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• TEN THINGS I LIKE ABOUT SEOUL, KOREA

  1. Bathrooms - No matter where you are in Seoul, a bathroom is close by. This may not sound like a big deal, but for anyone who has traveled, being able to find a bathroom when you really “need” a bathroom can be a problem if you aren’t in a “touristy” part of town (and you aren’t a customer). If you’ve got iron bowels, then perhaps this isn’t something you care too much about. However, if you’re like me, and need a bathroom a couple of times a day, Seoul is the place to need a bathroom. You can pretty much find a bathroom on the first floor of every large building, each and every subway station, and in cafe’s, restaurants, gas stations, parks, and if you’re polite, even police stations. In fact, one of the things I like most is that you can walk into the fanciest of restaurants, and the staff will happily let you use their facilities. Fucking amazing!
  2. Mass Transit - People born and raised in Seoul take their transit system for granted. I guess most people still “hope” to own a car and be able to drive everywhere they want to go. However, that is an extremely unsustainable situation in Seoul. As it is right now, traffic is a bitch, and there isn’t enough parking for the people who do drive, so the sidewalks, curb lanes, and each and every nook and cranny that can fit an automobile is. While Torontonians (my hometown) argue and fuss over even the most trivial of mass transit issues, Seoul is churning out new subways, new subway lines, and expanding services to new areas, closing service gaps, and generally making the system better each and every year. If subways aren’t your thing (not really mine), the bus system, once you get the hang of it, is amazing as well. All that mass transit for, on average, a buck a ride! Fucking amazing! [If you’re running windows, try this bus map site (sadly, it’s still using ActiveX and requires IE)]
  3. Cleanliness - A lot of expat bloggers like to bitch about the garbage situation in Seoul, but I tend to think most of those bitchers come from small towns where they have never had to deal with the amount of garbage that piles up in a big city.  This group of bitchers often posts pictures of garbage cans overflowing with garbage, or piles of garbage near bus stops. Fact is, if those same bitchers were to visit the same spot the next day, the garbage is probably gone, or it’s an entirely new pile of debris. Seoul does a good job cleaning itself up, plain and simple. Another group of expat bloggers like to bitch about having to buy “special” garbage bags. These people are clearly lazy suburbanites who grew up just throwing whatever the fuck they wanted into gigantic black trash bags they could put on the curb for pickup once or twice a week. Well, I kind of like my trash bags paying for my trash collection, and now that the general population of Seoul has gotten used to the idea, trash cans are being deployed in more and more areas, which is lowering the number of small piles of trash in and around bus stops. If you throw a lot away, you’re paying more for that service than people who don’t. That, in my opinion, is fucking amazing!
  4. Safety - Seoul isn’t the safest place on earth, but it’s pretty damn safe. I can’t, for the life of me, think of an area of the city I shouldn’t be when it gets dark. Sure, there are people who rape, kill, assault, etc. but that is something each and every city on earth must deal with. In general, if I’m sitting at an outside cafe and I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t really think twice about leaving my bag at the table. It’s going to be there when I get back. Petty theft/mugging isn’t a big issue here, and for that I am thankful. Thanks for not being petty thieves, Seoulites!
  5. Photo Opportunities - Seoul is BIG. There are areas of the city that are almost completely new and shiny with wide streets, and there are older areas with narrow meandering side streets that are fun to explore. I’ve done a good job exploring Seoul, but even after ten years, there are areas I still don’t know exist. For someone like me - a dude who loves street photography - that’s gold!
  6. Drinking Culture - If you like to drink, Seoul is for you! Drinking is possible quite literally everywhere. You can outside (I do!), on the bus (I don’t!), on the subway (I don’t!), and even in a taxi while you’re heading somewhere to drink more (Maybe a couple of times?). In fact, as long as the driver isn’t drinking, you can drink in the passenger seat of a car. AMAZING! Seoul, and Korea, has a great drinking culture. There are many puritanical expats in Seoul who consider the drinking culture a downer, but they can suck it up and avoid it if they so choose. They’ll bring up darker aspects of the drinking culture (people crashed on a bench, sidewalk, street because they’re too drunk to get home, or the “forced” drinking that occurs at company dinners) but there are darker aspects of every culture. If you aren’t the type of person who will drink to excess, and you have the balls to say “hey coworkers, I’ve had enough to drink!” then you will find Seoul full of drinking fun.
  7. Smoking is Cheap - 2,700 won a pack! FUCK YEAH!
  8. Style and the lack thereof - You can be as stylish as you want in Seoul. This is true. However, it’s always fun to sit on a bench or on a patio and watch fashion catastrophes walk by. In fact, I think VICE magazine would have a “don’t” field day if they were to give Seoul a few days. I find it especially fun looking at what kinds of shoes people are wearing. Holy shit there are some god awful shoes being worn in Seoul. I don’t think this is something negative though. It enriches my life to know there are people with less style than me walking side by side with people who have much more style than me. Seoul style categories include, women who dress for church all the time, men who dress for the office every day of the week, the younger “I’m trying to hard to be hip” hipsters, and the ‘I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, but I’m going to do it anyway” crowd. Don’t get me wrong, Seoulites have style, it’s just that sometimes those styles clash in incredible ways. Fucking amazing!
  9. The Women - Korean women are smokin hot. I won’t say any more than that for fear that my smokin hot wife will get jealous and beat me up.
  10. The Community - Seoulites might love their pc games, dramas, and other ‘inside’ activities, but they still get out and do stuff. The strolling down the street and going to a cafe, bar, restaurant culture here is alive and strong. Indeed, even older people get out to the many small parks with pagodas and exercise equipment and congregate. I find life here to be much more social than back home. I love that no matter what time of day or night it is, there are usually people outside doing something. Perhaps this is one reason there isn’t a lot of petty theft.

  • #Seoul
  • #waiting for my camera to die
  • #tumblrize
  • #10 things I like
  • #Seoul
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