What better way to squeeze out yet another post than cough up dregs from another business trip? If I can post something exercising only my fingers, I'm a happy camper. Without further adieu, here are my jottings from a recent trip to Korea - the peaceful one of the two. I have had far more interesting trips to that region in the past but when you are returning there after a long gap on a week-long trip, I'll happily settle for uneventful.
Incheon and the obsession with A
I have observed this on my first trip to Seoul way back
when. A display proudly proclaiming Incheon as “A world best airport.” And it
is still there today. I’m amused by this board every time I catch a glimpse of
it on my way. Reminds me of the “Chainese” restaurant signs in Chennai. They must have spent a fortune to build the
airport and run it as a world class facility. And yet, this board with its
message in bad English has survived the years. Please tell me they just picked
the lowest bidding English copywriter and it is not because of numerology. In
fact, I don’t find such funny English at too many places across town.
World number 2? You don’t say.
The (A?) Incheon airport, located about 40 kms west of Seoul
city is a swanky place, done up really well and takes its place, by right, I
must add, among the top three (Ranked #2 in 2015) airports in the world.
Millions of passengers pass through its terminals and the place runs smoothly –
a world best airport indeed. But by having used it a number of times, I have a
few minor issues with the airport that I would like to document here. First,
any airport that makes a passenger getting off an 11-hour, economy class flight
to hop on a train to even clear immigration is screaming “bad design” loudly
from the top of the control tower. Yes, it is a less-than-2-minute train ride.
Yes, the trains run frequently. But a train ride to even get to immigration?
This easily adds about 15 minutes to the usual airport routine. By comparison,
I have cleared immigration, picked up my bags and have been on a taxi in less
than 20 minutes from touchdown at Changi when Singapore used to be our home.
Speaking of taxis, taxi drivers are teeming in the arrivals area, offering
cheap rides into the city which they should not be doing. But I know why:
fantastic and economical bus rides to all hotels in the city wait just outside
the terminal doors and these guys want to hijack you ahead of that. I don’t see Changi losing its first rank
anytime soon.
The desi looks
Singapore Airlines flights SQ15/16 is preferred by the Indian diaspora living on the US west coast for their travel needs to the old country for obvious reasons: great service, fantastic Indian food options and for the able bodied and the adventure minded, a quick trip into Singapore without visa hassles. You will know where that extra money for the tickets went as soon as you place that warm towel on your face and sit back even before take off. This flight was no exception and had its quota of Indians - particularly aged parents - returning home. Most of them assume - quite reasonably - that I'm headed to India also and in the course of conversations, raise an eyebrow or even do a double take when I let them know that I'm actually headed to Korea. Seoul, to many Indians in that age group, is a two-hour layover to stretch the limbs, jump through the security hoops, perhaps get a hot beverage before heading back into the plane for the next leg of the tiring journey to or from the US. Not a destination.
More than meets the eye
Dynamic Korea is a phrase that hits you at many places, starting
from the immigration area. If Korea is dynamic, Seoul is truly its nerve
center. The city is pulsating. The Han River bisects the city into two: the
older, history and culture-rich North and the business, residential South (including
the now (in)famous Gangnam) with hills all around. The cityscape is filled with
extravagant skyscrapers with ornately done facades. Some tasteful, some less so
but all of them wasteful. The city is served by a fantastic metro system working
in tandem with a complementing bus service. But there is more to Seoul than
meets the eye and much of it lies under. The underground shopping complexes,
sometimes up to 3 floors deep, throb with teeming shoppers and are an
experience by itself. What also hits the visitor is the density of population.
Seoul houses a big chunk of the nation’s population and honeycomb-like
multi-storeyed (and expensive) apartment matrices stretch out in all
directions.
Churches-r-us
I had been surprised during my first few visits by the sheer
number of churches dotting the cityscape. Churches of all sizes, shapes and
denominations, I’m sure. They are there all the time but become more prominent once
night falls with well-lit crosses identifying them, especially if you have a 25th
storey vantage point. Blame it on watching too many martial arts movies as a kid, but when I was a first time visitor, I was expecting to see
“local” shrines or temples, incense sticks, prayer wheels, beads, you know,
anything but churches. But I was simply blown away by the extent of the spread
and reach of this faith. In fact, seated in the flight to Seoul, I could see
many people crossing themselves as the aircraft took off at SFO. I had to check my boarding pass to ensure that I wasn't on a flight to Rome. Amen! Or is it
Hallelujah?
Asian hospitality
Hotels, airports, airlines…when it comes to quality of
service, in my personal opinion, the buck stops in the nicer side of the
Pacific Rim. Granted, no matter where, the service industry is just that – an industry
– peopled by professionals incentivized for being nice and hospitable. Yet, the
Asians appear to be inherently better at it than “the West”. The pampering
(compared to United) that one receives on board a Singapore Airlines flight, the quality of service at the hotels and
restaurants is clearly a notch or two above what one would expect at comparable
places in the US. I have little experience in Europe or elsewhere to make a
statement. The difference, to take a cynical view, is simple: even if both of
them – US and Asia – are secretly wishing someone to go to hell, the Asians do a much
better job of masking it.
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