{"id":1221,"date":"2011-05-07T13:00:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T18:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54leacock.ca\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2011-05-07T14:08:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T19:08:18","slug":"kal-lounge-at-incheon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/?p=1221","title":{"rendered":"KAL lounge at Incheon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/54leacock\/5696442213\/in\/set-72157626526389253\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"incheon\" src=\"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_2708-e1304793559867.jpg\" width=\"500\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Korean Air lounge at Incheon International Airport &#8212; holy smokes. This is one of the most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/54leacock\/5696442711\/in\/photostream\">beautiful, tranquil, calming spaces<\/a> you could encounter anywhere, much less in one of the busiest and largest airports in the world.  A few hours in this lounge and you leave feeling as if you&#8217;ve had your chakras realigned.  Which you kind of need after the 80 km trek from Seoul city centre, a journey that includes a crossing of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yeongjong_Bridge\">world&#8217;s longest self-anchored suspension bridge<\/a>. The extra-wide &#8220;foam&#8221; armchairs, large windows onto the tarmac, and swanky washroom (and shower) facilities made for an especially pleasant experience.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here was the &#8220;menu&#8221; for Friday, 6 May 2011: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>pastries: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/54leacock\/5696443303\/in\/set-72157626526389253\">green tea muffins<\/a>, chocolate chip muffins, cheese Danishes<\/li>\n<li>assorted breads with butter and jam<\/li>\n<li>watermelon, kiwis, cherry tomatoes<\/li>\n<li>Emmental and crackers<\/li>\n<li>salads: corn and vegetable, mixed salad greens, roasted potato and mushroom<\/li>\n<li>maki rolls and sushi fixings<\/li>\n<li>sandwiches: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/54leacock\/5697019388\/in\/set-72157626526389253\/\">Ni\u00e7oise<\/a> with seared tuna on brioche, mozzarella and tomato panini, fried shrimp with Tavasco mayonnaise on walnut bread<\/li>\n<li>Korean rice porridge (like <em>jook<\/em>) with mushrooms<\/li>\n<li>hot dishes: pork rib and green bean stew, hash browns, chicken cacciatore<\/li>\n<li>desserts: pineapple upside-down cake, brownies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While Korean Air is South Korea&#8217;s national carrier and largest airline, Asiana Airlines (formerly Seoul Airlines) is widely considered the world&#8217;s best airline, and is on Skytrax&#8217;s list of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airlinequality.com\/StarRanking\/5star.htm\">5-star airlines<\/a> (in order: Asiana Airlines, Quatar Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hainan Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines). One can only imagine what Asiana&#8217;s lounge is like. (Korean Air is considered a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airlinequality.com\/StarRanking\/4star.htm\">4-star airline<\/a>. There are 31 of these worldwide, of which only one is North American, probably because most North American airlines have such crappy domestic service. Skytrax also has an elusive 6-star category, which apparently no airline has managed to achieve.)<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, Incheon has been rated the best airport in the world since 2005, and is one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airlinequality.com\/\">Skytrax&#8217;s<\/a> three 5-star airports (the others being Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi).  Among its fans is Patrick Smith, who described it as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/technology\/ask_the_pilot\/2008\/09\/26\/askthepilot292\/\">&#8220;maybe the most efficient, functional and overall flier-friendly airport&#8221;<\/a> he has ever been to, as well as being immaculately clean. About that last point, we noticed a small puddle of spilled coffee as we entered a compartment of the train that runs between terminals. When we pulled into the next terminal stop a few minutes later, there was cleaning staff waiting on the platform at <em>exactly<\/em> the spot where the compartment door opened to swoop in and deal with the mess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Korean Air lounge at Incheon International Airport &#8212; holy smokes. This is one of the most beautiful, tranquil, calming spaces you could encounter anywhere, much less in one of the busiest and largest airports in the world. A few &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/?p=1221\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1242,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/54leacock.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}