notes on my IPad

I left my laptop home in the U.S. this time so my wife could skype with us because that is an easier way to communicate with live video and sound and besides it is free that way as long as there are two wifis and two computers anywhere on earth set up with Skype. So, here is what I put on my Ipad the first two nights here when I woke up at strange times from jet lag. The time here is 16 hours into the future from Pacific Time.

South Korea

Amazing flight from San Francisco to Incheon airport in South Korea Time.

11 1/2 hours went pretty fast. It's now almost noon in the U.S. but it is 4 am here so I'm awake.

Lost one day flying across the international date line. TV doesn't work right now and the same with the Internet.

(my friend said he couldn't make the Internet work there either at the hotel so he set up his Iphone as a personal wifi there as he has a large data plan and ran his laptop off of that even though he said it was kind of slow.)

Staying in nice hotel by airport. Inside airport reminds me of Star Trek because of design. Good place to make Sci fi movies. Had Tom Kha soup at Thai restaurant downstairs in Egarak residence house.

First hotel room with Samsung clothes washer built in like a dishwasher next to kitchen sink. Also, stove, kettle, dishes and two gas burners for cooking. No microwave in this room but two refrigerators both built into cabinets, one for refrigeration and one for freezing things. Beds much lower to floor than in the U.S. and sandals provided at entrance as well as rubber sandals in bathroom for showering.

It might remind one of traveling to Mexico City in some ways but people speaking a different language. Also, Incheon Airport is on an island off the mainland not too far from Seoul, Korea. You are much safer here than most places in ciites across the U.S. because the culture reveres honor in a higher way than people do in the U.S. Also, most people are ethnically Korean so it is like they are family moreso than in the U.S. where we are many many cultures all together in a polyglot.
So, if physical safety is important to you Korea like Japan honors your safety and everyone else's much more than some places in the U.S. do.

It is important to be aware of jet lag if you are going to try driving a car in a new country. I'm very grateful I don't have to drive here because the driving style and rules are quite different than the U.S. Korea drives on the right side of the road like the U.S. However, little things like you can't make a left turn usually unless you have a red light with a left green arrow could be very confusing to a driver. Also, there is GPS talking to you all the time while you drive, especially telling you to slow down for camera speed traps. Though when there isn't a speed trap on freeways people often drive 20 to 30 miles per Kilometer above the speed limit which is a little scary to witness in real life. I've seen drivers do some pretty crazy things here so far. Cars tend to be newer here than in the U.S. You seldom see cars older than 5 years old. Also, there are models you would never see in the U.S. here as well. And a few people drive things now like Dodge trucks and Cadillac El Dorados which seem to be a status kind of thing. You also see expensive cars like Mercedes a lot too. But, most cars are Hyundai, Kias and local brands like Daewoo and other things like that. Here Hyundai also makes trucks of all sizes and buses, some of them pink in color. Very ornate business signs often cover whole buildings from street level to 10 stories high or more.

High rise buildings are very common for people to live in also so you might see 50 high rise apaartment buildings in a cluster many different places on Incheon Island and in Seoul because land is at a premium and because everyone here has  a green thumb and likes to think of themselves as a farmer. So, people grow stuff literally everywhere you look both indoors and outdoors.

When we woke up we all decided to go into Seoul for the day as it was Hongol Holideay. IN South Korea an emperor created Hongol around 1500 or 1600 which is their written language which reminds me a little of Chinese and Japanese characters in some ways.

South Korea is becoming now more of a tourist destination as people are starting to discover it and see how amazingly safe it is here. (even though at a distance not having a formal peace agreement with North Korea disturbs people in the U.S. where I come from. However, here people don't see the North and South as two countries but as one people separated by two governments. Often people still have many relatives in the North that they worry about and worry whether they are still alive.