Part 6 - To Hong Kong with Thai. Or ... is my Passport???
Back to Inchon.
The pictures
Set 1
Set 2
6am arrives again, and it’s time for the check out. After signing off the bill, and buying another bus ticket, it was a very very very slow trundle around Seoul (for what seemed like most of the journey, until the bus passed the Best Western) when we hit the Freedom highway, and the road to Inchon Airport.
Eventually, the bus deposited me at the Departures level, and I made my way to the mess that was Zone J - the Thai check-in zone. The economy queue was long over a lot of switchbacks, and the Business queue wasn’t hot either, taking around 15 minutes to be seen to.
My bag was tagged and sent through (see Heathrow/Birmingham - it is possible) and boarding pass and lounge pass were issued to me. I then went through the politest security I’ve been through in ages, with not invasive checks of the bags, and the camera film scanned manually. After that to immigration where I was stamped out of the country. After wandering to the shuttle train, I was in the “non korean” airline concourse, and I made my way to my lounge stop - The Asiana Lounge.
Lounge Stop - Asiana Airlines Lounge
Noodles consumed: Many.
I was welcomed into the lounge and directed to teh business class side of it. The room was well apointed, with lots of seats, cinema style armchairs and a food area. Given that I didn’t have breakfast, I made a beeline for the food.
And for breakfast ... well ....
Cup noodles and Nuts. It’s a breakfast OK?
And oddles of them....
Walking around the lounge there was some nicely lit areas (but no natural light) and of course, the piano in the centre
As boarding time approched, I made my exit and over to the gate where boarding had been slightly delayed by 15 minutes - with our 777-200 ready for anohter day of flying.
As 10:00am passed, the tensabarriers were removed, and I boarded.
TG629, Seoul Inchon International Airport - Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International Airport
Thai Airways, Boeing 777-200, Seat 12A, Business Class
1284 Miles flown
Again, first aboard the business class area, and I was greeted in with a traditional Thai bow. The cabin slowly filled up, and a seatmate joined me. Not the end of the worlds considering how much space there was. It was even better when my seatmate move to the bank of seats next door
Seat space
Pre-flight drinks were distrubuted along with menus as well as Hong Kong or Thailand landing cards - obviously I had the 2 part Hong Kong landing card..
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-pYUgdT7DM
Soon enough we were pushing back and the Thai safety video played. After a trundle around Inchon, it was up into the skies.
A Flyertalkers dream...
Soon enough the bubbles came around, and menu orders were taken.
Bubbles
Starter: Smoked Salmon
With Kimichi
Duck, rice and packchoi - not bad at all.
And a blueberry cake square.
The crew was very talkative and the purser took an intrest in my photography jokingly calling me a spy capturing all the little details of the flight.
The seat was a wedgie lieflat seat, but with a nice sense of recline, so it wasn’t too bad. Whilst fully flat would be more appricated, it was more than enough space. Combined with two seats to myself, this was a nice way to spend 3 hours in the air.
As we begun decent, arrival drinks were given
Soon enough we broken through the cloud and Hong Kong was below us, with the plane heading towards Lantua Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLJhwfWX_jA
Upon landing I was getting ready to disembark when I did a little check on my body. And found my passport had taken a walk. Various words were emitted from my mouth. After practicality disassembling my bag, I put the seat into the bed position - which perked the curiosity of the purser. After explaining, it was time to disassemble 4 C class seats (quite literally, with the flight crew pitching in).
20 minutes later the passport had been found underneath another seat diagonally to me. After thanking the crew profusely, I left the plane, and cleared Hong Kong Immigration and found my bag was just being lifted off the belt.
Overall: Thank you Thank you Thank you Thai! Whilst the short hop and regional food could only give an inch of what Thai had to offer, the help I received post flight was invaluable.