Rice in a life bowl

Seoul, South Kerea (7-10/7/2006)

After my time in Australia, I flew to Seoul and spent there 3 days, before continuing to India.
Stayed in a very recommended hostel named: Holiday Inn Korea, next to Anguk Subway station.
Some general notes from that experience:
Seoul and south Korean people surprised me in their culture in many ways:
-it is not like the typical Asian culture in the sense that people are quite warm and the physical space between people is very small, much more like Israeli mentality, and not anything like what I imagine in Japan for example.
-men and woman show affection in public, just like in the western world.
-the woman's status is very similar to the Israeli's in the sense that it is developing fast, and woman generally go to work and have their own career, but still are expected to do the house work all alone as well. Men in Korea are not yet adjusted to the new situation, from what I hear (Just like in Israel ain it?).
-the clubbing scene is very strange: Instead of dancing with each other- people dance towards the DJ, as if it was a live music concert. It was really strange for me, and that brings me to the next topic:
- From all the conversations I had, it seems that it is still a very "group thinking" society, and people have a hard time excepting individual way of thinking. They are therefore having a hard time, apparently, to evoke creativity- even when it is needed. However, because people are "going with the flow", imitating instead of inventing, it is very easy (it seamed to me) to be a leader is such a culture if you have your own way of thinking and some confidence attached to that. For (a small) example: when I stopped walking in the street in order to look at this chef preparing his own noodles- I noticed to my surprise that many people stopped after me to look as well and all of a sudden this massive crowd appeared in front of the window. Before I stopped- no one else was looking, and everyone just kept on going.
And last but not least- amazing looking woman out there, and a great fashion sense as well!

As for the food- Very rich food, with an amazing diversity of tastes in every meal, but it was very hard to get a vegi meal. I got a lady in the airport to write to me in the Korean language that I do not eat meat, chicken, fish etc... and I actually got kicked out of many restaurants having shown them that note. However, I did find an excellent vegi restaurant just off Insadongill st., if anyone needs a recommendation- just ask..  

posted by Linda Jakob @ 8:07 AM