My Kingdom for Some Chinese Food

• Flying 16,000 km on a moments notice - $2000
• Ingesting enough Gravol to knock out a horse - $12
• Relaxing on a Walmart certified inflatable pillow -$20

Getting to fly the greatest airline established since that popcorn fellow invented the airplane: Priceless.

Although the reason I flew home last week wasn't exactly pleasant I'm incredibly glad that I had the opportunity to spend some time with my family and take in some Canadiana. Two weeks ago I wouldn't have imagined flying home for a week, yet last Sunday I found myself doing just that. I was lucky enough to find a seat on a plane out of the Ulsan airport on short notice and after a few hour's packing and an hour or two of sleep I was out the door and on my way back to Canada.

Many of you probably remember the blog back in July that highlighted the greatness that is Korean Air and once again I was able to soak in it's splendor.

Let me start by saying that there are airlines and then there is Korean Air. Having grown up flying only on WestJet and Air Canada I was shocked to discover that flying can actually be enjoyable. The staff are super friendly and although they speak little English they offered much more in terms of conversation than the usual grunts of the Air Canada staff. I was also lucky enough to get an emergency exit seat. Check out all of the room I had.

You can't properly tell from the picture but I was able to fully extend my legs and almost lay down completely. I found a certain guilty pleasure in stretching out in my seat and smiling at the people in the rows across from me who had about a quarter of the space that I did. The emergency exits are like a bit of first class in the coach section and I highly recommend their use to all readers.

The real highlight of flying Korean Air though are the entertainment consoles attached to each seat.



They have them on WestJet too but nothing like this. Aside from the 50 or so movies you can select to watch (modern hits and classics combined) you can also watch several television shows and news programs. They have about 100 hundred different CDs to listen to as well. What's really cool is that you can select tracks from the CDs and create your own tracklists in your personal music folder. I was rocking out to the Bangles and Bette Midler at 30,000 feet in the air. I can now die a happy man. For some odd reason the consoles also include a Google Earth type program that allows you to examine several cities from around the world. I spent the better part of the trip exploring Chicago and Tokyo.

The airline also gives each passenger a small gift bag that includes a sleeping mask, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a comfy pair of green socks. Yes, socks. When is the last time Air Canada gave you a pair of socks? Hell, I defy anyone to show me when Air Canada ever cared about anyone's feet at all. God bless the Koreans.

And then there is the food:

I can' t say much about the food other then it was airline food. They do offer free beer and wine though. So if you are an alcoholic this is the airline for you. They also offer unlimited peanuts. You can rest assured that I got back the $2000 in free peanuts.

It was definitely surreal to arrive back in Canada. Everything seemed so strange. Although it's a little shameful to admit, I do believe that I suffered from a wee bout of culture shock upon my return. Between the abundance of white people and the lack of Kimchi I just didn't know what to do with myself.

The first place I went was to the fabulous Vancouver restaurant On Loks. That's right, after returning to Canada the first place I visited was a Chinese food restaurant. But you just can't get good Chinese food in Korea and Canada doesn't really have any food of it's own. I guess we could have drank some maple syrup and ate some beavertails but it just wouldn't be the same. Besides my father and his partner Dawn love the place, so it made perfect sense.

Although I was fairly busy helping to straighten out my grandmother's apartment and planning for the service, I did find the time to head to the Great Canadian Superstore to stock up. I guarantee you that I was the only person dancing in euphoria down the soup aisle. After months of having to take busses for hours to find cans of mushroom soup, having unlimited amounts of western products in front of me almost caused my poor little head to explode. $160 later and I was ready to leave the store (thanks again dad).



Here's a shot of the all the goodies I returned with. I'm not sure if Jo was happier to see me back in Ulsan or to see the 15 packages of macaroni, the 12 sidekicks, the 10 gravy packages, and the dozens of other fine retail products crammed into my suitcase.

In total I spent 4 days in Vancouver. I also managed to make it to Kelowna for one night to visit my sick step-grandfather Gene and to see the rest of my family. I wish that I could have had more time to see everyone but between visiting Cottonwoods and hugging my mom for the 100th time, my trip there was incredibly short.

I drove to Kelowna and back with my sisters and getting to drive in Sheri's new SUV was a pretty cool experience (I'm used to driving my Nissan which is held together by elastics and good luck). If only it had come equipped with an ejection seat it would have been perfect.

My grandmother's memorial was exactly what she would have wanted. I was happy that I was able to see all of her friends and to hear about how much she meant to them. My grandmother was a special lady and will definitely be missed from the South Vancouver seniors community.

Anyway, in all I spent five days in Canada, 27 hours flying, 15 hours in airports, and 7 hours in internet cafes. Good times.

Cheers

Shayne

P.S - I've spent the last five months drinking boiled water and was pretty excited to return to the land where water flows like, well, hmmm water. Damn Vancouver for ruining that for me. Imagine my surprise when my entire time in Canada was spent drinking bottled water.

P.P.S - Because of the wacky Brits they no longer allow liquids on airplanes. In fact, they took my hair gel at the Seattle airport. So imagine my surprise when I boarded the plane and was given metal cutlery (including a knife). The world's safe from stiff hair but not knife-wielding maniacs.

That's all folks...ha hyuk!