Thursday morning plan:
5:00am - Wake up and make coffee; go have a shower
I woke this morning a little lazily - suspiciously, without the screech of my alarm clock. I knew this couldn’t be a good thing, since I had set the alarm for 5am after going to bed at 1am - there was no way I just randomly woke myself up that early, was there? I paused for a second before opening my eyes to peek at the shuttered window… no light sneaking through yet, okay, that’s a good thing… it can’t be that bad (my sleepy optimism).
My eyes crept over to my bedside table where the tiny green travel alarm clock sat when I went to bed and I saw that it wasn’t there… that’s not a good thing, as that means I shut it off and fell back to sleep… I took a deep breath with my eyes closed before reaching into the covers to find the alarm clock where I had stuffed it at 5 when it went off, my hand closing around it as I stifled a giggle. Ohh boy, okay, well, better get my feet on the floor…
I stumbled on sleepy feet over to the bathroom and tried to figure out the time in the dim light from the street.
At first glance I was preeeeetty sure the clock said 9:20... The first thing I thought as my eyes widened and my eyebrows went for the sky was, ‘Ooooo, now if that’s the right time I won’t be making my 9:40 flight this morning, will I?’ Surprisingly there was no panic or gasping, what was I going to do about it if I had slept that late? Well, rebook my ticket I guess.
My second thought was “it’s a good thing I’m travelling by myself on this first leg, because I’m preeeeetty sure Jill would be losing her mind right now!”, which was of course followed by a giggle.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and turned on the light to realize that I’d been holding the clock the wrong way, and it was actually only 6:10... “Hey, that’s 3 ½ hours before my flight leaves, I can handle that, no problem!” Sure, I hadn’t showered or had coffee or anything to eat, I still had to toss a few things into my bags and walk to the bus, sure I’d meant to be halfway to the airport by now, but no big deal - there's even time for a shower, yay!!
So I had a nice hot shower to wake up, and dragged my butt in the shower a little, seemingly no room in me for a rush this early in the morning, lol. I finally had enough steam (I’m getting a bit of a cold) so I got out, got dressed, and flicked the kettle on so I could have a cup of coffee. I surveyed the mess of my room and tossed the rest of my things into my bag. It wasn’t so bad. I hadn’t looked at the clock again but I knew I hadn’t been that long in the shower. I tied up my hair, put on a bit of makeup so I didn't look like I'd only had 4 1/2 hours of sleep, and collected the last couple things from the bathroom and the bedside table. I slipped into my shoes and my sweater (it’s been so nice lately I haven’t needed my winter coat!) and hauled my bags up onto my shoulders and my hand was on the door handle when I had a thought:
“Waaaaaait a minute dumdum… you always leave things behind… stop and look for whatever it is you’re forgetting before you head out that door.”
I took a slow sweep of the room and let out one of those girly “eek!” noises - my netbook was still sitting on the bedside table where I’d set it when I went to bed. Giggles escaped as I shook my head (I could hear my mom’s voice in there somewhere) and set my big bag down and went to pick up my computer… ohhhh, that wouldda made me mad if I’d have forgotten it!!
Passports? Camera? E-reader? Computer? Everything seemed present and accounted for, so coffee in hand in my most recently acquired short Starbucks mug (I have a problem, I know) I set out to the bus.
I got to the bus stop at 6:26. No big deal… it’s between an hour and 90 minutes to get to the airport, that puts me there by 8, 8:15 at the latest unless the bus doesn’t come soon, that’s plenty of time. Perhaps I’d have been more worried about it if I hadn’t been on my way to the Incheon Airport, but you ain’t seen NOTHING in airport efficiency if you ain’t seen that place - it’s my favourite airport in the world!
6:30, no bus… 6:40 no bus… 6:45 no bus… I’m pretty sure it usually comes every 10 minutes, I wonder… oh boy… 6:50 no bus… I was sitting in the bus shelter (hiding from the wind really, it was chilly this morning!) and then when it hit 6:55 and there was still no bus I was all giggles again (by the way, it‘s a good way to freak everybody out to just start giggling to yourself for what seems like no good reason).
In all the times that I’ve waited at this stop for this bus it’s never been more than 15 minutes - of course it would be today that something was up. “Oh well,” I thought, still smiling and leaning back against the shelter to enjoy the last of my hot coffee; “there’s nothing I can do but wait for the bus… there’s still plenty of time, the flight doesn‘t leave for nearly 3 hours.”
At 6:59 the bus pulled into the stop and I climbed aboard. The roads were pretty clear and I figured we would have clear sailing all the way there. One thing I love about Korean bus and taxi drivers is that they literally own the road, and they drive like they know it. Well, today’s driver decided to show me the kinder, gentler side of the transportation system - rather than roaring down the highways at 120km/hr like every other time I’d gone to the airport, this driver kept the speedometer hovering around 85, he was letting other cars in front of him, he stayed out of the express bus lane, he waved at people as he was passing... I did nothing but close my eyes for a brief second and remind myself that that universe indeed has a good sense of humour, and I got out my e-book to resume the book that’s been keeping me occupied of late.
I occasionally looked out the window and reminded myself that this was me leaving Korea, and somehow it didn’t make me cry this morning. I’m excited about my trip, I had time to say goodbye, it’s not quite real really, so I was doing okay!!
Despite his snail’s pace, we pulled into the airport at 8:03am, and I hustled my butt in to the kiosks to find my check-in counter. The immigration officer last week said “check in for your flight and then go to immigration to deal with your visa problem.” Easy peasy! I made my way to my gate and practically hopped/skipped the last few steps because there was no line - Ha, no worries! An hour and 40 and no line - woohoo!
When I went to check-in the attendant told me (after taking 5 minutes to look me up in the computer, deal with my bag and all that) that I would need to go to immigration FIRST, before checking in for my flight, because my visa had expired. No argument here, ‘do what the nice man says so you can catch your plane’ was my only thought as I sped to the other end of the airport to find immigration.
4 people in front of me, 90 minutes ‘til my flight and I’d just had a bit of cardio to get my heart going. "Pleeeeeeease don’t charge me for being a dumbass and not renewing my visa for the last 2 weeks, please, please, please, please…" is all I kept thinking. After about 5 minutes my number popped up and the little customs girl (seriously, she looked like a little girl in mommy’s custom’s uniform) typed my details into the computer. I apologized for not taking care to extend my visa before it ran out and she said “Yes, even one day past is a problem.” I said sorrysorrysorry (reminds me of a K-pop song) and she smiled at me and said ‘it’s no problem, really’ and made me sign some paper in Korean (probably saying they’d whip me if I ever did it again) and sent me on my way - NO FINE!!!! Man I was a happy camper, happy happy happy!
I ripped back to the check-in counter with my shiny new stamp excusing me from my visa woes (stopping at the pharmacy on the way to buy a box of vitamin C - I had time, right?!) and then had to wait 10 minutes for them to confirm with immigration that I hadn’t drawn the stamp in my passport myself.
Once they were satisfied they sent me through to security with big smiles (which I met with one of my own!), and I got through with not trouble - I even had time to stop at duty free (finally found my Korean totems!) and the internet café before I had to board. No stress, no problems!
I zipped up to the gate about 10 minutes after boarding had started (I listened for the final boarding call but hadn’t heard a peep!) to find no line and scooted my butt onto the plane. Sooo many empty seats, and it was another 20 minutes before the rest of the passengers actually boarded: see? I had heaps of time! I spent the flight next to 2 businessmen (one of whom was the loudest person I’d ever sat next to in a closed space) and put in my earphones (drowning out the drama) and sat back to enjoy my book.
Noooooo problems!
5:00am - Wake up and make coffee; go have a shower
5:15am - Get dressed and toss the remaining things into my bags
5:30am - Leave the hotel and head over to catch the bus to the airport
7:00am - Arrive at airport check in for my flight
7:30am - Visit the Incheon Immigration office… my visa expired 2 weeks ago and I had to check on the possibility of whether I was going to be fined the $1,000 as they were within their rights to do, or whether they would just let me leave quietly if I was nice to them this early in the morning
8:30am - Get through security and all that and wait at the gate
9:40am - Flight leaves Incheon for a super long layover in China
9:00pm - Depart China for Dhaka
11:00pm - Arrive in Dhaka
11:00pm - Arrive in Dhaka
Midnight - be at Kassandra's place
I woke this morning a little lazily - suspiciously, without the screech of my alarm clock. I knew this couldn’t be a good thing, since I had set the alarm for 5am after going to bed at 1am - there was no way I just randomly woke myself up that early, was there? I paused for a second before opening my eyes to peek at the shuttered window… no light sneaking through yet, okay, that’s a good thing… it can’t be that bad (my sleepy optimism). My eyes crept over to my bedside table where the tiny green travel alarm clock sat when I went to bed and I saw that it wasn’t there… that’s not a good thing, as that means I shut it off and fell back to sleep… I took a deep breath with my eyes closed before reaching into the covers to find the alarm clock where I had stuffed it at 5 when it went off, my hand closing around it as I stifled a giggle. Ohh boy, okay, well, better get my feet on the floor…
I stumbled on sleepy feet over to the bathroom and tried to figure out the time in the dim light from the street.
At first glance I was preeeeetty sure the clock said 9:20... The first thing I thought as my eyes widened and my eyebrows went for the sky was, ‘Ooooo, now if that’s the right time I won’t be making my 9:40 flight this morning, will I?’ Surprisingly there was no panic or gasping, what was I going to do about it if I had slept that late? Well, rebook my ticket I guess.
My second thought was “it’s a good thing I’m travelling by myself on this first leg, because I’m preeeeetty sure Jill would be losing her mind right now!”, which was of course followed by a giggle.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and turned on the light to realize that I’d been holding the clock the wrong way, and it was actually only 6:10... “Hey, that’s 3 ½ hours before my flight leaves, I can handle that, no problem!” Sure, I hadn’t showered or had coffee or anything to eat, I still had to toss a few things into my bags and walk to the bus, sure I’d meant to be halfway to the airport by now, but no big deal - there's even time for a shower, yay!!
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| Daypack lovin' from my kids |
“Waaaaaait a minute dumdum… you always leave things behind… stop and look for whatever it is you’re forgetting before you head out that door.”
 |
| Before I got it all in 2 bags! |
Passports? Camera? E-reader? Computer? Everything seemed present and accounted for, so coffee in hand in my most recently acquired short Starbucks mug (I have a problem, I know) I set out to the bus.
I got to the bus stop at 6:26. No big deal… it’s between an hour and 90 minutes to get to the airport, that puts me there by 8, 8:15 at the latest unless the bus doesn’t come soon, that’s plenty of time. Perhaps I’d have been more worried about it if I hadn’t been on my way to the Incheon Airport, but you ain’t seen NOTHING in airport efficiency if you ain’t seen that place - it’s my favourite airport in the world!
6:30, no bus… 6:40 no bus… 6:45 no bus… I’m pretty sure it usually comes every 10 minutes, I wonder… oh boy… 6:50 no bus… I was sitting in the bus shelter (hiding from the wind really, it was chilly this morning!) and then when it hit 6:55 and there was still no bus I was all giggles again (by the way, it‘s a good way to freak everybody out to just start giggling to yourself for what seems like no good reason).
In all the times that I’ve waited at this stop for this bus it’s never been more than 15 minutes - of course it would be today that something was up. “Oh well,” I thought, still smiling and leaning back against the shelter to enjoy the last of my hot coffee; “there’s nothing I can do but wait for the bus… there’s still plenty of time, the flight doesn‘t leave for nearly 3 hours.”
At 6:59 the bus pulled into the stop and I climbed aboard. The roads were pretty clear and I figured we would have clear sailing all the way there. One thing I love about Korean bus and taxi drivers is that they literally own the road, and they drive like they know it. Well, today’s driver decided to show me the kinder, gentler side of the transportation system - rather than roaring down the highways at 120km/hr like every other time I’d gone to the airport, this driver kept the speedometer hovering around 85, he was letting other cars in front of him, he stayed out of the express bus lane, he waved at people as he was passing... I did nothing but close my eyes for a brief second and remind myself that that universe indeed has a good sense of humour, and I got out my e-book to resume the book that’s been keeping me occupied of late.
I occasionally looked out the window and reminded myself that this was me leaving Korea, and somehow it didn’t make me cry this morning. I’m excited about my trip, I had time to say goodbye, it’s not quite real really, so I was doing okay!!
 |
| No line! No line! No line! |
When I went to check-in the attendant told me (after taking 5 minutes to look me up in the computer, deal with my bag and all that) that I would need to go to immigration FIRST, before checking in for my flight, because my visa had expired. No argument here, ‘do what the nice man says so you can catch your plane’ was my only thought as I sped to the other end of the airport to find immigration.
 |
| Card now gone! |
Noooooo problems!
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