Got up at 4:45 for the taxi ride to the airport. Got there
at 6, plane to ATL left at 7. Food court lunch, nice that the international
terminal has free wifi. Why was it free there and not elsewhere? Checked in at
the KE counter, turns out that my aisle seat that the company booked for me on
Delta (code-share with Korean) wasn't valid, so they stuck me in a middle seat
for the 14-hour flight which left at 1. They ran out of Coke 2 hrs into the
flight, then Sprite 10 hrs into it, only Diet Coke left. The girl at the window
seat on my left slept the whole time and didn't use her armrest, the guy on my
right was doing his thing and didn't use his either, so I got both armrests for
the whole flight. Only a bit awkward when meals served, I had to tuck in my
elbows. Food not bad, had the beef (vs some Korean dish) for the first meal and
then the pseudo-lasagna (vs chicken) for the second. Since traveling west, we
stayed in the sun all day, no sunset until after I landed in Seoul. All the
windows on the plane were shuttered, so I didn't get to see any of the
landscape through Canada, Alaska, the Arctic, Russia, Vladivostok, Japan, and
into Korea. The international terminal in ICN rocks – in addition to all the
duty free shopping, they've got lounges, free wifi, free showers, a transit
hotel, free push carts, comfy lounge chairs, etc. Ate dinner at the food court,
had a Korean spicy pork and rice dish with a Coke. Exchange rate is about 1150
KRW to the dollar, so I have to get my iPod calculator to figure out how much
stuff is. I slept a couple hours on the plane so I'm tired, I think that I'll
sleep well tonight in Shanghai and I might even be good tomorrow. Flight to PVG
gets in around 9pm, and with getting my luggage, clearing customs, and getting
to the hotel, it could be midnight. A noticeable number of people wearing masks
to avoid the flu.
Uneventful flight on Asiana from Seoul to Shanghai, some chicken thing for dinner.
Left 20 min late, got in 5 min late. People don't understand the concept of
"stand on the right, walk on the left" on the moving walkways. Got my
bag (it went through!), went through flu screening and customs, changed some
money, bought a bottle of water from Burger King, and got help from the information
desk on how to get to my hotel (take the #5 airport bus to People's Park, then
take a taxi to the hotel) and wrote it all in Chinese so I can show the
drivers. I probably got shafted on the exchange rate with commission, my $100
came out to 626 RMB; I should be getting closer to 7 for the dollar, but I
needed the cash to pay the taxi and bus, and I didn't see the ATMs until
afterwards. The airport and the bus don't seem to be big on air conditioning.
The bus was 20 RMB, and the cab was 17 RMB (don't have to tip). Couldn't take
the maglev, it stopped running a couple hours before I got there. Fortunately
an English-speaking lady on the bus noticed that we were at my stop. I hadn't
even made it in the door to the hotel before a pimp asked me if I wanted a
lady, and I wasn't in the room for more than an hour before I got the "do
you need a massage?" phone call.
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