Flying To Korea Take Two

[WPOZZZ]

There's lots of shopping to do in Seoul. Buy some face masks as my gf said Korea gets a lot of pollution from China and dust from Mongolia. When it comes, it leaves a fine film on everything.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Pollution from China can definitely be bad. I experienced one moderate day, still wasn’t as bad as Mexico City. Korean BBQ is the absolute bomb, and Google Translate is an amazingly helpful app.

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Pollution from China can definitely be bad. I experienced one moderate day, still wasn’t as bad as Mexico City. Korean BBQ is the absolute bomb, and Google Translate is an amazingly helpful app.

Our tour guide actually mentioned this today about the dust from China. The air here is quite hazy because of it.

We arrived yesterday, Sunday, whenever that was, lol. 15 hours on a plane is not my idea of a good time, but whew, made it!!!
Here is my ride and a picture I took on the flight. Two things that made the flight bearable, Sony noise canceling headphones and a neck pillow.

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[HobieMarty]

On Monday, we went to the Hyundai R&D center. The campus totals 890 acres of property. We were not allowed to take pictures, of course, as we were looking at "top secret" stuff. There was a parking deck that stored many "competitors'" cars, and we were given 5 sets of keys to go check out certain cars. There were several Bentley and Rolls Royce models, a tiny plastic bodied Citroen, Ferrari SUV, and a few Porches, among many more makes and models. I had the keys to some Chinese EV. Nobody wanted the keys, but all came flocking to the car when they actually saw how interesting it was. I can't remember the name of it. One car that stood out to me was an Alfa 4c with the funky headlights. It was red and covered in dust from sitting. I sat in it and loved that thing. The door sill was very wide, and an older team member said he had a hard time getting in it. I sat down and swung my legs over the wide sill and slid right into the seat. Others took note, saying, "Wow, he got in with no problem." Lol. Getting out was the challenge. We also went out on a huge test track. The bus driver took us over some bumps that were like waves.
We also toured a huge Hyundai steel mill and, again, couldn't take pictures, but I mean, it was a steel mill. We saw a huge slab of molten iron on the conveyor system and watched it get shaped into a thinner longer slab. Interesting stuff lined up today. We will ride the KTX bullet train to several locations, and thank goodness the seats will be in the "prestige" class, so it should be a comfy ride.

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[HobieMarty]

Pics from the hotel.

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[HobieMarty]

Group pics from Monday's excursion.

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[stevej37]

Nice pics!
Is it cool there now?

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Nice pics!
Is it cool there now?

EST is 13 hours behind Seoul.

Moderate temps. 50 now. 68 is the high. Humidity is really high. I don't get that but I'm not there.

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/south-korea/seoul

[stevej37]

^^^ I always think of NK as being very cold this time of year...but SK is not that far away, so I'm not sure of how it compares to here.
If it's 50 there now...it's better than our 29 here....lol

[bleucamaro]

Gwangjang Market is super cool and a must for steet food.

Also, for shopping curiousity, there are some HUGE department stores, I think Hyundai has one, its like 7 stories tall. The food court in the basement is pretty awesome.

Have a Cass for me.

[HobieMarty]

It is 48 degrees at the moment, with windy conditions expected today. 6:24 am. Tuesday, March 25th.
Headed to the breakfast buffet and then be on the bus at 7:40am. Cheers y'all.

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[pwd72s]

Announced on Fox today that Hyundai will be building a steel mill here in the USA.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Announced on Fox today that Hyundai will be building a steel mill here in the USA.

Good on them. They seem to be a ready steady sort of company. Nice and stable, no crazy U-turns etc.

When I worked for Industrial Research Ltd we had a Hyundai company guy working with us. Sort of an employee swap for 12 months. He was a really nice guy and very smart.

I liked the way he pronounced Hyundai. It was like someone punched you in the guts and winded you. The first half of the word is like quickly expelled air LOL

[HobieMarty]

Yes, I realized today that Hyundai is pronounced differently from how I have always said it.
We took the KTX high-speed train, bullet train, to another city and toured a couple of more Hyundai related facilities. Now we are waiting at the station for the train home. I had never been on a train before so, wow, this train was super cool!!!

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[HobieMarty]

This is at the train station!!! I don't see a "Hot now" sign.

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[astrochex]

What a fantastic trip. Congrats on being selected for the training.

Thanks much for sharing the experience.

Even SoCal in the 60s and 70s did not approach that level of the pollution. Yuck.

[HobieMarty]

The train ride back was pretty quick. I had a GPS app to show how fast we were going. The top speed we did was 185. Wow!!!
We toured the actual factory where they build these things, really cool.

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[HobieMarty]

Hazy Setting Sun.

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[onewhippedpuppy]

I saw the trains whizzing across the countryside, those things are FAST!

[trials935]

Enjoying your thread, Which GPS app is that?