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| View from the Novotel in Gangnam |
After spending a week in Chinese cities, I really appreciate Seoul. This city is huge. At 20.5 million people, it is the second largest city by population in the world behind Tokyo. But despite its size, it bears little resemblence to places like Shanghai. For one thing, and I noticed this immediately, Seoul is much cleaner. Shanghai seems to be perpetually covered in dust, there are little piles of rubble everywhere you look, and the grime makes even new buildings look shabby and poorly maintained. Also unlike Shanghai, Seoul traffic actually flows, drivers seem to actually obey things like stop lights and lane markers. Driving here does not resemble a blood sport.
I am staying in the Gangnam neighborhood, probably best known to Americans (at least those under the age of twenty) from this video - a humorous dance and song making fun of the rich people in this part of Seoul.
I was only in Korea for two days, but had a very enjoyable time. My Korean colleagues took me out for a traditional Korean dinner; shoes off, sitting on the floor, and maybe a dozen different dishes - all of which were quite good and nothing too strange. The best was something that required assembly - a sesame leaf onto which you place a piece of roast pork and some kimchee, You are supposed to roll it up and eat in one bite - using only your chop sticks, including the rolling part. I apparently have a lot to learn about mastering the use of these - the Koreans made it look easy - mine looked like it had been run over by team of horses.
After dinner they took me to a Karaoke bar. Yes, I sang....sort of. Two pieces of advice here. If you can't sing worth a damn - like me - you can still sound good on a Bob Dylan song because after all, Bob can't really sing either. I think I rocked on "Like a Rolling Stone". The second piece of advice; Freddy Mercury had a great voice so I appologize now to the surviving members of Queen for what I did to "We Are the Champions". I never really liked that song anyway...
By the way, every toilet I have seen in Korea has a control panel. Just study the buttons on the photo below. All I will say is.... well, lets just say this is interesting and leave it at that.
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| Mission Control! |
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