Manila to Incheon
1st June 2007
Gon' walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
Gon' walk down
that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
'Til there's nothing left to see,
'Til the chains have been shattered and I've been freed
Bob Dylan (again)
Why is it that I can never leave the Philippines properly? Way back here I stuffed it up, and this time I almost stuffed it up again.
Due to complete incompetence on my part, I spent my last few
days trying to sort out both my airline ticket and my work visa for
South Korea. You'd think that such a well traveled person would have
had them organized weeks ago, but no. Incompetent boy strikes again.
I managed to get my ticket the day before I left, and my visa the day I
left! Here is how my last day in the Philippines worked out.
Last Day in the Philippines
I woke up at 6 a.m. and said my final goodbyes to good friends like Lorelei, Eden and Vincent.
It was then a mad dash across Manila to Makati where the Korean
embassy was. I plonked myself down on the steps of the embassy
with all my earthly possessions and waited for the embassy to open.
They had promised me that it would be ready by nine a.m.
But, you know, shit happens, so I was a little nervous.
Once the embassy did open I lugged on up to the 17th floor of the
building and waited again. A nice Korean lady remembered me from
the day before and had ensured that my visa-bedecked-passport was
ready. Yay!
It was time for another mad dash across Manila to get to the
airport on time. My check-in had begun at nine a.m., so I was
always battling the clock. I grabbed the first taxi I could see
and headed to the airport. Much wringing of hands and glancing at
the time did little to speed up the trip through Manila's traffic.
But, make it I did with about half-an-hour or so to spare.
Yay!
Arriving in Incheon
After the four-or-so hour flight I arrived at the very swish
Incheon airport. Due to the craziness of the days before, I had
completely forgot to inform John Lee - the guy who I was suppose to
meet at the airport - that I was actually arriving. I was also
suppose to arrive a day later (May the 17th as it happens, my birthday).
I found an Internet cafe, sent John an email telling him that
I'd meet him tomorrow at the airport and settled myself down for an
overnight stay at the airport. After a few hours, I checked my
email again and John had not replied so I figured I would give him a
call.
Once I had got hold of him, he insisted that he come to the
airport and set me up in an hotel. Very nice of him. He
soon spotted me at the airport and we were heading off to Incheon
proper. I chatted to him about Korea and the Korean people.
Most of my questions revolved around poverty, to which his
general response was "no real poverty here". I was slightly
disappointed with this for some reason.
We parked at the school I would be teaching at - Kwak's
Language Institute. He gave me a quick tour before we grabbed
some dinner.
I was to stay at a local hotel for a few days. I would
take the apartment of the teacher I would replace once he left.
The hotel was interesting. It has a circular shaped bed, a sex-toy vending machine and two channels of twenty-four hour porn.
Hmmm. Just what have I gotten myself into here...
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(c)
2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
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