Taiwan, China (Hainan) and Korea (Seoul) Trip - March 2018

At the outset of this blog, I commented on going into a time warp, as we crossed the International Date Line and lost March 9th altogether.  Well, the good news is that, on the return, we got to live March 18th twice!   It was a 5AM rise, out the door at 6AM, and onto a bus that passed in front of the hotel and went straight to Incheon Airport, a good hour away.  The obligatory check-in, security and immigration procedures, and we were finally able to locate a business lounge for some breakfast.  Our 14-hour nonstop flight to New York today is with Asiana Airlines, so we accessed the Asiana Business Class Lounge and had some coffee, eggs and croissants.  Before we knew it, we were boarding our Boeing 777-200 aircraft just after 9AM. 14 hours is a long time cooped up in a metal tube.  The meals were quite good, and we watched a few movies, including "Darkest Hour", about Winston Churchill's first month in power in 1941.  But sleep, we did ...

Thursday and Friday were our rest days.   I guess two days of rest out of ten is acceptable on March Break!   Both mornings, we were up early, at the breakfast buffet by 8am and at the pool before 9am. We are normally beach people, but the crowds deterred us here, and besides, the pool set-up at the Marriott is exceptional, plus it is in a raised location giving an excellent view of the view and entire bay.   With very few people using the facilities, it was definitely the route to tranquility we were seeking. On Thursday afternoon, we walked the length of the beach.   And oh, the sights we beheld!   Picture Russians – lots of them – burned as red as tomatoes.   It was hard to behold, honestly.   Picture groups of 25+ older Chinese men in Speedos, all gathered in circles on the sand, having tea and playing games, all browned like dark leather;   it’s clearly their daily social scene.   Imagine loudspeakers every 100 meters all the way d...

As “Dave itineraries” go, this one was abit placid, in terms of the early flight times.  Today, however, was the brutal exception.  We left the hotel just after midnight to get a 3am flight to Seoul.  The hotel had prepared pastries and fresh-squeezed orange juice for us, in lieu of breakfast, which was greatly appreciated.  By 12:45, we were at the (very dated) Sanya Phoenix International Airport.  Check in for our Korean-based “Jeju Air” flight (named for a popular island in southern Korea) was easy, except they charged a fortune for going over the scant 15kg limit.  Surprisingly, there was a business lounge open at that late hour which accepted our Priority Pass membership, so in we went and basically had the place to ourselves.  Mind you, the munchies and beverages on offer rated about 2/10, and the place looked like a museum – the proof is in the photo below! It was a smooth, half-full flight to Seoul’s main airport, located in the town of In...

We rolled out of bed at 6am and beat the crowds to the breakfast buffet.   Wow, what an amazing breakfast buffet!   At 250 Yen ($50 CAD) per person, the price sure didn’t seem to be a deterrent.   We were just glad it was included in our room rate.   I did make us stop and wonder how the Chinese can afford the exorbitant prices here.   In a socialist system, the premise is that doctor and factory-worker make the same meagre income and everyone lives in equitable housing, etc.   Clearly, however, the New China works differently, with a new upper class that is able to afford all the western luxuries previously unavailable / unaffordable.   But that is all a tangent for another day. After breakfast, the sky was looking abit foreboding, so we decided that Plan B would be needed after all:   a trip to the other side of the island of Hainan to Haikou, population 2.2 million.   The Chinese government is intent on making Hainan a world-class to...