Is it safe in Seoul?
Written by admin on July 2, 2008 – 8:36 am -I would have to say that Seoul is one of the safest cities to travel or live in. So safe in fact that my kids go to the mall with their friends without any adult supervision as early as eleven years old, something that I wouldn’t let them do in Los Angeles.
One of the reasons could be that the city is practically blanketed in both private and goverment CCTV’s (Closed Circuit Television). I’m pretty sure that the cops won’t drop down on you the instant a thief is spotted but more importantly it serves as a deterrent to a would be criminal as there would now be evidence to aid the authorities in apprehending him or her.
The other reasons could be because of the constant patrols of cops through the city streets and more importantly because you can’t own a gun. Heck even the police only carry at .22 cal, a gun thats probably got as much stopping power as a BB gun. I can recall asking my colleagues if bank robberies occur in South Korea and he said rarely. I just thought to myself that it wasn’t because of all the CCTV’s but probably because you would have to cart off a whole truck load of cash to make it worthwhile.
So the next time you’re in Seoul always remember that Big Brother is watching!
Tags: Safety Seoul, Seoul Crime Rate
Posted in Living, Seoul | 1 Comment »
Food Court survival
Written by admin on June 25, 2008 – 5:56 pm -When we first arrived in Seoul in what seems like eons ago, we often had our meals at western restaurants. We didn’t have a choice at the time since only restaurants like TGI Fridays and Outback provided bilingual menus. This resulted in a very dramatic increase of our food expenditure compared to Singapore where we had previously lived.
This time around I put my back into learning how to read Korean so that I would be able to read the menus of Korean restaurants, something that I couldn’t be bothered with five years ago. I also conditioned myself not to crave for Western or Filipino meals and snacks.
Ordering at most food courts in South Korea is different from those in United States or the Philippines, though there are some places that are like what we are used to such as the COEX or the Technomart Food Court. You normally place your order at the cashier who handles everything for the entire food court. Behind the cashier is a board showing all the food stalls with their offerings, the caveat is that most food courts have their menu boards in Korean, so being able to read Korean will definitely come in handy at this stage. If you don’t read Korean most cashiers are usually kind enough to help you through the process especially if they are not that busy.
After your order is placed and punched in, the cashier hands you your receipt with a queue number on it, which is flashed on a screen when your order is ready to be picked up.
If you’re with your friends or colleagues it would be a good idea to learn this phrase : 맛있게 드세요 - Maske Juseyo, which is the Korean equivalent of Bon Appetite.
Tags: Eating out in Seoul, Food Court
Posted in Living, Seoul | 2 Comments »
Cost of living in Seoul
Written by admin on May 31, 2008 – 10:37 pm -According to a recent survey, Seoul is now in the number 3 spot of the 50 Most Expensive Cities to live in with Moscow taking the number one spot and Japan taking the fourth.
So how much will an expat expect to spend in Korea? Everyone has different lifestyles and spending habits so what I’m going to have listed below might not hit the spot but at least you’ll have an idea of how much you’ll need to survive in Seoul.
First thing on the list would be accomodations and more often than not the most expensive. There are basically three types of dwellings, villa, apartment and a house. I’m assuming that the typical expart is not a CEO of some multinational corporation so I’m just going to look into a villa or apartment. The interior of a typical villa or apartment do not differ signigicantly. They differ in the way that they are managed, a villa does not typically offer security, garbage collection and other maintenance services while apartments offer weekly garbage collection, pest control, security. For villas you manage your own utility bills while apartments usually have a monthly bill which includes electricity, gas, garbage and other maintenance fees. The closest thing I can think of is a typical western apartment vs. a condo. I lived mostly in Kangnam-gu which is considered one of the most expensive areas in Seoul to live in, fortunately the company I work for shoulders the cost of my accomodation and utilies. Expect to pay around USD 800-1000 for a 40-45 sqm. studio in Kangnam.
Groceries and meals are a bit difficult to compute so I what I’ve got is based on my own personal shopping habits. For my groceries I’ve got the usual mix of beef, fish, prawns and chicken and veggies the biggest chunk of my grocery budget goes to junk food which sometimes cost more than the essentials. Minus the junk my groceries usually cost around USD100-150 per week and that’s because I only eat dinner at home. I also do most of my shopping at a nearby E-Mart which is your equivalent of Target or Shopwise. I occasionally go to Costco for my foreign needs such as Eggo Waffles, Snapple, Cereals and their bakery goodies. Expect to spend another USD 50-150 on a typical shopping trip.
If you’re living alone like me, cooking for one sometimes seems impractical so eating out might seem more appealing. I personally eat out during weekdays and cook during the weekends. A typical Korean meal will cost between USD 5 to 10, while eating at a western restaurant like Outback, Sizzler or TGI Fridays will cost you between USD 20-35 depending on what you order.
Now that we’ve got a roof on our heads and food, lets take on the cost of keeping ourselves in touch with loved ones and also entertained. Broadband connections in Korea in my opinion are relatively cheap especially if compared to countries like New Zealand or Australia. A fiber optic based with unlimited time and data internet connection costs about USD 50.
Mobile phone service in Korea is a tad expensive if you ask me especially if compared to U.S. calling plans where you are free call minutes per month and more importantly being able to rollover those unused minutes. Anyway mobile phone service in Korea will put you back USD 50-80 depending on your calling habits, take note that these do not include international calls. I would suggest leveraging on Korea’s fast internet speeds by using VOiP services such as Skpe, Yahoo Voice etc… to call home. I’ve not used a phone card for the past 8 years but it’s another option too.
Last but not least we need to move around especially since we need to commute to work everyday to pay for those bills and hopefully save enough to make all our sacrifices working abroad worthwhile. The good thing is that South Korea has a fairly good public transportation system. Spending between USD 1 - 2 is usually sufficient to get you to your destination on either the bus or subway. Taxis although convinient might prove to be really expensive especially if you do it on a daily basis. For more information on transportation in Korea click here.
Below is a breakdown of what you can expect for you monthly living allowance in Seoul.
Housing USD 1000
Utilies USD 350
Food and groceries USD 600
Internet and communications USD 150
Transportation USD 120
Total of USD 2,220
A list of useful Korean websites in English :
Broadband Internet - Hanaro Telecom
Tags: Apartment Seoul, Broadband South Korea, Cost Of Living Seoul, mobile phone korea, Real Estate Seoul, Rent In Seoul
Posted in Living, Seoul | 4 Comments »
Redefining the meaning of double parking in Seoul
Written by admin on April 16, 2008 – 11:16 am -When I first arrived in Seoul 7 years ago I was surprised to see cars double parked and unattended. This was the very first time I had seen this practice and to be frank I was thinking to myself how irritated I would be if I had to push someone’s car in order to get out. In most countries that I’ve been in you either do not double park or if you have to, you don’t ever leave your vehicle unattended.
This practice seems to be the norm in Seoul, just don’t forget to leave your vehicle in neutral with the parking brake off, so that the vehicle you are blocking can yours out of the way. In some malls I have seen parking employees who push cars back and forth. On one occasion I had to push a Hyundai Starex van out of the way, let’s just say that took care of my workout for that day. A month ago I had visitors from overseas and they would not believe me when I said it was ok for me to park in front of another vehicle.
In Seoul, most of the on-street parking are assigned, which mean you pay on a monthly or yearly basis and you are assigned a specific parking slot. I’ve have observed that vehicles park in spaces that don’t belong to them. What happens when the owner of the slot arrives? Well, most vehicles have a mobile number posted somewhere on their dashboard so that you can call the owner of the offending vehicle and tell them to get their vehicle out. I don’t do this often because your milage may vary with this one, some people are OK with it but some are not.
If you’re like me and don’t speak a whole lot of Korean, remember this word Cha (차) which means car, and if you’re double parked or blocking some driveway and hear 차 when someone you don’t know calls you, better hustle and get your car out of the way.
Tags: Driving, Parking
Posted in Living, Seoul | 3 Comments »
Dirty job
Written by admin on April 7, 2008 – 6:34 pm -Unlike the United States you can’t just chuck your food scraps into the garbage disposal or trash. Apart from European countries South Korea can be counted as one of the few countries in Asia that segregate their garbage religiously. If you live in an apartment complex there can be as many as eight bins separating glass, plastic, styrofoam, cardboard, tin and aluminum. Apart from that there are separate bins for used cooking oil, food, fluorescent tubes, bulbs and batteries. Finally there’s the dreaded food waste bin which I really hate especially during the summer when one whiff of its contents is simply revolting. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I still went on and put my food scraps into small little plastic bags ang tied them off but still mixed them with my trash. That was up until my cleaning lady told me that this was unacceptable and that I would have to seperate my food scraps from my garbage.
I’m not all that lazy, I do segregate waste such as cardboard, plastic, glass etc. Realizing that it was inevitable that I would have to throw my stuff into food waste bin, I had to find a way of making that chore more appealing.
My colleague suggested that I get a food waste drier, basically what this little gadget does is it sucks out all the moisture of whatever you put in it’s 5 liter capacity compartment by circulating hot air and spewing it out from the two filters behind which I’m guessing filters out the smell. This process takes about 12 hrs. So if you dump your scraps into it’s compartment it should be completely dry and hard as nails the next morning leaving no smell (well maybe just a tad) when you open the front door and making the chore of throwing out your scraps less gross.
My unit just got delivered today at my office and I will be putting it through its paces when I get home tonight. Inventions like these make life better for lazy bastards like me. For more information check out their webpage.
Tags: Food Drier, Loofen
Posted in Living, Seoul, Tech | 4 Comments »