"This refreshing cloth also has a sterilizing effect"
Or so read the wrapper on the hot towel handed out by the Korean Airlines (KAL) flight attendant. Wow - one international trip on a non-US carrier and you remember how great flying used to be. Contrast the scene on our United flight from SEA to LAX when the flight attendants refused to help a woman lift her bag to the overhead compartment saying "If I get hurt, the company does nothing for me" to the KAL flight attendant who brought us bottled water as soon as we woke up from a nap. Worlds of difference. We totally lucked out into empty seats next to us all the way to Seoul - and the woman sitting next to us on the leg to Hanoi was tiny. Thankfully, the travel gods appear to be on our side to start with :-)
Well, we made it to Hanoi safely - it's truly wonderful here...we'll post our Day 1 stories later after a good night's sleep tonight - to sum up, we've spent a lot of time "exploring" Hanoi's Old Quarter (which really means getting lost and looking like absolute rubes). One tip for anyone traveling to Asia: we recommend booking a carrier that connects through Seoul/Incheon. The airport is the most spotless public facility this side of Singapore and has a massage spa where an hour of working out the kinks from a 14 hour trip is only $50 USD. So worth it.
Besides the other passenger who offered us banana chips as we passed him in the aisle, we had two amusing anecdotes from the trip that we'll share before signing off.
1) In the Seoul airport, the stalls in the women's restrooms included a button marked "Etiquette". You just know Michelle was tempted enough to push it, when all of a sudden the stall began to emanate recordings of flushing noises - which caused her to push it more in an attempt to turn it off, which resulted in it being triggered even more. Suffice it to say, probably a good feature to have in public restrooms in a country whose national dish is fermented cabbage.
2) No joking here, but the irony is overwhelming: on the Vietnam Airlines connection from Seoul to Hanoi, the menu actually offered a chicken entree. Needless to say, everyone we could see in our vicinity ordered the fish instead.
We'll post more later - Todd
Well, we made it to Hanoi safely - it's truly wonderful here...we'll post our Day 1 stories later after a good night's sleep tonight - to sum up, we've spent a lot of time "exploring" Hanoi's Old Quarter (which really means getting lost and looking like absolute rubes). One tip for anyone traveling to Asia: we recommend booking a carrier that connects through Seoul/Incheon. The airport is the most spotless public facility this side of Singapore and has a massage spa where an hour of working out the kinks from a 14 hour trip is only $50 USD. So worth it.
Besides the other passenger who offered us banana chips as we passed him in the aisle, we had two amusing anecdotes from the trip that we'll share before signing off.
1) In the Seoul airport, the stalls in the women's restrooms included a button marked "Etiquette". You just know Michelle was tempted enough to push it, when all of a sudden the stall began to emanate recordings of flushing noises - which caused her to push it more in an attempt to turn it off, which resulted in it being triggered even more. Suffice it to say, probably a good feature to have in public restrooms in a country whose national dish is fermented cabbage.
2) No joking here, but the irony is overwhelming: on the Vietnam Airlines connection from Seoul to Hanoi, the menu actually offered a chicken entree. Needless to say, everyone we could see in our vicinity ordered the fish instead.
We'll post more later - Todd
posted by ToddV at
9:52 PM
