Day 214: The Top Ten: Best Of Korea - Part 1

I've said this many, many times before, but I need to say it again - living in Korea rocks! I've decided that it would be cool if I made a list of *The Top Ten Reasons Why Living In Korea Is Awesome.* This list will conveneintly, neatly and wittily summarize all the best that Korea has to offer, and hopefully this list will maybe convince a few of you who are considering moving here to think about it even more...(and you know who you are: Miss Laura Fox, Mr. Jason Madore, Mr. Marshall Moore, especially!) Here it goes:

The Top Ten: Best Of Korea - Part 1
by S2H

10) THE NIGHTLIFE

Seoul has a pretty cool nightlife scene. It's quite different than any city back home in North America. There aren't many HUGE clubs here, but for what Seoul lacks in size, it more than makes up for in variety, originality, and most definitely quantity! There are tons and tons of tons of places to go out and have a drink here - little hole-in-the-wall bars, giant thumping Korean discos, bars for foreigners, bars for locals, bars for everybody, bars that serve food, bars that serve women, quiet quaint establishments to hide and escape and relax in, loud and in your face and crazy clubs to commit debauchery in. It's all here. Seoul is not New York or London or even Hong Kong or Tokyo when it comes to nightlife, but the nocturnal scene here has a pace and spirit of its own. And it's pretty damn cool.

9) SHOPPING

Shopping here is awesome! Once again, unlike its many other big-city Asian cousins, Seoul is not known for particularly international or high-end shopping, but there's tons of deals and steals to be found here. Clothing is inexpensive here, and always fun. You may not always agree with the Korean styles, but they're always changing and interesting. And the clothing with the bad English (Konglish) is reason enough to want to go out and check out what's out there - too funny! And the act of shopping itself is what makes it so fun - from chaotic seething street markets to sprawling underground malls to ridiculously busy multi-floor department stores to off-the-beaten path boutique stores to random unexpected street stalls - there's a million and one ways to acquire clothing here. It all depends on your mood and what kind of environment you feel like throwing yourself into. Very cool.

8) SCENERY

Albeit very small, Korea is a beautiful country with some spectacular landscapes. From the white sand beaches found on the islands in the Yellow Sea, to the jagged limestone mountain peaks of Sorakhsan, to the volcanic craters and cliffs of Jeju Island, to the rolling green central Korean hills filled with rice paddies, to the lush and misty terraced green tea fields of Jeollanam province, to the several-hundred kilometre sliver of untouched pristine wilderness in the most unlikely of all locations - the DMZ - the no-man's land between the two Koreas, Korea does have a lot to offer in terms of beautiful scenery. Sometimes you have to travel a bit far from the megalopolis of Seoul to try and find it, but it's well worth the journey.

7) INCOMES

As foreigners working in Korea as English Teachers, we make a lot of money. Much, much more than most of the locals, and also significantly more than what most of us would be making at home right after university. As a result we're able to do a lot of financial things that we could never do back home. Like paying off student loans (who woulda though *that* was actually feasible before turning 30?) to saving up really nice nest eggs for graduate studies or houses when we get back home to exotic and extended travels around Asia. Income tax here is only 3.3% (this fluctuates slightly depending on the Korean economy) so pretty much all that we earn we get to keep for ourselves. I happen to work in a job with a lot of long hours, but most English Teachers here make quite healthy incomes for only about 20-30 hours a week. And this combined with the fact that none of us pay rent, or had to pay for our plane tickets over, and you can start to see the dollar signs (or won signs) in your own eyes. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching!

6) INEXPENSIVE COST OF LIVING

Number six and seven really do belong together since they go hand in hand. I guess our incomes in Korea aren't *that* spectacular, but when you match it up with the fact that the cost of living here is dirt cheap, even in big city Seoul, it really does present a lot of opportunities for saving a lot of money. Or buying a lot of things on our healthy incomes. Just get a load of these costs! (all prices in Canadian dollars)

-a one hour ride on the subway - $1.50
-a full meal at a Korean restaurant - $4-5.00
-a twenty-minute cab ride - $5.00
-a visit to a spectular ancient palace - $1.00
-a bottle of Soju (35% alcohol) - $1.00
-a three hour ride on a high-speed bullet train that takes you to the other end of the country - $50.00
-a two litre bottle of refreshing mineral water - $1.50
-a new fun t-shirt from Dondaemun Market - $10.00
-a brand new pair of prescription glasses - $50.00
-a fancy-schmachy toaster over - $30.00
-admission to an international art gallery showing - $3.00
-a state of the art digital camera that won't be available in North America for years - $3-400.00
-diddo for laptops and camcorders and DVD players and all other sorts of electronics that are way-super advanced for much less than what we'd pay for back home (if it was even on market yet!)

It's easy to spend a lot of money here if you want to, but it's also really easy to live off of peanuts.

*Stay tuned for Part 2 of the list in tomorrow's edition! I hope this whets your appetite, cause the best really is yet to come...*