Searching Seoul

Another eventful week and another interesting travel. This week I had to make a short hop to Seoul, South Korea. This is one country (out of a hundred odd other nations) which I know very little about. To be honest, if you asked me to point it out on a world map, I'd be stumped. Such is my ignorance.

In my 3-day stay in Seoul, I discovered that it is a lovely city with some very lovely people. The experience started at the hotel in which I stayed. The hotel has some of the most courteous staff I've ever encountered and a very distinguished ambience that easily beats some of the other good hotels I have stayed in other countries. Added to this was a night life that was almost 24*7. At around 2 am when I peered out of my hotel room (my biological clock was still set to my country's Std Time) which faced the downtown street, I could see people huddled under umbrellas (it was monsoon season and a typhoon seems to have hit the country) at the bus stops waiting for buses and taxis. And it seemed to be a safe city too considering that I could see some women also on the streets at that unearthly hour.

The way the city was organized was pretty amazing. It has some underground networks below the street that connect various buildings in the downtown and also has a mall of its own. Lovely! Beats the hassle of negotiating through traffic to cross streets.

Speaking of which, what amazed me the most was the lack of small cars (or compact sedans) on the streets. Most of the time (by which I mean 90%), I could only see a variety of Korean and imported luxo-barges and nothing less. I haven't seen so many S-Class Mercs and 7-series Bimmers (or is it Beemers) per square kilometer elsewhere. And mind you, I hardly saw anything smaller like the C-Class or the 5-series. I guess the people here go only for the real things. One of my hosts told me that Seoul has some of the most horrendous traffic jams and some of the most expensive real estates in the world. No surprises there.

The weather was muggy but bearable. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to explore the downtown or the city to my satisfaction (it was all work and not much play). But I vowed to myself that I would return someday. Which is why I'm collecting some more info from the net on Seoul and South Korea in general. So if you get to read this post and you've been to Korea or know about Korea, do drop me a note. Thanks in advance.