PUS-ICN OZ8532 A321-200 seat 3A
My alarm clock rang at 05:15 AM and the "fun" part of my vacation was over. The rain that had greeted me on my arrival came back to say goodbye and a taxi took me to the airport a little too quickly, as at ten to six all the Asiana counters were still closed. Five minutes before six a line of giggling Korean girls in normal clothes walked in behind the counter; at six on the dot a line of expressionless khaki-suited robots in heavy make-up and Boy Scout scarves took their positions on the battlefield and checked me in. With a pitter-patter of high heels one more robot was dispatched to open the Asiana Lounge on the 3rd floor (again before security) and I took possession -- I think this is the first time I've had a lounge all to myself. (Any other frequent flyers on this flight probably sleep in a bit longer.)
Security too was sleeping on the job this morning, but a shock awaited me on boarding -- this aircraft had an actual business class! The back of the bus (row 10+) was the expected 3-3, but the first three rows (1-3) were 2-2. This early morning PUS-ICN flight is designed solely for connections to international flights (exhibit A: yours truly), so evidently they have enough hot shots willing to pay a premium... although I'm not sure if this is standard practice or just an equipment change, as my ticket didn't contain the word "business" anywhere. And indeed, all you get is legroom and buttroom, the drink service was identical on both sides and again consisted of soft drinks and a candy-coated peanut. Halfway through the flight we got high enough to witness some fascinating cloud formations, like puffy icebergs floating across a glacier of dark grey storm, and I recalled the views of Esmarkbreen half a world away...
ICN
ICN's midget-sized domestic section (all of 5 gates) rattled in emptiness and I scurried over to the much more bustling international side of the terminal. Check-in was smooth and I even received my boarding pass for my connecting, but separately ticketed, flight from BKK to SIN. At security, that darned can of maple syrup again posed problems, and I finally understood why when the display of Bad Items showed a can of lighter fluid identical in shape and size. When stopped and told "cannot take", I corked the bottle, dabbed my finger in and licked it clean. An initially shocked reaction turned to something approaching understanding and I was waved on my way.
Much to my dismay (and contrary to what I seemed to recall), there were no Lotteria outlets -- Korea's answer to McDonalds -- to be found on past security in ICN, and I was denied my traditional Korean last meal of a kimchi burger. For lack of better options I ventured over to
Baegoe King and ordered a Bulgogi WHOPPER Jr., only to find that, for the first and last time on this trip, my attempts to pronounce Korean had been misunderstood and I got an Original WHOPPER Jr instead. Weeping, I headed to the Silver Kris lounge and consoled myself with a can of Nostalgia Drink Soojeonggwa, an odd but not untasty Korean drink of cinnamon and random spices, and plugged a 100BaseT cable into my laptop to soothe my withdrawal pains.
ICN-BKK TG659 B777-200 seat 12K
As I headed to the gate the boarding call for Asiana's one daily flight to Sendai sounded and I recalled my
my first visit to ICN, when I'd boarded that very flight. Today, too, boarding was on time and I briefly exulted in my 3.8 seconds of fame as an object of public envy as I joined the business/first boarding line and then turned left to the business/first boarding door (was this really the first one so far on this entire trip?). Load on this Sunday morning flight was abysmally low, I counted 9 people in the 49-seat business section, giving us an 18% load; I had a window with the next 5 seats empty.
Having flown regional TG biz thrice before, my expectations for this flight weren't very high. Indeed, the aircraft was one of the older 777s that form the backbone of Thai's fleet, with no in-seat power and no video-on-demand as expected, but there was a little personal TV looping five (very bad) movies. A second positive surprise was that we received an actual amenity kit, although the pretty triangular Thai-style bags of my previous flight had been replaced with a rather anonymous brown-black plastic thing more befitting Lufthansa (or, for that matter, Asiana). Food has generally been a comparative high point on TG's flights, but today was a bit of a letdown after SQ/AC's best efforts:
Marinated Prawns, Vegetables Chaudfroid
Mixed Green Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing
Beef Short Rib Korean Style, Steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice, Pak-choy
Assorted Breads, Crackers, Butter
Cheese and Fresh Fruits
Sponge Cake with Lemon Cream Mousse
"Vegetables chaudfroid", for those of you who skipped French class, translates as "broccoli jello" -- the favorite dish of neither Bush Sr nor me. The prawns were big but cold and the marination seemed to consist mostly of sesame oil, although a squirt of lemon did liven things up. Despite my earlier misgivings I tried the beef short rib (
bulgogi, the very thing missing from my earlier burger) over salmon (Western-style), chicken (Korean) or pork (Thai), but alas, TG joins OZ and SQ in offering utterly tasteless Korean airplane food. At least they had the decency to provide a tub of
gochujang to drown the beef and stringy boiled Chinese cabbage in.
Today's cheese platter consisted of, as the purser helpfully explained, "Camembert and sorry I don't know." (Based on the big holes, hard texture and vaguely sharp taste, it was a young Emmental.) I skipped the port (Cockburn's LBV) and tried the sponge cake with lemon cream mousse, which tasted like it had crawled out of economy.
BKK-SIN TG409 A330-100 seat 32D
I'd timed my transit to be just over an hour, which was perfect: a quick trip up into the Royal Orchid Lounge and then to the gate. As usual, Thai security didn't bat an eyelid over my syrup can of doom. Into the tube by the business/Star Gold line, but out from it by the economy door (oh, woe).
This flight was packed to the gills. I buried myself in the Economist and waited for lunch-dinner. Fish with potatoes or prawn curry with rice? I picked the curry, and was rewarded with my first taste of a Thai red curry in a month -- heavenly. The salad on the side was an odd mix of apple, grapes and peanuts, which I realized with a jolt was in fact a toned-down version of
yam polamai (Thai savoury fruit salad), only they'd gone a little easy on the fish sauce and a lot easy on the chili. Full points for creativity though. Dessert was a rather bland bread pudding and I had my tray cleared in time for drink service.