After saying goodbye to her family and the CHP staff at the airport in Mongolia, we boarded our first leg of the trip to Seoul, South Korea. For some unknown reason, we got bumped up to First Class!! Of course this was quite a nice experience, but I had to explain to them all the flights would most likely not be this way. We definitely enjoyed that first flight :). Despite having a 4 hour layover in Seoul, we BARELY made our flight. I'll spare you all the boring details, but we had some ticketing issues and spent most of our 4 hours at the airline ticket counter, and getting through security and immigration. When we made it through and were headed to find our terminal and gate, we had exactly 8 minutes until the gate closed. Not 8 minutes until they started boarding, but until it CLOSED. At the entrance to the train that would take us to our terminal, there happened to be an airport information person, and she had a phone. I asked her if she could please call our gate to tell them we were coming and to not close the door. She didn't question me at all, dialed the number, and handed me her phone. I actually think that she was an angel and probably disappeared when I turned around and walked away :). When we took the train and got off the elevator, I tried to inspire urgency in my group as best I could, and off we went running down the hallway toward our gate. We had exactly 3 minutes. It was ridiculously close, but we made it!
Everything went smoothly after that. Our 12 hour flight went by fairly quickly and before we knew it, our traveling adventures had ended. Enguun took it all in stride, slept most of the way, and had a successful open heart surgery one week after arriving in the states. She is recovering well and will soon go back home to her family.
Here is the link to a few more pictures: CHP-Mongolia
