01OCT07 0900 (AM...)

My flight went well. Aside from literally climbing over my sleeping neighbors to go to the bathroom, everything was smooze. I must have slept a total of about 12 hours. The breakfast "omelet" was questionable. Someone must have substituted the usual cheese for salsa looking tomato sauce that tasted like sweet pizza sauce. Maybe I should have tried the rice porridge. The usual fancy garnishes surrounded the meal. The stewardesses were tall, beautiful, cordial, and spoke perfect Airline English.

Arriving wasn't a big deal. I never heard back from my sponsor on where to meet (update from later, he thought my flight arrived in the evening). The customs line was short. They checked my orders and military ID - never looked at either passport. At the baggage claim an attendant identified me as US military and directed me through another extra checkpoint. I was asked if I had any contraband - the usual: knives/swords, explosives, drugs, agricultural products, ... or pornography, .... humm....

I made my way to the USO/military liaison desk. It was about 6AM and nobody was there. A small group of brand new Army MPs were absorbing the local wisdom from an "experienced" Air Force Captain returning from leave, who, it turned out had been there for a whopping 2 months. I bought a hot, wet, sweet, mystery roll that turned out to have seasoned veggies that tasted like meat for <$1. It was very good. One of the Army kids was giving the other crap for "only" meeting one Koran girl on the flight. He had met 3. Yeah...I still haven't been mistaken for a local, but I don't stick out like these guys.

I was told the bus ride would be over an hour - it's been almost 2. Seoul was about 25 Km away, and we were flying thorough beautiful countryside for a long ways. One turn later we hit a wall of traffic. Cars here look normal: left hand steering wheel, more Kias and Hyundais than usual, but many have funny little dishes facing their rear windshields that are centered or on the passenger side. They look like mirrors, maybe Fast Trak devices? I'll find out...

Motorcycles do make their own lanes here, as does our bus driver. One just cut off the road across a shopping center sidewalk and back on. Traffic here looks wild. We just pulled up to a guard gate...later...






More images here.