What a long day it has been so far. We woke up early and made it to the bus station with DD's in hand. The 3 hour bus ride to the airport was long but fairly comfortable and we got to see some cool stuff. Incheon Airport felt strangely comfortable and yet alienating. We had been there before, yet last time we were fresh off the boat, new, confused, and worried. Revisiting the place where all of it began meant revisiting those feelings and facing them again as we journeyed on to a new adventure. This time it was to a place we knew much less about culturally and linguistically, and this time it would be on our own.
Our flight to Shanghi was quick, we were only at peak altitude for maybe 30 minutes. It always feels quite surreal to land in a new country. You know that you're looking out the window, and China is down there waiting for you, but from the air it looks like it could be anywhere, the coastline looks the same as Korea's or Maine's from 10,000 feet. With a 5 hour layover, and the fact that the airlines were making us re-check our bags anyways, we looked for an opportunity to explore. We decided to see the Bund, which gave us the added adventage of riding the Maglev. That's right, the Magnetic-Levatating train. We rode the fastest train in the world today, and cruised 30km in 8 minutes with a top speed of 430 km/hr! The train banked like a roller coaster and just absolutely flew while maintaining it's calm and smooth composure as it literally floated over the tracks.
The Bund was amazing. The skyline was the most beautiful cityscape either of us has ever seen. It looked unreal, like a large cardboard cut out made to look pretty, instead of a bustling, functioning downtown area. We were only able to spend a short 30 minutes there because we had to get back, but it was absolutely worth it.
Back to the airport we went, with 2 hours before take off we arrived hoping everything would go as smoothly as the first flight. Unfortunately, it wasn't so. Through a series of broken, confusing conversations we found out our flight had been delayed because of bad weathger. They were going to try to get us on the next available flight, but it would probably be stand-by only. Our flight was already scheduled to arrive at 11:00pm, with a pre-arranged pick up from the hostel. People were cutting line in front of us, the flight is delayed, and we're hungry and parched from our short jaunt in 95* Shanghi. Tempers were getting short very quickly. Then the boss lady came.
We managed to earn the attention of the manager on duty. In a 15 minute period and about 20 phone calls later, we went from maybe getting a standby ticket late, to getting two tickets next to each other on the next flight out, only a half an hour away! I don't know what she said, but we owe her a great debt for helping us so much. We are now on the flight an hour away from our final destination, ready for a short rest tonight as we try to buy our train tickets and see the Leshan Buddha tomorrow. It'll be our first full day in China!
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