Waiting to go to Incheon airport
Right now I am typing this on the Arex rapid train to Incheon airport in Seoul.
I will be at the airport way too early for my 23:15 flight, and as far as I know Singapore airlines has no lounge or lounge agreement with anyone in Seoul, so I will have to pay for food and water. Outrageous.
Before all of that which will probably be another minor update at some point, lets go through the long day of waiting.
Finally the cold came. When I woke up this morning, official temperature -7c, feels like -12c, whatever that means. I guess it was a bit windy.
For the first time since the very start of this trip, I put on my jacket and gloves for my morning walk, and proceeded to walk up a hill to the windiest coldest point I could find. It stayed at a high of -4c all day, and as long as I was out of the wind or in the sun, it was generally fine. My hair froze into a lump as I of course went out twice with wet hair, first at 7am, and then I showered again just before getting changed and checking out of my hotel at 11am, so twice I ventured out and froze my head into an ice block. Good times.
The rapid train does not take too long so I better explain the pics before we get to the airport.
First I made a peace offering to the former kings of Korea, promising not to overthrow them again for at least a year.
I started my way up the very familiar phallic Seoul tower to check out the early freezing view on a very clear freezing day. Here is the low down view.
Low down view the other way.
And since I forgot to do this when I came up here the other day, and since I do it each time I come to Seoul, my whole reason for coming up here again this morning was to take the photo with my only friend the duck.
The familiar tower.
The air even looks cold.
Last view from the top. Really, I promise this is the last view from the top of any mountain on this trip.
Next up to kill a bit of time, a visit to the Gyeongbokgung palace, the main palace for Korea. I have been here before, but many years ago. It was free today, not sure why. It usually costs $2.
More palace, people playing dress ups in the cold. One influencer was doing a half naked long boots boob tube thing but I was not able to get a photo. Watching her freeze as she tried to setup her tripod to talk to her fans live was pretty funny.
And more palace.
And back section of the palace. Probably a more interesting shot actually.
Nearby is the also free Korean folk museum. Not sure what it is all about as it has plenty of Palace stuff on the grounds too.
Here is the actual museum, which is not at all ancient.
Inside was... warm. It was a strange place, basically telling the story of every day life in Korea in very boring detail.
After this visit, I spent most of my day in shopping centres and underground, going from cafe to cafe killing time, until now when I am heading to the airport. Further updates from airports with boring pics to come.
Seoul Incheon airport
Brief update from the airport.
I was early. When I got here I could not check in yet. So I went to find food before check in. All the places were closing at 7pm! Weird. So I thought I will wait until I go through customs. Surely the food courts have reopened by now? They were largely shut due to covid lack of business back in May. The answer to that, not really. Burger King was open. Starbucks had a line of 137 people.
Strange as there were plenty of flights leaving. Also parts of the airport were pretty dark, even though people were leaving from gates in those sections.
Of course, all of the duty free cosmetics shops and handbag shops were open.
And so, I had ice cream for first dinner. Second dinner will be in the middle of the night on the plane at a time when the lights should be off.
Pre departure view of the departure gates and xmas wonderland below as I went up to the top level looking for food. There was a great Japanese curry place among other great options, all closing at 7pm.
Cinnabon was an option. If I am not mistaken the only place I have ever actually had one was in Abu Dhabi airport.
The aforementioned xmas wonderland.
And here is my dinner, there was no English to choose your flavour, I thought I was getting chocolate caramel something based on the colour, but it is chocolate banana, with maltesers in it. It was great! From now on I will have ice cream for dinner every night.
Probably last photo in Korea, the darkened walkways in Incheon airport. They must be saving electricity.
Seoul to Singapore on an Airbus A350
Now I am in Singapore. I have already been here for hours. I will be here for a few more hours.
Getting here was ok, flight was just under 6 hours due to a tail wind. Plane was absolutely full, I checked. People next to me slept on each other rather than me. Everyone around me is now missing 2/3 of the mucus volume and actual lung puffer cell membranes held by their lungs prior to the flight, so I probably have covid.
Masks are mandatory on flights out of Korea still, I do not think they are mandatory between Singapore and Australia, but I will be wearing mine, I even have a fresh one to swap to.
I have decided I prefer the old noisy Boeing 777 to the new quiet Airbus A350. With Singapore airlines they are both configured 9 abreast, even though the 777 is a much fatter tube. Also the noise is a good thing, the Airbus is almost silent apart from the phlegm symphony.
Now for two boring photos.
The cactus garden. These are really just smoking areas. People get excited about these little gardens at Singapore airport, and at the moment this is the biggest one with the most plants, presumably because it did not die during covid when they were all shut down because it is hard to kill cacti. It was cool enough at dawn, but there were a few people around blowing smoke at me, so I went back inside.
This time instead of a photo of a long corridor and discussion of how much carpet there is, here is a recently refreshed area (I think?), I do not recall it being here last time.
I am now ready for my next 7.5 hour flight which will not land until 21:30 Melbourne time. Then hopefully the skybus does not break down this time...
So possibly one more update.
Singapore to Melbourne on a Boeing 777
Well, the bus did not break down. The flight was short but it was full of misbehaving child screaming, jumping on seats and people I am sure had covid. At first I had a spare seat next to me, and across the aisle from me. Children from a large family group soon occupied the seat next to me, and then they moved someone who was very sick into the seat across the aisle from me, a young woman coughing spluttering, passing out periodically, who looked to have a high fever and was taking all kinds of medicines. Great. So now we wait to see what I have caught.
The end.
The bus. The end.
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
Adriana on 2022-12-01 said:
Singapore airport great but not so much after being there for seven plus hours
The end
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
mother on 2022-11-30 said:
Yes when it is freezing the sky does look cold. Weird that there are so few people at the airport and everything is closed nearly. Have a safe and as comfortable as possible flight back.