Dateline: Seoul.
There’s a free internet cafe, which is wonderful. The other internet cafe charges $1.00 per 10 minutes!
Leaving NAIA makes me pine for the new airport. The airconditioning was barely working; immigration officer was fidgeting and perspiring profusely. Everyone was sweating heavily, actually. An American threw afit while we were all waiting in line for our departure stamps; apparently a Korean was standing too close to him in the line. The American bellowed for security; security shrugged, then whisked him away -ahead of everyone else. Mustsay I admired the Korean, who didn’t stand down, and placidly informed the American he had no right to complain. Korean seemed upset, though, that the American, to shut him up, was moved up ahead of everyone else.
Irritating thing is that the smoking lounge is now limited to one restaurant at NAIA which, of course, was closed. The regular smoking lounges have been closed ever since the U.S. government instituted a new regulation that lighters are forbidden on flights going to the U.S.A. Why this should affect smoking lounges for passengers not necessarily destined to end up in the U.S.A. seems the usual slavish behavior towards Uncle Sam.
It’s a delight to leave on a flight bound for an Asian country and not on a direct flight to the U.S.A. You have to undergo less of an ordeal, security-wise. Arriving in Korea, the security is tight (no metal knives during dinner on the flight; and during breakfast here in the airport, no metal knife, either, although oddly enough, a metal butter knife was provided -surely this could be equally menacing in determined hands?). Korean bacon is less fatty and salty than ours.
Extremely welcome development. Smoking lounges galore! And extremely well-ventilated, at that. Five more hours to kill, before departing for Washington, D.C.
Hi, Mr. Quezon,
This is totally not related to your blog, but I have been wondering about something.
I recently took a trip to Corregidor and took the island tour. I did get my dose of history,
and
the tourguide mentioned in the tour that the former president Manuel Quezon’s son never had a
son, so he doesn’t know where the Manuel Quezon III came from. I did recall seeing your name
in the Inquirer, so I figured that you were the one he was referring to. All the while I
had the impression that you were the grandson of the former president. Forgive me for being
nosy, but who is right?
Thank you for taking time out to read this.
Grace
Oh, my I just read your “Not a Turd Manuel Quezon” piece three minutes ago. Seems
like our tourguide did indeed lose track of your “recluse” father :). There, now that’s
one less thing i’ll be wondering about.
Wonderful writing, by the way. Seems like you were in the same room having coffee with me and
exchanging stories 🙂
Have a nice day!
Grace
Don’t ever go to Utah, because if you want to smoke in Utah, you’ll have to be 25 feet away from any entrance/exit
Grace- Thanks, and by the time I got to your comments, you’d answered them.
Joachim -well, unless researching genealogy in the vaults of the Mormon temple, what would I be doing in Utah, anyway? And what were you doing in Utah??
Hi MLQ3,
May I know where are the free internet at Incheion Intl Airport. Been there twice this year already on a long layover and couldn’t find one. Wifi, btw?
Thanks!
It’s enviable how they have free internet all over the first world actually.
Practically every single hotel in the USA is wired for free internet, and all major international airports have free internet terminals as well.
i’m currently living in Utah, working for an mlm company called Xango as a web developer for marketing
Joachim- wow, Xango! Neat-o. How long have you been there and how long do you expect to be there?