It seemed right that getting to the other side of the world we followed a route that an astronaut might take. After the Tuesday night commuter flight down from Logan, our Korean Air 777 hurtled off the JFK runway at 1 am Wednesday, banked to the northwest, and just kept going. Over the Adirondacks, Toronto, the Canadian plains and Rockies, Alaska, the Bering Straits. Then south over western Siberia, much of China, and into Seoul 14 hours, two meals and one ambien after leaving New York. The entire ride was in darkness. January 3 was a black hole. The only things visible out the plane window were the moonlit snowy mountains of Russia. We could have been Chill Wills in Dr. Strangelove. We landed in Seoul at five Thursday morning. Wednesday had happened to other people farther south.
A word on Korean Airlines: it is excellent. The cabin crew are lithe, self-possesed Korean women in shades of pale green, with stiff pretty ribbons sticking up from their heads, like J.J. Newberry Easter baskets. Before beginning their food and other services, they bowed in unison to the passengers. It's a phenomenon we had not encountered on Delta, or on Southwest out of Hartford.
During the 12-hour layover in Seoul, we took a guided tour of the Incheon harbor area near the airport. It's not one of the garden spots. But the young woman who led us and 6 or 8 other tired travelers on and off a Hertz van was cheerful, and good at keeping us awake without actually swatting us with pine boughs. It was 50 degrees in Incheon, as we stopped and peered at a fish market, then an "unspoiled" beach, then a small Buddhist temple said to be quite old. We sampled some Korean pumpkin candy.
The five-hour flight to Bangkok felt long, because we were so eager to GET THERE. By the time we landed at 9 Thursday night, we had been traveling for over 36 hours. So as we emerged from Thai immigration, we were plenty thrilled to see a man holding a sign reading "Richard%2
A word on Korean Airlines: it is excellent. The cabin crew are lithe, self-possesed Korean women in shades of pale green, with stiff pretty ribbons sticking up from their heads, like J.J. Newberry Easter baskets. Before beginning their food and other services, they bowed in unison to the passengers. It's a phenomenon we had not encountered on Delta, or on Southwest out of Hartford.
During the 12-hour layover in Seoul, we took a guided tour of the Incheon harbor area near the airport. It's not one of the garden spots. But the young woman who led us and 6 or 8 other tired travelers on and off a Hertz van was cheerful, and good at keeping us awake without actually swatting us with pine boughs. It was 50 degrees in Incheon, as we stopped and peered at a fish market, then an "unspoiled" beach, then a small Buddhist temple said to be quite old. We sampled some Korean pumpkin candy.
The five-hour flight to Bangkok felt long, because we were so eager to GET THERE. By the time we landed at 9 Thursday night, we had been traveling for over 36 hours. So as we emerged from Thai immigration, we were plenty thrilled to see a man holding a sign reading "Richard%2
