Day 14

We awoke to heavy rain. Cab ride to airport was nice.  Irkutsk International Airport is strange. First of all, it is much older, smaller and not as nice as their domestic airport. They scanned bags on entry.  We had to ask 3 times where departure was. There were no signs and they only way out of ticketing was through either Green (nothing to declare) or red (customs) doors. We didn’t think these applied to departing passengers, but they did. Our bags were scanned again upon entry to departure area. Then they were scanned yet again upon entry to waiting area.  We saw a small sign for “high comfort lounge”. Upon entry we asked if it was business class lounge. A woman at the buffet said no, but made a call.  An official woman appeared with a list and checked our boarding passes against the names on the list.  We passed so she gave us a coupon good for $5 worth of goods at the counter.  Bo got tea and they took her card. S7 airline planes are a fluorescent green. The flight was right on time but we had to climb stairs in the rain to get in — together with a crowd of very pushy people. The food on the plane was inedible. Seoul airport is big and nice. The Asiana flight was good. Airbus A350 (their newest) is really nice, and the seat configuration is excellent. We got out of LAX in no time. The worst part was the drive home  — over 1.5 hrs in Friday afternoon rush.