The Journey Back to Korea

The journey begins at the train station in Chiang Mai, Friday at 5pm. We boarded the overnight train for Bangkok. We had bunk beds where we would sleep until 5am the next morning. I did not sleep too much on the train up to Chiang Mai, so I was determined to get a lot of sleep.

Here is the timeline for my trip back to Korea:
Friday - Overnight train 5pm - 6am
Saturday - 6am get off train and head back to original hotel to catch airport bus
2pm arrive at airport to board 5pm plane to Shanghai
9pm arrive at Shanghai Pudong and transfer to Shanghai Hongqiao
Sunday - 8:45am board plane from Shanghai Hongqiao to Seoul Gimpo
12:30 arrive in Seoul Gimpo

As you can see, I would need to be well rested to make sure I don't miss any details in this trip back to Korea. Thankfully, I was able to sleep until about 4:30am, when our guide woke us up to be ready to arrive in Bangkok.

We got to Bangkok late, around 7am. I went with the guide to purchase an airport bus ticket. I was told by the woman who sold me the ticket that the bus would pick me up at the 7eleven near the hotel at 11am. I wanted to make sure I got to the airport in plenty of time. It takes an hour by bus with no traffic to get there, so I wanted to allot enough time for worst case scenario and still have time to get through the detailed customs. Thailand has a lot of tourists, so their customs is a bit meticulous compared to Korea.

So I waited at the 7eleven....and waited....and waited. Eleven came and passed, so I called the company again to confirm the pick up location. They told me again "7eleven." I began to panic because they did not come and I needed to catch this flight. A note: there are hundreds of 7elevens in Thailand, if you have to catch an airport bus near a 7eleven, make sure you know exactly which one. I decided to walk down the main street, searching for other possible 7eleven candidates. Sure enough, there was another 7eleven. I called the bus again to see if it was the 7eleven on that street, it was the main street 7eleven, not the one close to the hotel. I waited again for the noon bus.

I arrived at the airport at 1:30pm, still plenty of time before my flight. I checked in and bought a snack before my flight. At 4pm it was time to board. I said "see you later" to Thailand because I hope to return one day. There is still so much I would like to see. I flew on China Eastern Airlines, which is one of the nicest airlines I have flown with. For the four hour flight they provided dinner and a snack before landing. I was able to sleep a bit on the plane before we landed.

I arrived at Pudong around 9:30pm. To enter China, you must have a tourist visa. I had a visa for my trip to China, but it was a single entry visa. I would need to transfer airports, but I did not have a valid visa. In Shanghai, the two airports are on opposite sides of the city. To get to the other airport, I would need temporary permission to enter the country. In China, if you are transferring airports in Shanghai, you are given a special temporary visa for 24 hours to change airports and leave China. I was given a special stamp in my passport that gives me permission to enter the country for 24 hours. It is a great system for a country that is so restricting on who can enter their country. It is a small step to China becoming more open to the world.

Once I went through customs, temporary visa in hand, I collected my luggage and proceeded to the airport bus. The two airports are connected by subway, high speed train, and bus. The bus is the fastest and cheapest way to move from one to the other. It also remains open until 11pm, so I would be able to catch a bus to the other airport. I found the bus station outside the airport, bought my ticket, and took it to Hongqiao airport. At this point, I was feeling pretty confident that the 7eleven issue would be the only hiccup in this trip back to Korea.

I arrived at Hongqiao airport around 11pm Saturday night. The airport was pretty deserted with a few people waiting for morning flights. I decided I would spend the night in the airport because hotels in Shanghai are so expensive and my flight was early. I did not want to miss it and be stranded in a country I was not allowed to be in past Sunday! The departure schedule was not listed because it was so late, so I decided to get some sleep and check the flights in the morning. I found an empty bench near the Starbucks stall in the airport and stretched out, with one bag under my head and clutching the other one. Being a Western woman traveling alone, I stayed aware of the people around me, you can never be too careful. I was able to doze off for a few hours. I also worked on a Sudoko, which I found to be difficult with only about six hours of sleep on the overnight train and three hours of sleep in the airport.

I woke up at 5am Sunday morning. My flight would leave at 8:45am so I wanted to make sure I knew the gate and check in information. I checked the departure information and discovered that it was all domestic departures. I saw a sign saying "International Departures" pointing down the terminal. I thought "Ok, there's where my flight will depart from," only to discover that part of the terminal desolate. I walked up to a security guard and asked here where to check in for my flight. She looked at the information and said "Wrong Terminal, you must go to the other Shanghai Hongqiao terminal, there the international departures leave."

I felt like I received a punch from Muhammad Ali in the chest. The other terminal?!? "Where is this other terminal?" I asked in as calm a voice I could. She told me "Oh about twenty minutes by taxi." It was now 7am. My flight would leave in less than two hours and I was in the wrong terminal! I thanked the guard and ran in search of the taxi station. The Domestic terminal on Hongqiao is very confusing. I asked a group of youth volunteer workers where to find a taxi. The poor things understood what I said, but could not find the words to respond. I felt so bad for them as they answered in Chinese very slowly enunciating every tone and syllable, but I do not speak Chinese by any stretch of the imagination, so I thanked them and moved on. I found another security guard, who was kind enough to take a frantic Westerner to the taxi station. I wouldn't have been able to find it if he didn't show me.

I then attempted to get a taxi. Of course, when you are in a hurry, there are no taxis in sight. I waited a good twenty minutes for a taxi, by now it's 7:30am. A few came, but seeing a foreigner who wouldn't speak Chinese, breezed past me picking up other people waiting. Finally, one taxi drove up and didn't have enough time to see that I wasn't Chinese before I ran up to the cab. He was a 50 something year old man, that when seeing me jump in his cab, shook his head and said something in Chinese that I could only imagine being "Why me?" I smiled and said "Shanghai Hongqiao airport." He looked at me, looked at the airport, and pointed indicating "Lady, you're at the airport." I tried to explain I needed to get to the other, showing him my flight information. He looked at it, mumbled something in Chinese, and proceeded to take me to the other airport. I wasn't sure if he knew that I wanted to go to the other Hongqiao terminal, not Pudong. If he took me to Pudong, there would be no way for me to make my flight. I continued to say "Hongqiao" and he would nod. I had no clue where this airport would be considering I did not know that there were two terminals separated by 15 miles. At one point, I saw a sign on a building saying "Hongqiao Airport" and said "Hongqiao" pointing at the sign. The driver stopped between the exit ramp and the highway with a puzzled look on his face. I then realized that this sign was a warehouse for planes, not the airport. I pointed at the highway and my ticket, to which my driver muttered something again in Chinese, probably along the lines of "This is what I get for being nice."

To my relief, my taxi driver knew all along what I had requested and brought me to the Hongqiao international terminal. I was so happy I gave him a big hug and tipped him for bringing me to the terminal so quickly. He was so patient, considering his passenger was a hysterical foreigner that made him stop in the middle of the highway. I proceeded to the check in counter. I showed the woman my flight reservation and her eyes got big. "Oh, you need to hurry through security, your flight is about to board." I looked up at the clock, it was 8:10am. The flight would close in 20 minutes! The line for security was short. The security process in China is very meticulous but quick. Every person is individually padded down after walking through the metal detector, but there are several people doing this part of the security process. I was able to get through security in 10 minutes. Of course, because I was in a hurry my gate would be the farthest from security. I ran to my gate, reaching it just in time to board. They hadn't even called last minute boarding by then! By this time I was exhausted. 3 hours of sleep combined with scrambling to find where my flight would depart is stressful. I had breakfast on the plane (once again China Eastern going above and beyond for a 90 minute flight) and was able to sleep a bit before landing in Seoul.

It's interesting, that Sunday morning marked 6 months of being in Korea for me. I found myself saying several times during this whole journey back to Korea "I just want to get back home to Korea." It was the first time for me to call Korea home. It truly has become that for me. Landing in Seoul, seeing Hanguel on the signs, hearing people speak Korean, and being surrounded by the fast paced technology inundated society once again was a comfort for me. Korea is home for me here in Asia.

Over this winter break, I went to three countries and had so many new experiences. It was the adventure of a lifetime to see so much in a short span of time. I hope this summer, I can travel to new cultures here in Asia and learn more about this incredible area of the world.