I have lived, worked, and traveled overseas extensively for the past 13 years.  One of the legacies of life on the road is an abundance of travel stories, both good and bad.  This is my worst. . . so far.

I had been in Atlanta for a 10 day window for meetings.  Directly from there, I had to fly to a conference in Thailand.

My day started out in Atlanta on a Monday with an 8am meeting.  The day continued with a few more meetings, packing, and eating with my family.  My parents took me to the airport for a 10:10pm flight out of Atlanta.  It had been a quick and intense time in Atlanta since I only had 10 days (it was just enough time to get over jet lag, but then it starts over again when you get back on a plane for Asia).  In addition, it is always an emotional good-bye for me since I rarely know when I will be back home with family and friends.  Getting on the plane, I was already exhausted.

I laid over in Dallas for around two hours and departed from there at 2am Atlanta time.  No big deal so far.

The next leg of my trip was 14+ hours straight to Seoul, South Korea.  With only a few hours of sleep, I arrived in Seoul at 6am on a Wednesday.  I had a 10 HOUR LAYOVER, departing for Bangkok, Thailand at 4pm.  This one was brutal.

Have you ever spent 10 hours in the Seoul Airport International Terminal?  I would not recommend it.   I was told that the airport was a solid two hours outside of the city, so I felt I needed to stay put.  The chairs were steel, with a thin layer of rubber.  The terminal a flood of humanity relentlessly scurrying around from one flight to the next.  No sleep, but I did shave and wash my hair in a public airport bathroom.  Judging [Read more…]