Hello friends! Time for a new adventure. This one is a bit unusual -- for the first time on this blog, I'm doing a Mama only trip -- no Baba, no L & R, just Mama and four of her girlfriends. Cue reactions ranging from shock to dismay to jealousy. 😆 Our itinerary includes a dermatology clinic for facial treatments, a salon for scalp cleanses, color consults, and Kpop inspired makeovers, a LOT of shopping and a lot of food. We will try our best to squeeze some landmarks or museums in there too but having been to Korea before and knowing I'll likely go again with the family, I'm not focused too much on the normal tourist sights.
This trip to Seoul stemmed from a few things: 1) K-beauty craze - want to see clean beauty at its source! 2) Friend travel - I need to make more travel friends (Baba has suggested he doesn't want to travel as much in retirement so I gotta find other travel mates!) 3) We normally all attend NAPABA together at this time of year but Denver just didn't seem very appealing.
So here I am taking a solo non-work flight off to Asia for the first time in at least a decade. Also my first interaction with Air Premia. I've been telling folks it's like Zipair for Korea. But the luggage allocation was MUCH better for Air Premia -- I could check a real suitcase and bring a normal carryon both for free! No more crazy packing to fit all of our things into six different 9kg bags 😆.
Thoughts: 1) the bathrooms smelled nice! These scent packets they tie on the doors really do wonders. I may have to find some and buy them for bathrooms at home...2) the food was decent to a non-Korean like me. I'm sure it was the worst bibimbop ever, but hey it has rice and decently flavorful sauces, the salad dressing was not overly heavy and the chocolate cake wasn't too sweet. 3) the seats had decent leg room...but I have to complain about the etiquette of the guy in front of me. Not only did he lean back at EVERY opportunity (the flight attendants had to remind him at every meal service and takeoff/landing) but he was sleeping with his shoes off - BARE feet - on the empty middle seat! If I had been the stranger sitting in the aisle I would have been SO grossed out. 4) only entertainment was Korean with English subtitles. Which would have been less of a problem except...5) wifi was unavailable the entire flight! There goes my catch up on work plan. Good thing I at least had a novel downloaded to read. So overall it was an okay flight with the downsides mainly resulting from the wifi issue. I would have downloaded some docs and emails if I had known. Will be better prepared for flight back! Honestly it seemed like a standard economy flight on United or American or any other US airline.
Arrival in Incheon was fairly smooth -- got the quarantine card check, filled out e-arrival while standing in customs line, picked up bag, snagged a pastry from the airport shops in case I get hungry at 2am (paid with my Google Pixel Watch! That was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect it to work. That's a major plus for Korea compared to Japan and China!) - into the taxi about 75 minutes after landing. Taxi ride was about an hour (in POURING rain at the last 10 min or so) and cost about $50. The Airbnb is cozy but welcoming -- off to bed -- tomorrow we start the fun!
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