Sitting in Seoul - Mara posting

The world’s best airport. I can see why. After a 15 hour flight and 30 straight hours of travel, we decided to limit our South Korea sightseeing to the airport for the 12 hour layover, opting for free food in the airport lounge, comfy seats, and store after store of duty free stuff (need some perfume or hard liquor?). Since I have some spare time, I thought I’d share the lessons that I’ve learned so far:

1.      Read the Art of Nonconformity and other savvy traveler writers’ tips. We got our around the world tickets for $247 a piece on Delta, using frequent flier miles (180,000 per ticket). Gold status gets us free access to airline lounges for international flights (i.e., free food, wine, cappuccino, showers, internet, etc!). With back to back 15 hour flights, that is complete luxury (and did I mention, free?)!

2.      Always order the option you don’t quite understand; sometimes, it will be a good choice. Last night, the stewardess asked what we wanted for dinner: “Beef? Chicken? Or Mumble mumble?” I immediately asked for beef; Greg ordered chicken. The Korean woman next to me chose the third option. My salty beef came with a pinch of frozen veggies (still semi-frozen), three small fried potatoes, white bread, a small cup of lettuce with Cesar dressing, and a piece of chocolate cake.  Not too bad for airplane food!  With my peripheral vision, I watched my neighbor unwrap the foil from her steaming plate: a heaping bowl of noodles loaded with steamed veggies, pickled things, seaweed, mandarin oranges, and numerous little sauce packets.  I kicked myself and made a mental note to order the third option in the future.

When breakfast came around, the options were: “bread” or “something starting with ‘om.’” Having learned my lesson, I chose the second option. I eagerly unwrapped the hot container, wondering what exciting new food awaited – rice? Soup? Noodles? What do Koreans eat for breakfast? Hmmm. It looked like eggs. I took a bite; it tasted familiar.  I realized that in fact, I had ordered the “omelet.”

3.      Routine tasks may require adaptations while travelling. The toilets in the Seoul airport have buttons. Lots of them. Twelve of them, to be exact. One displays a male and female figure; one, an elderly person (as indicated by the cane); one, a child; and one, a zigzagged circle (the writing above it says, “flush”).  To the right of those buttons, there appears to be water controls: one shows a “w” (presumably a symbol of your bottom) with a jet of water squirting upwards; another shows the “w” with a sprinkle of water squirting up. Next to those are up and down buttons (maybe to increase/decrease pressure?). To the left, there is an air control (a “w” with a wind symbol drawn below it – to dry yourself, perhaps?), a “stop” button, and yet another up and down button. Which one would you press?