September 17: Incheon Airport, Seoul

September 17: Over Siberia

It’s 1:25 a.m Columbus time (2:25 p.m. in Seoul). I’ve been up now for 22 hours, and we still have two hours to go on this flight, a two-and-a-half hour layover in Seoul and another six hour flight to Phnom Penh. I’ve watched four movies, drunk three waters and two hot teas, and eaten two snacks and two meals in this seat. I meant to take pictures of the meals, but I forgot. I’ll try to remember on the way home.

I have to say that this flight has been pretty remarkable. The plane is a Boeing 777-300, and we all have lots of room. We each have our own video screens set into the headrests of the seats in front of us and can select from a couple dozen movies, TV shows, news broadcasts, and music channels. I had access to similar amenities on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2004, so perhaps that part’s not terribly impressive. What has been really outstanding on this flight, though, has been the service.

The flight crew includes at least eight stewardesses, all of whom are very polite and attentive. We’ve been treated to very fresh peanuts for a snack, very tasty meals (yes, that’s ME praising the food) and even a warm wet towel to wipe our hands and faces for a quick pick-me-up. Wine was included with both meals, which I think surprised even Tony, our most seasoned traveler. I get the sense that flying on Korean Airlines today is much like it would have felt flying on Pan Am in the fifties. The stewardesses are all very stylish and always smiling, the plane is clean and shows no wear and tear; it could have rolled out of the Boeing factory just yesterday. I get the sense that being a KAL employee is still a status job. In the US, it seems as if working for a major carrier has lost its luster and is now little more than a grind.

Our lunch choices included either beef in gravy with mashed potatoes and vegetables or a Korean dish called bibimbap, which is a rice, meat, and vegetable mixture that Jan was daring enough to try. Both options included fruit, and a small salad. Dinner was either chicken with rice and broccoli or creamy pasta with vegetables. Both included a dinner roll, potato salad, and chocolate mousse. Well, something akin to mousse, anyway. Mousse might have been too much for even these fine chefs to pull off in an airplane meal. It was tasty enough, but it was served in a cut square and had a consistency in the general realm of spackle.

Our flight path took us due north from Chicago over Canada, way north of Alaska, then down over Siberia and into Korea. Right now, we appear to be over far eastern China, around Chanchun and just west of Vladivostok. One really odd thing is that the sun hasn’t set yet. Because we’re going west, and because we flew so far north, we’ve kept ahead of nightfall. As a matter of fact, it will be dusk or just later than dusk when we reach Seoul.

September 16: Chicago, Illinois

Jan, Tony, and I are in the international terminal at O’Hare. It’s a sad little place, especially compared with the vibrancy and bustle of the main terminal. There’s a McDonald’s here and a frozen yogurt shop. So much for breakfast food options. Still, a sausage McMuffin with egg will be the last food I can can be sure of for the next two weeks, so I’ll just enjoy it. The Korean Air ticket booth doesn’t open until 9:00 a.m., so we’re just killing time. Three hours down on the journey to Phnom Penh, 25 to go.

September 14: Columbus, Ohio

So the weight limit for flights into and out of Bhutan is 44 pounds. While that’s not a lot less than the weight limit on domestic flights, I wanted to keep my luggage as light as possible. (Who knows what I might buy and want to bring home!) I have my technology, which is going to add a fair bit of weight, so I’m cutting back everywhere else I can. I’ll be wearing (ugly) clothes in Cambodia that I bought in a thrift store and that I plan to leave behind, and I’m planning to wear everything at least twice. Maybe not underwear, but everything else.

I also decided that I could do without hair gel if I buzzed my head. Last time I did that, though, Mark protested vehemently. I compromised and got a mohawk.

Mark is a little happier with this. By the time I get home, though, it’ll mostly be grown out.

Two days to go. Today and tomorrow, I’m doing my final checks on my technology—charging batteries, making sure that my blog plan is going to work out, and so on—and packing.

August 5, 2011

Jan, Tony, and I got our Cambodian visas yesterday. It was a surprisingly painless process, actually. We did it all over the Web. The only hiccup was that we needed to upload photos of ourselves, which none of us had handy, to be printed on the visas. We each just stood against a wall in my house, and I snapped us with my iPad. Voila. We also went ahead and selected our hotels for our nights in Phnom Penh. We decided, after much thought, to forego the wild Walkabout Hotel after we watched a YouTube video that showed a young woman failing to charm her way past the hotel “concierge” in the “ticket booth” of a lobby and the steel door that separates the bar from the hotel. Too much local flava for us. We are going to stay nearby, though, and enjoy Friday night in their bar.

Speaking of YouTube videos for hotels in Phnom Penh, why do they all feature 60-year-old men escorting 15-year-old Cambodian girls? I can only imagine how often Tony and I are going to have to decline the advances of charming young ladies while we’re there. Sigh.

I still have a laundry list of things to do and questions to ask, but the trip is definitely in the air now.

July 30: Columbus, Ohio

I bought an iPad yesterday, which will make it possible for me to blog my trip to Cambodia and Bhutan. I was planning to buy one for EPUB testing anyway, so this trip just spurred me on to getting it done. Along with the iPad, I bought an adapter that will allow me to upload photos directly from my camera, so look for lots of pictures from the East.

We’re just less than six weeks out, now, and getting excited. I had my vaccinations–for dyphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, mumps, measles, rubella, typhoid, and polio–and my anti-malarial pills. In the next few weeks, I’ll pick up some stomach medicine, some food that I know I can eat if I find myself unable to choke down any other available option, and a new day bag that can hold my electronics and a change of a clothes in case my luggage gets lost.

June 23: Columbus, Ohio

It’s June 23, 2011. While I wait to find out if I have a commitment from an Arabic-language proofreader for an upcoming project, I’m thinking about my upcoming trip to Cambodia and Bhutan. We’re inside the three-month mark, now, and inspired by a friend of a friend, I’ve decided to blog the trip. Today, I set it all up, and this is my first blog entry.