My Asian Adventure - Part One, Traveling
I’ve decided to revisit my life as a blogger since I now have something interesting to write about…and also so I remember this experience to the fullest. I know I’ll never truly be able to relate how completely foreign this all is no matter how many stories and pix I post, but I’m at least gonna try. :)
Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start… (if you’re singing along in your head, you’re welcome, lol)
Because the guys put the least experienced traveler in charge of the flight arrangements, we ended up having not the 3 hour layover in LA that I wanted, but instead a 15 hour layover. You mean there’s a difference between am and pm? Duh, lol! It actually turned out to be an amazing “mistake” because Andy hooked us up with a totally pimp room in Hollyweird for the night. The building had a French castle thing rocking which made my inner architecture geek SO happy.
Lil Bro and I missed getting dinner because the terminal at D/FW rolled up their sidewalks early, so we had smoothies and vending machine trail mix at the airport and arrived in LA starvin like Marvin. The original plan was to investigate some night life, but our tummys won, so we trekked out in search of food. We attempted to eat at a Hitchcock-themed bar and grill (Jonman, you want to check it out sometime) but found their kitchen closed. Another happy “mistake” because we ate at this super cool retro diner and omg the food, nom! Diner 101 on Franklin, you want…no you *need* to try the brownie waffle sundae. Brilliant!
We stayed up as late as we could to try and help the body clock along and headed to the airport Thursday late morning for the start of the international adventure. I’ve never really understood what the bfd is with asian women, but after seeing the female staff of Asiana Airlines, omfg, message received loud and clear. :)
It became obvious that we are giants in the East almost immediately, Lil Bro kept hitting his head on stuff and I was worried the poor guy was gonna have a head injury by the time we arrived. Let me go on record as saying that I do NOT do well on long, crowded flights and am genuinely concerned I’m going to have to be drugged to the point of comatose to get home from here. They sat us in the center of the center section, the plane was totally full, and there were two babies in the row in front of us…my claustrophobia reared its ugly head in the form of a panic attack within 5 minutes. Thankfully Lil Bro was incredibly patient and kept me from completely freaking and getting off the plane. His rendition of Don’t Worry, Be Happy was classic and I wish I had it to upload to Youtube. 12+ hours and another panic attack later we arrived in Seoul, Korea…I’ve never been so happy to get off a plane in my entire life.
It is Lil Bro’s goal to try the local cuisine wherever we go and also to try foreign versions of the food we know and love, so we headed straight for the food court. Apparently hot dogs are a big deal in Korea, surreal but true, so he got this big nasty chili dog and happily ate it while I watched in abject horror. Doing the cigarette promotions in convenience stores for a year and a half and having to smell the hot dogs cooking all day every day killed what little interest I had in them to begin with. Bleah.
The coolest thing about the Seoul airport was the photo op they had for trying on the traditional costumes. It was free, so yeah, why not? We looked positively ridonkulous and yet hilarious at the same time.
The flight to Cebu was fairly uneventful, which, after my emotional drama during the overseas flight, was a complete blessing to me. :)
Will write more later but at least I have this much to share for now. Soooooo much to tell!
Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start… (if you’re singing along in your head, you’re welcome, lol)
Because the guys put the least experienced traveler in charge of the flight arrangements, we ended up having not the 3 hour layover in LA that I wanted, but instead a 15 hour layover. You mean there’s a difference between am and pm? Duh, lol! It actually turned out to be an amazing “mistake” because Andy hooked us up with a totally pimp room in Hollyweird for the night. The building had a French castle thing rocking which made my inner architecture geek SO happy.
Lil Bro and I missed getting dinner because the terminal at D/FW rolled up their sidewalks early, so we had smoothies and vending machine trail mix at the airport and arrived in LA starvin like Marvin. The original plan was to investigate some night life, but our tummys won, so we trekked out in search of food. We attempted to eat at a Hitchcock-themed bar and grill (Jonman, you want to check it out sometime) but found their kitchen closed. Another happy “mistake” because we ate at this super cool retro diner and omg the food, nom! Diner 101 on Franklin, you want…no you *need* to try the brownie waffle sundae. Brilliant!
We stayed up as late as we could to try and help the body clock along and headed to the airport Thursday late morning for the start of the international adventure. I’ve never really understood what the bfd is with asian women, but after seeing the female staff of Asiana Airlines, omfg, message received loud and clear. :)
It became obvious that we are giants in the East almost immediately, Lil Bro kept hitting his head on stuff and I was worried the poor guy was gonna have a head injury by the time we arrived. Let me go on record as saying that I do NOT do well on long, crowded flights and am genuinely concerned I’m going to have to be drugged to the point of comatose to get home from here. They sat us in the center of the center section, the plane was totally full, and there were two babies in the row in front of us…my claustrophobia reared its ugly head in the form of a panic attack within 5 minutes. Thankfully Lil Bro was incredibly patient and kept me from completely freaking and getting off the plane. His rendition of Don’t Worry, Be Happy was classic and I wish I had it to upload to Youtube. 12+ hours and another panic attack later we arrived in Seoul, Korea…I’ve never been so happy to get off a plane in my entire life.
It is Lil Bro’s goal to try the local cuisine wherever we go and also to try foreign versions of the food we know and love, so we headed straight for the food court. Apparently hot dogs are a big deal in Korea, surreal but true, so he got this big nasty chili dog and happily ate it while I watched in abject horror. Doing the cigarette promotions in convenience stores for a year and a half and having to smell the hot dogs cooking all day every day killed what little interest I had in them to begin with. Bleah.
The coolest thing about the Seoul airport was the photo op they had for trying on the traditional costumes. It was free, so yeah, why not? We looked positively ridonkulous and yet hilarious at the same time.
The flight to Cebu was fairly uneventful, which, after my emotional drama during the overseas flight, was a complete blessing to me. :)
Will write more later but at least I have this much to share for now. Soooooo much to tell!
Comments
Post a Comment