2024-04-11 22:24:55
Days passed. The editor-in-chief did not contact me. I almost forgot about travel and work, and I was busy reading, writing, attending seminars, and participating in festivals, until my friend Youssef Abdel Fattah nominated me to participate in the opening of the Korean Center for Arab and Islamic Culture in South Korea.
My friend, journalist and writer, Mustafa Abdullah, said: It is the trip of a lifetime. He had previously traveled there and enjoyed the most beautiful trip of his life, despite the fact that he constantly travels to many countries due to his journalistic work, and then his editorship of the weekly “Akhbar Al-Adab” newspaper.
The invitation actually came and I went to collect the visa from the Korean embassy in Cairo. I met the Korean cultural attaché who saved me from returning again the next day to collect the passport. He went to his colleague, the visa employee. She was a bit fat, unlike the Korean women I saw there. He told her of the necessity of obtaining the visa on the same day, so that I could return to Alexandria with the visa. The employee responded.
I traveled with a large delegation from Cairo to the Korean capital, Seoul, via Dubai as a waiting stop for ten hours that I did not feel comfortable with, as the business class gives you the opportunity to spend an enjoyable time for free in the airport cafeterias, including food, drinks, internet, and so on. There we met a number of other Arab participants, including the editor-in-chief of the magazine where I will work.
The Koreans celebrated us and named one of the streets in the city of Incheon, where the center is located, “Arab Street.” It seemed that they knew me, as I found a translation of some of my articles into Korean, and pictures of me on the covers of some of their magazines, and some websites that were displayed on large screens of the famous Korean “Samsung” type.
At the opening ceremony, they called our names one by one and we went up to the main stage, amidst warm reception and applause. My position came in the forefront in front of some of the participants, whom I obscured by standing in front of them from the eyes of the cameras and television channels covering the event. One of them asked me to go back so they could appear in front of the cameras. I didn’t respond.
I noticed and the participants noticed how interested the editor-in-chief was in my presence there. He indirectly assigned me to write reports and impressions about the trip and the program, and alerted me to the need to take many pictures from different angles, despite the presence of another editor appointed to the magazine with him, who would not leave him except when he slept. This editor felt that I was a threat to him and to his status and favor, so he sometimes began to approach me, and sometimes he neglected and ignored me, until it became clear to him who I was.
We traveled on a domestic plane trip to Jeju Island, which has a charming, captivating and cunning nature. A catastrophe almost occurred when the glass of the plane’s captain’s cabin was broken. After the plane took off, we were surprised by its quick return to Incheon Airport, the plane being unloaded of its cargo and its passengers, and being replaced by another plane. None of the plane’s navigators told us about the dimensions of the disaster until after we boarded the replacement plane.
We reached the island. There was an unusual celebration at the residence hotel, and one of the Koreans who spoke good Arabic whispered to me that there were no prohibitions in their hotel regarding anything. All our requests were answered, whether for food, drink, bathing, massage, or even sex.
Korean girls, although they are small in body, have narrow eyes, and have yellow skin (neither blondes nor brunettes), are attractive, cheerful and always smiling. They attract you to them with skill, lightness and affection (Korea is the young woman and you are the old man). All you have to do is point and write the number of the room you are in to go up to you. The beautiful, slim Korean, smiling sweetly.
I did not sleep that night after hearing what would have happened to us if the pilot of the plane with the broken glass had insisted on continuing the flight.
I called Egypt from my hotel room phone to check on the family and reassure them about me. I did not want to talk to them about the plane, but Mustafa Abdullah wrote in Al-Akhbar newspaper after our return.
I stayed awake until the morning in my room. I thought I would call the editor-in-chief’s room to check on him and make an early friendship with him. I remembered that he did not come with us from the beginning, and preferred to stay in the capital, Seoul.
I did not order food or drink, nor did I open the door of the mini-bar refrigerator in the hotel room, nor did I choose a Korean girl to spend the night with, as anything is permitted on the island.
At the end of the next day, while preparing for our return to the capital, we were surprised that the hotel management asked us to pay exorbitant sums for everything that was a personal request, and asked me personally to pay for the call I made to the family in Alexandria. Some of the flight mates who used the minibar, or used the girls, whether for massages or anything beyond, were exposed. Everything is accounted for.
After we returned to the Korean capital, Seoul, I asked about the editor-in-chief. His subordinate told me that he had left for his country and left you this envelope. I opened the envelope and found a piece of paper from the hotel on which was written: “I liked your activity, reports, and notes on the trip. I am waiting for you soon to join the team.” Magazine staff.
His subordinate asked me: What does the editor-in-chief want from you? I told him: Nothing, just greet me. He looked at me with a look of doubt and suspicion, but I did not pay attention to him. I said to myself: How will I deal with this subordinate after he joined the “family” of editing the magazine?
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#Trip #lifetime