Flexibility is key!

Here we are in the Incheon Airport once again. One of the nicest airports that both of us have ever been to. We're off to China for the next week. Taylor is super excited to take me to some of the places he experienced during his year in China. He also really wants me to meet his former students.

As always with us, we've experienced plenty of twists and turns in this adventure and we haven't even boarded the plane yet. Let me explain...

We left our tiny little town of Eumseong yesterday around 6 pm, expecting to get to Cheong-ju around 7. The plan was to eat dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then catch the airport bus that is a direct non-stop route to the airport. Little did we know, the last bus leaves at 6:30 PM. We arrived at Outback around 7:45. Taylor ran to the bus station to try and buy tickets. That was just the beginning of our night's adventures.

We ate dinner at Outback and decided to stay in Cheongju rather than driving 1 hour back to Eumseong, only to turn around and come back around 4 am. We had 2 other people with us. We decided to stay at a Jimjilbang- a Korean sauna. You can read all about Jimjilbangs here.

The Jimjilbang is a naked sauna pretty much. The men and women are separate. In addition to the saunas, there are places to sleep. For only 7,000 Won (about $6.30), you get a shower, pajamas, a towel, a mat to sleep on, and a pillow. Plus access to all the hot/cold saunas that your heart desires. That's quite the bargain but at what cost? Well, mostly at the cost of sleep. From people snoring, to ridiculously hot temperatures (I swear it was 90 degrees in the area we were trying to sleep in) to people talking and televisions blaring....well, we all got about 2 hours of sleep. It was so blazing hot in there!

We got up around 3:45 and decided to catch the 4:30 (AM) bus. We arrived at the bus station at 4:25 and were greeted by an attendant who seemed quite eager to practice his limited English skills. He knew enough to tell us, "4:30 bus SOLD OUT, 5:00 bus SOLD OUT, 5:30 bus SOLD OUT." We stopped him at 5:30 and told him we just had to get on the bus. The trip from Cheong-ju to the airport is about 1.5 hours without traffic. Our flight leaves at 9:15. He says, "Standing room only." We say, "Okay, let's do it!"

So on 2 hours of sleep, we got on an overbooked bus and sat down in the aisle for 1.5 hours. I actually ended up laying down on my bag and falling asleep the whole time. Taylor and Yemi, our friend travelling with us, weren't so lucky. We made it to the airport, where I am sitting now, waiting to board our flight for China. It took us about 25 minutes to arrive at our gate. We spent a lot of time walking across the airport and even had to get on a shuttle tram at one point. I'm convinced we're at the complete opposite end of everything else in this airport. When we finally took the last set of escalators down a flight to get to our gate, the area was completely dark and there were about 3 people sitting there. I've never been in a completely dark departure area before.
One essential travel tip that has carried us thus far is being flexible. When you live in another country with unfamiliar culture, customs, and language, flexibility is crucial. And a great skill to put on a resume, don't you think?

China, here we come!