Unexpected Bonus Day in Incheon, South Korea
I got to Seoul early this morning and had originally planned to fly out late tonight. However, that flight was canceled and I would now have to wait until tomorrow before I continued my way home. Korean Air was kind enough to take care of me. They put me up at the airport Hilton and gave me meal vouchers for lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next morning. At first I thought I might as well head in to town, but after I checked in I crashed and slept until lunch. I guess I did not get much sleep on the red eye and was exhausted from traveling the last three weeks. Downtown is about an hour one way from the airport, so instead I watched the news and then went to go get lunch. I watched the RT as they called out US politicians on all their lies and bullshit. I wondered if the rest of the world so easily gets it, why are Americans so blind to the obvious truth. I think it would help if they traveled more, if they were open to learning from other cultures, instead of comparing themselves to them so they can claim their way is better.
To quote Lewis Black, "The most important part of travel is when you come home, because that’s when you see your country with new eyes. I was amazed to realize that we are the only country that tells the rest of the world, on a nearly constant basis, that we are the greatest country on earth. And that is a little fucking obnoxious."
I headed down to lunch. The hotel had eight restaurants to choose from, I heard a lot about Korean barbeque, so I headed to try some for myself. It was great, and good to finally eat some nice beef again. The staff was great, although they threw me a curve ball when they asked if I would like a paper to read. I said sure, figuring that if their TVs were speaking English to me, their papers must also be in English. I’m not sure if they thought I knew how to read Korean, or that I would just like to look at the pictures, or if the rest of the staff was back in the kitchen laughing at me. But the paper they brought me was in Korean, cool pictures though.
I hung out until dinner, tried some more barbeque, passed on their offer of a paper, and then headed to bed. My internal clock was off again and I woke up early, grabbed breakfast, and then headed to the airport to check in. I went through immigration and made my way to the gate, boarded, and then put on my slippers. My final flight was only 10 hours away from Seattle. Same crappy movie selection, Harry Potter 7 Part 2 – sucked, Super 8 – sucked, Zookeeper – sucked, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - sucked, Rise of the Planet of the Apes – sucked less than all the others.
I got to Seattle and made it through immigration, no one even batted an eye at the bag of tea leaves that was given to me from one of the families in Myanmar. I figured with all the economic problems in the US they probably did not even have the x-ray machine on. And I thought, we have a lot more in common with other countries then we may think we do, too bad we don’t talk more with each other. And then, with all the lessons learned, all the experiences I had, and all the people I met, this journey came to an end, I opened my garage door and headed inside.
VIDEO: Trip Conclusion