Exploring Seoul: What I Observed, Admired and Learned
An eye-opening journey to South Korea
Travelling is something everyone should do throughout their life. It’s a great way to learn about new cultures, experience new things and meet amazing people.
It can be quite eye-opening when you travel to a country that is far different than your home.
Recently, I travelled to Seoul, South Korea for a week, and it was one of the best places I’ve ever been to.
In this blog post, I will go over what I observed, admired and learned during my time in this incredible city.
A different level of respect
People in South Korea not only respect others, but they respect their environment.
Although there is a language barrier, if you ask someone for help, they will almost always do their best to do whatever they can.
They won’t ignore you if you try to talk to them.
In North America, I find that far too often if you try to ask someone for help, they’ll keep walking straight pretending they can’t hear you or make up some excuse why they can’t (“I’m in rush.”).
I don’t know if theft is a thing in South Korea.
I say that because in the airport, for example, you leave your suitcase outside the restaurant when you go in. In fact, you can leave in there for hours, come back, and it’ll still be there.
The same goes for your cell phone. If you leave it on a table in the mall, it’ll still be there hours later.
There’s almost no litter either. It’s even crazier when you realize there are so few garbage cans. People just carry it until they find one.
The entire time I was in Seoul, I didn’t witness anyone spit on the ground or hit anything out of anger. They even wipe their table after eating, and return their trays. If you forget to bring your tray back you’ll see the person next to you carry it for you.
To be honest, so many of these things should just be normal behaviour, yet, I find it weird because this is not normal in North America.
Cleanliness.
South Korea is by far the cleanest country I’ve ever gone to. Again, this is odd because we constantly found it hard to find garbage.
There is no litter anywhere and the roads, floors and surfaces are always clean.
As I write this, I‘m at the airport looking around. The floor is shining, I can’t find any litter anywhere, and an older man is wiping his handprint off the glass railing after leaning against it.
There is a cleaner riding a machine that mops the floors and in his hand, he has a long clamp that he used to pick a toothpick off the floor. My honest guess is the toothpick was left there by a foreigner.
One day we went shopping, and after walking in, someone behind us used a lint roller on the carpet to clean up the dust that came off our shoes from outside.
The only part of Seoul that was somewhat dirty was in Hongdae, they leave the garbage bags on the street until the garbage truck comes to pick them up. Even then, it was fairly organized and in specific areas instead of in front of every business like New York.
The cleanliness in South Korea is something North Americans can learn from.
I don’t think this is because they are specifically trying to be clean. I believe they are clean because they have pride in their environment, and again, they are respectful.
That same pride shows elsewhere too.
A strong history
Throughout the city, you can find “ancient” temples and palaces. Many of these are not the originals because when they were invaded by the Japanese, they were unfortunately burnt down.
However, these temples and palaces were rebuilt to resemble the originals, and have been maintained very well to show the beautiful architecture.
Upon visiting these places, you can find people of all ages sitting silently admiring what once was.
You can tell that everyone who is visiting has a certain pride in how far they’ve come as a country.
I don’t know too much about their history, so I don’t want to pretend that I do or try to give you a lesson on their past. What I do want to do is tell you what I observed.
What I observed more than anything is that they are very proud to be Korean, proud of their culture, and proud of how far they have come.
And from what I saw, they have reason to be.
Incredible flavours.
I already knew I loved Korean food before I went. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go in the first place. However, I didn’t know that on every single block, there would be another delicious-looking restaurant.
It’s a lot like Italy in that sense. Incredible food is everywhere and it’s almost impossible to find bad food.
Whether you like soup (I love soup), fried chicken, bbq, steak, noodles, or whatever… Koreans do it well.
Oh… and the cafes!
They make surprisingly good coffee, donuts, pancakes, cakes, croissants and everything else.
Every day we went to a cafe to try something else.
Their incredible selection of food, affordability of food, and availability, makes it even more impressive that the population is in such great shape.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the supermarkets.
They take care of themselves.
The whole world is on a health kick, but it’s no secret that North Americans are… fat.
South Koreans are slim, and many of them are quite athletic.
While I was in South Korea, I averaged between 20-30000 steps a day. I was definitely walking more than a local would be walking, but the fact that you can walk anywhere safely could be one of the reasons Koreans are in great shape.
However, a lot of the food is healthy, and there are gyms everywhere.
On top of that, as I mentioned before, Koreans have pride. That pride also plays into their looks. They want to look their best.
From what I saw in Seoul, Koreans are some of the best-dressed people I’ve ever seen. The only place I’ve been that beats them is Milan.
They also have incredible skin. South Koreans are known for their great skincare routines, and it shows.
What I’m getting at is they care about themselves, and their appearance, and that’s something I admire.
South Korea is just…practical.
I don’t know how else to say it, but everything just makes sense.
There are so many times when I’m in Canada, especially Winnipeg, where I sit there wondering who came up with this bad idea.
“Why did someone build this road like this? Who’s idea was it to put a stadium here? Why is this always broken?”
There is none of this in Korea. Everything just makes sense.
The infrastructure is incredible. The furthest we went in a car anywhere was 1 hour. That was during rush hour in a city of 10 million people + tourists, and that was considered a long drive
Meanwhile, to get home from downtown in rush hour in my city of 700,000 people takes the same time.
Here is a list of random things that just make sense:
Toilets have bidets
Food courts have water stations.
Bus shelters are air-conditioned and heated
Convenient stores have microwaves and hot water taps.
There are charger stations everywhere, even in bus shelters
Everyone stands on the right on escalators so people in a rush can pass by
Crosswalks light up so people on their phones don’t accidentally cross when it’s not time
Food courts have a specific ordering station where you pick which restaurant you want to order from. When it’s ready you go to that restaurant.
South Korea is so safe.
There was nowhere I went where I felt the need to look behind my back or to be ready in case someone was sketchy.
Everywhere felt safe.
I’d be surprised if there is any crime at all. I’m only kind of kidding.
People were freely walking at all times of day, no one stares at you, and everyone is respectful.
If I walk around in my city during the afternoon, I have to keep my eyes open to make sure nothing sketchy is going on because you just never know.
Not in Korea.
Even when we went out to the club. The place was packed, with people getting hammered, dancing, and bumping into each other. Didn’t matter… No one was fighting, they would just keep going.
The same environment in a club in North America and there would be someone getting bottled, another getting stabbed, and a couple of shootings.
Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit… but working in nightclubs for so long, I was absolutely baffled by how no one even pushed someone out of the way in Korea.
I have never felt as safe being in any country as I have in South Korea.
South Korea is a trendsetter
You’ve probably watched Squid Games or Parasite.
You’ve for sure heard of K-Pop.
And there’s a good chance one of your favourite outfits was inspired by Korean style without you knowing.
South Korea is now a trendsetter.
Over the past few years, perhaps decades, South Korean fashion, music, film, etc, has grown in popularity. You can see that they take it very seriously.
Every ad has a K-Pop star it in and they’re dressed ridiculously well.
Street corners all have stores where you can either buy top designer brands at high prices, or local streetwear brands at very reasonable prices. Regardless of which you buy, you’re looking great.
Walking down the street you’ll see buskers dancing and singing, very well.
In malls, you’ll be left spinning in circles undecided about where to go because every store is a potential option.
I truly admire how South Korea has skyrocketed and came “out of nowhere” to be a global trendsetter in numerous industries.
Closing Remarks
Everywhere I travel, l learn something new, find something I admire and observe something interesting.
South Korea is a country that did all of these things more than any other country I’ve been to.
I observed just how great a country can be when everyone has pride and respect while being shown that I can also learn to dress better.
It is a country I will definitely visit again, and somewhere I will always recommend others to visit.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t speak Korean and that it’s difficult to immigrate there, I would also consider it a potential place to live.
Have you been to Korea before? What were your thoughts?
Thanks for reading
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