Having read up a fair bit in preparation for my travel, everyone says Busan is a lot better than Seoul.

I guess it would be like KL vs Kuantan.

Perhaps I could try and target an assignment in Korea hahahaha.....

errr.. can't compare busan with kuantan leh.. so big gap compare it with pg or jb should be better. cause busan is the 2nd largest city after seoul

Naww.. I'm back in Malaysia now. Was working in Busan MBC for 1 and a half years back in 2010-2012. The first 4-5 months was so, so difficult! I could barely understand people and people couldn't understand me. Had to rely on friends from Seoul to actually "translate" the dialect lol!

Won't say I'm very fluent la haha. Enough to go wherever and do mostly anything without much trouble. I only had issues when it comes to very official settings, but fortunately I wasn't involved in that most of the time.

Now a days just going back to S.Korea is just for leisure only. Language is no big deal.


If you ask me, Busan is more like JB in size. But people do say Busan is better is because it's somewhat less hectic there. Things are calmer in Busan, more laid back. People are also generally nicer there, you can see less stress in their faces. They're also not so worried about every single little thing about what's "right" and what's "wrong".

Going to Seoul is like going to a significantly better KL. That's how I see it and that's the general feeling. When I ask Koreans who has came to KL and stayed here for years, they always say that KL is like the older generation of Seoul, they're just a few years back on basically everything.
For them it's like traveling in time back to Seoul when they are in KL. I feel the same way when going to Seoul, it's like a KL that should already be as advanced and modernized as Seoul, but sadly isn't for whatever million reasons.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 13 2016, 05:12 PM

not bad. at least experience different culture got the chance to join mbc somemore. yeah dealing with their language is so difficult when someone like me who doesn't understand chinese. their sequence is almost similar. that's why those who learn chinese, can easily catch up way better. just like japanese language

that's why some koreans, migrate to kl. yeah it would be kind of hard to be as advanced and modenized as seoul. even after 10 years or more we are still way behind haha

This post has been edited by yvonnesoo: Oct 13 2016, 05:26 PM

Wiyo is fully booked. but I saw the umobile U10 roaming promo~ rm10/day unlimited (high speed capped at 500mb) and plan to open hotspot for my second phone.

And back in malaysia, i've never used more than 500mb in a day.
Anyone used the umobile roaming before? their local partner is SK telekom..

Still with some great savings with all the offers they had two weeks ago that lasted just 3 days (1-3 Oct). Tax refund was good too. Compared to The Face Shop, Nature Republic, Innisfree in Malaysia, it is still a lot cheaper to buy in Korea even with the unfavorable Ringgit to Won exchange rate.


In Korea many see me as Korean. In Japan they see me as Japanese. In Taiwan they see me as fellow Taiwanese. In Malaysia clearly I'm locally born Chinese. East Asian all looks alike to be honest


The crowd is what I like most about Myeongdong. And Gangnam... I normally schedule my visit to Gangnam either on Friday or Saturday evening just because of the crowd. I like huge crowd so nobody really notices us


It used to worth every penny for this hotel. But I'll probably reconsider for my next visit.


Agreed. Young ones are very mixed bag. I had met young Korean in their 20s who don't really blink an eye at you, to another young Korean who bowed at me with a sorry face on the plane because he was blocking the aisle arranging his luggage so it will properly fit into the overhead luggage compartment

That I totally agree. Seoul is definitely much better than KL


And with the things going on in our country, we can only dream about catching up to the standard of living of Seoul...

yvonnesoo I still struggle to decide which place I should pick for 7nights in Seoul...
Any intro on guesthouse or hotel?

Yeah, totally enjoyed my time in MBC even though it was difficult. Well if there's ONE thing that KL does beat Seoul in is probably the shopping malls. I mean, IMO we have Pavillion, KLCC, Paradigm, the whole Star Hill thing... yeah COEX, D-Cube, Lotte, Times Square... yeah they're there but really not as well done as our super shopping malls.

I asked Seoul-borned Koreans and they feel the same way. Not that they can't shop for anything they ever wanted though of course.


Never tried u10. But if using SK telecom, the coverage is indeed very good. 500mb should generally be enough, just don't keep loading google maps over and over.


Oh yeah! LOOOVE the way they do tax refund in Seoul now a days. Most places offers instant tax refund now, don't need to line up like a fool in the airport anymore.

Haha had many young ones try to speak konglish to me. Hilarious but at least they try.

yeah at least better then in msia plus they have more varieties. not that i dislike crowds just that i don't prefer prc crowds but if compare to hongdae, hongdae more madness. usually i go to gangnam area to chill out or shops

no need struggle la.. choose the location you prefer then only choose the guesthouse or hotel. hard to intro as i'm not sure what you need.

no doubts in term of the size of the malls, malaysia considered quite huge.. yes tax refund now more easier now. even can done by ourselves at the kiosk at the airport if one forget to do it at downtown.

younger gens too influence by the US counterpart. many dream of going there and trying hard to learn english if possible. but for them when come to learn english language, it seems like they face more difficulty compare to when they learn chinese or japanese. many of my korean friends say so. i guess is because of the sequences. just like me feel so so difficult to learn hangul in the beginning

Yeah most hostels are run by Western educated youngsters. Got quite a shock when I first checked in to my dorm when the staff counter was using f bombs throughout his conversation with me

however some are like trying so hard to pull off an american accent. really cause my ears i prefer they speak in a normal way instead but well you know this won't be happening.. cause this is korea.. hehehe

Yeah exactly! Korean language is the polar opposite of English. Different sentence structures. I don't know mandarin either (which is the easiest language to transition from to Korean due to the many similarities).

But lately there are more and more loan words from English into Konglish. Won't be surprising in a decade or so time, the Korean language will be very rojak like our "malay" language now a days.




No offense to guesthouses, but tried once, never again. It was a regretful experience.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 14 2016, 04:09 PM

Well the same in Vietnam. I believe their teachers or instructors are either American or they are using language materials from the US hence the accent.

The accent we (both SG and MY) use is rather flat and as far as I can tell it only exists in these 2 countries.

agreed. plus after generation by generation and changes by influences and etc, there are many loan words from english. they also learn english from this way haha. so far most guesthouses i went before is good

yes. ours and the neighboring country english is flat and clear. very easy to recognize. other countries one perhaps mixture of their local slang with english hence another kind of accent

MYR is going up against KRW. But still very low compared to 2 months ago.

Long time I didn't visit this thread and now we are on new version dy.

This year felt like no autumn at all..

Last year at this time I was still wearing T-shirt and short pants, this year so fast and so sudden became very cold..

Hopefully, it became cold earlier and this year's winter won't be as cold as last year's -20 winter.

I... don't know. I like more privacy and I don't like to fuss about "cleaning your own plates" and being "quiet" at night. And the beds... haha, never again.

Really, no offense to guesthouses as I'm sure there are good ones. It's just not for me. I'd rent a short-term serviced apartment or just stay in a hotel.


Cold? I wished it was colder just a couple of weeks ago.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Oct 14 2016, 10:46 PM

ah what was regretful? is there a difference between hostels and guesthouses?

guesthouses are like what we get mostly on airbnb? private rooms with private bathroom..its like smaller scale and cheaper version of hotel..while on the other side hostels are like few beds in a room that allow sharing?..thats how i differentiate lol..

but yeah, wondering whats so bad experience for the guestshouses

ermmm not really.. those bigger establishments would have a mixture of those.. few bed dorms.. private rooms.. private rooms with attached bathrooms..

i personally prefer these type of places.. no hassle check ins.. can just leave my luggage there and then go off travelling. and i think it's much cleaner as much because the bed sheets are changed every time the guests leaves (i know that because we have to remove the bed sheets ourselves when we check out )

hotels would be a better option if i want to experience some sort of luxury and privacy.