I'm bored on the plane back to Australia so I'm just going to take some notes about my trip to South Korea.
First I think some basics that I wished I had known about before:
- Trash cans are a luxury over there so pack some plastic bags to carry around
- Contactless payments only work with roughly half of the payment terminals used over there so make sure you pack some cash too or get a physical card
- Everyone dresses quite well in the cities so make sure you pack your best clothes if you want to fit in
- Navigating the train network is a nightmare if you don't have one of their travel cards
And then some basics that I learned before I went which helped immensely:
- Install Papago (the translation app). It's super helpful
- Learn some basics Korean phrases like hello and thankyou
So I had an absolute blast in Korea. I was only there for 1 week but I was very satisfied with the experience. The whole experience felt like I was in a hyper-consumerist wonderland. Anything that I could think of, I could buy or experience. There was always something new at every street corner and every different suburb that I visited was like travelling to a completely different world entirely. You'd enter Myeongdong and be met with a hyper-consumerist underground with a sea of people and endless places to buy food and spend money. They you'd visit Gangnam and find yourself in an upper class city with skyscrapers at every street corner. Every place had its own unique culture and style.
Above all else, everyone, no matter where you went, looked like they felt comfortable with themselves. What I mean is that I feel like if I were to hop on the a peak hour train in Korea, I'd be met with a bunch of really chill people instead of a high-cortisol sea of 9-5ers.
This chillness also showed itself in typical working hours. You'll find that a lot of shops don't even open until 10-11am. I couldn't quite figure out why. Could it be that it makes them more money? Or do people just want to sleep-in? Either way, it meant that the nightlife was absolutely spectacular.
In Australia, once it hits 10pm on a Friday night, basically the only things that are open other than clubs are Macca's, kebab shops and some convenience stores. In Korea, everything is open at this time, and they are open until very late.
For example, I dropped into a clothes store at 9pm and I swear my dad and I were there for a whole hour. When we walked out, everything that was open on the street was still open and there were even more people walking around!
Here are some destinations that I'd highly recommend:
- Myeongdong night markets
- Itaewon - just outside the station is a whole line of clothes shops. There are also some amazing bars, clubs and restaurants
- Lotte world/tower. If you like department stores, then this is the place for you! You can also visit the top of the tower and get a great view of Seoul
My biggest highlight was the robotics expo that we went to. It showcased all of the latest robotics that you can think of. Quadrupeds, bipedal humanoid robots, heavy industrial robotics and drones.
I also got a chance to talk to several software engineers and was quite astonished at the amount of resources and skills they have. For example, a decent few mentioned that they have AI models that they train in-house.
So to me at least, Korea is well ahead in terms of technology compared to anywhere else I've seen so far. But I bet San Francisco would have a similar story. I'll have to plan my trip there at some point!