that had caused me to wish I still had my sweat shirt on and do up my top shirt button and hug my camera bag.
Enroute, it was great to exchange emails via Blackberry with Jordan after his day with Stefan traveling up to Whangarei for a funeral. We were so grateful they could represent our family at this very sad event.
The hotel was touted as 5 star. Not really, but about 4 probably. It is new and almost not quite finished.he hotel Internet was the first priority - no wifi here. For 500 Won deposit they gave us a cable. Kathy excitedly logged in successfully and downloaded all emails. However, sending was a problem. Great to keep abreast of DoI stuff though.
Like many things in Korea the toilet was high tech, including a heated seat and functions of bidet and blow drier. As you sat on it, it emitted a high tech whine to indicate it was ready for service. I reckon it was fully networked and all data captured for later analysis. Wish I had that job!
We were very grateful to flop onto the bed, only to find it was like lying on an ironing board. However, even that could not keep us awake.
The next morning we awoke to find another grey, hot humid day in Seoul. Having Internet was fantastic as Kathy was able to contact Jordan who fixed all her email problems. She was also able to contact Hayley on MSN while she was in our showroom and really able to be in touch with what happening in real time at the showroom. Hayley was doing a great job.
After breakfast we went for a quick walk to check out the China town beside the hotel. In the attached photo check out the mix of ancient and modern of the Chinese building adjacent to the huge full colour screen. Up the side road it was great to see the Chinese influence in the few moments we had to explore.
We enjoyed just mooching around, soaking up the feeling of the area. All too soon it was time to leave our hotel with it's heated toilet seat. Back onto the bordello bus and at the airport we found a decent coffee (major coupe in Korea) and settled in to some free wi-fi time at the modern, clean Incheon airport. We also had some time to reconcile ourselves to the fact that our hopes of a direct flight from Seoul to Zurich were fatally wounded and we became reconciled to a 1.5 hour stop over in Vienna. Yes it was in the fine print of the itinerary. Bah! 13.5 hours between us and Zurich.
Location:Incheon, Seoul
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