Seoul 2019 (Part I)
So many exciting things happened in 2019. However, if I ought to pick one event, one moment, that I want to call “the highlight of 2019”, I would definitely pick the trip to South Korea with my best friends as the highlight.
Act I: An Unplanned Decision
Everything started in one ordinary evening. Adila sent me some screenshots about Traveloka’s promo for international flights. “Let’s go to Japan”, she said. However, at that time, I’m not really vibing with the idea of going to Japan and instead would prefer to go somewhere else. I said, “Let’s do Korea instead”. She said yes. But, the discussion instantly disappeared into thin air since we were busy with our own stuff. When we checked the website, the promo was already over so we tried to move on.
Then, one Saturday, Adila rushingly texted me again to show that there was another flight promo to South Korea. That very day, we called Muthi, forced her to be on board (at that time, she was just leaving Japan for good after her study) and she said yes straightaway. We then proceed to ask other friends and got Alsa & Aliyah to join us. We did a very long phone call, God knows how long. I don’t know what’s going on in our mind that day but everything just happened so fast and, so abruptly. By the end of the day, everyone already got their tickets.
Act II: Thrilled But Chill
That was in April and our flight is not until October, so we had much time to prepare. Alsa and I had expired passports but we got enough time to take care of that. Aliyah had some errands to finish, related to her work and scholarship. Muthi was job-seeking at the time and Adila was not very sure if she could take annual leave from work. So, yeah, we had our own obstacles.
May, June, July, the months passed by and we just said: “let’s start preparing in August”. August has come yet we were still busy with mundane stuff. Muthi, who recently got a job, started thinking that she cannot go with us. Me, who just moved to a new company, was thinking the same. Alsa had a problem with her new passport in which the name was different from what was written on the flight ticket. Everyone was feeling uncertain and at some point, the trip was on the verge of cancellation. As I’m typing this, I honestly wanted to laugh out loud, thinking about those times (LOL!).
After Adila’s stand up comedy show in Epicentrum Walk, we called for an urgent meeting to plan our destinations (at the time, we hadn’t even started to submit our visa). Nothing much was settled that day but at least we got a clearer vision and a schedule. “Make visa in September”.
It’s now in September. One fine day, the Korea Visa Application Center (KVAC) made an announcement: “every visa to Korea made in October to December 2019 will be free of charge”. Oh wow, what a coincidence! After doing some research about the length of the process, we decided that we will submit the visa on the 1st day of October (I know, what a cheapskate move). We, again, were very chill about it.
Suddenly, it was already the 3rd week of September. Things started to get on my nerves since I didn’t have all the documents ready. To make the visa, we need this document that stated where we worked and in order to get that, I have to talk to HR and my boss. I didn’t have the guts to ask for permission yet. I mean, I was still on probation!
1st day of October: “okay, let’s go the KVAC tomorrow”.
2nd day of October: Adila went to Lotte Shopping Avenue alone. She went from 7 AM but the line was already so long that she started panicking in our group chat. So many things happened that day. I cannot explain it very well so let’s just say Adila, Alsa, and Aliyah successfully submitted their documents through a visa agent that Muthi knew from her relative. Pak Irwan, he was such a savior. But, what about me?
3rd day of October: the KVAC was closed due to Korea’s national holiday.
4th day of October: I finally went to KVAC to submit my documents. I was convinced that I could apply for a multi-trip visa, which requirement is you have to at least travel to Korea or EU countries before. I went to Korea in 2016 for a conference so I was pretty confident that I was eligible for the multi-trip. I had planned this and that, I went to KVAC pretty early, but when I got to sit in front of the officer, she told me that I was not eligible because my previous Korean visa was a conference visa, not a tourist visa. Believe me, I was on the verge of crying that noon.
Many things happened again. In the end, I seek for help from Pak Irwan and succesfully submitted my documents. It was on the 4th of October. Our trip was on the 16th of October. Only 6 working days left to the D-Day since the 9th of October was also a national holiday in Korea.
Act III: It’s Not A Thrill, It’s A Thriller
That very weekend, we met up for another strategic meeting to actually decide the destinations. Aliyah could not join since she’s based in Bandung. I remembered us gathered in Beau Bakery Cikajang, with a note and a laptop. Muthi helped by drawing a simple map of Seoul, our only city destination, and showed us how to plan the days based on each landmark's proximity. We finally came up with a schedule, what a wonderful day to be happy. After that, we continued to do a little grocery shopping. On that day, we weren’t even sure that our visas would be finalized or not.
Monday. The website said Adila, Aliyah, and Alsa’s visas were completed but Pak Irwan hadn’t taken it from the KVAC. Mine was still on progress. Our trip was on Wednesday, remember?
Tuesday. It’s now or never. If we couldn’t get the visas in our hands today, there’s no way we can fly tomorrow. It was utter chaos. Pak Irwan was kind of hard to reach, he was busy too of course. He said our visas were all approved but he was confused about how to give them to us since we’re all working. At last, my visa was sent via Go-Send, the others were given to Muthi’s relative. Wednesday, off we go.
Act IV: Chill, As In “Freezing”
There was a little debate about which one is better: use the ride-hailing app or take the train to the airport. I still had to go to the office in the morning so I needed a precise option, thus I picked the train. Muthi went with me. Adila and Alsa took the car and Aliyah went alone from Bandung, also with the car.
Nothing special happened at the airport, everything went smoothly. So smoothly to the point that we wondered: “have our bad luck been cleared completely because of the visa issue?”. Boy, didn’t we know that the Goddess of Bad Luck has a list of things in store.
We arrived at Changi Airport safely. For the record, we had a one-night stay in Changi because 1) we took SQ. I know, I’m flexing it right now, 2) we had super-low-cost tickets, which scream 8 hours transit. What could we do about it?
We read about Changi on the internet and many said it has a very nice place to sleep for people like us. We strolled around, around, and around — already felt like a tawaf around the airport — but all the good sleeping places were occupied. We went straight to the mushola because that’s the place where people usually sleep, but the airport forbade that. Aftermost, we chose the sofa to sleep in. Not so long after that, our backs started getting sore and we moved to the mushola again. It was okay at first, nothing seemed wrong, until the air conditioner started to waft cooler air like crazy. We didn’t check the remote but I think it was like 10-12 Celcius degree. We were freezing like hell. Feeling like we hadn’t suffered enough, the construction workers started to do their work at 3 AM, made this loud noises just right behind the wall. That’s it, we’re moving to the sofa again.
Around 7 AM, we boarded into our flight to Seoul. The moment the plane took off, I dozed off. Only woke up for lunch.
*To be continued*
