Korean Holiday 2013 - Day Two

Half an hour wait before boarding the plane. Another walk out onto the tarmac. Departed at 1am. At 2am I was woken to see if The Boy wanted his meal and entertainment package (didn't order the ent. package on this leg). Then the missus and I were served our meals.

Something that really gets my goat is when people pay no attention to the "no electronic gadgets" request prior to take-off and the flight crew do nothing about it. If it's not important they why bother? Having said that, some of the crew put the passengers straight so I liked that. And they were very helpful which allowed us to depart early.

I got about three hours sleep before sunrise and then another hour or so after that. Descent into Incheon was quite rough but the landing was very smooth. We filled in our arrival cards whilst waiting for the plane to clear, back in the second last row again, and before we knew it were almost the only ones left on the plane.

Sunrise - pity I didn't have a window seat

Somebody trying for some last-minute shut eye

Immigration was a bit slow but that allowed us to collect our bags immediately. Spent some time looking for a mobile phone company that had been recommended to us but it turned out that they'd gone out of business. Hire some ordinary phones for W3,000/day without data. The deposit was W700,000 (AUD700) each! Data would have been an extra W6,000/day each on an iPhone.

Had something to eat - not very tasty at all. Liked their sign - "Take an Order". Organised for car hire after going to the chauffeur hire desk first which was at the other end of the terminal - of course. Lots of signing, booking, etc - and we needed the assistance of a local too (my sister-in-law by mobile) for the hire.

Got the car, set the co-ordinates on the GPS to Sorak Park Hotel in Sokcho on the other side of the country. Made one wrong turn, as I wasn't used to the GPS, and missed the expressway that we wanted. Ended up driving through Seoul which was exactly what I didn't want to do.

The dashboard

Start of the road trip on the wrong side of the road

Coming up to a very large and impressive bridge just out of Incheon

I think that is the 63 Building, in Seoul

Pit stop at Gapyeong which was very much required. So many people, so many strange English signs.

Our hire car

Gapyeong rest stop

Panorama of Gapyeong rest stop - plenty of room

Fuel is certainly not cheap

Lovely drive through the Seorak mountains. One more wrong turn in Sokcho and drove about three kilometres more than necessary before being able to backtrack.

View of Seorak mountains from our balcony

Our room overlooks the mountains and is on the 8th of nine floors. Free wife wifi is only available in the lobby. Hotel is quite old and in real need of renovation. Bathroom is slippery and of dangerous design when stepping out of the shower.

 Just when we decided to go for a walk, about 5pm, it started raining. Just as it did 15 years ago when we visited this area. No umbrellas packed as we were travelling lightly so we had to make a purchase. Found out Hawthorn won the AFL grand final. My sister-in-law gave me a score update whilst we were driving when my missus spoke to her on the mobile.