|
Day 1 - Transit and arrival in Seoul The outbound flight is on time. I opted for the 'extra comfort' seats on all flights except for the return leg Seoul-Honolulu, where I upgraded to biz class. Figured I'd be tired and could use the extra comfort. But for now, the extra few inches of legroom and better recline allow me to get some sleep. It is cold and rainy on departure.
When not sleeping, I go over my presentation. I just learned that instead of the originally promised 10 minutes I would only have 4. And I'm 24th to present - so very easy to get lost in the noise. My expectations are nil. The last time I gave a NAATBatt 4-minute presentation was a year ago at the annual convention, and I did not do well. In that instance being lost in the noise was a benefit - nobody seemed to pay much attention to my poor performance :) This time, since I'm traveling around the world to do this, I might as well try to do better. But being not noticed is my contingency plan so I'm not too worried. In a previous post I had mentioned that I've been reading Dale Carnegie's book 'How to win friends and influence people'. He outright says that the most important thing is to see the interaction from the other people's perspective. And so I focused on that. There are many challenges facing the industry, and they are bigger than any one company. Or any one country. But they can be solved - through a combination of technology and collaboration. It so happens that my two companies, ModBatt and metaLINXX, were formed to commercialize the technologies that both solve pretty much all the issues AND provide a collaboration platform to do it. So the plan is to focus the presentation on that. I run through the slides in my head many times, while setting a four-minute timer on my phone. Towards the end of the flight I think I'm getting there.
On-time arrival means my layover is more than sufficient and stress-free. I did have to check in at the counter, and there is a bit of walking with my two carry-on bags, but no issues. I'm flying Hawaiian, but at an adjacent gate is a KAL 747 that is going to Seoul only a few minutes earlier. Don't see these awesome planes carrying passengers much anymore, so I had to take a picture.
Other cool planes were several F22s taking off for a training mission. They are based here and I've seen them parked on the ground from airliner windows while taxiing, but haven't seen them take off until now.
The second leg is a ten hour flight due to the headwinds and the route takes us over Japan just as the sun is setting.
Approach to Seoul is in the dark. The city looks cool from the air.
Arrival is also on-time and uneventful. Having only the carry-on bags I simply walk through immigration and customs, and find the train station, exchanging $50 for Korean Won along the way.
The train is not crowded and the ticketing process is straightforward. The 45-minute nonstop ride into town costs KW9,500 or about $7.50.
The arrival instructions for the AirBnB apartment were a bit complicated and there was again quite a bit of walking. It involved going through three consecutive basement-level hallways and retrieving an electronic access card hidden in a basement-level mailroom. But I succeeded at all the tasks and walked into the apartment around 9:30 pm, pretty much as expected. The place is on the 11th floor and the view is very cool overlooking the train station and a more than 180 degree cityscape. Now to set the alarm and get some sleep, hopefully.
As usual, I brought a supply of Zone bars that will be my primary food source for the trip. They are better than plane/airport food, very convenient, inexpensive, and prevent any potential gastrointestinal issues which I wouldn't want to deal with just now. Not having to look for food in an unfamiliar place late at night is a huge relief. I eat a couple as the last meal for the day and actually do manage to sleep.
|
