Seoul, South Korea
Observations:
- It is a noisy city. Everything talks to you: buses, doors, phones, remote controls (or is it the objects they control that talk?) Also: recordings of Brahms concertos playing in public toilets = the pinnacle of civilization?
- Perhaps it’s the Starbucks, but you never feel like a stranger. Nobody looks at you funny or treats you like a tourist/retard. Most people don’t speak much English, but translations of menus and coffee drinks are far superior to those of the former Soviet states I have visited, and sometimes, even France.
- You’re culinarily screwed if you don’t like kimchi. I love kimchi.
- Unlike most big cities, South Koreans seem genuinely happy (…that they aren’t in the North?)
- The exercise machines in public parks are just like the ones that have been popping up in Tehran. I suppose it’s OK for the Iranian government’s urban planning to take after Korea, it not being in the West and all. But I can’t help but wonder if the Ayatollahs know about Venice Beach.
- There is an amazing building near our hotel in Incheon that looks like it was inspired by the game Jenga. There are gaping rectangular holes in parts of the building. Dare I say that you could even fly a jetplane through them?
- Speaking multiple languages is great because you can tag along with tourist groups incognito, and ditch them when they get boring. Yesterday, at one of Seoul’s Royal Palaces, we came accross a group of Russian-speaking Mongolian (we think - they were tanned and Asian looking) tourists led by an eccentric white guy in a kimono. The women were built like small Sumo wrestlers and cooed at Korean babies, whose parents looked somewhat frightened.
