&date=14 November 2004&
&place=Inchon Airport&
&textbody=The full itinerary beat out several earlier attempts by a travel agency, but it still took three transfers and five airports to get to Malaysia.
First, the ever-challenging Gainesville regional airport, where you never know if your plane will show up or not. Mine arrived on time, but some unspecified difficulty kept it from leaving at 10:30 a.m., when scheduled. So I missed my connection in Atlanta, but Delta booked me on a new flight that left about 2:30 p.m.
It takes about five hours to fly to L.A. Unfortunately, it takes two hours to get from LAX to Hollywood at rush hour on a Friday. I had the chance to stop in at the annual Online News Association conference, which also gave me the chance to sleep over before getting on the worst of the four flights.
The plane from LAX to Seoul was scheduled to leave at 12:10 a.m. It took off just a little late. Lots of Australians were waiting in the same area, but for another plane. Overhearing their conversations, I had to conclude that all of them had been making round-the-world tours.
I probably shouldn't call it the worst leg of the trip; the flight to Seoul went about as smoothly as possible. Being crammed into an economy seat on a plane with 300 people for 13 hours can never be fun, but it could easily have been more unpleasant. For one thing, I had an aisle seat. Another plus: I managed to sleep most of the time.
Then the long layover in Inchon. My first time in Korea, and all I saw was the airport. But that six-hour room rental really makes a difference! What a pleasure to have a hot shower and a long nap in a clean bed. Then a yummy bowl of beef rib soup at an airport self-service restaurant. Yeah, I wasn't tempted by the Burger King or the KFC.
Finally, the last plane. The Korean Air jet departed on time, and thanks to another aisle seat, I didn't have too bad a time.
I left home at 9 a.m. (GMT - 0500) on Nov. 12 and arrived at 10:30 p.m. (GMT + 0800) on Nov. 15. I spent 31 hours in Los Angeles. Everyone asks how long this trip takes. I don't really want to add it up.&
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