It was just on 07:00 when we landed at Incheon which is the International air terminal for Seoul.
Flightpath, Singapore to Incheon (Seoul)
The security and passport checking procedure was slow due to the large number of passengers on our B-787 flight. The check required our photos to be taken as well as a scan of both index fingerprints.
We were delighted to see that our luggage had arrived safely in South Korea having last seen our bags at Hobart airport in what seemed a long time ago.
We passed through customs and there waiting in the passenger arrivals area was our smiling and very friendly Bunnik driver who informed us he spoke no English apart from saying “no English”.
The Incheon airport is about 70 km from central Seoul and the drive was initially fast on the expressway but once we encountered the city’s outer suburbs the traffic density made travel quite slow. Unsurprisingly, locally made Kia and Hyundai cars dominate the car market here and car colours we gauged are predominantly either black or white. Very few motorbikes were observed.
At just on 09:30 our driver dropped us off at our city hotel, namely the ‘Four Points Sheraton’ where we were informed that ‘check-in’ wasn’t available until about 15:00. Then through great fortune the front desk assistant made further enquiries for us and said there was one room now available which could be ours. Maybe she looked upon us as geriatrics and had a sense of concern or was it sympathy for the aged?
Our very adequate hotel room is on the 13th floor and the cityscape view is of skyscrapers in every direction. As we have no formal commitments until later this afternoon, this provided an opportunity for showering, relaxing and catching up on sleep which has been missing for the last day or so.
View from our room at Four Points Sheraton
Although there has been no rain, today’s weather conditions have been cloudy and quite cool with a maximum temperature of just 12C. The deciduous trees around the city are still exhibiting their winter drabness and devoid of new spring foliage which we are assured is imminent!
Our Bunnik tour group of eleven Australians assembled for the first time at 17:30 and we met our Korean tour leader Monica who is young, super friendly and obviously very enthusiastic about showcasing her country to our group.
Monica gave us a potted summary of our planned next ten days of travel in South Korea and we then walked a few blocks to the Royal Hotel where we had our evening meal on the 21st floor. From the dining area we were overlooking a dazzling array of city skyscraper lights, neon signs and giant advertising screens atop many of the multi-storied buildings.
The excellent four-course meal didn’t entail Korean cuisine but nonetheless it was complemented with nice wines and ample opportunity for giving the group time to chat and learn a little about our fellow travellers.
View from restaurant, Royal Hotel
We returned to our Sheraton Hotel at around 21:00 and prepared for an early night after two days with minimal sleep.
On the return trip to our hotel we asked Monica where she was staying in Seoul overnight. She said it was forty minutes from our hotel and that she’d be using her BMW for transport. This comment caused interest and then she explained the acronym being ‘bus, metro,walk’!
Tomorrow we start our Korean holiday in earnest with a full day of walking and sight-seeing around some of the main tourist hot-spots of Seoul.