Real men don’t wipe. You never see a lion wiping its ass.
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No, felines just lick themselves clean instead.
Travel!
This thread got weird.
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Back to our regularly scheduled travel thread.
This is the best thing I’ve eaten in San Diego so far, at an absolute dive of a spot, and it’s something surprisingly not readily available in Japan.
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Recently got bidet, A+++
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I’ve put bidets in all 3 of my bathrooms. Staying in hotels is a downer.
Trying to figure out how to put one in my travel trailer.
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just keep one of these in the hotel bathroom
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Might be time for a bidet containment thread.
Says the person who started all this…
Seoul is a tough one for me to rate. At first glance it seems like a city I should love: huge population, tons of diverse areas to visit, cosmopolitan, cyberpunk aesthetic, etc. But in the end I’d say it’s a nice city, probably solid to live in, but I feel it lacks, well, soul, for lack of a better term.
It’s surprisingly cheap, the food is great, modern, clean, nice parks, solid public transportation, and there were several areas that were interesting, but not one of them that really grabbed my attention and would make me say “ahh this is my place”.
In contrast with my favorite cities like Paris, Istanbul, Rio, even Bangkok, where you set foot in the city and think “yah this is definitely X”, there’s nothing that really screams Seoul. I think possibly it lacks a bit of grit that those other cities have.
I guess another thing that bugs me a bit is the climate is a copy of my hometown, Omaha, I.e. not great. There are several nice riverside parks, but they’re chilly at night, even in May. Probably exacerbated by the fact I’m coming for the oven that is Bangkok.
Anyway, there are tons of positives, and it’s a good city, but for me I can’t put it in the great category. I thought I’d love it, but if given the option to trade in my 5 years in Thailand for 5 in Korea, I’d probably decline.
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It seems like the food’s got to be great though. Some of the hottest restaurants here are Korean.
Yah this trip launched Korean straight into my top 5 cuisines
My brother is living in Asia and just visited Seoul and was rather disappointed.
He’s more of an off the beaten track kind of guy but surprised me
Yea, I didn’t really care much for Seoul either. On the Facebook group I was on it seemed to be the most loved by women who are into K-pop, Kdramas, cutesy cafes, shopping, skincare products, and having safety as a very high priority. And supposedly it’s got great clubbing. All things I’m not interested in. Food was mostly great though, but I do not share Korea’s love for fermented foods and weird seafood dishes. When I got adventurous with small shops just choosing something off the menu it did not go very well!
You guys have set my expectations for Seoul so low that I’ll probably love it.
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How does Seoul compare to Manhattan?
In my very limited experience of about a week in each, I’d say they’re pretty comparable. Similar sized population (NYC that is) skyscrapers everywhere, great food, tons of nightlife options, work hard play hard attitude, super easy to get around w/ public transit, both considered 24/7 cities, although Seoul wins out on that one. Overall Seoul doesn’t have as much of a downtown like Manhattan, more of a collection of different downtowns. So nowhere in Seoul has the population density of Manhattan, but the population density of Seoul is double that of NYC.
Pros for Seoul: Much much cleaner, safer, way better public transit, nobody bothers you or hassles you, definitely more affordable, a bunch of museums are completely free, more park space, fun night markets, insane quantity of coffee shop and tea shops, way more of a ‘cute’ culture if you’re into that sort of thing. One of the coffee shops I went to had 3d foam art lol. Oh also animal cafes are definitely a thing.
Pros for Manhattan: Much more diverse and multicultural, better skyline and architecture, more to do as a tourist, better museums, more open-minded/less traditional mindset, great bar and beer culture, you don’t feel weird sitting at a bar or restaurant by yourself (Korea is very communal), more grit and more attitude - this won’t be a positive for everyone, but it makes the place feel more alive imo. Seoul feels a bit sanitized and the vast majority of people are afraid to step out of the box at all.
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I mean, it’s still a great city. I just thought I’d love it, but instead give it about a 7.5/10. CS04 summed it up better than I could. Still worth a visit if you’re in the area, but given your love of Mexico and C. America (we’re similar in this), I find it hard to believe that you’ll love Seoul.
I’d love to go back to Korea, but not a ton of desire to re-see Seoul for the time being. I’d like to hit up Gyeongju and Busan next. Flights were pretty absurdly cheap from Bangkok (only $185 total RT for a 5.5 hour flight). But our plan is to knock out a lot of countries in Asia over the course of our 5-year stay in Bangkok. I think next we will do Japan for a stopover before going back home to USA/Mexico and then a week or so in Vietnam. There are so many options in this part of the, it’s pretty overwhelming.
All the Korean movies I have watched make Seoul look real cool - especially all those nighttime scenes of twisty, secluded and hilly streets.
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It’s been 15 years since I visited Seoul but I definitely remember having a good time visiting it. But when I compare it to other major Asian cities I’ve been to (Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok), it isn’t quite as good imo.
That said, I still really enjoyed my week there and I had a lot of fun.