Goodbye Seoul

We woke up at 5 am (July 2nd, 2019), finished gathering our stuff and tidying up the apartment, and headed to the bus stop. For us to get business back to the USA, we needed to go to Japan. Although we were hoping for space on American in Flagship they, as usual, had a million non-revs (more specifically 26, but that was just enough to keep us from getting business) so we were looking at flying United Polaris. We booked ZED tickets on Korean from Gimpo to Haneda. Gimpo is a new airport for Hunter and I, it is actually the smaller airport in Seoul and was their main airport prior to the construction of Incheon. We easily checked in at the airport and were given seats right away next to each other. Hunter was really relieved as Korean has very difficult to track loads, they only update listed non-revs once a day for their own employees and as ZEDs all we had to go on was a straight smiley face so we had no real idea if we would make it or not until we were standing at the counter. We cleared security which was pretty quick but a bit weird, as they threw out our baby wipes for some unknown reason. We had about an hour before our plane started boarding, so we decided to check out the lounge our Priority Pass gave us access to. It was quite small, but had a huge selection of food. Unfortunately, Korea doesn't appear to have the same acceptance of diet coke, so we settled for mango juice and water for drinks. Hunter had a shrimp fried rice traditional breakfast dish that he really enjoyed and even went back for seconds of. Before we knew it, it was time to head down to our gate. We left and boarded the plane to Haneda which was a massive Boeing 777-300. In the US these planes are used for intercontinental flights and it would have had no trouble carrying us from Seoul all the way to Las Vegas (Korean actually uses the same plane on that route some days). But instead of 11 hrs as one might expect our flight was only scheduled for about 2 hrs, the same as many flights operated by comparatively tiny SkyWest CRJs back home.

Waiting for the airport bus

Early morning deserted streets

A new river crossing being built

Hunter's shrimp fried rice

Our plane to HND, bigger than the one we would take to the US

Once we were in the air, they started service which included a full meal. There was rice and beef, pickles and peppers, pineapple, a weird pumpkin and cranberry salad, and a cup of water. We also got metal silverware which would never happen on a US carrier in economy. After eating, Hunter and I both had a nap on the plane. I want to note that Korean has the best economy class out there, it's pretty impressive compared to all other airlines. There is a larger pitch and seat width and instead of 10 seats across like most carriers have on the 777, Korean only put 9, Hunter was really comfortable which is very rare for economy.

The coast of Japan

Landing in HND over the artificial islands

Taxi in

A JAL 777 pushing next to us

Our flight was 2 hours long. We arrived in Japan and had to enter into the country, getting another sticker, albeit a repeat. We had been in Japan so recently that had we not come home from our Tokyo/Hawaii trip our original visas would still have been valid! It took a bit of explaining when the agents noticed we had no hotel and a visit length of 5 hours. We then went to the United counter and waited to check in with the agents. When they arrived, they thankfully assigned our seats immediately, 8K and 8L on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The agents were employees of ANA, United's Japanese partner and we would not see a single actual United employee until we boarded the plane. We then headed back through security and received our exit stamp. Next, we headed to our gate and waited for our plane to arrive. It was running a little late due to some issues in SFO on the inbound but we had a long connection and weren't worried. When boarding started, we quickly got on and settled in. We both had sparkling water as our welcome drink. We also picked our dinner and breakfast which we both chose sea bass and the omelet options. After dinner, it wasn't long before we both fell asleep, which worked out perfectly as we were arriving at about 9am San Francisco time.

Our 787-9 ride home, only about half the seats of the plane we took on the quick hope to Japan

Our window pair of Polaris seats. The 787-8 and 9 are some of the rare aircraft which have pairs of Business seats with windows. While this could be awkward flying alone it is awesome for us as a couple since we are stranded in the middle on a lot of other aircraft when we get business. Hunter loves the window and I usually let him have it even if he ends up getting called "Mr. Howard" by a confused flight attendant expecting me to be there.

The menu for Eastbound Summer TPAC

Hunter's Salad and Salmon appetizer

A weird garnish that tasted like a caper. We aren't sure what it was!

Seabass, Japanese style

Icecream Sundae with real whipped cream

Breakfast

The massive GEnX engines on our 787 somewhere over the Pacific, although they dim the windows on the Dreamliners the Eastbound TPAC flights are entirely daylight which is very weird given the amount of time that passes.

When we arrived in San Francisco, because we had Polaris tickets, we were able to access the United Arrivals Lounge, which was outstanding. It is awesome United lets us do this as nonrevs and another great benefit of Hunter's work. We were able to take showers, which was incredibly refreshing, and have some snacks before our flight to Vegas.

Luggage stand, luxury toiletries, and massive mirror

Showers

Cold sparkling water

We practically had the place to ourselves, which was odd considering lots of flights were arriving then. I have no idea why more passengers don't use this awesome facility although it is a little out of the way.

Lots of yummy food

Once in Vegas, we stopped at Ikea to try and get another same coloured box for our shelf, Costco for gas, and In-N-Out for lunch. We then headed back to St. George and after getting to the house, it was not long before I was asleep from the long day and time changes. Around midnight, Hunter and I woke up for a few hours and eventually fell asleep again, only waking back up at noon. Thankfully we had a day until Hunter started work again. The joys of jetlag!

Till next trip,
Stormy and Hunter

Date: July 2nd, 2019

Day 3 in Seoul

We woke up and had a lazy start to the morning as we didn't have anything planned. It was about 9:30 (July 1st, 2019) by the time we left for breakfast. On our way, we passed through a market that was by our AirBnB that had lots of fish and dried fruit. We eventually arrived at the place we tried to go yesterday called Tous Les Jours. It was quite delicious and we were very impressed.

 

 

 

 

After breakfast we headed to another market near Cheonggyecheon creek. We walked around the creek and then entered the market. This one had a lot of textiles. We eventually came across the food section which was extensive. We didn't buy anything, but saw some very interesting foods like live octopi.

Lots of fabric for sale and people sewing things

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After this market, we headed in the direction of the place we wanted to eat lunch. Along the way was another market, this time focused on clothing. The market was also in the open street instead of inside buildings. For lunch we went to a Korean BBQ place that Cody found. It was pretty good. Instead of us cooking our food, it was prepared in their kitchen and brought to us. Hunter and I had the beef lunch special and Cody had the pork ribs special.

After lunch, we went and walked around the market a little more. We then went and got drinks at this tea place Cody suggested. Hunter and I shared a mango smoothie. We took our drinks back to the creek and sat down enjoying the day.

 

The clothes with English were often quite funny because the translations didn't work correctly all the time

 

Night Heron

After spending some time resting, we headed toward the N Seoul Tower. It was quite the hike to get to the tram that would bring us to the top. We climbed up some steep streets but finally made it. We bought roundtrip tickets and headed to the top. At the top there was some shopping and food places, as well as some awesome viewing areas. We arrived about 3 hours before sunset, which might have been a little two long, but it was nice nonetheless. We didn't end up going into the tower to the top as we were happy with the views from the mountain. 

It was surprising to see Ottawa on this sign at the top of the mountain!

 

A cat hunting birds

We could see our AirBnB from the mountain. Its the two gray buildings in the upper level of the circle. We were on the 9th floor.

After capturing really nice sunset photos, we headed back down to the bottom of the mountain. We were all really hungry and we wanted to go to Gangdam, so we found a really cool burger diner in the area - Brooklyn The Burger Joint. It turned out to have super amazing delicious burgers. Hunter and I shared fries and a shake. 

Asian countries don't normally eat burgers and if they do, they use utensils. It was funny to see this diner showing the "American" way.

After dinner, we were all exhausted because we didn't take our usual afternoon nap. Hunter and I packed up our things as we were leaving tomorrow and needed to get up very early.

Date: July 1st, 2019