travel time

so this should go BEFORE the vlogs start, but, ya know, lack of internet access, etc.....its long. just a warning.

when i went to print out my plane ticket thursday afternoon, i got the unnerving surprise that my flight was not leaving friday afternoon at 1, it was leaving thursday night/friday morning at 1. perfection. this wouldnt have been bad, had i not been retarded beforehand and misread the ticket. but since i had, it meant that not only would i not get to spend the night out with friends on khaosan before they left for good, but also that i was incredibly rushed to get everything done before leaving.

i had dropped off my camera lens at mbk, a mall in siam, on saturday. they had told me it was fixable for a good price but that it wouldnt be ready for two weeks. fine. there was nothing i could do about it, and i was set to just not take my slr to korea, even though that was a bummer. well wednesday they called and told me the lens was ready. awesome! i headed in to the city right after tutoring in hopes that i could still get back home and get things like laundry and packing done. but my trek into the city did not lead to me returning with my lens, as they didnt tell me that it was necessary that i bring the receipt with me. i begged and pleaded and tried showing id telling them i was leaving the country but it was no luck. SO i had to rush to mbk after finishing packing on thursday afternoon. luckily, i made it there in time and the lens was fixed so now i can take lots of pretty pictures.

from mbk i went back to khaosan to meet up with people. almost everyone who is still in bangkok was there and we had dinner and a few drinks before i had to say goodbye to the kiwis, marissa, neil and worst of all beth, for good. that was a very hard thing to do, but i didnt have time to think about it because at 10 i was in a cab headed to the airport.

the line was long and it took a while to check in, but it was not chaotic or a hassle in any way. bangkok international airport is pretty big and by the time i got to my terminal, it was almost time for boarding to start. or rather, the time that boarding should have started. first, there were some people, me included, who were sent over to a separate area and asked to wait there to receive new boarding passes. after about 20 minutes, we got them, but there was still no boarding happening.

nearly an hour and a half later it finally started. i went to find my seat and the attendant looked at my ticket and told me to go straight then turn left. i did, but got really confused because i was entering business class, so i turned back around. what i didnt notice was when they gave me my new boarding pass, i moved from row 33 to row 14. this meant i WAS in business class. a free upgrade!!!

i took my window seat and was immediately greeted by another attendant who offered me a choice of a glass of water juice or champagne. seriously. then she brought cool towels and an additional pillow. too awesome. after we got into the air, they came around again and asked if we would like some 'light supper' and so i said yes. she gave me a tray with a bowl of salad and another of fruit and it was tasty. then they came around and offered fresh rolls. mmm. then, still, they came around again and offered our choice of fried rice with shrimp or fried noodles with pork, and i asked for the rice. but it was not like other meals where its in a plastic tray, this was a real heated dish that they gave us. when i finished being gluttonous, because i always have to take advantage of the food on flights, i kicked up my footrest and was able to stretch out for a rather decent nights sleep on the plane.

before i knew it i was being woken up because we were landing in beijing. it was around 6am their time (5am thai time) and needless to say, i was groggy. the first thing i noticed when stepping off of the plane and into the immigration area was that i was completely unorganized. they lines were not formed and most of the stations were not opened. luckily, i had gotten off the plane near the front and so i was near the front of all the lines. when i finished getting through, i knew i had about 7 hours to kill before my next flight, so i found an empty bench and spread out for a nap.

the bench was actually surprisingly comfortable for what it was, but i couldnt stay asleep because it was insanely cold in the entire airport. i knew it would be colder when i got to korea, so i had packed some jeans in my carryon, but even putty those on was no help, and my feet were constantly cold. after about 4 hours, i gave up and decided to grab a bite to eat. i tried a cafe but it was all food i didnt recognize, so i just went with sushi. bad idea. it was no good. and worst of all, they couldnt give me the passcode to log onto the internet. so i paid, with credit card because they wouldnt accept my baht and i was not getting money exchanged for 5 dollars, and went searching for the person who could give me internet connection. i got a slip of paper and then trekked back to the other side of the terminal where my gate was, but still coudnt figure out the code, becasue the page that came up kept giving me chinese even when clicking on the english button. i eventually gave up and took the tram to the plan. needless to say, beijing is not one of my favorite airports.

i didnt get bumped up again but it was only just over 2 hours so it wasnt a big deal. when i went to take my seat, i noticed there was a woman already in it, but she clearly knew it wasnt hers. instead of speaking to me, she got a flight attendant who motioned if it would be ok if i moved back a row. alright, fine with me. then she came over again and asked me to move from the aisle seat to the middle one. i wasnt too happy about that, but did it anyway. it turned out that no one say in the aisle seat and other guy in my row was going to korea to teach english so we had a good conversation and i was at incheon international airport before i knew it.

everything here went really quickly and i was waiting for my bag less than an hour after we landed. erik had given me detailed instructions about which bus to take and what to do in order to get to his place, so i knew exactly what to do and was greeted by him at the bus stop outside of his apartment at 730. :]