October 10 - Tuesday
Seoul, South Korea
Hong Kong International Airport
We spent the morning doing last minute research on the internet, downsizing as much as possible to fit as much as possible in the carry on bags and as little as possible in the backpacks we would check in trying to prepare for picking up two bikes in Singapore and avoiding paying more for excess baggage. It was going to be tight.
One more shower before check out - it was going to be awhile before our next shower and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with my parents and relaxing in their room. My parents were generous enough to pay for our stay which we can't thank them enough for - that was really nice. It was so nice to see my immediate family and my extended family, my mom's friends and to visit Korea again but it was time to move on. It's a good time to go because I'm leaving while still wanting more.
Jon's thoughts about Korea:
"Well, I liked the people - they were all very nice, they were very warm, liked the atmosphere, it was fairly clean and organized, great subway system. I liked the food - I'm finally getting used to the spiciness of the kimchee."
We took a taxi after checking out at the base gates one last time on the way to the bus station. 13000 won to ride to the airport in a fancy bus that ran every 5 minutes. Before we knew our bags were being loaded and we were saying our goodbyes.
I think we both snoozed off on the way to the airport. Once there the driver unloaded our bags and completely ripped off the handle of our Mickey and Minnie Mouse bag - we just had to make it last until we got to NZ. We had packed the duct tape so that it would be handy but we didn't think we would be needing quite so soon. We checked out backpacks in and hoped that no one questioned our carry on bags as I strained under the weight of trying to carry my bag until we found a cart. Incheon is a nice airport, they provide slippers for you to walk the ten paces through the security screener that are really comfortable and squishy - Jon wants a pair. The slippers go into a nearby sterilizing cabinet after they've been used but I was still glad to be wearing the "protective" barrier of my cotton sock. We did our usual round of all the duty free and boutique stores, gift shops and eateries trying to pass the time until our flight left just before 2000 heading to Hong Kong.
The flight was under four hours and we flew on Cathay Pacific. The flight was uneventful - so was the food and the movies were the same as they were two weeks ago.
We got to Hong Kong not long after 2200 and we were hungry. We still needed $200 US dollars to pay for the bikes so we went to the money exchange counter since we had, once again, had issues with our debit card. I had called the service center right after we disembarked from the plane but the operator said there was nothing wrong with the card. Sure enough we had no problem at the exchange counter - whatever. We had some soup and started looking for the lounge/sleeping area in the airport which was gates and gates away from the food court. On the way there we stopped by the free internet counter. At that time of the night there was no line which was great. I as getting really tired and we still had about a walk ahead of us with our million pound carry on bags.
By the time we got to the lounge area there was only one lounging chair left which Jon insisted I take while he curled up on the floor next to me. Each of had a carry on bag to be in charge of as we tried to get some shuteye while listening to muzak.
I slept off and on. At one point asking Jon if he wanted to trade - I was more than ready to. Yep, the floor was looking a lot more comfortable than that lounge chair - surely Scholiosis had set in by now. Jon laid down in the chair and almost immediately changed his mind.
Darn.
Back to the uncomfortable chair. I tried something different and curled up into the fetal position with my head pointed toward the foot of the chair. There, this was ever-so-slightly more comfortable. I actually did sleep for a while in this position.
