Understanding Travel Restrictions and Cultural Insights from Seoul
There are two things I don't understand. First, why are harmless items banned from being taken on planes? Second, what is the point of duty-free shops at airports? You can’t take small scissors, lighters, or water bottles in your carry-on luggage. I can’t see how any of these could be used to hijack a plane. I thought maybe a hijacker could trick people by using a water or juice bottle filled with petrol and set it on fire with a lighter. It's like saying, "Don't let the fly enter the garden, or the butterfly's blood will be spilled for no reason."
Incheon, the airport, is an hour and a half away from Seoul. The drive is beautiful, with the sea on one side and small hills on the other. As soon as you step outside the airport, you can see the splendor of Korea. However, the airport system is quite ridiculous. If you have a flight, you need to leave home at least four hours early. I haven't seen such long lines anywhere else, not even in Chicago or New York, and it's not because the airport is busy, but due to poor management. After checking in at the airline counter, you have to stand in line for at least an hour to get to the security gate.
As for duty-free shops, they have the same joke everywhere: they say "duty-free," but prices are often higher than in the city. This might be due to airport rents, but then what's the point of calling it duty-free?
The weather in Seoul was very strange. You could wear shorts and a t-shirt, but if you wanted, you could also throw on an overcoat. In the morning it was hot, in the rain it was cold, at night it got colder, and then suddenly hot again. I thought Seoul's weather would be like Bangkok's, but it turned out to be a completely different world. The flight from Islamabad takes ten hours, and I mistakenly thought it was close to Bangkok. When I looked at the map, I realized Korea and Japan are in East Asia, while Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and eleven other countries that make up ASEAN are in Southeast Asia. To us, they all look the same, just like they don’t see any difference among the SAARC countries.
One of my cousins explained this interestingly. He said that in the '90s, he went to America using his friend's passport. I asked how he could use a passport that didn't match his appearance. He laughed and said that Americans think our faces all look alike, just like we see no difference between Chinese and Japanese faces.
After the weather, another highlight of Seoul is its barbecue, which is famous worldwide. Our hosts had a special arrangement for it; there was chicken and duck at dinner, which was fine, but when I saw roasted octopus on the table, I couldn’t continue and politely excused myself. They insisted, but I said I had eaten such a heavy breakfast that I couldn’t even taste anything.
The next day, they took us to a place where Korean cooking was taught. A woman worked hard to show us how to make a few vegetable dishes, then said we should make our own lunch and eat it. Thankfully, there was a young person with us who knew how to cook Korean food, or else we wouldn’t have had lunch. I ended up going to 7-Eleven because I’m not yet vegetarian enough to be forced to eat Korean vegetables.
In the center of Seoul flows the Han River, with tall, impressive buildings lining its banks—this is the skyline of Seoul, home to all major Korean company offices. There are cruises on the river where you can eat while enjoying the view. This is common in many cities, but such things have become rare in our country. Our rivers have somehow become neglected; the Ravi used to flow through Lahore, and this isn’t an ancient tale—it's something we saw happen. Now, neither the Ravi nor that Lahore remains.
During my time in Korea, I kept wondering what makes them special compared to us. If I were to write it down, I could list many things, but in the end, it boils down to this: we have not benefited from any system; we always end up with losses. This is Korea, which didn’t have democracy until 1988, just like we didn’t. They also fought alongside the US in the Vietnam War, while we did the same in Afghanistan.
Korea received billions of dollars from America, and so did we, yet we couldn’t take off while Korea is soaring at 40,000 feet today. The only reason is that nations need to focus on a single goal. Korea didn’t waste billions; they invested in their industry, leading to Korean technology being recognized worldwide. We, on the other hand, channeled all our energy into making nuclear bombs, achieving our goal of creating one while blinding the world.
Koreans aren’t more intelligent or capable than us; they are just like us. To be honest, a street-smart child from our neighborhood might be even sharper. In Seoul, if you ask someone for directions to a shop, they’ll pull out their phone and check Google Maps.
Whether it's Seoul, Jakarta, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur, nothing is fundamentally different there that we don’t have in Lahore, Karachi, or Peshawar. We just made the mistake of not taking the right bus and instead hopped onto a wagon with no destination. That’s the essence of my trip to Korea!
