San Francisco International Airport, California

I have visited San Francisco, California twice, in April 2008 then in May 2009. In the former, I came from Atlanta, Georgia to attend the Atlas Liberty Forum; in the latter, I came from Los Angeles, also for an Atlas conference. My two trips here were just short side trips before flying back to Manila. I was hosted by several Filipino friends there.

These 4 photos are from wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_International_Airport

All photos below I took on May 02, 2009, on my flight back to Manila via Korean Air (SF-Incheon-Manila). I just took the train, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to the airport, it was easy, cheap and convenient. It's a huge glass-steel structure.

Upper left photo is the entrance to the airport from the train station. Below it, I liked those lighted protrusions at the airlines check in area. There seemed to be not too many passengers on that day at the airport.

Some of the shops and artwork at the airport. Bottom right is not an artwork, it's a passenger who probably came too early for his flight. The carpet is soft enough for the back.

I am thankful to friends who hosted me there. Monchit Arellano in San Ramon, and Cris Asinas-Cabrera in Rocklin-Sacramento.

Incheon-Seoul Airport, S. Korea

I've been to S. Korea 3x (1996, 2001, 2006) but last April 24, 2009, I only landed at Incheon-Seoul International Airport to change plane. I was going to Los Angeles, California, to attend the Atlas Liberty Forum, and I took Korean Air. My flight then was Manila-Incheon-Narita-LA, I didn't know that my plane would make a stop over at Narita-Tokyo airport. On my flight back after more than a week, it was San Francisco-Incheon-Manila.

As usual among industrialized Asian economies, the airport is huge, typical glass-steel structure. Here's the plan and the view from the plane.

Lots of nice and huge welcoming photos greet the arriving international passengers. I like staring at those huge monitors for flight departures and arrivals. They are in major lobbies of the airport.

Glass and steel, allowing natural light to pass through, saving electricity. Modern and silent walkalators abound.

Korean Air's crew are very young and courteous ladies. I think the oldest crew I saw was late 20s or early 30s. One more reason why fly Asian airlines -- the crew are a lot younger and more friendly, food is nice, unlike many US airlines where the stewards/crew are generally old and they can be less friendly sometimes.

* I also wrote this last June 12, 2007,

Seoul, S. Korea, October 2006

It was my 3rd trip to Seoul. The first was in 1996, when I attended the "Technology and Policy" 2-weeks seminar organized by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). I was working at the House of Representatives then. The 2nd was in 2001 I think, when I joined the University of the Philippines (UP) PDE study tour. This time, I attended the 2nd Asia-Pacific Taxpayers Union (APTU) meeting, hosted by the Korea Taxpayers Association (KTA).

One thing that struck me when I arrived in Seoul this time was the new airport -- it's so big, so modern. The runways are long, and the airport is far from the city, nearly 1 hour away by car.

Since this is my 3rd visit to the city, my impression of it remains more or less the same -- generally clean, crowded with many buildings, many many cars, and few public parks.

Traditional korean food never fails to amaze me. Lots of raw herbs and grass-like vegetables, spicy food, meat and seafoods, and of course, the always present kimchi! I like kimchi, even if my eyes sometimes would be teary because of its hot and spicy taste....