Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Monday, May 10, 2004

Welcome to Korea Patrick Boake 

That's the sign that Ken Shido and Patty Chung were holding up as I exited from the arrivals area at Incheon International Airport but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A month or so ago Ian Johnson, my editor from the Globe & Mail mentioned that he had referred me for something but didn't say what. Around the 26th of April, Robert Manne, a rep from Edleman, Samsung's PR company, called me and asked if I would go to Korea for a 5 day tour of their research facilities, some demo projects (a wired apaprtment building) and meet/interview some senior execs and researchers. I said yes immediately. Well, immediately after checking with girlfriend (fiance?) Keiko.

This is my first overseas trip ever so the next several days were taken up with planning and clearing off my desk, which needed doing anyway. I didn't bother with vaccinations. But I did buy a wireless network card and loaded up the Palm Pilot with some new freeware like a currency coverter, Expedition which is a travellers log and has a great inventory section so I know what's in my bags, Berlitz phrasebook, and Firepad. Fire pad is a document viewer and I used it to store scans of my ID and passport on my Palm in case something happens to the originals.

They join my other pieces of palmware like the compass and Rise Set, the sun/moon rise/set times calculator. Both of those work by plugging in the date latitude and longitude of wherever you are and calculating the sun's position.

Looking up the latitude and longitude is done (for Seoul in this example) by checking outMaporama.com a more complete mapping site than mappoint or mapquest which tend to be North American centric.

The Palm Pilot is ready but am I? I wondered if I needed vaccinations to go to Korea. I called my doctor's office and they just gave me the number for the travel clinic who just made an appointment. Innoculations aren't covered by government health care and can cost a couple of hundred dollars. Places like Health Canada's Information for Travellers - Travel Medicine Program web site: offers travel health recommendations and advisories. They recommend vaccinations for Asia but I talked to a friend about Korea and she said they weren't necessary. So I skipped the needles.

It's also wise to check Foreign Affairs Travel Assistance for information on things like upcoming elections (which can turn violent sometimes) and other problems one might encounter while travelling. Also a good source of information on other countries.

I'm excited now. It will be time to go soon.

Check out FreewarePalm for these and other great Palm tools.

I am going to do a blog entry for each phase of the trip so keep reading.