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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: soul of Asia
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 Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:33 am Post subject: |
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| hahaha!!! Easy on the pocketbook? I haven't hardly saved a dime this year..Maybe it's because I like to have a life. Have you seen how expensive Apgujeong is? Have you seen how expensive taxis are? And unless you want to be Cinderella and run home before the train shuts down at midnight you'll soend plenty on taxis if you don't live right in Seoul. I saved about $3000 living in Gangnam and this year outside of Seoul I haven't saved jack because of taxis. |
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animalbirdfish
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:54 am Post subject: |
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| a healthy diet of skyscrapers |
There's the oxymoron of the day, especially in Korea where they collapse periodically. |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:01 am Post subject: |
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It not the city. It's people like you that makes it depressing.
Leave for your own sake. |
Allow me to make a small but vital correction to your statement. It is exactly because of people like you that Seoul sucks so hard ... |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:04 am Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer said he liked the layout of the city. I dissagree completely. Seoul is hopeless! There is no downtown area, it's all split off into small self contained areas with a little of everything but concerntration. There is no restaraunt area, not bars area. I mean there are, but they're small and spread out. There are no malls, and by mall I don't mean the american concept, I mean areas where streets have been blocked to traffic and made into pedestrian only areas. These are brilliant and create real street culture. There are not enough parks. The subways stop at 123midnight. Everything is very spread out. Seoul is, for it's size, a very very unsohpisticated city ... |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:07 am Post subject: |
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| Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote: |
| mindmetoo wrote: |
The writer should have warned readers that if they stay at the Shilla in summer not to expect air conditioning... |
The Shilla doesn't have air-conditioning!?!?
Sparkles*_* |
Oh it does. But try to set the thermostat lower than 25c...You can't. Most hotels here don't exactly crank up the air. When I pay $250 a night for a room, I want my hotel room to be an ice box in summer. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| the writer seems to have spent too much time in Itaewon... You might want to visit Itaewon for a good laugh at the worst of American culture... |
How is Itaewon representative of the worst of American culture in a way that, say, some drab far-flung suburb of Seoul with its Walmarts and Home Depots and Costcos and SUVs isn't? Or how Gangnam and Shinchon and Hongdae with their Western fast-food eateries aren't? Or that nearly anywhere that is anywhere in Seoul with its Dunkin Donuts and TGIFs and its Starbucks isn't? Or is it simply that in Itaewon you might see more Americans (and Canadians and Chinese and Thais and Filipinos and Pakistanis and Indians and other nationalities) than in other parts of Seoul, and that that somehow constitutes "the worst" of American culture?
Forgive me if that sounds snippy, as it isn't meant to be. I'm grinning as I type this, but curious nonetheless. |
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Daechidong Waygookin
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Location: No Longer on Dave's. Ive quit.
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:32 am Post subject: |
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Seoul is great.
Yes, the subway stops way to early. That really sucks. Should run till at least 2 am.
But it has everything you want.
Parks? There are plenty of parks and theres plenty of green space. Olympic Park, Bukhan-san, Nam-san.
You want shopping, theres plenty of that.
Lots of places to go clubbing.
Jongno, how can you compare Itaewon with Kangnam? Itaewon is a ghetto full of drunks, hookers, dregs of society. Kangna may have some fast food joints, but its like a totally different world. Itaewon IS the worst of American culture. Cheap brand knock offs, fast food joint on top of fast food joint and hundreds of drunk GIs looking for hookers.
Kiwi, cities where everything is compartmentalized suck. Shopping here, clubbing there, etc. They are boring, plastic and fake. I like that Seoul has grown organically. |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| the writer seems to have spent too much time in Itaewon... You might want to visit Itaewon for a good laugh at the worst of American culture... |
How is Itaewon representative of the worst of American culture in a way that, say, some drab far-flung suburb of Seoul with its Walmarts and Home Depots and Costcos and SUVs isn't? Or how Gangnam and Shinchon and Hongdae with their Western fast-food eateries aren't? Or that nearly anywhere that is anywhere in Seoul with its Dunkin Donuts and TGIFs and its Starbucks isn't? Or is it simply that in Itaewon you might see more Americans (and Canadians and Chinese and Thais and Filipinos and Pakistanis and Indians and other nationalities) than in other parts of Seoul, and that that somehow constitutes "the worst" of American culture?
Forgive me if that sounds snippy, as it isn't meant to be. I'm grinning as I type this, but curious nonetheless. |
Maybe he meant drugs and prostitution. And cheap handbags.
Sparkles*_* |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:08 am Post subject: |
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| Daechidong Waygookin wrote: |
| Jongno, how can you compare Itaewon with Kangnam? Itaewon is a ghetto full of drunks, hookers, dregs of society. |
I wasn't comparing the two in the terms you have, but okay, I'll bite.
Gangnam has thousands upon thousands more drunks and hookers on a slow-moving Tuesday afternoon than Itaewon on a Friday night when the fleet's in. Yes, it's a fact, and yes, it's a matter of size, Gangnam being a gu of millions and Itaewon being a dong of tens of thousands. But even assuming rough equivalents, I don't know that there'd necessarily be significantly higher rates of drunkenness and prostitution along the main drag in Itaewon than, say, any old row of nightclubs and room salons anywhere in Gangnam.
From the perspective of a tourist to Korea, Gangnam doesn't exist, or in any case needn't. Oh, there's the exhibition centre with a fish tank & cinema down there, a few five-star Western hotels that do bang-up Western breakfast buffets.
Shopping? Oh right, let's make a point of going to Apkujong-dong and Nonhyun-dong and getting ourselves badly gouged on overpriced imported things you'd find in greater selection and at far better prices nearly anywhere else in the world.
Big tall shiny buildings? Who cares? Chic, overpriced pseudo-European restaurants? Like anyone comes to Korea for that?
Really, even Gangnam's biggest boosters will tell you there's nothing intrinsically Korean or even very significant in Gangnam for anyone other than those who have to go there for business or live there for their kid's school/hagwon.
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| Itaewon IS the worst of American culture. Cheap brand knock offs, fast food joint on top of fast food joint and hundreds of drunk GIs looking for hookers. |
"Cheap brand (primarily European and Japanese) knock-offs"
And these have precisely what to do with American culture, best or worst? I'd say they've far more to do with East Asian business & culture than anything else.
"fast food joint on top of fast food joint" ...
Well, I don't know for a fact that there's a far greater preponderance of fast-food restaurants along that one single street in Itaewon than along plenty of others in Gangnam.
"hundreds of drunk GIs looking for hookers"...
Oh, where to begin...
If American GIs, more than likely young and single, less than likely able to establish relationships with girls because of their obligations, are indicative of the worst of American culture, then what precisely are the drunk married bands of office warriors of Gangnam (or anywhere in Korea for that matter) indicative of? The best of Korean culture? |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:18 am Post subject: |
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This part made me spew out my beer!
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What to Do at Night
Our best source of intelligence came from the bartender.... |
Soju Mama!!!!!!  |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| Real Reality wrote: |
| How is the transportation around and out of Seoul between 12:30 AM and 5:00 AM? Have you ever tried to get a bus out of Seoul at 1:00 AM? |
That is one thing I don't get. Absolutely everything you can possibly want to do is open.. yet the public transportation stops. I wonder if there is some large taxi driver lobby for that? |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:22 am Post subject: |
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| Daechidong Waygookin wrote: |
| Kiwi, cities where everything is compartmentalized suck. Shopping here, clubbing there, etc. They are boring, plastic and fake. I like that Seoul has grown organically. |
Same with most US cities.. everything is zoned to hell. This is residential this is business.. and then you live in some boring place with nothing to do but get a car and try to get to the other areas for anything and everything.
Much prefer where absolutely everything is mixed together! |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:32 am Post subject: |
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| princess wrote: |
| hahaha!!! Easy on the pocketbook? I haven't hardly saved a dime this year..Maybe it's because I like to have a life. Have you seen how expensive Apgujeong is? Have you seen how expensive taxis are? And unless you want to be Cinderella and run home before the train shuts down at midnight you'll soend plenty on taxis if you don't live right in Seoul. I saved about $3000 living in Gangnam and this year outside of Seoul I haven't saved jack because of taxis. |
Currently enjoying christmas in my hometown (East Midlands in the UK) and it is definately more expensive than Seoul. The only exception might be the property prices in areas like Gangnam, and Apgujong. |
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noelinkorea
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: Shinchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:34 am Post subject: Tokyo vs Seoul |
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| I can't think for the life of me whether the two cities look different in terms of buildings, traffic and so on - but I do remember one thing about Tokyo (and Japan generally) - it has a good vibe. The fashion is way out there, young people are crazy and relatively carefree on the streets - I was even able to chat to buskers there...it has an everyday cultural scene that Seoul really lacks. The cities are much more organised than those in Korea, and cleaner. I think Seoul could look enticing to travellers, but not to a resident. I would think that Tokyo is a truly cosmopolitan centre, whereas Seoul tends to lean more towards a cluttered collection space full of worker ants struggling to scrape through life...Seoul seems to exist just to get through life and no more...live a little people, please!! |
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Blind Willie
Joined: 05 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:07 am Post subject: |
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| All Seoul needs is an epidemic of molestors on the subway and THEN we'll see it match Tokyo |
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