Back in December, I had a 14-hour layover in South Korea on my way to Hawaii from Thailand, and decided to make the best of it. I arrived at 6 in the morning into Incheon, where I napped for 3 hours, waiting for the sun to come up and for me to recover from my 7-hour flight from Bangkok. I then cruised through immigration, asked for the best sites to see in Seoul at the information counter, pulled out a few thousand Won from an ATM, and caught a bus into the city.

The only thing I didn’t plan for: snow. I forgot to check the weather, and having skipped fall and winter in my cozy SE Asian corner of the world, I failed to consider the phenomenon of seasons elsewhere. Although I had scarves and a jacket in my big bag that I had checked, I had to make do with a long sleeve shirt and my thin fleece in the 30-degree freeze. (more…)