Korea Odyssey: 2007

Its been 5 years now since I was wondering about going to a foreign shores and see how its like out there. Dont get me wrong, I love my country but its the traveller inside me who just couldnt be satisfied with taj mahal or shimla or kerala. Anyways, after a lot of false dawns I got the news of my first visit to South Korea. I was jubiliant. I mean I do wanted to go out .. right.. and korea is still a foreign country.. right.. and its a developed country.. right.. whatever... i was loving the moment. Now, South Korea is one of those countries that always go under the radar, I mean you know it is there but thats it. Theres not much info about it. Not many people go there as tourist and know about their culture in general. My knowledge about korea is limited to their hockey team and their archery team (in which they are considered world beaters) and the fact that I had learned TAE-KWON-DO (a korean martial arts) when i was a kid till Red belt (just a tad below black). I got a 3 months business visa and the return flight was booked at around diwali time (perfect dates !!)

So I boarded my asiana flight direct to Korea (incheon int'l airport) from IGI airport on 14th august night at 1 am। First thing I noticed on entering the plane was that it was full of sikhs. I mean, you expect them on the flight to Canada or UK but Korea... !!!! Anyways, the flight was nice, mostly because the air-hostesses were soooooo cute and they were always smiling. So, 7 hrs passed without much of a problem and we landed at around 11 am Korean time and without any delay walked towards the immigration clearance. I have been warned that English is a very little known language in Korea and I found it firsthand as soon as I went to the immigration check. I was asked about the purpose of my visit and I said business and they asked what kinda business and I said that we are here to do the requirement gathering for our project in india. Now I don't know which word in that sentence provoked them, that he asked me to move down to their office along with my colleague. The office was like any other govt. office in India, full of files and only one guy sitting on a desk in the corner talking animatedly to another Indian. He asked for our passports and waved us to sit on one corner of the room where one more Indian was sitting. We started talking to that guy and found out that he was working for IBM. This poor guy didn't have any contact in Korea and that day being 15th august (our independence day), nobody was in the office back home. A very serious situation for him, I guess. Thankfully, I was carrying the phone no. of our coordinator in Korea. So, the officer called him and got the info he needed and let us go.. phew !!!

After that things went smoothly, we collected our luggage, I exchanged some currency and then we caught the bus for suwon at the airport. The differences from India were already visible. The huge shining airport, the queue for the bus, the extremely comfortable seats .. !! It took us around 2 hrs to get to hotel castle in suwon, where our guest house manager was waiting for us. From there a short 15 min. ride and we were at the guest house. My room was a nice with a wooden flooring (as are all Korean rooms) We took a short nap and after dinner went for a walk with some friends in the guest house to a nearby shopping store called home plus.

And that my friends was the end of my first day in South korea. I had an nice time, with a lot of observatory photographs.. just take a look.. !