It’s 4:30 AM in Atlanta as I write this in the Seoul, Korea airport. I’ve just flown for 14 hours on a Korean Air jumbo jet. I have to say, the flight was actually not very bad. I boarded at 1pm and found myself sitting next to an American woman who’s husband had to come out of retirement after the DotCom bubble burst and took their retirement savings. He’s apparently been in Hong Kong for several months now and she’s flying out to vacation with him for a few weeks. She and I have been getting mistaken for mother and son while walking around the airport. It is nice to have someone to talk to though.
Anyway, on the flight I got to watch “In Good Company” with Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace (again – saw it in the theater with Kim). I also watched a bizarre Korean movie about a crooked cop and a gangster looking for a woman who absconded with a $16 million lotto ticket. They find her real identity and go wait for her at her home village on some island populated exclusively by some hard working, pot-smoking grandmothers. The movie was actually pretty funny with some decent physical comedy. Of course, in the end, the cop straightens out and no one gets the money. The gangster is reformed and falls in love with the woman they were pursuing while the grandmothers all happily go back to smoking pot. Like I said, bizarre.
The fed me two meals on the plane, but b/c I specified the kosher meal, they were the exact same meals. Beef stew, pasta bowties, green beans, gefilte fish with carrot and olives, kim-chi, and coconut jam dessert roll. Odd combo, but OK. I don’t keep kosher, but I specify either the vegetarian or kosher meal everywhere I go to ensure I get food I recognize. I’ll experiment with food when I’m not locked in a metal tube 35,000 feet above the ground.
We flew from Atlanta, up over Chicago and Winnipeg (I thought of you, D’Arcy) and over the Berring Straits, over part of Russia, and back down the coast of China to Korea. Next up is a smaller plane to Hong Kong itself. I’ll be staying at the Gold Coast Hotel (no idea how to get from the airport to the hotel). I’ll figure it all out when I get there.
The Korean airport was nice and the plane from Korea to Hong Kong was the exact same double decker type of plane I took from Atlanta to Korea. This time I got to sit upstairs. There is no difference between upstairs and down, except that to go upstairs I had to walk up some stairs. I got another meal on this flight – salmon and rice with two desserts. Some kind of whipped cream filled chocolate cannoli looking thing and a piece of chocolate cake. All pretty good. The sleeping pill I took hours ago was still kicking so I spent most of this flight unconscious.
I arrive in Hong Kong and find out that there is a shuttle bus that costs HK$88 to get from the airport to the hotel. That’s about $11.50 US dollars, so I’m cool with that. I stood outside talking to the airport based concierge for a bit. It’s really humid here. Warm too. I don’t know how close I am to the tropics, but it’s more humid than Florida right now and there are palm trees all over the place. Good thing I brought a bunch of long sleeved shirts! I’m clever like that!
So now I’m finishing up this post from my room in the hotel. I’ve got a small balcony that overlooks some water, but it’s 11pm over here, so I have no idea what the beach looks like. I can just see lights reflected in the water. I brought a camera, but it’s a disposable one so you’ll have to wait for me to develop the film to get any photos on the blog.
It’s late and I’m going to bed to sleep as much as I can. I’ve got to reset my internal clock to HK time so I’m not late for work…which I have no idea how to get to…
— Matt Ranlett
posted with BlogJet (from China)