There is a small Korean island located between South Korea and Japan, known as Jeju. After two weeks in the big cities of Busan and Seoul, I had planned a more pastoral experience on Jeju and had rented a car to explore from two different AirBnbs on the East and West sides of the island. Unfortunately, upon arrival at Jeju Airport from Seoul, I was unable to take possession of the rental car without an international driver’s license. This piece of paper is a bureaucratic requirement, apparently facilitated by a request to a US governing authority, along with a US driver’s license. South Korea, along with Japan, appears to be one of the few countries that require this. My US driver’s license, which has always been accepted in the other countries where I have rented cars (many), doesn’t work in South Korea. However, I can use my US driver’s license to obtain an international driver’s license. I got the impression, for the first time, that there were likely other things about South Korea I would find annoying as I became more familiar with how things actually work. That’s actually a fun part of learning about a foreign country, a sort […]
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Seoul feels safe, organized, clean, and efficient every time I visit. I think it must be because there are so few foreigners like me around. Every country has its challenges and discomforts, but as a short-term visitor, it really feels like this is a place I can stay and be entirely insulated from nagging annoyances that plague daily life; this isn’t typically achievable in many of the countries I visit. I suppose one risk of staying in South Korea for an extended period would be feeling isolated. I would guess it could take five years before a local approaches you to say hello. It isn’t that people here are rude or inconsiderate; quite the opposite, it’s just that you could live anonymously in Seoul without anyone ever noticing. No new surprises this time in Seoul, which was just fine for me. I was relishing revisiting my favorite neighborhoods and eating as much Korean food as I could find. I met my local friend Justin and his wife, Laura, who moved from Bogotá to Seoul while her US visa is being processed. They had met in Bogotá and then obtained a one-year visa in South Korea along with a rental apartment […]
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My body was severely deficient in Korean BBQ: it had been six years since I last traveled to South Korea. This trip, I entered the country through Busan, a coastal city and the country’s second-largest, which I hadn’t yet visited (Busan had been on my travel list since my first visit to Seoul in 2015). I stayed for 10 days and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city, which was quite different from Seoul, as it is a coastal city, smaller, and with accessible nature on its outskirts. I was fortunate because my workload was especially low, and so I mostly avoided late-night meetings with my USA-based clients and colleagues. Busan is an ideal destination for anyone seeking to explore South Korea. It felt larger than I had anticipated, but I was never in a crowded or noisy place. Instead, the city streets and roadways seemed orderly, clean, and relaxed. You could spend weeks here without talking to anyone, owing to the local, seemingly introverted culture, which, while respectful of foreign tourists, does not seem concerned with them. Coming from Italy, it was a refreshing break not having to dodge street vendors or tourist traps. Despite obviously being a foreigner, I felt […]
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I arrived in Seoul on December 15th having no idea what to expect. I’ve never visited Korea before and I hardly know anything about its ancient or modern culture; but my perceptions led me here. It might seem silly to admit that part of my curiosity was piqued by the Samsung brand over the past 5 years. After inadvertently purchasing a new Samsung refrigerator, mobile phone and watching Samsung out work Apple, the richest company in the world — I came to respect the country that could harbor such a hard-working underdog — a country I had never really thought much about. All of a sudden I was thinking more about it and noticing other brands I liked – LG, Hyundai (I rented a Genesis, the upscale, under-priced rival to the BMW S3 four years ago — a really great car) and I decided there must be something in the water over in Seoul that was causing these guys to kick so much ass. My perceptions were not off base — South Korea is really a fascinating place that has been incredibly fun to explore. What’s most surprising is that historically, Korea hasn’t been in the market of winning, but losing (to Japan mostly). […]
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