It's a long road home

     The light show finished with a grand finale featuring the 1812 Overture.  I reluctantly packed my bags, settled up my bill, and met my tuk tuk driver, who was the very same gentleman who'd picked me up from the airport  and the next day took me on the tour of Phnom Penh!  That seemed like ages ago to me, but apparently not to him, because he greeted me by name with the utmost friendliness.
     We drove through the darkened streets to the airport, and I savored the sights and the night air for about a half hour until we arrived at the airport.  I'd worried that there might be some complications leaving because of that guy who kept demanding "MORE!" when I'd come through customs, but as Jack would say, "no worries."  I checked in as quickly and uneventfully as if it had been Rhinelander.
      I did a little snooping around the airport shops, made a couple of small purchases, and my flight loaded and took off precisely on time, just as I had come to expect from Korean Air Lines.
      The woman seated next to my right was SO irritable, SO jumpy, and SO agitated she was scary.  I mean scary as in "Is she planning to blow up the plane?" scary.  That was a mystery that went unsolved, though, and I was consoled by my other seatmate Juliet, who LIVES in Phnom Penh, is doing missionary work there, and was going home to Utah briefly for her daughter's wedding.  She was great company, and since neither of us could sleep, that was a good thing.
       We arrived in Seoul without blowing up, and I resigned myself to the tedium of a 12-hour layover.  Juliet's flight left much earlier than mine, so we had a leisurely breakfast and then I helped her schlep all her carry-on stuff to her gate.  I was rewarded by her letting me use her netbook to actually Skype with Scott.  Scott showed me Aramis, live and lively, and I got acutely homesick.
       I suppose interesting airports are rare, but let me assure you that Seoul's is not one of them, unless you happen to like to shop EXTREMELY high end shops--like Hermes and Chanel and so on and so on.  It seemed horribly excessive to me after Cambodia, and I didn't like it one bit.  I even indulged myself in a little--OK, VERY little--joke that Seoul has no soul.
      The weird thing was that in the midst of all this blatant consumerism there'd be these little theatrical vignettes.  People dressed up in traditional Korean costumes, pretending to be an ancient Korean court or something.  Formal to the nth degree--beautiful costumes--well, I can't pretend I liked it after seeing it every hour upon the hour for-----let's see----- about 12 times.
       After the interminable wait, my flight was finally called, precisely on time in fine Korean style, and I was headed for O'Hare sweet O'Hare.