22 Hours in SoKo

Mark and I are attempting to make the most of our 22 hour layover in South Korea, en route to Land of Java.

The flight from Washington, DC to Seoul is a west-bound 14-hour flight that pretty much bops you over the Arctic Circle to Asia. As a result, you're flying in a constant state of sunrise and somewhere over the North American tundra Mark and I raised the ire of our section of the plane when we opened the window to take in the beautiful sceneries. It was worth it though: we saw the most beautiful sun, sitting pink and orange on the edge of the horizon, while huge glaciers floated below us, cracks and all.

The time on the plane itself wasn't all that bad. Before we left, Mark and I made a big intellectual show, insisting on purchasing books and journals for the trip. Once we sat down on the plane and took in the almost endless On Demand movie options, our faux elitism was out the door as we fully embraced the likes of Hancock, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Babylon AD, and House, among many, many others (about 14 hours worth).

The trip has also highlighted the different travel sensibilities between myself and my would-be groom. In preparation for our time in Seoul, I called the Korean Tourism Board and had them send a guidebook and wrote down the phone numbers of the US Embassy in Korea; Mark, on the other hand, taught himself how to say "thank you" and "how much for that bucket of eels?", alongside dabbling in Korean cinema (with English subtitles) on the plane ride over. He was quite moved by the cinematic performances in "The Divine Weapon".

The joke was ultimately on me though. I made fun of his Korean linguistic skills for most of the plane ride over and when we were greeted by the hotel manager at the airport, Mark said thank you ("gamsa hamida") and the gentleman told him he had perfect intonation.

When you fly Korean Air, they take hospitality to the next level during an extended layover such as ours -- arranging accommodations, meals and transportation for you while you wait out the transit time.

Incheon International Airport is about an hour away from Seoul and we were afraid to venture into the city in the event of an unexpected attack of jet lag. We got in Wednesday evening around 6pm, checked in to our hotel and hopped on the local subway to Bupyeong which was an experience and a half, as we sort of wandered from restaurant to restaurant pantomiming "vegetarian" (reasons I'm glad we aren't the camcorder sort) and ending up with a hot, spicy bowl of shellfish (reasons I'm glad we aren't professional mimes). After much negotiation, Mark was also able to order a small bowl of white rice.

Here's to hoping everything we ate yesterday follows it's proper gastrointestinal path.

-N