Korea - Work Hard, Party Hard

Leading from the series of Travel posts that I have been doing every month and plan to do them until January cos that's how the project is making me travel. This month, is the month for Korea. Yes, readers, UTP has contaminated the streets of Seoul, South Korea this month.

Seoul is probably the best of the lot that I have visited to date. Its a huge city, big buildings all around, lot of industry and home for technology giants such as Samsung & LG and not to mention Car Makers Hyundai & KIA who by the way are one of the main sponsors for the FIFA World Cup this year as well. Just amazing.

Both North Korea and South Korea qualified for the world cup this year and hence this sponsorship makes a lot of sense. Koreans make good cars and they have a big General Motors Unit here as well by the name of GM Daewoo. You must have heard that name before as well.

People are more crazy about Baseball here than Football (Soccer) though but I was told that when South Korea played a football world cup game, there were 8 lane roads (highways) that were blocked for traffic cos people stepped out and watched the game on huge Screens on buildings while hanging around on the streets. The number of people touched a million when South Korea played the last game. That's amazing isn't it? Imagine the site of so many people on the roads and screaming with oohs and aahs. I would have loved to be part of that, only arrived 2 days late.

Koreans won the Olympic Gold in baseball last Olympics and since then their league has got stronger and much more interest from people as well.

The Korean food is well, different to define it nicely. Lots of seafood and beef around and they use a lot of Garlic in their foods. They eat less but eat healthy with vegetables coming into the diet more and more. I had a problem with halal food so stuck to the breads, veggies and doughnuts around. However, I did have Korean food which was quite interesting. KimChi and Jin Seng are two things that you will hear from Korea. Both are excellent for vitality as I heard from many people and with winks from the old ladies. Indicating, that stuff helps increasing the population of the world.

I wouldn't say its a cosmopolitan city but it has got its western influence in terms of fashion, culture which is nothing different from other countries. However, it is good to know from people that the younger generation is close to its roots and lives up to cultural traditions. Most of the population here is Christian and the next big chunk follow Buddhism with the other being minorities.

Its a city filled with gadgets and technology. Every car has a GPS system and quite an advanced one which tells potential traffic jams and the best route to take etc. I was particularly impressed with the number of power sockets I saw in taxis. GPS, cell phones, satellite trackers, I don't know what not. Quite interesting.

People travel by subway or public buses cos taxis aren't that cheap. Ipods, iphones and a lot of Korean technology products around. Why not? You got 2 world leading brands living here.

Korea is known for its cotton and specially night wear such as pyjamas both ladies and men and more popular for the babies. I'll see if I can get some for my kiddies.

Koreans speak Korean which is completely different from Japanese or Chinese. I had to write this specifically out for my intelligent sister.

Probably the only problem I had was with the language and the food. Otherwise, it is right up there with the big and successful cities of the world. It was amazing to see everything so well managed and organized in such a big city.

Koreans work hard which I could see in front of me but they dont work a minute later than the official timings. Then they party hard all the way into the night and specially on the weekends. Good quality of living defined.

Been here a week, got another to go. Lets see what else I see in the upcoming week. There is NANTA on the cards which deserves a dedicated post. Coming up right after this.