Since my journey to the opposite side of the planet began, I have been composing in my head and am thinking that I need a small gadget to help me instantly write things down. That, or a battery for the Dell that lasts longer than 4min27sec. And maybe a computer that gets its gear cranking within 10 minutes...
This expedition began on the 5th March. Ten days later to publish is unforgiveable, yes. Departure was from NWI (the international hub, where self, all carry-on baggage and liquids were examined, tested and smilingly approved -- *rolls eyes*). Then, Tracey (the newest Intl. Officer, who had not been able to travel to China the day before as planned, due to Embassy idiocy) and I had 5 or 6 hours to kill before my flight (and 8 hours before her flight). So, we walked throug
h the museum twice, had some yummy mustard soup (a Dutch speciality -- who knew?) and then just read and watched people in dozy silence. [There is also, apparently, a new space at AMS -- and one at Heathrow -- called Yotel, which may be worth checking out as a place to sleep, refresh. If anyone beats me to it, let me know, as looks appealing, most esp. for those 5am Schipol arrivals when you are 30 minutes from home, but you have to wait 4 excrutiating hours for a flight.] We took a photo right before I got in the queue with 873 Korean people heading home (and for some reason my hair thought a forehead comb-over was the look I wanted).I noticed on this gander, however, that AMS airport has some really nice amenities in addition to the museum, the casino (which for the record I have never visited, in case people start to get hysterically judgemental), the cow statues, and the fresh juice bar -- there is this clever little mother/baby care area, which is dim with individual curtained booth sections, tables and chairs included. Overall, I am just impressed with how a noticeable proportion of European culture respects motherhood as a valued social contribution (the whole maternity leave comparison -- along with US 'holiday/vacation' policy -- could be a veritable sticky wicket in future. I think I used this phrase correctly... cricket persons can tell me if not.)
The flight to Seoul was good, but I seemed to draw elderly planes for this trip -- with no individual viewing screens. I am becoming spoiled and expect to be able to watch at least 3 movies of my personal choice (or listen to audio books) whenever seems reasonable to ME (Eloise), esp. if I am not to be bumped up to Business or First. However, it really wasn't so bad: 3/4 of a book was consumed; higher ration of sleep:wake than normal was accomplished; and those darn Sony noise reducing headphones are the BOMB. Best recommendation ever -- thanks, Wayne!
Schipol is civilised; Seoul Incheon Airport is civilised and calm.
There are orchid beds throughout the airport; there are cultural exhibit spaces with people beating drums and playing flutes; there are quiet relaxation areas which are kind of like Zen malls (the loud shopping is downstairs) -- with massage, showers, museums, children's play areas, tv/dvd viewing rooms and these fab chaise lounge things which look
out onto the mountains (I wanted to take a better picture of these as a little flock of caterpillars, but chose not to risk removing people from their meditative and sleeping states and causing them to beat me with my water bottle for disturbing their energy flow.). As a whole this makes a 5 hour layover quite pleasant -- my favourite part was the £48 hour-long Thai massage, and I truly think this helped reduce jetlag.(tbc... am going to publish and then come back tomorrow, as this has been being typed for 3 days now and people are starting to get mouthy about no blog. -- 16 March.)
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