Travelling to Seoul

So the flight to Seoul was pretty uneventful, with us stuck on a plane for about 10 hours and spending most of it watching the in-flight movies. Korean Air were superb, with very professional service, some nice food (the spicy Korean sauce livened up the journey somewhat) and tri-lingual service announcements that would test your frustration levels as you found the previously mentioned movies being paused constantly.

As I don't have any photos of the flight you'll have to make do with my movie reviews instead.

Fighting:

This piece of trash stars the jug-eared twat from one of the Step Up movies, Channing something I think his name is. In this Oscar winning performance he plays a young man who can't sell pirate copies of Harry Potter (not something I'd ever want to purchase on impulse to be honest) and decides to become a fighter on the illegal underground circuit instead. Along the way he falls in love and has a run-in with an old best-friend. I'm sure there are some other cliches that he encounters along the way. Prior to watching this I had to watch a trailer featuring some Korean guy drinking Irish coffee in Dublin.

Adventureland

This is a movie about a guy who has to work a Summer job and does so in a little amusement park. Along the way he falls in love and has a run-in with an old best-friend. I can't remember if there's much fighting however. The main reason for watching this was that it was filmed in Kennywood, a quite nice park in Pennsylvania where I thought I'd broken my neck after a tickling incident on their wooden coaster back in 2006. The film was OK even if it did feature Ryan Reynolds (although in this one he'd not wielding a sword). Prior to watching this I had to watch a trailer featuring a Korean guy drinking more Irish coffee in Dublin.

Push

This was a movie I wanted to see earlier in the year but eventually missed due to me realising it was going to be a cheap rip-off of Heroes. It stars that awful Dakota Fanning brat as a psychic girl who hooks up with Ryan Reynolds (not wielding a sword) and some other people to evade the authorities who are tracking all the mutant-hero-people down. I don't think she falls in love along the way, being a bit too young still for that. I do recall falling asleep part-way through but thinking the ending was quite clever in the way all the Hero-mutant people unite their powers to thwart the baddies and save the day. Prior to watching this I had to watch a trailer featuring a, now annoying, Korean guy drinking his third Irish coffee in Dublin.

Sniper

Having had enough of the Hollywood fodder I usually enjoy I decided to give the foreign movie section a go and chose a Korean movie about Snipers. This was actually really enjoyable and tells the story of two best friends who are at Sniper academy and eventually fall out. One remains with the police force and the other goes rogue and starts doing bad stuff. It builds nicely to a superb climate which features a sniper shoot-out across a warehouse. Along the way we're given tips on how to be a good sniper (controlled breathing etc), something I'd look forward to putting into practice one-day. Being devoted to his sniping career I don't think he fell in love and it didn't feature Ryan Reynolds with a sword. The trailer however did feature Irish coffee #4 being consumed by a now buzzing Korean lad.

The Escapist

I can only assume I'd subconciously chosen this as I'd been cooped up in a metal box for quite some time. This was a British (read "miserable") film about an old guy and his escape from prison so that he can see his crack-head daughter and sort her out. This film contained the usual prison cliches (corrupt cops, governor who doesn't care for this inmates, murder that doesn't get investigated, stupid escape plan etc.). Even though the film was bleak I did successfully make it all the way through. Prior to watching this I really wanted to track that coffee-addict Korean guy down and given him a smack after he was now enjoying his fifth caffeine laden drink.

So having watched all that the plane landed at Incheon, the city's international airport out to the west of Seoul and upon leaving the plane we were greated by men in white coats and face masks. The H1N1 virus that the media and government had turned into a means to keep the nation scared back home was being even more seriously here. Everyone entering the country from abroad would have to pass these guys who'd put some device up against your neck, I'm assuming to check temperature. Having passed that we then had to walk in front of a thermal camera, which would check core body temperature. Upon successfully getting through that we were then handed a packet of wet wipe tissues. Beyond that immigration was extremely smooth and efficient, and in no time at all we were on our way to Seoul in our Karaoke themed coach.

En route from the airport, the city's attempt at the Golden Gate bridge had suffered a Spinal Tap unit-of-measure complication.

The river that runs through the city isn't natural. It came about following a burst water main incident 20-years ago that they never fixed. You can still see the burst main here!

There's an awful lot of development going on in Seoul. A good sign of the city becoming more and more successful. To make the best use of the land a lot of the new developments become tall buildings...

...or very tall buildings. The one on the right is the DL63 building and its over 20 years old. Currently the 3rd tallest skyscraper in the city.