Wow. My secret plan to come to Ilsan in record time worked perfectly – I made it in under 5 hours. The one time, before, when I tried to do a trip direct from Yeonggwang to Ilsan, it took more like 6 and half, because going into Seoul and then changing to the subway seems to end up taking up a lot of time.
So this time, I bought a ticket on the 9:30 AM airport express bus, direct from Yeonggwang bus terminal to Incheon Airport. This bypasses the worst of Seoul traffic and congestion. Then I took a “local” airport bus from the airport to Ilsan. Ilsan is, in fact, much closer to Incheon airport than either of them are to downtown Seoul.
I took along a novel to read, The Life of Pi. I’ve been procrastinating on reading this novel for something close to a decade, I think. Maybe not that long. Anyway, it was always out there on the “to read” list. In my bus ride, I managed to plow through the first half of the book.
As Pi confronts the hyena on the lifeboat, I look out the bus window to watch the golden rice fields tranform into the endless tracts of highrise apartments, south of Incheon. Next thing, I’m looking out the bus window from the top of the bridge over to the island where the airport is. The sky and water is blue, the Incheon skyline is littered with cranes. There are boats sitting on the mudflats, while the world’s commerce passes by in shipping channels. And then I see the giant stainless steel penis-looking-statue-thing that sits at the gateway to Incheon international airport – anyone who’s come in and out of Incheon a few times knows what I’m talking about. I imagine it’s actually supposed to represent some kind of abstraction of “flight,” but frankly, it’s pretty darn blatant, in my opinion. It’s Korea’s “hello” to the world, I guess.
I jump off the bus at the airport, run down the escalator, and in 5 minutes flat I’m sitting on a #3300 bus bound for Ilsan. Another few chapters race by, and I barely ring the buzzer in time for the driver to stop at Baekseok. I’ve decided to stick with the familiar, and therefore I’ve opted to stay at a hotel I already know about: it’s basically outside the Baekseok subway entrance. It’s not the cheapest – but the cheapest in Ilsan are seedy love motels. This is maybe a few grades above that – no lodging is cheap in this part of metro Seoul. It’s cool – it’ll be a luxury weekend. I know this hotel, and know it’s reliable, right? Internet and giant TV in the room, and a lovely view of the Baekseok Costco. Haha.
I have come to Ilsan to attend the first birthday party of my friend’s son. This is a big deal in Korea – it’s celebrated with a rental of a reception hall, and has the feel of a wedding. I attended one, once before. I still need to find something to give as a gift – I’m not sure I have it in me to get something conventional (i.e. the expected baby clothes or shoes). Maybe something slightly unconventional, instead? Not sure how much to stretch the social boundaries.
