Telling the tale of 2 countries with Spring in our steps

[goodielecks]

Ever since my miles were redeemed in the autumn of 2015, this trip was in the works. Lots of planning done on routes, attractions and hotels done by me but alas the final say comes from the missus.

I was originally booked on the red eye 608 but one night couple of days before the departure, I went to have a look at the selection of flights which were made available for redemption on my departure date. SQ 16 was made available and I made the switch from 608 to 16 for the better J product. Of course with the requisite stamp of approval.

27 March 2016
SQ16
77W
9V-SWN
SIN - ICN

We had our breakfast from the SKL, the usual suspects of nasi lemak, chwee kueh, carrot cake amongst others. No photos were taken at the SKL.

Here are some shots during the flight:

Leg room from my side


Leg room from her side


IFE Control


Middle Seats


Lunch began with the customary chicken and lamb satay.

Satay - I prefer mine drenched in the peanut sauce


Baby Octopus with Heart of Palm - Taste, texture did not work for my tastebuds


BTC: Lobster Thermidor - Had cranberry juice to go with it


Maple Pecan Ice Cream with Chocolate sauce - Love the ice cream


Cheese Platter


The Martian was on play during and after lunch. It was quite an interesting movie but a Hollywood flick with an increasingly common theme. Interstellar?


After I was done with the movie, took some time to meddle around with the flight map and found an interesting variant of it.


Shortly after the movie ended, a bout of headache struck me. It would carry on for the days I was in Korea but decreasing in intensity. Not sure why, but it somehow went away when I was in Japan. I asked for some painkiller and hot tea from the Korean stewardess serving my side of the cabin and got some eye shut before landing.

The immigration at Incheon was packed at this time with flights seemingly arriving from every continent. It took like an hour before we cleared immigration and it was around 6pm when we finally got on the limousine bustowards Seoul and to our hotel.

The hard product on the 77W J cabin is fantastic. It has a classy and elegant feel to it, seat width and pitch were generous and complimented by the top notch service crew, it made for an extremely pleasant flight. Would have been a waste of miles to have flown on the regional J on the A330s given that this was available on this route.

More sights and food of Seoul coming...

[goodielecks]

There were a few hotels that I had corporate rate for that we considered for our stay and we eventually settled on Ibis Styles Ambassador Myeongdong when I received Accor's flash sale in my mailbox one day. 40% off brings it even below the corporate rate I have with Accor. We decided to be within our budget as we still have Japan coming up and with it being Sakura season, we expect to spend more on lodging over there.

With most hotels in Myeongdong being on the smaller side, the rooms here are relatively spacious and comfortable.



Breakfast at Jonbuk, a chain restaurant specialising in Korean style congee.
Taste wise it is rather bland but enhanced by the condiments provided. As for texture, it is rather toothy to the bite. Very similar to risotto except for the type of grains that were used.



We did spend 1 of the afternoon in the vicinity of Gyeongbokgong palace and with that we headed down to Tosokchon, famed for its Ginseng Chicken soup.
Broth is really rich and flavorful with all the collagen being incorporated into it and the ginseng does not over power the soup. The flesh falls off the bones, you can tell it has sat on the stove for hours.



Something you probably can't miss in Korea is probably BBQ. There are family run restaurants, chain restaurants, celebrity owned restaurants etc. We settled for this place called Maple Tree House in Itaewon.



Grilled meat, raw garlic, gochujang and grilled pineapple wrapped with perilla leaf. It has a minty flavor with a slightly bitter aftertaste.



The 3 days we had in Seoul passed rather quickly and soon it was time for us to head to Jeju via Asiana Airlines from Gimpo.

Operated by A321.
We waited for the plane to arrive from Jeju for another turnaround and I couldn't resist snapping some photos.



Something on the tarmac caught my eye and I had zoomed my camera in on what was being indicated on the tarmac.



Felt that they were really generous with the seat pitch even for a domestic configuration. I would not mind flying this on regional flights as well.



Very soon, we touched down in Jeju amidst gloomy weather. It was wet and windy, not ideal for some sightseeing that I had planned for the day so we headed to the hotel straight from the airport.

While all this was happening, on the limousine bus from Myeongdong to Gimpo, I realised that my ring finger no longer had my wedding band wrapped around it. I flat out went into panic mode, rang the hotel, dropped them an email that I had a flight to catch and email me once they have completed the checks. Once I had touched down in Jeju, I checked my mailbox but the news I expected wasn't forthcoming. The trip has to go on, doesn't it?