Day 5: Seoul to Bangkok

Day 5: Seoul to Bangkok

Pictorial Pop Quiz #2: what is this?

Weather: 36 and very hazy in Seoul, 95 and steamy in Bangkok

Quote of the Day:  They are picking us up at what time? Noooooo, that’s not possible

Up at 5:30, 6am breakfast in the executive lounge, picked up by our transfer at 7 (the driver thinks there are 4 of us…nope, just two, which take some explaining with hand signals as the driver speaks no English), at the airport at 8, sit in the Asiana lounge (we’re on Thai Airways, they must lounge share), and the plane takes off on time at 10:50.

Pre-flight drink

Stewardesses in "traditional" wear

30 seats in biz class, 5 takers

It’s a bit light: there are 5 biz class customers for 30 seats, about 40% of premium economy is being used, and coach is maybe 70% full because there is a teenage girl contingent of 20.

That's a lot of aircraft sitting awaiting flights...or are they 737 Max 8's???

Biz class meal, shrimp salad to start

Indian meal; the chicken and mushroom soup on top right is very good

Mango ice cream and sticky sweet rice, pretty good

They are building another huge terminal in the Bangkok airport

Our bag takes about 1/2 hour to arrive and then we walk underground for what seems like 20 minutes to end up at the Airport Novotel ($200 pre-paid). The guy checking us in might be 17, hard to tell. First up, he hands us a message: were going to be met in the lobby by our tour company, GeoEx, at 2:30 Aye Em for our 5 Aye Em flight (we knew about the flight time, not the wake-up meet and greet time).

Novotel's immense lobby

Our room for the next 9 hours...or close to that

After all, we’re right across the street from the airport.

Amazingly, boy check-in clerk asks us what time we’re checking out! Hmmmm…2 Aye Em he suggests. We say how about 2:29 and 30 seconds, Aye Em. Of course, since we’ve prepaid, we weren’t planning on checking out at the front desk. Maybe we’ll have to be there at 2 AYE EM because they may have the junior high kids on duty at that hour. Or, per DB, they have someone coming in at 4am and need to clean our room.

It’s two hours earlier than Seoul, so we decide to have dinner in the Thai restaurant in the lobby (all the restaurants in the hotel are in the lobby) at 5pm (7pm our body clock time) so we can go to sleep (hopefully) really early for our 2:30 Aye EM meet-up in the lobby.

Yes, THB managed to predict the future with this pic

It really does happen: One of the ways we knew our bags we’re really slow coming out was DB saw one of our fellow biz class passengers still there waiting for his bag as well. Easy to spot: he’s wearing a sports coat and one of the only three others in biz class. Then he turns out to be on our floor in the Novotel, we see him heading out when we’re moving into our room. We know he's a Brit by how he said hello to us in the hallway.

We come down for dinner and he’s there having a drink with one of the flight attendants for biz class who of course recognizes us as well. THB somehow managed to take her picture to capture the outfit the stewardesses wear on Thai Airways. While we’re eating our dinner they head out of the hotel, she gives us another little half embarrassed wave. DB saw them sitting together during the flight...making a date?

Dinner in the lobby: a very mild chicken and cashew stir fry and an even milder seafood Pad Thai. No pics (they would look way more flavorful than the food actually was). Two glasses of wine and draft Singha, 1400 THBs. Yep, Thailand’s currency is the THB. TRUE STORY!!! That converts to around $45.

Since we’ve said avoir to Korea, THB (the RLB human avatar, not the Thai currency) is going to make some quick, general observations of Korea

1.     Openness: we really missed out with genial zero Ria. We spent a ton of time with her and most guides we’ve hired are more than willing to discuss their country’s customs and background (even if they are making it up). Our two Concept guides were a bit more open (all three had spent a lot of time outside Korea, especially Maria), and yet nothing very significant was discussed or explained. Pretty much the same for the artists we visited.

2.     Seoul seemed like a very odd city with so many high rise apartment buildings out in the exurbs, spread around the city in middle-of-nowhere clumps. There must be some urban planning reason for that. THB thinks if we toured large Chinese cities (they have more cities with over 5+ million people than anywhere else) we’d find something similar. True? Seoul has a population of 10 million.

3.     Shoes: some restaurants required us to take our shoes off, whereas in Japan is was almost an all condition. So, the tip off was if we saw a bunch of shoes in front of a small step up then we needed to take off our shoes. The BBQ place had a heated floor in the room we ate in (with western-style chairs and tables) so the bottom of our socks got quite warm. The artists also split on shoes on/off. 

4.     Smoking: seemed like there were very few smokers (and vapers, or whatever those e-cigarettes are named).

5.     Traffic: worse than a lot of major cities we’ve been in, mostly because they have a ton of large cars on the road and tons of people living in the exurbs and using their big cars to get around, and no real flow in the downtown funneling traffic onto ring roads or major highways. On other hand, pretty much wherever we go (okay, not in Antarctica) people complain about the traffic. Of note: Ria said the economy in Seoul was definitely down, fewer people going out to eat, and she couldn’t explain the dense traffic if people were out of work.

6.     As always, tours are expensive. Just like chasing art, if you have a great day, then it is worthwhile, particularly if the guide can enhance the stay somehow. Even though Ria was a genial zero, we needed a driver and someone to find the places even when we thought we were in the right spot, and someone to keep us on schedule and apprise our upcoming visits of our status. That Ria did to an extent, and DB did the timekeeping at each place to a great extent!

Answer to Pictorial Pop Quiz: It's one of two choices for your room tonight as close to the airport as it gets (closer than the Novotel): in the underground tunnel on the way to the rail link to downtown Bangkok

Rent a capsule!

Large enough for two? Share a sleeping bag?

Or right next door,  rent a larger sleeping quarters at Boxotel: the "lobby" is right next door in an open space ... THB didn't get the whole box in the pic, we were moving too fast