You have bullet?
I’ve been waiting at this luggage carasol way too long, starting to think that all of my good travel karma has finally been exhausted when I spot my bag. We made it to Seoul at last and are in Incheon International, one more super modern airport for Asia to boast about. Signs everywhere brag that Incheon is “A world best air hub”. As my bag draws near I realize it’s tagged with a big yellow contraption, like a huge anti-theft tag that says “your not going anywhere without a thorough search, buddy.” I proceed uneasily to customs where a Korean man is in a shouting match over why he can’t keep his AK-47 air rifle. He points directly at me and starts spouting out random English words.
“You looking at problem?” I smile and follow the customs official, Chiaki following behind.
I figure I have been one of the randomly selected lucky ones to get a closer look, but soon realized these Koreans are on a mission. After a minute of unsuccessful hand gestures trying to communicate what they are looking for, they resort to the online dictionary and finally made everything clear.
“You have bullet?” he asked, his fingers raised, grasping the imaginary item.
I shake my head no.
“Mmm,” he cocks his head to the side and looks again at my bag. Slowly he begins carefully pawing through my bag, searching for the magic bullet. When he arrives at my toiletries bag he seems more assured that he’s found what he’s looking for. After emptying its contents he looks up at me and says, “no bullet.”
“Right, no bullet. I have no bullet.” Chiaki and I start to laugh and this puts the other inspection agent at ease. She says something to the man in Korean and they quickly rush my things over to the X-ray machine for another look. In another minute we’re finally stepping out into the cold Korean evening. What am I have supposed to have done with one bullet anyway?
Tags: Capitals tour of Asia, Korea
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