Last day in Seoul and South Korea

October 13, Thursday – Last day in Seoul and South Korea
This was my last day in Seoul. I woke up early in the morning at around 6.45am. I finished packing at around 7.30am and asked Jun and Jane to help me out with my luggage. It was tough carrying so many luggage - 1 small one, 1 medium and 1 huge one. It was really heavy. I met with Ryan and Yushu at the bus stand near Dongyang Technical College. Swee Sing and Joo came along as well to help us with luggage and showed us the way to take the airport bus. We took the taxi to a nearby bus stand. From there, we walked for a while before reaching the bus stand for the airport bus. Swee Sing and Joo followed us by bicycle. Luckily they both came along, else we will be having problem finding our way and carrying the luggage.

We chatted while waiting for the airport bus to come. It cost 7,500 won from Gaebong station to Incheon Airport. For international flight, we need to go to Incheon Airport. It took around 1 hour to reach there.

We reached Incheon Airport at around 10am. We checked in at Malaysia Airline’s counter because the flight that we took was a collaboration flight between MAS and Korean Air. We were very happy to see many Malaysians there and MAS air hostess. We heard some passengers speaking in a mixture of Hokkien, English and other languages. We were sure that he is Malaysian! All of a sudden, we felt very at home. The queue was quite long.

We took the airbus A330. It was not a big plane. Since we were taking economy class, the space between the seats is quite narrow. It was not a comfortable flight. Some of the air hostesses were Malaysians while some were Koreans. We can choose either Seafood Oriental or Bulgogi Rice (beef rice) for the lunch set. The amount of food served was very little.

We met with a Malaysian Indian on the flight. He disliked Korea a lot, mainly due to the high living expenses and started chatting with Ryan about how good Malaysia is. I think that most of them are true. The food in Korea is definitely not as nice as in Malaysia. In Malaysia, we can get a variety of food – Chinese, Indian and Malay food at a cheap price. Multiple races live together in this country like a melting pot. It is something very unique, especially for those coming from a single race country like Korea. Malaysians pay more attention to the different cultures among different races and tolerate with them. However, it is different for Koreans, for example, Koreans and Malaysians going out together. They often talk to each other in Korea and forgetting that we do not understand it. In Malaysia, if we go out with friends who do not understand our language, we will translate what we are talking to them in the language that they understand. Since we live in a multi-racial country, we learned multiple languages. It is something awesome for the Koreans. As we learned multiple languages since we are small, it is easier for us to pick new languages easily compared to other foreigners.

Our flight was a very full one. We were always eating, eating and eating. At around 5pm Malaysia time, we reached KLIA. The flight was very shaky as it was about to land. It was a bit scary. This was the worst flight ever. Maybe the pilot is very new.

Jin, Thai Sin and Thai Sin’s sister, Li Rong was already there after I got out from the Immigration section. It was the first time my friends come and see me as I arrive from an international flight. They helped me out with the luggage while waiting for my grandaunt to arrive to fetch me.

My granduncle treated us to a very good meal at a restaurant in Banting. He ordered a plate of fish, sweet and sour fried tofu and fish pieces. The food was really too much. Then, we departed back to my grandaunt’s place. I was really tired. There were really too much to be eaten but I did not feel like eating. Maybe I was too tired for the past few days. I had some fruits shortly after taken a bath. At around 10pm, grandaunt treated me to some fried chicken, “lin gou” soup and sea coconuts drink. Yellow watermelon was served after that. There was too much all of a sudden!