Agreed. Last week I saw someone left a baby stroller outside the restaurant with the baby still sleeping inside totally unattended


South Korea is the most wired city in the world. A picture of you is captured by the CCTV on an average of every 10 seconds once you walk out of a building in Seoul.

I was there for two weeks recently. I arrived there a few days before the 10 days long China national holiday. There were so many PRC and Chinese written banners everywhere. Promoters were shouting in Mandarin. Street vendors in Myeongdong were shouting in Mandarin too. I was at one point confused if I was in Seoul or Beijing

Actually I stayed in Sindorim... Pretty far from Myeongdong. Orange cab ride cost me KRW18,000 - KRW20,000 each way. But of course since it is such a happening place I went there several times during my two weeks stay in Seoul

Nobody really approached me though. But it was probably I showed a long face so no promoters will approach me. I avoided speaking Chinese as I do not want to be mistaken as PRC.

It was actually my 9th time going to Seoul. My last trip to Seoul prior to my recent trip was 23 months ago and I did notice some changes, not so good ones unfortunately. I noticed the locals are not so friendly and polite anymore, a stark contrast compared to my first ever trip to Seoul in year 2011. The place have also become dirtier (I do not know if the huge tourist arrival from China had anything to do with it).

And another thing I noticed is that many young PRC work for those street vendors in Myeongdong these days. Many of the Chinese speaking staff in major department stores and those cosmetic shops are actually PRC citizens too, not Korean. Just a few years ago, many Mandarin speaking staff are actually Korean. I suppose with the huge influx of tourist from Mainland China they couldn't get Korean to study Chinese fast enough so they resort to hire those PRC university students studying in Korea instead.

By the way, at the Doota Duty Free in Dongdaemun, they had announcements in Mandarin only. They were having some 'event' outside and again promoters were talking using loud speaker in Mandarin only. They do not bother to speak in English or Japanese at all these days.

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Oct 13 2016, 01:09 AM

Still much cheaper to buy in Seoul though especially during the grand sale period and tax refund.


Not quite so. Orange cab is no longer considered as international taxi anymore and the flag down fare for the orange cab now is exactly the same as the silver cab which is KRW3,000. Eventually all silver cab will disappear from Seoul for good as they change the regular cab color to orange color.


Totally different scenario for us though. On our first two days there, 4 different Korean people approached us for directions. Not a first though. I've been approached for directions in Tokyo and Osaka too. I think that unless one has a very typical Korean face (normally squarish like Park Ji Sung), or a typical Japanese face, it will be hard to tell whether you are Japanese, Korean or Chinese as we're all East Asian.


I was in a similar situation too last week at SPAO Myeongdong store. Before it was my turn to pay a tourist from China was queuing in front of me. Cashier is a young Korean who understands the very basic Chinese such as tax refund in Chinese and how to pronounce the figure in Chinese. Anyway, the Chinese tourist can't speak Korean. He spoke Chinese to the Korean staff all the way. I did not seem to remember the Korean staff asked the Chinese guy if he needed a bag.

Anyway, when it was my turn, she asked if I need a bag and I said yes. I bought 3 pieces of sweaters so they are very bulky when folded. But she gave me a really small plastic bag. The guy before me bought only 2 shirts but she gave him a big plastic bag


Overall cleanliness was definitely better last time. At the Incheon Airport food court, there was water on the floor near the drinking water station and no one bothered to clean up the place. People were much more polite too a few years ago. These days even at 5-star hotel like Sheraton Seoul D Cube at Sindorim-dong some staff are not friendly anymore. It was magical the last 8 times I stayed with them. That was the main reason I kept going back to the same hotel even though it is quite some distance away from places I like to hang out such as Myeongdong and Gangnam.

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Oct 13 2016, 02:03 AM

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...