Incheon
After disembarking from the plane, the first thing I find out in Korea, the automated urinals flush twice! Once just before you do your job and another after you’re done. I don’t know how it is in other developed countries, the thing is, ala ganito sa Pinas!
Next, before the immigration line is a big plasma TV playing a commercial for mobile phone service AnyCall in a loop. This serves to remind us what a hi-tech country Korea is. Broadband access here after all, is the highest in the world.
Leaving the airport, 5 degrees is like opening a blast freezer. Our group take the tourbus then our tour guide who introduces to us as Irene, takes us to dinner at a… what else? a Korean restaurant. We dined at past 8pm, there weren’t any customers but us. There’s
hardly any people in the streets. I guess people at Incheon retire
much early. There is however, a MiniStop across the street, and also a Korean
grocery. For our first dinner in Korea, we are served with what we will be eating in one form or another, bulgogi.
Bulgogi literally means in Korean, "firemeat." Bul is fire, gogi is meat. This one is served on a pan with lettuce and sotanghon-type noodle. We also tried the banchan, the kimchi wasn’t so bad. The spiciness kicks a bit later. The kimchi and seaweed soup are very common banchan we will encounter throughout our journey. The glasses are just about half the size than typically used in the Philippines.
We check in at Best Western hotel. I don’t know how well it qualifies as 5-star, but it is a thousand times better than the Best Western I stayed in at Makati once.
As of this writing, I learn that Incheon won the bid for the 2014 Asian games. If you were there during the first week of April, you will see boards announcing that Incheon is a candidate city. Congratulations to the people of Incheon.
