Day 1; Arrival

After an 8, 5 hour flight, I was obviously in dying need of some fresh air and a cigarette (errrm...). But here's the thing with huge airports like Incheon: it's virtually impossible to get outside. I actually had to take a subway line from the terminal to get to the bagage claim, where, of course, your bag always seems to be the last one to come rolling down the conveyor belt. Clearing customs and immigration was easy though - it seems they only hire beautiful women at the airport, apart from the tough-ass looking security - so after that, I finally stepped into the arrivals hall. With no one waiting for me there (as noted before..) cab drivers didn't have a hard time recognizing me as a tourist, and they swarmed in on me like bees on the first blooming flower in spring.

After a fun but rather annyoing conversation with the first one ("How long did you travel for?" "Fifteen hours, so I'd like to get some air and rest and a cigarette before I take a taxi" "Yes, taxi, Seoul tour, taxi!"), I was pretty glad that at least I knew how to say "No, thank you" in Korean, so I could get rid off the rest of them fairly easy (although "No, piss off" would've been pretty handy to know as well..). So I finally made it outside, lit a cigarette, which of course got me pretty woozy, and realized I needed some caffeine and other nutrients to go with that. I walked back into the airport to buy some at the store right next to the one selling 'Gifts for Giving' and bought a bus ticket, after realizing that wearing my sunglasses in combation with my freshly shaved head kept the cabbies at a distance. Enjoying some hideous canned coffee, I walked out into the smouldering heat again to find my bus.

I was pretty proud of myself getting off the bus at the right stop, after a 1,5 hour bustrip from Incheon to Jongno -Gu. According to the information I had received from my hotel, I should be able to see their sign across the road from that busstop. I couldn't. I walked around a bit, sure of being in the right area, but still couldn't find it. "Excuse me, do you speak English?" "A little" (As it later turned out, a little is actually a lot for Korean standards) "Do you maybe know where I can find the Chung Jin Motel?" Well, let's just say that more than an hour of dragging my bags around later, I was pretty sure I learned the Korean phrase for "I've never even heard of that place." A suit supply store, a mobile phone shop, the YMCA offices (nooo, not like that), an English businessman and some random people from the street later, sheer luck would have it that finally, as I was asking these two guys if they knew the hotel, we happened to be standing in front of the alley it was in. And indeed, there was a sign you could see from the busstop across. In Korean.