A Glimpse of Seoul

On the flight to London now, and I only intended a slight pun, but it reflects the small opportunity to get a view of Seoul and what it might offer, care of Asiana. The quality of the transfer and the hotel I was taken to for our overnight stopover really was pretty classy for an economy ticket. The Seoul Royal Hotel was really good – and the food was certainly tasty and authentic, if not gourmet. Asiana have certainly did themselves a few favours in my book and the experience of this flight and stopover means that I would pick them above all others if cheaper than an Air NZ ticket. I had a great sleep at the hotel and got a good 6.5 hours in – which means that when I arrive in London at 6pm local time I should be able to eat, get to bed and pick up pretty unaffected by jet lag on Friday morning.

Seoul seemed a little more americanised than I perceived Tokyo to be. Notsurprising I guess given that there is a US Armed Forces base in the city. Last night was fun – I had dinner at my hotel in the cetre of the city after a transfer process that took about 1.5 hours. I wandered around for a while and enjoyed the usual late night city street life that is common in Asian cities. But with the added time differences, i was pretty tired by 1030pm, so I headed for the hotel, bath and bed.

The morning was a little frustrating as I headed for a Korean style spa and sauna in the Hongsik University district that turned out to be closed down, By the time I got back to the hotel, there wasn’t really a lot of time to do much else. I should have called ahead I guess. If I’d have known it was closed I may have gone for a hike or the Seou Tower instead. Never mind. I got to try the subway which was pretty much like Tokyo and Osaka. I guess if you’ve been brought up and lived in London for years as well as ventured on the Tokyo metro system 3 times in the last 2 years, another subway systen set of hieroglyphics becomes relatively easy to decipher.

As I sit on this London-bound Asiana 777, I lament the lack of AVOD entertainment system with only broadcast video available. Still, I guess we have personal screens at least and I have a row of three to myself. The iPhone might get a quick run out as I have an episode of Cowboy Bebop to watch now that Hancock has finished on the Asiana system. I would watch a Korean film, but I can’t figure out how to get the English subtitles up.

We’ve just crossed over into Mongolia – about 10 hours to London.