My flight out of Logan was at 4pm… plan was to gut out the flight to LA and sleep across the Pacific, with the hope of waking up on Chinatime Tuesday morning. Generated a custom packing list, left room in my bag for Shanghai scores - a short trip! - and dropped my car of in the economy lot. Flying from Boston to LA is easy, I can do those standing on my head. It freaks out the other passengers, but what the hell.

I’ve been through LAX a few times in the last bunch of years, but I guess it’s only been for connections. Actually arriving at and getting around the airport, though, you get a real sense of what a shithole it is. It’s like a bus station with a food court. Plus, there’s really no simple way of figuring out - if, say, you just got off a transcontinental flight and it’s late at night for you - how exactly to get to the international terminal from domestic. The idea that, as is actually the case, you need to leave the building completely and walk along the curb for a quarter mile or so, is manifestly non-obvious.

The crumbling Tom Bradley International Terminal was nothing short of depressing. I really felt like I’d be disappointed if this was my first view of the US. Really, Los Angeles World Airports? Linoleum floor is the best you can do? And the (no lie!) $18 sandwich wraps… please, guys.

The contrast couldn’t have been more stark when I stepped on the gleaming Asiana Airlines 777 that took me from there to Seoul. It felt like stepping through a time warp… everything on the plane was sleek and shiny, the flight attendants all dressed in some ’60s fantasy of 21st century stewardess kit. Even the john on the plane was tricked out, with free toothbrushes, toothpaste, lotion and aftershave like a hotel bathroom. There were two free meals on the flight(steak or bi bim bap for dinner, omelets or kimchi for breakfast), no bag charge, free wine service (OK, it was Crane Lake, but still) and bar service from real bottles, not nips. Just over a grand round-trip Boston-Shanghai, and Star Alliance code share, so I got the miles.

You definitely feel the difference between a growing economy and one in recession. Korea’s right next to that big mountain of Chinese cash, and Seoul airport is a clean, airy place with soaring high ceilings and sparking tile. Kind of how I remember American airports being when I was very young, or at least how they seem to be in memory. It even has a Dunkin’ Donuts in the international waiting area. I’d come all that way and what did I find but a chain from Quincy, serving green tea lattes. Thomas Friedman would pitch a tent in his pants if he saw it. I just wished they had TurboShots.

And finally, after a two-hour hop across the Yellow Sea: the People’s Republic of China brings you Pudong-Shanghai International Airport! Which, rather than being a grim, shabby, Maoist hellhole was actually a polished, efficient, totally modern facility. I felt like I’d come from the third fucking world.

Now, I just had to get through Customs.