From One Peninsula to Another

 Hello!

Welcome to my latest travel adventure in South Korea! 

A bit of background may be required: Nicole and I were invited to our friend Hyeshin's wedding in Gangneung on the East coast of Korea, Nicole and her mom made the trip at the beginning of May and I arrived on the 30th, and we plan to leave on the 14th of June. My original plan was to start this blog before I left like I did for my Czech Republic blog, but of course life got in the way. At least now I have plenty to talk about.

I took Korean Air from Dulles to Incheon which took about 14 of the most boring and anxious hours of my life. Boring because obviously there was not much to do and anxious because I was excited to be traveling for fun! The experience with Korean Air was pleasant with pretty decent food (bibimbap!) and spacious economy seating. My only complaint was that the cabin was unreasonably hot throughout the flight which led to a slow and steady sweat. One cool feature of the entertainment system that maybe only I appreciated during the flight was the exterior cameras that could be viewed in-flight. I was hoping to catch glimpses of Alaska and the Aleutians, Kamchatka, and Japan, but there was cloud cover most of the way. I did however manage to see some thawing northern Canadian lakes, clouds and the hazy arrival to Incheon.

This was the best view of clouds all flight

Woke up to this and thought it was the polar circle but it was just a big lake

Do you see it? Bridge that connects Incheon International to Incheon city

Crosswind landing led to an offset view of the runway

One fortuitous development of the trip was when the gate agent asked if I was allergic to cats. Knowing this meant the seat next to me would be occupied only by a pet carrier I enthusiastically insisted I was not despite the agent asking about 4 times. Its not every flight that I get both an open seat next to me AND and emotional support animal! Of course I got a little worried when the cat's human said she tried to motivate the animal's bowels by overfeeding it before the flight but wasn't able to produce anything. Luckily the flight was catshit-free and I made a new friend mid-flight.

On arrival the process was efficient and smooth getting through health screening, passport control, bag claim and customs. Nicole and her mom picked me up and we made the 3 hour drive across the peninsula to Gangneung. I was wide-eyed at my first ground-level view of Asia and fascinated at the city planning and human factors of driving in Korea. There are speed cameras about every 5-10 miles on the highways which are marked on the GPS apps. This means that everyone will speed until the app notifies them of the camera at which point they dramatically decelerate. To warn drivers of the impending slow-down, the Korean road authorities place mannequins on the side of the road with waving orange flight-line style wands. I suppose seeing a human figure might cue some top-down processing of drivers? Another fun feature comes in the form of sounds of sirens and whistles played over loudspeakers when driving through the many road tunnels to either urge caution or encourage alertness or both. It can be startling. I do appreciate how lanes are painted and color coded for on and off ramps to indicate where you need to go. This is excellent! Put information out there in context with the environment (I didn't catch a picture of that)

Mannequin road workers

So many tunnels and speed cameras

Midway through the drive we stopped at one of the many Huegeso  Hyugeso  roadside rest stop with cafeteria style dining and shopping. This needs to be an export to the Americas: the food selection and quality was excellent and the restrooms were pleasant. They even include a "Gargle Zone" in the restrooms for brushing your teeth! Ok, maybe we re-name gargle zone for the Americas, but the idea is still valid. I had udon soup with tempura for dinner and it was exactly what I needed my first meal in Korea to be.

Thats it for first evening in Korea! I went to the AirBnB we are staying at and slept for 12 hours.