Here’s another relic from last month’s trip to South Korea — you can click on the image above for a PDF of the waiver I had to sign before entering the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom.
I love that neither the United Nations nor the governments of South Korea or the US and A were willing to take any responsibility for what happened to me inside the JSA; no wonder everybody on the tour wanted their forms back as souvenirs!
I grabbed a couple of quick snaps on my TyTN on the day of my return to Canada, mostly to document the fabulous buffet breakfast I had at my hotel.
Thanks to my online booking I was able to enjoy free internet in my room and a free daily buffet breakfast at The Koreana. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m all about breakfast, and while traveling it’s especially important to start off the day right, and the hotel restaurant certainly didn’t disappoint…
From the very first morning when I found myself in front of this machine I knew I was in good hands.
If you didn’t know Douwe Egberts makes Senseo coffee, which I’ve been drinking at home every morning for more than two years.
And by the way, if you ever wanted to bribe me you can’t go wrong with just about anything from my favourite shop of eBay.
Before grabbing that first cup of coffee I’d put in my order for a western-style omelette with the resident chef. There was lots of Korean food available as well — the closest I got to it was this yummy Korean-style pork.
Who needs bacon when you can have this?
Pictured below is United Airlines Flight 892, waiting to be boarded at Incheon International Airport. It’s one of the newer Boeing 777s, and while it looks small on the outside, inside every seat has a personal LCD screen in front of it, even in economy!
Speaking of economy, I shouldn’t be too surprised that Air Canada has tried to fuck me over with the points accumulated on my trip. I checked my balance on the morning I left to find that my flight to Korea hadn’t shown up on my Aeroplan account. Apparently United switched the first and last name on my reservation — “Andrew, Currie” instead of “Currie, Andrew” — in any case it’s a good thing I saved my boarding passes, as I now have to mail them in to get the mileage credit for my flights.
I should really be pissed of United I guess, but on this leg of the trip they treated me better than Air Canada ever has. As soon as I boarded the plane and took my economy seat a purser came up to me and told me I’d been upgraded to business class, free of charge!
I had to think about it for half a second as I was sitting beside a rather attractive young lady. I really should’ve stayed put but figured she’d eventually tire of me anyway (they all do), so I grabbed my carry-on crap and moved on up. Funny thing about business class, though… Passengers there aren’t nearly as friendly– in fact a lot of them are pretty much freaks, like the guy who chose to do his calisthenics for about twenty minutes in the middle of the aisle, making sure the whole cabin could see him.
The food was great, though, and no complaints about the extra legroom. I arrived in San Francisco for my stopover feeling fresh enough to scope out my dream girl at the baggage claim carousel, but I guess she was wiping her tears in the ladies room, no doubt still broken up over me abandoning her.
Wouldn’t you know it, on my last full day in Seoul — the one I put aside seoul-ly (hyuk) for souvenir shopping — I woke up to a raging snowstorm.
Thankfully it lasted until only mid-afternoon, but I find it kind of strange that I had to travel half-way around the world to see some of the white stuff. Chalk it up to global warming, I guess…
And last night I said my goodbyes to Jen and her man Jeremiah in Bundang, the posh suburban neighbourhood they call home. Just so you know, wealthy Koreans tend to dine out on Italian, not street food as the skewer in the photo suggests.
