Arriving in Busan, South Korea

Marty and I arrived in our hotel room in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea, 26 hours after having left our house in Durham. We were in remarkably good shape as flying west is much easier than flying east in terms of jetlag. Our flight was unremarkable except for the snack that was provided on the leg from Tokyo to Busan, which included a cleverly wrapped piece of sushi. In fact, it was so cleverly wrapped that the Korean gentleman next to Marty had to explain to him how to unwrap it in such as way as to roll the separately-cellophaned seaweed around the rice ball. The complex cellophane puzzle was a remarkable demonstration of Japanese engineering. Toyota would have been proud, and we were happy to transition to Asian cuisine.

Upon arrival at our very western, upscale hotel, that Marty's travel agent must have felt would ease our transition to Asia, we were assigned room 3007. The bellhop in his rather limited, but enthusiastic English, pointed out that the 007 of our room number must indicate that Marty was "Bond" and I was "Bond Girl." Perhaps it is only in the Far East that Marty or I could be in any way associated with James Bond. One couldn't help but be charmed, despite our obvious inadequacies for the roles.

Here is the view we enjoyed from our hotel window: