Currently sitting in the plane bound for Taipei. There seem to babies everywhere in this supposedly full flight. Well, this is the weekend before the long weekend and people wanting to cover two weekends are as excited as me to be on this flight.
So far so good. Scoot didnt have much hiccups so far except that the flight took off a little on the late side. Crossing fingers that the arrival at incheon later would be timely.
This is my second plane ride alone. I guess as we grow older the idea of loneliness doesn’t sink or as much as it had last time.
I started on my packing really late this time. (Now I’m back in the aircraft waiting for Taipei to incheon flight) Anyway, I kind of got really distracted this week with crochet and random things.. So I procrastinated the packing.. I only started at like midnight, which was like 13.5 hours away from my flight timing. Sighs, I think I overpacked and I don’t know why I have so much toiletries. Nevertheless, my luggage weighed 12kg (I bought 15kg allowance). Which leaves me with only 8kg of goodies to buy back..
The queue was irritatingly long today as scoot only has one row of counter for check in. I think there were about 4-5 counters so it was a wait but not that long. As usual, I insisted on my front seats. Being a lone traveler, I’m in fact on the second row of the normal seats! Behind business class, behind extra leg room!
Had lunch with my mum at the terminal 2 staff canteen (Gosh, I miss the food), then taking my own sweet time to enter departure gate (I’m no longer early the early girl who queues up, I’m the one who enters as the last 10% like a boss =p)
(Currently sitting in the airport railway train as I am typing this)
FYI, scoot names their aircrafts and the one I was taking is called Barry.
Anyway, the seats was okay. I mean, I can’t ask for anything more since it is budget and I have been through worse.. It’s a boeing 777, the seats were in 3-4-3 formation. Pretty big plane which battled well against turbulence.
Spend the first leg of the flight reading my book (yes it’s only my third book this year & I’m determined to finish it before I return to SG), and then sleeping, then watching my channel 8 drama episode 27 & 29 and a few Korean documentaries from arirangkorean YouTube channel.
Transit at Taipei was a mess. True to the reviews online, the instructions were not clear at all! We had to exit the plane with all our belongings, follow the signs to get some boarding ticket, then go through security scan and the next moment you exit to the shopping area. With no mention of which gate you are supposed to return to.. There were no TV screens with the flight gate details in sight and I had to walk around until I found one. Only then I knew which gate I had to go to..
Reached the gate, there was toilet and water refill. Decent. I took a quiet spot and then starting feasting on my cold and soggy turkey ham subway sandwich. (Better than nothing)
As usual, I waited till the whole hall was almost empty before I board the plane.. No point boarding early since I didn’t have to use the overhead compartment.
Second leg of the journey was much shorter. Think it was 2 hours? Spend more than half of the time reading my book (Time of my life by PS I Love You’s author) and it was pretty amusing the whole storyline. Couple of twists and turns throughout.
As expected/hoped against/reality says, the flight was indeed delayed. We only touched down at 10:50pm. This devastating news means that I only have less than 1 hour to catch the last airport train out to city!!!
I dashed out of the aircraft, up and down the escalators, and then saw the huge crowd of people on tour groups flooding the entire waiting area of the sky train. I weaved through the mess and (thankfully) found myself a spot in the train.
The adventure was not over! After the train reached its stop, I dashed out of it, up the escalator and ran towards the immigration. Argh. All the open counters had like at least 20 people in line.. I was thinking to myself.. Seems like it will be the end of my night – Stuck at airport.
THANKFULLY, the custom officers changed shift and the lady who took over at the counter I was queuing for was so much faster!!! It was about 11:24 when I finally made it through immigration. I dashed all the way down to yje baggage claim area and parked myself at a strategic position near the area of the belt where the luggage falls down from. It was about a 5 minute wait (the longest 5 minute of my life =/) and I was so grateful when I saw my blue luggage fall out.
Grabbed the luggage, dash for the customs declaration (only one was open at that timing), weaved through the crowd, followed the signs to airport railroad and it was a tough dash of my life. (Yes, I am thankful for bringing this 4-wheel luggage which allows for me to push and run, push and run..)
Went to the top up machine and topped up my t-money key chain. Surprisingly my intuition was right and I managed to top up successfully despite not switching the language to English cause I can’t find the button (under pressure).
Finally, when I tapped my card through the gates (which had nichkhun’s face), I knew I was safe (for now). Night at the airport wasn’t turning into a reality anymore.
Entered the train at about 11:38 and the train left exactly at 11:45 (last train to Seoul). Sighs, I pity those still stuck at the customs.. Scoot timings doesn’t so justice to the public transport out to city. Then again, if I were traveling in a big group, I would have been able to share a taxi. However, it wasn’t an option for me today as I was alone and it would have been the full 60,000W..
WHATEVER.. All that adrenaline rush is all over and now I am seated comfortably on a cushioned seat in the AREX train, and probably reaching hongdae station in about 20 more minutes. And hopefully, another 10 minutes walk to the hostel.
WHAT A DAY.. Well, follow my footsteps?
Grabbed my usual self-declared set A supper at the convenience shop.
