South Korea

Luxembourg-Séoul

Heading to Seoul, South Korea, I first take the small jet, an Embraer 145, to Paris. In the bus from the terminal to the plane, I think I must stand out a bit because everyone else is dressed in a suit and tie. It's mostly businessmen on this flight and I don't have anything against businessmen of course but they do tend to dress similarly; dark blue or black. The tie is the only thing that might distinguish one from the other. As I stand in my reporter's vest (an old one with torn pockets, but it is hard to find a good vest, so you keep the one you have as long as it holds up!), and khaki pants with big pockets, I am happy that they all do their work. It's good that everyone wants to do different things and I certainly wouldn't want to do their job. Someone has to make the factories, banks and companies work. And someone has to fly around the world taking pictures. So, I'm happy while standing out in the bus.

The choice of meals in most planes is chicken, beef or pasta. On Korean Airlines, the stewardess asked if I wanted beef or rice. My first thought is that these two usually come together. But I thought I would take the riskier route and ask for rice. I was served Bibimbap. It was great! You have to mix it up yourself. Apparently, "bap" is rice and "bibim" means mix or stir up. So that's what you do. You empty out the bowl of rice into a bowl of spinach, peanuts and other vegetables, pour in a tube of gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) and a packet of sesame oil. Mix it all up and mmmmm!! It is a cold meal, but good. Especially interesting to mix during turbulence!

Incheon Airport is very modern, very clean. It is well marked so you can't get lost. The passport control and customs people are friendly and make things very easy. As a cameraman, customs can be a headache. For some reason, cameramen with even the lightest gear fall into the film category and have to temporarily import and export the camera and gear. This is called a carnet ATA. It usually isn't too complicated, but if the customs agent doesn't have much experience or the computers aren't working you can spend a long time in customs. Now I work with a smaller camera which falls more into the tourist category, so I avoid all that paperwork.