"Seoul Discovery" a Seoul Travel Page by blackace

Hi!

I have been assigned by my company on a secondment assingment to our Seoul office for at least six months. My family and I arrived 05-May 2007 and it has been a learning experience since Day 1.

Our initial concern was where to shop for groceries. Before I arrived in Seoul, I already posted the question on the Virtual Tourist Forum and there were a lot of replies but not many were helpful. Finally, I discovered that there existed huge discount shopping outlets and although these are still more expensive than back home, the prices seem reasonable. It's surprising that these were never mentioned before on Virtual Tourist. I will, of course, discuss these at length.

Korea takes a lot of adjusting for foreigners; mainly because majority of the local population are not fluent in English and that includes people working in the public or private service sector. In our service apartment, for example, you can only converse to the front desk personnel. If you are lost, it is better to ask directions from a young Korean (who is more likely to know a little English) passerby rather than a policeman, because he would definitely not know English.

Nevertheless, as an Asian coming from a less developed country, it is an opportunity to learn a different culture and to experience things which you may never have in your own hometown. I will be staying for a lengthy period of time so I will be adding new tips as soon as it happens.

By the way, I am also writing a blog, www.riegoseoul.blogspot.com/. The narrative is more extensive so I will be taking excerpts from there. You may also want to check it out.