Melbourne airport
I have now completed the most dangerous part of my journey, walking from my home to the Skybus in central Melbourne at 3:30am on Easter Saturday. You see on the way there, I had to dodge vomit, drunks on scooters, drunks fighting each other, a possible drive by shooting attempt as I passed King street, a taxi that appeared to have crashed into a tram and a street sweeper debating the homeless. I probably should have taken some photos but I was anxious to get past it all and get to the airport.
As it turns out, and often does, I was early for the airport, early enough to sit here and type some nonsense before boarding. Early enough to take some pointless blurry photos out of the airport tinted windows in the dark of the jet I will soon board.
And on that note, I am not sure when the next update will be! Depending on prevailing winds I may not have much time at all in Singapore, and then I will arrive in Seoul (Incheon) quite late, and then it is a bit of a bus journey to my hotel, at which point I will probably pass out, wake up the next morning, and then go hiking in the yellow sand panic alert pollution.
I like to start every trip with an overly long adjective filled sentence.
Here is a boring shot of Melbourne airport. The people above are coming off the plane I am about to get on.
And there is my plane. It just arrived. I guess it leaves again in 2 hours. Since it is an Airbus I did not have to bring my own toolbox to tighten the loose bolts which are now a feature of Boeing jets. However my next flight is on a Boeing, so I will have to pick up some tools in Singapore duty free.
Melbourne to Singapore on an Airbus A350
I do not have much time so lets crank this out.
The plane was completely full, do not let the photo below fool you, I do not think there was a spare seat. Not surprising given that it is the Easter weekend and School holidays. Normally I somehow avoid that despite flying in April most years?
Anyway, the guy next to me, coughed once every 0.6 seconds, for 7.5 hours straight. A very light cough, phlegm free. He only stopped while eating. I was wishing bad things upon him, I think he had emphysema, so bad things are coming for him anyway.
Surprisingly, it was time for a taste of the old days, with the in flight entertainment not working, and multiple reboots of the whole system required to get it going about 2 hours into the flight. This used to happen more often than not, but it is a rare thing these days. I was fine with this, as it provided me with entertainment, to watch everyone pressing their call bell to ask why they cannot get it to work, despite the announcements that it is not working. And each time the silly stewardess would try and get the individual screen to work despite fully knowing and being able to see that all 300 screens on the plane were not working.
Anyway, now I am in Singapore. I had a shower. I am hydrating in multiple locations. And I do not have much time. No time for my regular over long sentences.
I knew it was full, so I boarded first. Most people who's white privilege allows them to board first do not fly economy. But I do.
This was my first lounge stop in Singapore. I am rarely here during the day time as I normally take overnight flights. During the day they seem to have a noodles made to order stand, today I did not avail.
Instead I had some old rice noodles and the dim sum surprise, the bun still had the paper on the bottom, which I ate anyway. Are you supposed to? I have no idea. Now I am full of paper.
Proof of shower. They did not always have these in Singapore in the Kris flyer gold lounge that is available to people flying with 'Virgin status'.
All of these plants are fake. But the real plants outside are still dead.
And finally, my second lounge stop, the rare lounge on the far side of the airport that is smaller and darker and just as empty at this time of day.
The next update will be late, but will have the ultra important to everyone for seemingly inexplicable reasons 'hotel pictures', which will include photos of my single bed (I think I got upgraded to a twin room from a queen for free... I did not ask for that, sounds like an 'upgrade'). That is enough air quotes and brackets.
Arriving in Seoul
It is now Sunday morning not Saturday night. I hoped to be out hiking by now, but no. Getting here was a disaster as my hotel cancelled my booking and gave my room to someone else and they had no other rooms! I will come back to that...
The flight was actually fine, we arrived early, it was half full, the Korean style food they served was excellent, even in economy.
Then the first problem, it took 90 minutes to go through the passport checking queue. A lot of people did not handle this well.
This meant I would not be able to catch the airport train into town as it stops running at 11pm, and I would have to go find a bus. That was not too difficult, the ticket kiosk was easy to figure out and allowed foreign credit cards. The bus took about an hour and I arrived at my hotel soon after midnight.
This is when they told me that they considered me a no show and had given my room to someone else!
I was outraged and demanded to speak to the manager etc. They were very apologetic. This was the Toyoko Inn, a major global chain. I even showed them that when I made the booking months ago that they had replied to me through booking.com telling me my midnight arrival time was fine. It has to be a very common thing for people to arrive then!
I had been checking accommodation options in Seoul leading up to my departure and there were very few other options available, they all cost a fortune. Prices had doubled since I booked months ago.
The hotel check in staff agreed to ring around and find me a room in another hotel, they were kids and were shell shocked because I wanted to call the police and threatened to come back every day and yell at the manager.
I suspect they had happily re sold my room to someone else at double the price which is bullshit, but probably hotel policy when availability in Seoul is low and the possibility of charging a huge rate for people booking at the last minute becomes available. It seemed a bit like a flight overbooking policy that some airlines get away with.
So they found me another hotel nearby, but I got their last available room they do not normally sell, that costs twice as much as my Toyoko Inn booking that had been cancelled. The room is made for people in a wheelchair and in a state of disrepair! I think I might be able to change rooms in this hotel to a better one, they were apologetic about the strange room they had to give me at such short notice.
Here is the bus I took. I had researched bus options before arriving thinking I would be too late for the train, and I was. The late night bus is actually faster than the trains I would have taken, but with added potential bus related confusion which did not eventuate on this occasion.
And here are the shots of the weird low room for someone in a wheelchair. There is effectively no desk which will annoy me. Hopefully they can find me a better room in the hotel somewhere for my 2nd night onwards.
This hotel is not on any website I can find, so it must only be on Korean websites. This means it operates the flood the entire bathroom shower method that I have experienced here a few times before. A strange concept!
The bonus is, if I get to move rooms, more room shots. Also no hiking today as all my messing around meant almost no sleep, and I know my reader(s) hate when I go hiking.