ME BUMBLING AROUND MY APARTMENT BEFORE LEAVING
Last night was not an early one (we had initiate a group of MBA exchange students into the Vic's scene). So, when my alarm went off at 9 this morning, I was not happy. I did the snooze thing until 9:20 then finally marched into the shower. But, when I turned it on, nothing happenned. Sink, same story. Next, I openned my washer/dryer unit, which contained items of critical importance for my trip (i.e. socks/undergarments) that I thought I had washed the night before. As it turned out, they were still every bit as dirty as they were yesterday, except now they were also speckled with detergent fragments.

Next, I brushed my teeth using water from my water cooler and turned my thoughts towards packing. Packing dirty clothes is actually surprisingly easy.

On the way out the door, I made a half-hearted attempt to rectify the water problem with the building management, but I could tell they weren't all that concerned and neither was I because I'm going to Japan.

THE TREK FROM MY APARTMENT TO THE AIRPLANE
As I was walking out to the street to find a taxi (about 10:35a for 12:10p flight; pretty safe), I bumped into (literally) a woman from my building that I had seen in the elevator before. I asked her if she was going to the airport (there were obvious visual clues) and she said 'yes' so we shared a cab.

We took 5th ring (always a conservative bet) and made pretty good time, that is, until we were about 7 km away. Those last 7 km took close to 15 minutes. We arrived at 11:10. Beijing airport was the most crowded I've ever seen it. In addition to the abnormally high volume of cars, people were everywhere and airplanes were hanging out on the tarmac in an Atlantaesque sort of way.

But, if I've learned anything during these years in Asia, it's how to block out crowds (mentally). And so, I simply detuned my brain for the next half hour and when all the pushing and shoving was over, I was sitting in one of those business class lounges that we love to complain about on the UA board catching up on email. FWIW, 30 minutes is much slower than normal; but, even with the delay, the 60 minutes I had to work with proved to be more than sufficient.

At around 11:55, I headed to my gate and boarded my airplane.

OZ332 PEK-ICN, 777, seat 5A
Most of the reviews I've read here about OZ regional business class are pretty unflattering, so I wasn't expecting much. Regardless of all that, I ended up giving this flight high marks across the board. Sure, my thoughts would be different if I had to take that same airplane to Los Angeles, but for a 1.5 hour flight, those guys did a great job. I have the menu in my bag with me, which I will try to post when I have more time. In short, there was a choice between fish and beef. Plus everyone got the same salad and dessert. I went for the beef; while it was clearly airplane food, the meet was of much higher quality than I've become accustomed to on UA. Furthermore, it wasn't cooked beyond recognition. As for the wines: champagne=piper, red=(le haut-medoc, santenay, sonoma county zinf), white=(st. romain, kenwood sonoma sauv blanc). There were no designer or fancy cocktails.

The seat was similar to old UA/NH/SQ/CX biz (I realize those are all very different seats; I'm just trying to set the comfort benchmark). Very limited recline, electronic controls.

The IFE was about as good as a non-AVOD system can get IMO. Lots of audio and video channels, great headphones, 12" monitors, destination info, games, airshow.

The service was pretty solid also. The staff was very polite. My only complaint would be that they seemed to be a little shorthanded.

TRANSIT AT ICN
I'm going to close here because my next flight is about to start boarding and I want to check out duty free first. Anyway, after I arrived at ICN, I took a long shower in the lounge here. The pressure wasn't too good (though much better than my Beijing shower), but I am clean and happy. This lounge is nice (I'd say better than the SQ facility at the other end of the terminal).