For the flight from Incheon to Sydney, Korean Air had offered us an upgrade to “first class” for a moderate fee, so moderate that we didn’t think twice before saying heck yes we’ll give it a go. So we figured this might be a nice way to round out the whole holiday. When we say “first class” it’s not super fancy like Emirates or whatever. This plane seems a fair bit older than the one we took from Vancouver. But still – once we boarded through the seperate door for First / Business passengers no less, would you look at the space, that’s crazy!

Definitely can’t complain about that! Legroom check: More than ok!

I don’t know why they bothered making the screen a touchscreen because nobody will ever be able to reach it – there’s a little old-school remote-on-a-string to operate it. We were in the middle seats, so no window, but no dramas! And if I had no idea who my seat-neighbour was, there’s a big-arse privacy screen the covers the whole length of the seat/suite – didn’t need that though. Anyway, all quite impressive and must really have been pretty super-duper in its hey-day.

We were a little late taking off due to lots of pother planes trying to do that at the same time, but no biggie. The plane did give a mighty groan and a good deal of shuddering as the engines revved right up and we left the ground … but nothing seemed to explode and from then on in the engines were perfectly smooth and happy. The air around us however had other idea – for the first maybe two hours things were jittery. The plane, not the passengers. There was just an almost-constant turbulence – not enough to be concerning, but enough that they had to delay dinner by about an hour, and rush back to sit down a few times. So does my dinner come with? A bowl of steaming hot soup of course! So it was a bit of a race to see how quickly I could get the water level down before one jolt sent soup everywhere. Things were calm enough ended up being no soupnami to worry about. It was a nice soup, a little spicy, but not a fish soup like the first leg of the trip home, so very happy about that.

Dinner was served in three courses, which is jolly fancy. I guess this still counts as a course even if it’s a prawn on some toast?

This was very quickly followed by some beautifully vaguely-cooked tuna, and a salad served in a way I’d never seen before. A collection of different leaves, stacked together in a plastic wrapping, with a carrot and a green chilli added in as well. I’m not trying to be funny about the tuna, it was delicious and the onion & radish were perfect accompaniments.

I didn’t take a photo of the bibimbap itself but it was presented very differently to last time – most of the mixing had already been done, only the rice and the mushrooms were served separately, everything else was pre-mixed. I think it was tastier than the last one, maybe the flavours had more time to settle since most ingredients had been mixed together for a while.

I unwrapped my salad lead stack – some of the leaves were nice, some of those leaves were more ‘whoa…what is that?’ – but the very zesty lemon vinaigrette managed to overpower the worst of it.

Once the bibimbap was done, they came back again this time with a little plate of fruit and a little place of cheese and bickies. And after that, they came back again this time with a little tub of ice cream. So really, can’t fault the service, or the quantities, it was a pretty substantial meal.

Just like the first leg from Vancouver to Incheon, all the cabin crew were really warm and friendly, excellent service, with again the vague hint of disorganisation, maybe they’re bedding in a new process and everyone doesn’t fully have the hang of it yet. There was nothing wrong as such, just really tiny things, like everyone gets a lovely hot towel… on every other airlines that’s offered that, it is picked up about a minute later, but here they go putting tablecloths on the you table and other bits and pieces so you end up holding on to a towel for a while thinking what do I do with it, before it finally gets connected.

So just to reiterate it’s only really little things, and I’m being so nit-picky because I don’t have much else to write about, and maybe also because this will be the last time I’m writing about a flight for a while so I’m just going a bit overboard and stringing it out a bit. Ultimately, noting that you’ve had to hold on to a refreshing warm towel for few seconds too long really is the epitome of a first world problem, and a sign that one’s privilege is showing.

After all the lovely food and plates and tablecloths were cleaned away, it was time to get some sleep – and this time on a bed that is full width end-to-end, unlike the other beds which taper quite a bit down at the foot end. After the ‘please turn into a bed’ button was hit, the seat did its usual gyrations and did indeed turn itself into a lovely big wide bed. As a bonus the supplied pillow was pretty awesome this time too. The low-level turbulence kinda helped rock everyone to sleep I think, though there were again a few instances where it came a. bit more severe and there were announcements stating everyone must stay and their seats and not get up for any reason. No way I was going to do that, I was too busy being all comfy in a good sized bed. Really really impressed with it. I don’t know why they supplied a blanket as the cabin was quite warm (maybe a bit too much so) – but I ended up sleeping really well, luckily waking up about 10 minutes before breakfast was served (i.e. 10 minutes before everyone wants to go to the loo at the same time), so was nice to miss rush hour!

With the ‘now turn back into a seat again’ button pressed, it was soon time for brekky. Scrambled egg and bacon and potato and broccoli and tomato, with a choice of breads/pastries, marmalade or jam, and a choice of plain or strawberry yoghourt. Pretty awesome really! The scrambled egg was pretty solid but you know that’s gonna happen when it’s been cooked ages ago and reheated, so all good, it was still really tasty, and by the time you finish all that, and the croissant with jam, and the yoghourt … no way are you going to go hungry!

After that, it wasn’t too long til we came in for a very gentle landing, and hello again, Sydney! Thanks to a good amount of sleep it really felt like a much shorter flight than 10 hours, a pretty cool experience.

I managed to get a quick pic of the plane just after we walked off it.

I think an A380 had come in at around the same time so there was a bit of queue for the passport gates but it did move nice and quick. We picked up our customary duty free bottles of booze, and went on our way. It didn’t take too long get the baggage and get through the border security and so forth – next minutes, we were outside, and seeing very strange things like cars driving on the correct side of the road! One of my nieces had very kindly volunteered to give us a lift home, so that was really nice.

We were soon back home, and time to meet someone who, despite their face perhaps saying otherwise, was really happy to see us:

She hasn’t left our sides all day – so I guess she’s not too disappointed we’re back.

So, that’s that, five pretty amazing weeks all done, now just bunch of wonderful memories and average-to-mid blog posts 😀

Starting with Honolulu was a good pre-holiday holiday, and a nice way to break up a very long flight with a few chill days.

Boston’s a lovely city full of history, just pick the right hotel that won’t try to charge you hundreds for early-leaving fees when you left bang on time.

New York is … well it’s New York. Pretty much unaffected by the current bonkers political climate over there, it was epic to be able to see so many shows during our time there, and soak up some of that ‘city that never sleeps’ vibe.

Montreal was quite pretty, the language barrier was basically non-existent just start every conversation with Bonjour and you’re good to go.

Ottawa was a bit of a mixed bag, definite Canberra vibes, plus a fair amount of homeless people not having a great time, but not causing us any bother. It’s civic building are lovely, and we were so lucky to have booked our time there when it coincided with the Aus election … but I don’t know it’s a place that I feel a need to rush back to.

Toronto – always an energetic happening place, was nice to come back and see a little more of the city and surrounds.

Vancouver – glad we had a chance to get a proper look at this place unlike last time in 2018. It’s so very green for a big city, with a lovely bay we were fortunate enough to look over (and take too many sunset photographs).

Incheon – there for a good time not a long time, but having the transit hotel available made such a difference for a very long time stopover.

Now – time to get back to work and save up to hopefully get away for another trip in two years. Thanks for following along on our little journey, see you for the next one!