So, as you may have assumed by now, I have returned from my trip. When
last I wrote, I was sitting in my hotel room in Tamuning, Guam, ready and
excited to board United flight 155 bound for the beautiful island of Pohnpei,
Micronesia. Well, a lot happened after that, and I've delayed writing about
that adventure for one reason or another. Until now. So, bear with me.
The great blessing that allows me to travel so expansively can also be a
curse. I fly as a stand-by passenger, meaning that I am only given a seat on a
plane if there is an open seat to give. On Alaska Airlines, I am entitled to a
seat before employees of other airlines because I work for Alaska. On other
airlines, my priority drops. And no matter what, paying passengers are always
entitled to their seats more than I am.
On Friday morning (after my last post), I woke up early, returned my rental
car at the airport, and made my way to the gate to fly to Chuuk, and on to
Pohnpei. I never got on the flight. While it appeared to be an open flight with
20 un-occupied seats, it was in-fact a "full" flight. United cannot
sell those final 20 seats due to the heavy amount of fuel they must carry to
make the trek through Micronesia (a fact I should have considered given my line
of work). There weren't any seats to be given to stand-by passengers, and there
were 18 United Airlines stand-bys in-front of me anyways (hello last
priority!), so I could not fly. Seeing as the next flight to Pohnpei
would not leave for 2 days, there would be no trip to the island on this trip. Such
a disappointment.
My back-up plan was to fly to another Pacific paradise, my home for 6 months
in 2009-10: the wonderful island nation of Palau (I know, not a bad “back-up
plan” or consolation prize).
The flight
to Palau would not leave until the evening, so I had the rest of the day to
kill on Guam.
I mostly hung out around
the airport, but I managed to wander down to the K-Mart on Marine Corps Drive
and shop/people-watch.
When evening came
I returned to the airport and sat next to the gate, waiting to hear my name
called and board the flight to Palau. My name was never called. Once again, I
did not have a seat, and United did not have one to give to me. As (bad) luck
would have it, the flight to Palau the night before had been cancelled, and my
flight had been unexpectedly filled in the final 24 hours. There would be no
trip to Palau on this trip either.
As you can imagine, I was pretty bummed at that point. I had flown half-way
around the globe to visit the islands I once lived on, yet I could not make it
to the two I had most wanted to see again. However, I was determined to go
somewhere, anywhere, over the remaining days of my journey.
One of the benefits of stand-by travel is the
ability to go pretty much anywhere. As I came to terms with having to wait for
another trip to Micronesia one day, I opened-up a map and asked myself, “Where
in the world do I want to go? Where can I get to easily in the next day? Where
can I go that I can leave from in time to return to work by Tuesday?” Given my
options, and my proximity to Asia, I settled upon Seoul, South Korea.
The next morning I returned to the airport, and finally heard my name
called. The flight from Guam to Seoul was a quick 4 ½ hours. About an hour
outside Seoul we flew over southern Japan, and I became lost in tracing the railroad
lines as they weaved in and out of the hills and mountains of Kyushu.
We landed in Seoul in a thick fog, which
obscured my view out the window until just before touchdown. Once I could see
it, the ground was mostly brown and gray, but splattered with patches of green,
yellow, and orange. It was quite surreal. I had always pictured Korea being a
patchwork of grays and browns (I don’t know why. Maybe I kept that image from
old Korean War films.).
I boarded the express train from Incheon airport (Sidenote: WOW! What an
airport!), and arrived at Seoul Station downtown 40 minutes later. The station
was a sea of people, each jostling and pushing to make it to their next train.
Although everything was in Korean, and I did not know
any Korean, all of the important signs were also in English. After
grabbing a baguette at a Parisian bakery in the station (I know, how very
Korean of me), I hopped aboard the #4 metro line and traveled to Gangnam and my
hotel to check-in. The man at the front desk noticed my Dallas Cowboys shirt
and told me the Boys were his favorite team growing up. He was raised in Ohio
but moved home to Korea as a teenager. And he didn’t want to be a Browns fan,
which I totally understand.
After checking in and dropping off my bags, I returned to Seoul Station to
find food and explore the heart of the city.
In the back corner of the station, on the top floor, I saw a sign
pointing to a food court. The food court was made up of nameless, numbered
stalls. A large sign at the entrance had pictures of each dish offered at each
stall, along with descriptions in Korean and English.
All of the food was Korean, and I was the
only white guy in sight. I decided this
would be my dinner appointment for the night. I ordered a noodle dish from the
cashier, waited for my number to flash on the sign above stall #7, and then sat
down and ate with a view of downtown Seoul.
I wandered around Seoul the rest of the evening. I walked past one of the
national symbols of Korea, the famous Sungnyemun Gate. I strolled down
brightly-lit alleys with stand after stand of merchants eager to make a buck on
Saturday night. I was amazed at the number of stalls selling dog clothes! One
particular alley/street gave way to a massive, elegant, ritzy shopping center.
Prada, Armani, and Rolex were lit up in bright lights as valets rushed to pick
up Lexus, Jaguar, and other luxury cars.
The street merchants and malls seemed to go on and on. Christmas lights
were up on many of the store-fronts and hotel entrances. There were people
everywhere. I felt very-much like I was in Asia.
Before returning to my hotel I stopped by the old royal palace by city hall.
For all the chaos outside the palace walls, the interior felt like a world
apart. The pathways inside the wall were lined with slumping trees. Fallen
leaves covered
every inch of grass
and dirt. The only lights inside the walls were those illuminating the historic
buildings. It was so peaceful and foreign. I truly enjoyed Deoksugung Palace.
I woke up in the morning, tuned into the BYU football game on my phone (It
was weird listening to BYU football on Sunday! We were already leading 51-0
when I woke up.), and got on the metro. I got off outside of Seoul Forest park,
and on the advice of a friend (Hi Rebekah!), went inside. The park was almost
entirely empty, aside from the stray jogger and deer. Again, the city seemed to
be a very somber yet peaceful mix of browns, grays, greens, and oranges. It was
a very relaxing morning. I walked through the park, along the river’s waterfront
(listening, at that point, to the football post-game show), and to another
metro station.
I headed back into the
heart of the city. I strolled along city streets, looking for the old Seoul
City Wall, but I never found it. Short on time, I was content to just enjoy
feeling lost in a foreign city until I had to run back to my hotel to
check-out.
After picking up my bags and checking-out, I took the metro to Seoul’s “Time
Square,” a place on the map I assumed to be like New York’s Time Square. Their
Square, it turned out, was just a gigantic luxury shopping mall.
And I mean
gigantic! When I travel, I really enjoy seeing what the locals see,
and doing what the locals do, so I was perfectly happy exploring a shopping
mall and people-watching. After an hour or so of doing that, and after a
delightful meal of noodles for lunch, I hopped onboard another metro train
heading in the direction of the airport, although indirectly. I wanted to see
as much of the city as possible before leaving, and a metro ride (hopefully
above-ground) seemed to be the best way to do that. The train sped past
enormous apartment blocks, each numbered with bold numbers 3 or 4 stories tall.
I caught fleeting glimpses of Korean Sunday morning life as I flew past back
alleys and thoroughfares. The train ride lasted about 1 ½ hours, and I
eventually arrived back at Incheon airport.
My brief trip to Korea had come to an end.
I sat in the airport, first stunned that I was in Korea, and second
grateful that I had been able to see and do so much over the past 6 days.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am a planner, and many believe me to be less
than spontaneous. This trip, however, taught me a lot about spontaneity and the
joys of just “going with it.”
As I’ve recounted this story to people over the last week, many people have
apologized that I did not make it back to Pohnpei.
Yes, I was disappointed. I told myself that I
would roll with the punches and accept whatever travel problems may arise, but
it was very difficult to get so close and not make it. Part of me, however, is
actually
happy that I did not get
back to Pohnpei or Palau. To be clear, I WANT to go back, but my short time on
Guam brought some sobering realizations. Though it’s hard to comprehend, life
goes on without you. The images and memories I had of Guam had remained
unchanged over the past 4 ½ years, but Guam did not. The people I once knew were
gone, and the new folks I met enjoyed lives completely unaware of the time I
spent on the island. I know that sounds incredibly self-centered, but it’s a
feeling I’m struggling to express. I don’t know who said it, but I’ve heard it
said that you can never return to the same places you once lived. Life goes on,
and that can be hard to see. I was afraid that returning to Pohnpei 5 years
later would be a shock, and it likely still will be, but that shock will have
to wait. Instead of returning to an old home and old friends, I was blessed to
explore a new world and meet new friends. This trip may not have turned out as
expected, but it turned out to be just as excellent.
