South Korea: A summary.

General observations from an exceptional couple of weeks travelling in South Korea – transport, meals, food and sleep.

1. Final Summary of South Korea.

Places visited: Seoul, Busan, Jeju Island.

Highlights: The different neighbourhoods in Seoul & climbing Mount Hallasan.

Lowlight: How expensive coffee is.

Favourite city: Seoul.

Exchange rate: KRW1,431: £1

2. General observations in South Korea:

• Koreans love socks, K-pop, beauty products, stationary, Korean bbqs, karaoke and gaming (stadiums fill up to watch people game).
• Everything, and everyone is so clean. The cities, the transport, the people – they’re immaculately dressed and it feels like everyone’s clothes are box fresh.
• The people are respectful, calm and kind.
• South Korea is more expensive than a lot of Asia, but we were pleasantly surprised by a few things: Seoul has loads to do for free (museums, galleries, etc.), the subway is cheap (KRW1,250/£0.86) and so are domestic flights.
• Koreans follow rules (probably why it’s so safe). We passed a scooter left running with keys in the ignition while the person disappeared into a shop, highly unlikely that scooter would still be there if you were in London.
• People are very trendy. Currently their favourite item is the long puffer (pretty much a floor length duvet), I approve.
• There are a lot of men in military uniform. It’s mandatory for men between 18–35 years old to do 2 years of military service.

3. Transport in South Korea.

• It’s super clean and efficient.
• When a train is about to arrive it’s announced by classical musical. What a joy.
• It’s thoughtful. The bus system is all in Korean, but tourist stops (temples etc) are announced in English. The underground has 12 (or more) seats designated to the elderly, pregnant and children…and no one else sits there.
• Korea don’t use google maps (much). It’s a bit rubbish, and the few reviews are written by English speaking people so are mainly about western joints! We used Naver for maps.
• In case of an attack from North Korea there are gas masks and rations in cupboards at the subway stations.

4. Meals in South Korea.

• Scissors are served with meals. They’re used to cut up your noodles or snip up Korean bbq meat – I’ve never seen that before in Asia. (And I can confirm it wasn’t because we were gweilos!).
• Can’t find your chopsticks? Check the handy draw under the table.
• The majority of menus are in Korean (almost all outside of Seoul), so we relied on picture menus. It’s pretty difficult to know if a place is any good so we just went with any restaurant with people in it!
• Korean restaurants use metal chopsticks.
• Convenience stores (7-eleven, CU, e-mart) have plastic tables and chairs, microwaves and hot water dispensers so you can buy your pot noodle and slurp it down in the comfort of a 7-eleven.
• Hard liquor is acceptable anytime of the day, people sip Soju from a shot glass without flinching. Apparently the Koreans drink twice as much hard spirits as Russia!
• People sit in coffee shops for a long time, like whole afternoons, to study/chat/sleep. Might explain why coffees expensive!

5. Food in South Korea.

Kimchi. The classic Korean side of chili pickled cabbage is served with pretty much every meal.

Tteokbokki. The best way I can describe this is really really thick spaghetti with a noodle consistency, and slices of fish cakes in a spicy kimchi tomato sauce.

Korean BBQ. They’re everywhere and seem to range from what looks like a makeshift disposable bbq to extremely clean grills covered by a suction tube. We had bbq soy pork and were taught how to eat it the traditional way (known as ‘Ssam’) wrapped up in a lettuce leaf with a perilla leaf, garlic, spicy sauce, onion and chilli. It was delicious.

Korean Fried Chicken. Chicken and beer restaurants are very popular, and I must say it lived up to its reputation. The portion we had was ridiculously huge, there was a lot of chicken.

Naengmyeon. Ice cold noodle soup is a Korean delicacy made of noodles in an icy cold broth. As in, the broth has the consistency of a slushy.

• Most dishes come with a lot of sides: sauces, radishes, kimchi, cabbage salads etc.
• Warm broth is served in a teapot along with your meal.
• Koreans love sesame, I love sesame. Everyone’s happy.

6. Accommodation in South Korea.

• Rooms are teeny weeny, there’s enough room for your bags and a double bed. That’s about it.
• The rooms are very clean and hot. I love a hot room but even for me sleeping in 28 degrees is a bit much.
• The towels are hilariously small. I appreciate I’m slightly larger than the average Korean but they were hand towel size.
• Always take your shoes off when entering a bedroom and slide into the slippers provided.

We visited South Korea in November 2018.