Kimchi Adventure: Incheon and Songdo

And so the six hours flight had finally ended. It was around 7am when we had touched down at the newly developed Incheon Airport. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Korea" announced the Garuda Indonesia pilot over the airplane's pa system. Then I took a deep breath and exhaled it fully. "Okay, here we go then". Another work-related adventure in a foreign land awaits me.

Welcome to Korea!

As I stepped out of the airplane and into the Incheon International airport, I was pretty surprised to see how empty the building was. Isn't this supposed to be the up and coming, most efficient airport in the world? The empty void which I saw was unnatural in a sense that it was not what I had expected from an airport. Then as we were shepherded by the airport ushers into another area, I saw a subway terminal.

View from the Subway train

It was then my father, who were with me during this trip along with my mother and a business partner of my father, had told me that the Incheon Airport is interconnected through a subway system that would take people into the main airport building. "Just how big is this airport??" I asked my father. "Well son, just wait and see" He replied, "I told you that Korea is going to amaze you right?"

And like always, he is right again this time.

"I'm pretty sure I saw that in Star Trek"

The modern look of the airport was just the tip of the iceberg. As we drove into the city of Incheon, I came to realise that we were driving on a 21 meters long bridge, which connects the island where Incheon International Airport is located to the mainland Songdo. The view was shockingly spectacular and as the main bridge came into view I could only stare in awe. The last time I ever saw something this spectacular was when I was playing soccer at this tournament back in Sydney, Australia. That day I made this huge assist where I kicked a cross field pass from almost the half way line, into just behind the defense line. And my friend took it nicely on his right foot and continued it with a swift volley. The way it happened and from where I was standing, it was breath taking... So, Incheon bridge, I think, produced almost the same kind of excitement in me... ALMOST!

A very long bridge above the sea!

"If only I could kick a pass that beautiful again..." *sigh*

And then we arrived at this city called Songdo. It was newly built, and most part of it were still empty land. But from the look of its infrastructure, you could just tell that the city is going to become a major city in the near future.

Well, due to the fact that it was still under development, we decided to cut short our stay there and move to Seoul.

A city in development