Sunday, July 5, 2020

South Korea, culture shock!

After all this time in the Mongolian and Russian wilderness Seoul was quite the shock, albeit a good one!





















For the first few nights we were based in Yeongdeungpo district, with the little streets packed with restaurants and bars. And neon LED signs, soooo many signs blinking and flashing that it became never dark in the streets.
Speaking of restaurants, the number one thing we did in South Korea was eating πŸ€€ Just too many things to try and taste! And it was always great! Okay maybe except once were Melanie led us into a restaurant only serving guts, but we couldn't read the menu πŸ™ˆ Was quite chewy πŸ€£ 



Love the busy streets



Night life


Besides bars and restaurants there were lots of little "hotels" for romantic excursions πŸ˜ 
More than once during our stay in Korea we had hotels which were clearly catering to couples. Often the wallpaper had a "romantic" touch or tried to be "classy" with logos of European brands or text in German! which didn't make any sense πŸ˜† 
Hair brushes and combs, not the single use kind! were common. Also condoms (single use😜) and lots of cosmetic products and tinctures were standard in almost any room we had all over the country. As in Japan you would often get some slippers and leave the shoes at the entrance. Another speciality which almost every room had was a computer! I guess you've got to get your StarCraft training in everywhere πŸ˜œ 



Speak easy bar, entrance through the fridge!
Eating and drinking

Apart from eating we did some shopping πŸ˜„ Having left the charger for my MacBook Air in the car we visited the famous Yongsan Electronics Market. *
Hundreds if not thousands of little stalls selling all kinds of electronic stuff. To stay connected we got ourselves a unlimited 4G data SIM card which worked perfect. The translation apps helped quite a bit getting around as not much is labeled in English! Speaking of apps, Google Maps doesn't work in South Korea! Apparently the one thing North Korea has that the South doesn't, link 🀷‍♂️ We used the local mapping apps from Kakao and Naver but mainly relied on OpenStreetMaps.

We also had to stroll through the Myeondong shopping street with its many little boutiques. Selling mainly cloths, shoes and cosmetics. And yes that how it sounds with every other shop blasting its tunes out into the little alleys πŸ˜΅


All this shopping obviously came at a price... As we entered South Korea only with our (rather small) backpacks a little trolley was needed πŸ€¦‍♂️ Still less luggage as the average Thailand-Backpacker πŸ˜‚

The LandCruiser wouldn't fit either πŸ˜†
Getting our shoes repaired on the street

























As a typhoon was heading to Seoul we decided to leave the city and take the train to head south east, avoiding the storm and rainy weather!

* After getting the MacBook stolen in South Africa I've got now two chargers left but no MacBook πŸ™ˆπŸ™„