An Uneventful Start & A Quirky Hotel in Seoul

Friday, March 09, 2018
Seoul, Seoul, South Korea
 AN UNUSUALLY UNEVENTFUL TRAIN TRIP TO SYDNEY
There were many times during the planning of this trip that we thought it just could not happen. 
We only received at the last minute our itinerary for Chukotka, we were running dangerously close to time with our visas and we didn't have our permits for the closed Chukotka Okrug. After all the hassles involved in planning and organising, it was rather surreal to actually be heading off to Russia at last.
Interestingly, our journey from our home at Crowdy Head on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales to Sydney, and on to Seoul, South Korea the following day, was uncharacteristically uneventful. 
Our friend and cat sitter Hazel dropped us off at our nearest railway station of Taree where we enjoyed a restful five hour train trip to Sydney Central. The train was on time and there were no disasters like our former trip where Alan accidentally spray painted the train carriage with tomato sauce....
Arriving at Central Station, Sydney we were greeted by three friendly young guys giving away free SIM cards. Obviously sick of trying to give freebies to unresponsive train travellers, they stopped and chatted to us. "Where are you going? What countries are you visiting?" they asked eagerly. "Wow, Russia. Are you guys for real? Is it safe?" they exclaimed. Really, anyone would have thought we were off to to a war zone in Afghanistan. But then again, I guess we had travelled there once before too....
If anything really annoys us about our trip to Sydney Airport, it is travel on the private rail line to the International Airport Terminal. Trains do not have dedicated baggage space for interstate or international travellers. They are the usual ordinary urban train carriages, and at that time of the day packed with disgruntled commuters crammed amongst overseas travellers carrying vast amounts of bulky travel luggage. And for good measure, there are often people accompanied by full sized bicycles squeezed in too. You can well understand the savage glares of the squashed in commuters at those of us fortunate enough to be embarking on an overseas trip.
More infuriating, the trip is grossly expensive at a whopping AUD 18.50 for a mere ten kilometer trip. What a wonderful introduction to overseas visitors this train trip must be.
Waiting for our train, we gazed in awe at the sight of a lone woman wheeling not one but two huge, hard upright suitcases along the narrow platform; a case in each hand.... Obviously highly experienced, she nimbly steered her enormous luggage through the masses of commuters and with a deep sigh plonked on the platform right next to us. We soon struck up an amicable conversation. Our interesting friend was an Australian flight attendant with the US Delta Airlines and was back home on vacation in Sydney. "Can we ask why so much luggage for just one person?" we-carriers-of-very-heavy-baggage asked? "Why sure!" she answered with a slight American twang. "These cases were full of presents for my Aussie friends and are they now full of the gifts they gave me to take back to the US" explained our matter of fact friend. It certainly did not sound like a practical arrangement. 
Rydges Airport Hotel is a really convenient place to stay the night before a flight. Located right within the grounds of the international terminal, it is just minutes away from the terminal building. Furthermore, it is very tastefully appointed. 
A pleasant early night was very much appreciated.
KOREAN AIRLINES FLIGHT TO SEOUL
Alan spends an enormous amount of time looking up flight schedules and costs, and often comes up with some great deals. This time he really excelled himself. At an amazing cost of just AUD 2,600 each, our Korean Airlines Business Class return flight Sydney - Seoul was outstanding value. In hindsight we reasoned that it was most probably a government subsidised fare as we were travelling on the Opening Day of the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic Games.
For this trip we were travelling to Russia via Korea, where we would spend a week or so on our return trip. We had not been to Korea for some twenty or more years and were really looking forward to our visit and some probably well needed R & R on the way home.
Arriving at Customs and Immigration we came across a huge crowd of passengers waiting to be processed for their outgoing flights. Apparently all of the communications at Sydney International Airport were down due to a massive airport wide technical failure, which also included the Sydney Domestic Terminal. Constant messages were broadcast "Our staff are currently looking into the matter..." Well, one would hope they were but it did delay us for nearly two hours. We were lucky that we had plenty of time before our flight. After all, one of the most pleasant indulgences of travelling Business Class is to enjoy a champagne or two in the lounge before we leave....
Our Korean Airlines flight on an Airbus A380 was very impressive. The seating was amazingly spacious and comfortable, and the food and service were excellent. We would certainly fly with them again.
Our eleven hour trip was very pleasant, arriving in Seoul at 5.40 pm Korea time. We were somewhat surprised at how light it was. After all, Seoul is a long way north and we thought it may at the time of the year, be mostly in darkness. How wrong we were. And how wrong we were about other regions in the far north of Russia where we experienced surprisingly long days.
Seoul's Incheon (ICN) International Airport is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world, housing hotels, a golf course, an ice skating rink, casino, indoor gardens and an unlikely Museum of Korean Culture. You realise the enormity of the airport when you have to travel from one terminal to another. It was truly mind blowing that it took us some 40 minutes to travel by shuttle bus just from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1.
A shuttle bus taking us to our Oceanside Airport Hotel operated from Terminal 1. Being there also gave us an opportunity to organise our seat allocations for our Asiana flight the following morning to Khabarovsk, in southern Russia. Alan who is some 197 cm in height, has great difficulty fitting into the normal leg space provided in Economy Class. However, if he can obtain one of the first seats just behind Business Class, it just provides a little more room for him to fit in. He was in luck. The kind Asiana staff went to no end of trouble to accommodate him. And even better, it was at no additional cost.
A QUIRKY HOTEL IN SEOUL
There was no doubt that our Oceanside Hotel at Incheon, just 4 kilometers from the international airport was very comfortable and convenient. But it was decidedly quirky! Designed with what I can only describe as a kind of retro Spanish-Scandinavian flavour, the rooms were well appointed with pale timber flooring and nice modern beds. But there were curious nooks and crannies everywhere. Windows and walls were elaborately paneled with light coloured timber incongruously teamed with busy floral wall paper and heaps of Spanish style wrought iron decor. The light fittings really made a feature, being heavily decorated with elaborate iron fleur de lys motives. For one room, there was an awful lot of fleur de lys....
A strange heavy duty ring bolted into the the wall was labelled in both Korean and English "Simple Descending Life Line". We could only presume that it was the way out if there was some sort emergency or fire. But where was the rope? Or did we have to tie sheets together for a perilous descent of some nine floors? It didn't bear thinking about. And it didn't help to open all the cupboards. 
One in particular housed some of the most shonky looking wiring and plumbing you could imagine. Frighteningly they were in the same cupboard, just inches apart. Comically it almost looked like the loving owner had designed, built and outfitted the hotel him (or her) self.
All said however, the hotel was very comfortable and the young Korean front desk man who had grown up in Sydney, was very friendly and helpful. In fact we had a very relaxed and pleasant night.
The bizarre Oceanside Hotel was very reasonably priced and the breakfast was good. We would definitely stay there again.We would just hope however, we didn't have to use the emergency descent!
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