Asia and Australia 2025
Day 1: Friday 06 June 2025
Zurich – Bangkok – Seoul, S. Korea
This is our planned route: starting in Seoul, Korea, we take a high-speed train to Busan, where we take an overnight ferry to Fukuoka, Japan, then trains through to Tokyo. After these three weeks, we will fly to Manila, Philippines for a few days, before going on to Melbourne, Australia.
View from the plane on the approach to Bangkok Airport.
From Bangkok we flew over Cambodia and North Vietnam. We saw a long, thin beach along the coast before a cloud-pocked South China Sea to Taiwan. From the port window seat we could scan the horizon in a vain attempt to spot Chinese ships or planes, which frequently ´buzz´ the defences of Taiwan in provocation. From an altitude of 10-11,000 m we could still see ships and details of the port towns.
Glimpse of the Vietnamese coast heading towards Taiwan.
View over Taiwan.
Then we are over the south-west edge of Korea, a ragged coastline of inlets and immediately mountains. We land at Incheon, where the Macarthur amphibious landing took place on 15 September 1950, known as the Battle of Inchon (Operation Chromite), to turn the tide of the Korean War against the Chinese/North Koreans, leading to the stand-off the peninsular suffers today.
Travel Diary
Travel Diary
We leave Lugano on the 8:30 a.m. train to Zurich, changing only in Zurich. Beautiful clear skies north of the Alps. We check our only suitcase, and board the Swissair flights, which leaves 40 minutes late. It arrives on time, though, in Bangkok where we have 2.5 hours to changeover. The suitcase was sent through for us.The flight route took us over the Black Sea, carefully swerving further south than the marked route over the Crimea. We had a good view of villages and towns lit up over India.
ohayö gozaimasu
sayönara
oyasumi nasai
konbanwa