October 23rd, 2023

Day 5

Today is the day that I return to China. Since I was still going through jet lag, I woke up at 3 AM in the morning. It’s not like I can’t fall asleep again, I can, but knowing that I have to leave the hotel by 5:30 AM, I just soldiered on and took a shower.

After the shower, I packed up all the chargers into my bag, pushed all the luggages in and out of the elevator, and dropped my room key at the check-out box, since no one is at the counter until 7 AM. I called a cab and one showed up immediately, I guess since no one orders one at 5 AM in the morning. I did try to call for the “venti”, which is the big minivan type cab that has plenty of room for all my stuff; but none were available, as I had to reserve in advance. That left me no choice but to just call for a general request, which only has small cars.

The driver speaks 0 English, except “hello” and “thank you”, which was to be expected. He saw all the luggages I had and repeated something in Korean that I did not understand. However, I do think what he said was close to something like “it can’t fit”. His car is a cross-over, meaning that the car is just a small SUV with a hatchback. We fitted both normal checked baggages into the trunk, my backpack, the golf bag, and the carry-on baggage on the rear seat. I sat in the front seat. I was so relieved that everything fit. Can you imagine that it doesn’t fit and I have to be stranded on the side of the road at 5 AM in the morning while my plane leaves?

It took just 55 minutes for the cab to arrive at the airport. Normally Korean cab drivers are extremely violent and exceeds the speed limit whenever possible; but this one was very mellow. I would actually hope him to step on it though, but I didn’t want to translate that through google translate.

We got to the airport by 6 AM, which I thought was too early, since I planned for the arrival time of 7 AM. I got into the airport, went to the kiosk to put in my information, got 2 tags along with my boarding pass, and went up to line up for dropping the bags. It took 40 minutes for me to reach the counter. It was that slow. The staff took my 2 normal checked lugagges and told me to send the golf bag to the excess size area, like LAX. I dropped the golf bag off, and went looking for the customs area.

The first customs area I got to was crazy. It had so many people lining up, I waited 10 minutes while the line barely moved. I saw that the TV on top of the customs area said that there are more custom areas just straight ahead, so I grabbed my stuff and went to the other ones. The next one, which is 15 meters from the last one, was full of people too, so I kept walking till the next one. The next one was full of people too, just not as much. Even though I could keep walking, but I didn’t really want to, so I just stayed there. After 30 minutes, I went through to the security check. You remember the Pepto Bismol that I drank a couple of days ago, right? Yeah, I forgot that you can’t carry liquids in carry-on baggages, and the agent threw that one out for me. Other than that, the customs check was quick, and I got into the general waiting area by 7:30.

My plane leaves by 8:30, so that leaves me 1 hour of walking around time. I really did not expect there to be so many people lining up for everything, so I am glad that I arrived so much earlier than I planned it to be. Since I have cigars that the customs people took away, I had to go to the counter per the instructions I got and paid 14,000 won to get my stuff back. So stupid.

After that, I went for food. In July, when I had to fly back to the U.S., I had Korean soup with beef, so this time I wanted to try something different. I had the Bibimbap this time.

Look at the size of the bowl, and look at the size of that portion. Come on. Also it did not have enough Korean hot sauce in my opinion. I understand that this is an international airport with a lot of foreigners, who might not be okay with such spiciness; but still, you expect more because this is a Korean airport, you know.

I also know how to make Bibimbap, so I wasn’t too impressed. Overpriced airport food, what more can you expect.

Last time in Incheon Airport I also had the Korean Fried Chicken. I wasn’t completely full from the tiny portion of the Bibimbap, so I planned to have some fried chicken as well. I went for the soy sauce one. It’s cold though. Ugh.

Since I know the General Manager of our company in China really likes Korean food, I decided to give this box of air-lifted authentic Korean fried chicken to her. It might not be the most authentic Korean fried chicken in South Korea, but it definitely is more authentic compared to all the Korean fried chicken shops in China. After all, this one is from Korea.

After I got on the plane, I went unconscious for a while for waking up so early in the morning, and I had some Bulgogi rice that was part of the inflight meal. It was not as good as the one I had with Soo A, but it’s airplane food, what more do you want.

When the plane landed in China, no one was allowed to stand up just yet. I didn’t really understand why, because there’s no Covid related quarantine anymore. After about 5 minutes, we got off the plane, I raced towards the exit, filled out the card for foreigners, got my luggages extremely early, and went out to my parents who were waiting for me. That wrapped up my 5 day stay in South Korea.

So now, this is conclusion time.

My trip to Korea is never about site-seeing. I am a history guy, and there’s not much history left in the metropolitan city that is Seoul. I am not the biggest fan of K-pop or K-drama either. To be completely honest here, I despise K-pop and K-drama. Growing up, girls always liked Korean boybands that looked all too effeminate to me. Like, they garner likes by doing stuff that girls would do. I don’t have that big of a problem against Korean girlbands, though, as I hardly watched them.

So no, I did not come to Korea for the culture. I came to Korea for the people. Growing up in Dalian, since Dalian is so close to Korea, I’ve got the change to meet many Korean friends. Soo A is one of the first Koreans that I have met in my life when we knew each other during the second semester of 6th grade. Since then, I’ve met a lot more of Korean people, including Martin, my friend from high school, who I’ve got to see last year.

I mean sure, the Bongeunsa Temple, the Cheongwadae, and the National Assembly are definitely worth a visit, but that’s not why I came to Korea. Seeing Kihyun, Uncle John, and Soo A is the entire reason I got to Korea. I specifically have to thank Uncle John who took a day out of his busy schedule to meet with me, Soo A who showed me around and who I’ve got to reminisce with, and especially Kihyun, who went through all the trouble of picking me up from the airport. No one other than my family has done that for me.

So yes, these are the people I consider as my family. I know I am a naïve fool that takes someone’s little gesture of kindness and amplifies it to the next level; but I feel like that’s what makes my life, a life worth living. Yes, I consider that friends will become family through time, and yes, I know how incredible naïve it is to believe that in the first place; but that’s me! I am a cynical person, but I am also someone who always looks to the positive of the people I love whenever possible.

I hope I get to see these people, the people that I cherish, the next time I am in South Korea!