Seoul Survivors

The overview for this hiccup is heavily biased by the mood of having lost one's luggage. We both realize that had this not been the case, we would have taken advantage of the many tours that are offered through the airport for transit passengers with 5 or more hours of time available on their hands.

However, in light of the problems we encountered, we tried to make the best of the situation without straying too far from the airport. Incheon Airport is a very modern facility that moves approximately 100,000 passengers per day, and offers the transiter many amenities, including an onsite hotel. You may want to make reservations ahead of your arrival, as it was sold out when we were there.

Transit lounges also strive to make the traveller comfortable by having snack bars nearby. Our lunch at the Terrace was a veritable feast, and I recommend you have a meal here no matter what the circumstances. If you are undecided, you can always shop at the supermarket they have in the basement of the airport.

Forty-two duty-free shops will use up all the wons or dollars you care to shell out. In general, I found that segment of Incheon lacking. The Internet facilities are cheap and conveniently located on the second floor. Mobile phone rentals are also available at the airport.

A medical center and pharmacy are available to you in case of need; in many cases you can purchase prescribed medicines over the counter. If you wish to convert your currency, you have a choice of banks or several bureaux de change. Grab an airport map to make your life easier.

Should you wish to visit Seoul for the day, bear in mind that it's about 35 miles from the airport. Taxis (private, as well as group up to 9 people) can make the journey in about 1 hour. Or you can rent a car with Avis, Hertz, or the local Kumho Rent A Car, all of which have desks on the arrivals floor.

It is hard to understand or believe that an international airport has so little of its literature translated to English, the language of world commerce. The same can be said about the staff of Korean Air, though they are most helpful. They handled our lost luggage incident with great courtesy.

Quick Tips:

Don't come here in winter. Temperatures are glacial and unless you thrive at zero degrees, you will not enjoy Korea in December.I'm going to suggest some things you can do, depending upon how much transit time you have. All photos are scanned from a brochure I have which is all in Korean.

SPA TOUR – 2 hour duration plus transportation time
Minimum Group: 4 people
Cost per person: US
Route: Airport/Haesoopia /Airport

The seawater utilized by this sauna facility comes from 800 meters below sea level. It is claimed to detoxify through its more than 100 types of minerals, and soften the skin. Korean and Western style restaurants are on the premises.

CULTURAL TOUR - 5 hour duration plus transportation time
Minimum Group: 4 people
Cost per person: US
Route: Airport/ Cheongwadae / Gyeongbokgung Palace*/ National Folk Museum/Airport

This is probably the tour I would have picked since we usually go for the culture, history, and/or current events of a locale. The combination of these venues would have been perfect since we had the time (a whole day)!

*Link has video presentation of the Palace.

CAPITAL TOUR - 4 hour duration plus transportation time
Minimum Group: 4 people
Cost Per Person: US
Route: Airport/ Seoul World Cup Stadium / City Hall Square /Seoul Tower /Namsangol Traditional Korean Village /Airport

This might have been a secondary choice because of the richness of the culture and arts we would encounter in the traditional village. During our trip to Bali, we had the good fortune of seeing such a village, and absolutely loved it. It is also always interesting to visit the heartbeat of a capital city, which we would have found at Seoul Plaza, which includes a Palace Visit and a Cultural Center.

FILM BUFF TOUR - 4 hour duration plus transportation time
Minimum Group: 4 people
Cost Per Person: US
Route: Airport/ Aiins World / Bucheon Film Studios /Airport

Though the schedule sounds rather simple, you’ll be able to see replicas of over 100 of the world’s most famous structures; touring the film and TV studios also features modern and historical venues.

You’ll be able to find more tours at any of the above links you visit.

Best Way To Get Around:

I wish I could tell you how to get around, but not having really experienced anything too far from the airport, I'll wait until I make a full landing in Seoul. What I have gathered from the trip is that you need wheels to get from Incheon to Seoul and beyond. Once you arrive in Seoul, I would imagine it would be an experience to ride the subway!

Somebody gave this hotel 3 stars; somebody else said that there was a restaurant and bar here. A third person had a photograph of a lovely reception area with couches, etc... I'd like to meet all these people, because the Sky Hotel that we stayed at had none of the above.

This hotel was not researched by either one of us, and was a toin coss, since we didn't want to go Seoul from the airport, and that the Hyeonchungsa Shrine I had wanted to visit was a 4 hour deal round trip. When we finally reached the "help" desk at Incheon Airport, we were given choices of nearby hotels where we could spend the night and take our flight into Ha Noi the following night, and the Sky Hotel was one of the closest.

It was a brutally frigid and sunny mid-day, and our drive to the hotel was speedy on a modern, multi lane highway. The entrance to the hotel was dark, very small, leading to an austere desk with 4 clocks on the wall depicting time internationally. There is no restaurant on the premises, nor is there a bar. There is not even a coffee maker in the room, or a tea maker for that matter. The elevator is quite small, but sort of kitschy with etched glass and mirrors inside and out. The room itself was large, with wooden floors, no carpet. The bed was relegated to one side of the room along the wall; the bedding revealed clean, flat pillows (we had to ask for two more), and a wool blanket that had seen better winters. To the side, a small table with the remote for the TV, remote for the lights in the room, and the IDD telephone. Forget knowing the time: there's no clock to be found. Next to that was a small couch, covered in shiny cream vinyl, and then the large, double sized window with sliding glass panels that had lovely etchings on them.

Continuing counterclockwise, to the left of the window was the "red box," which contained an escape rope. No fire extinguisher in the room. A small fridge for water and other liquid necessities. Two glasses, but nothing to pour into them; no coffee or tea, or anything to make a beverage. A desk shares the space with the TV. The room was well heated, but you'd have to crack the window open as the temperature rose and stayed there.

The loveliest part of the room was the bathroom. Completely tiled (except for the ceiling), with a huge shower, (at least they had the sense to do away with the tub) with sliding glass doors and shampoo, conditioner, body soap all in large, permanent containers with pumps arranged on a ledge under the shower head, which is detachable. Very attractive printed tiles break up the monotony, but it's a bit overdone.

If you're wondering why on earth Dunkin' Donuts earns a place as a restaurant, it's because it was the only place that could feed us breakfast when we stayed at the Sky Hotel. In the event that you ever follow in our footsteps, and find yourself in this area, which is a newly built up area with apartment buildings and the like, please consult this directory as it contains over 2400 entries of cafés/restaurants in South Korea, and guess what? Dunkin Donuts is one of them, along with Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and anything else you might crave from the good ole USA. Frankly, I could have had noodles.

When we drove in from Incheon Airport, we saw the shop on the corner, and something told me we'd be visiting. And of course, our internal clocks were so screwed up by now, we were up earlier than the birds, and they were open and just a few steps from the hotel. Add to that the fact that it was freezing and neither one of us was dressed for this weather.

The place is actually spotless, and well-lit; the choices are against the wall, just like in the States, but I like to try to determine if we share the same tastes. I have concluded that Koreans love jelly donuts, as there were more bins with those particular ones than any other. They also do not particularly care for the muffins; a measly 3 bins, and perhaps one or two pieces in each. The coffee is made American style, even though Koreans have the same "white coffee" as the Vietnamese, which we both adore. Not served here.

It is also evident that no one around here is geared for the American tourist, not even American Dunkin Donuts. Nothing, absolutely nothing is in English. Even the shop owner's vocabulary was limited to "hello." It was all downhill after that. The bagels taste the same, more or less, and I decided to go for it. Chuck's sweet tooth prevailed, and he likes the gooey stuff. We also purchased a couple of other donuts for the room, as the only other game in town was a pizza place, also across the hotel, that made fabulous (no kidding) pizza. It's what we would call the "medium" size, and it costs about US$12. We had it for lunch and dinner the previous night, as it was impossible to walk outside to find a restaurant without freezing to death. I want to recommend this pizza place to you, really, but the signs were only in Korean, so... you'll find it if you just cross the street.

Have you ever seen a Dunkin' Donuts clock? Or participated in a Dunkin' Donuts contest? The owner gifted me with a Dunkin' Donuts mini-pink photo holder... do they give those out in the US as well? You've probably guessed that I am not a patron of this chain.

The Terrace Restaurant can be spotted from the third floor, which is the departure area at Incheon Airport, especially if you are roaming around the duty-free shops or have business to conduct with the special desk of Korean Airlines, which we did, as our luggage had not appeared when we had landed.

You get there by taking an escalator, and you can either dine under the market umbrellas or go inside and have your buffet at a table or booth seating. Though the restaurant posts open hours from 6am to 9pm, that particular day they were closing at 3pm, so we had less than an hour to sample the great variety of food. We opted to stay on the outside, as it is a great observation post.

As you walk in, there will be a hatted chef carving meat on one side, and several hot plates to his right culminating with a large serving platter of what appeared to be tortillas, but of course, they weren’t. The filling was right next to the crepes, so that you could fill them, roll them up, and take them to your table. Four deep bowls were also within his reach, and contained interesting sauces, none of which I had the nerve to sample: liquids of red, deep black, and a lovely green. The fourth was almost empty.

Across from him was the beginning of a circular buffet with fresh salad vegetables and the absolute best cold soba noodles I’ve ever had. You first procure the cold broth, and then add your brown noodles, seaweed, and scallions. Please see the photo, as I simply cannot do justice to this simple but gratifying dish. I was thankful that the signs to the food were bilingual, though the meat loaf was hardly what you’d expect to find here. How about sweet pumpkin au gratin? Amazing taste, though I found the combination to be odd. As a matter of fact, our table had a colorful ad touting pumpkin juice! I also picked up an interesting blend of corn, a bean that looked like fava but was much smaller, and black mushrooms. That, too, was an instant hit. The green salad consisted mainly of romaine lettuce—that’s a heck of a lot better than iceberg any day. To that, you could add small pieces of cheese, slivered almonds, olive oil, and a twist of lemon or other prepared dressings.

The fried rice was very tasty and included bits of vegetables; the sushi bar was second to none.

Though I am not an avid meat eater, there were enough varieties of meat (cured or cooked), fowl, and fish to satisfy any palate.

The desserts were mouthwatering; however, I did stay away from them and had ice cream instead. If you are at Incheon, even for a short time, I urge you to come here and give your taste buds a treat.

We were so excited when we got our tickets to Vietnam on very short notice that we never really made much of the terribly inconvenient and tiring route we’d have to take. The Star Alliance, which counts Delta and Korean Air as part of its circle, will always "award" you the most circuitous route they can find, and never expect to fly anywhere directly, without stopping, though Korean Air has daily flights from New York to Incheon in about thirteen hours, Delta routed us this way:

JFK to Las Vegas; Las Vegas to Korea; Korea to Ha Noi. Return trip via L.A. Yes, we were surprised to find we’d have to connect in Las Vegas with Korean Air, but apparently, many folks from Korea are now flying into Las Vegas for, um, gambling? shopping? perhaps it’s the museums.

Anyway, we’d have about an hour to make the connection, then we’d arrive at Incheon and not depart until the next evening. Why? Because the flight, which departs to Ha Noi daily, would leave before we could arrive from the USA. I have been a loyal Delta flyer for many years, but this is beyond asinine. You cannot even suggest to Delta that they give you a direct route.

Thus, I began to make plans in New York on how we could spend a day in Seoul. It never occurred to me to check the distance between Incheon and Seoul, nor did I bother to look up the distance of a particular shrine that was recommended by my acupuncturist, who is Korean. All he said was to hail a cab, and give them the name of the shrine. It is so well known, we’d be there in no time. I will not fail to mention that said acupuncturist hasn’t been to Korea in at least 20 years, and his memory may have gotten dim.

I remembered our experience at Changi Airport when we had a longer than expected layover, and decided we’d probably spend the night at the transit hotel at Incheon. Well, it was sold out, so that made it impossible.
There is also a hotel called Incheon , but don’t let the name fool you. It is outside the actual framework of the airport. Dealing with where to stay became secondary when we realized that our luggage was lost. Since we arrived at 6am the next day, the airport was not exactly teeming with staff, so it was increasingly difficult to find someone who could help us. Let me explain that Incheon Airport is humongous. The majority of personnel do not speak English, and that really shocked me. Thankfully, the people in the offices and behind some of the counters have the basics. We had to find the Korean Air offices that deal with lost luggage and see what they could do; we also stopped in with our friends at Delta, and though they were terribly helpful, they at least confirmed to us that our luggage had never left New York. I understood that they were trying to route the luggage through L.A. where daily flights occur, rather than thru Las Vegas, where there are flights twice a week. Korean Air gave us KRW938,000 (a dollar is worth 938 won, so about $100) for our pain and suffering. That actually took care of our food for the 2 days we were there.

After a concerted effort to try to depart Korea a day earlier, and have our luggage forwarded to Ha Noi, a very alert Korean Air agent reminded us that our Visa did not allow for an earlier arrival to Vietnam. I am grateful for that, in retrospect, as our arrival in Ha Noi was a bit bizarre to say the least.

At that point, we were ready to find a hotel and collapse in it. So, the Sky Hotel happened to us. As check out was at noon, we decided to return to the airport and check out the shopping, use the Internet, and of course, check the baggage arrivals.

Thankfully, the luggage had arrived, and we had to retrieve it at some distance from the offices on the third floor, but relief overcame annoyance. We proceeded to check in immediately, even though we were eight hours early for the flight just to get rid of the bags. Now we’d have time to appreciate this state of the art airport. One thing I did notice is that for such an enormous airport, it does not seem to move a commensurate number of people. The only time you see a crowd is when people are boarding at a gate. Otherwise, the foot traffic is quite light.

For those of you in transit for a couple of hours or so, there is a transit lounge on the 4th which has boxy armchairs and wooden tables, and if you’re savvy enough, you can configure something that can support a horizontal body. A snack bar (unopened when we arrived) is also present for quick bites, or a drink, but nothing earth shattering. Instead, we went downstairs and I had a delectable cream cheese bun with Earl Grey Tea. Korean buns are all the rage in New York, and more and more patisseries are opening in Queens featuring these amazing buns with gorgeous stuffing. The Internet station is on the second floor, and for 3,000 won (about $3.20) you get an adorable orange and white cyber pass for an hour. Except for the numbers and the company name, everything on that card is in Korean. On to the shopping!

There must be a tremendous demand for Korean seaweed. Not only can you buy it in almost every shop that has foods, but also there is a stall completely devoted to seaweed and every shape and form you can imagine. Also extremely ubiquitous is Korean Ginseng, recognized by most to be superior to its competitors, and Royal Jelly. Don’t count on buying any books at the GS Bookstore: they are all in Korean. Also, contrary to what I had read, their cultural magazine called Seoul , and which is published in English, was not available. Also surprising was a pharmacy on the premises: I tried to get some Motrin, but all they had were boxes of 10 caplets of generic ibuprofen.

Major American and European brands share the space on the third floor, and I will list a few for you, though I am not particularly interested in any of them: Gucci, Bulgari, Ferragamo (I do love his shoes!) Chanel, Max Mara, Samsonite, Cartier, Swatch, Coach, Escada, Rolex, Boss, Versace, Hilfiger and Dior. Also interestingly different were the displays of refrigerators at the airport. And of course, you can find liquor galore, perfumes and cosmetics, electronics (no bargain), tobacco products, chocolates and other sweets.

One of the most interesting features of Incheon Airport is its Korean Wave Cultural Center. For the uninitiated, the country’s photos, video images, and personal belongings of famous Korean actors and pop musicians represent the Korean Wave. The trend is one of the strongest in Asia.

Another memorable moment was spent trying to call Ha Noi from a public phone at the airport. Forget your phone card, it doesn’t work here at all. You will have to purchase one of their phone cards, and you really need to follow instructions very carefully, lest you get a female voice on the other end, most likely telling you that you’re an idiot. In general, I would say that if I ever return to Korea for a visit, I would not do it in December, as the temperature is downright cruel. I also would not plan my duty free shopping at Incheon, as I like to find real bargains. I’m sure that Seoul would give me something to write home about.